The navy of Maryland rendered miscellaneous services. It convoyed merchantmen, imported and distributed arms and provisions, transported troops, watched the fleet of the enemy to report its movements, and defended the trade and coasts of the state. Except when used for commercial purposes, Maryland’s vessels rarely passed outside the Capes at the mouth of the Chesapeake. Attempts which were made to bring about the coöperation of the Maryland and Virginia fleets did not often succeed. A few small prizes were taken, but none of them were of much value. In the fall of 1776 the “Defence,” Captain Cook, cruised as far southward as the West Indies, and captured five small prizes, laden with logwood, mahogany, indigo, rum, and sugar.[603] Several sharp encounters between the vessels of Maryland and the enemy took place in the Bay. As early as March, 1776, the “Defence,” 22, Captain James Nicholson, checked the advance up the Chesapeake of the British sloop-of-war “Otter,” 10, and recaptured several prizes.[604] Now and then attempts were made to dislodge the British from some of the islands in the Bay. So late as the latter part of March, 1783, the state sent a small schooner and two barges against a rendezvous of the British on Devil’s Island, one of the Tangiers.[605] On November 30, 1782, the Battle of the Barges occurred near the Tangier islands. The mortality of the Americans in this engagement was relatively greater than in any other sea fight of the Revolution. In its carnage and in the bravery displayed by the Americans, this fight does not suffer from a comparison with that of Jones off Flamborough Head. The Maryland fleet, which had been joined by a volunteer Virginia barge, was commanded by Commodore Whaley of the barge “Protector.” The British fleet of barges was under the command of Captain Kidd of the “Kidnapper,” mounting 18-pounders. For one cause or another the “Protector” was the only American barge which engaged the British fleet. While the “Protector” inflicted much damage on the vessels of her adversary, she naturally was unable to fight long against such tremendous odds. An extract from the simple and pathetic narrative of the fight written by Colonel John Cropper, a volunteer Virginia officer on board the “Protector,” possesses interest: “Commodore Whaley was shot down a little before the enemy boarded, acting the part of a cool, intrepid, gallant officer. Captain Joseph Handy fell nigh the same time, nobly fighting with one arm, after the loss of the other. Captain Levin Handy was badly wounded. There went into action in the Protector sixty-five men, twenty-five of them were killed and drowned, twenty-nine were wounded, some of whom are since dead, and eleven only escaped being wounded, most of whom leaped into the water to save themselves from the explosion.” Colonel Cropper, to whom, on the death of Whaley, the command of the “Protector” fell, was wounded three times, “and after