The most successful capture of the enemy’s transports was made in the spring of 1779. In order to protect the trade of the Southern states, depredations upon which were most frequent and destructive, the Marine Committee in February of that year, ordered the Navy Board at Boston to send certain of the Continental vessels to sweep the coast from Cape May to the bar of South Carolina. This detail of the armed vessels was made partly to satisfy the merchants of Baltimore, who had complained to Congress that their interests were being neglected. On March 13 a fleet consisting of the “Warren,” 32, Captain J. B. Hopkins, as commodore, the “Queen of France,” 28, Captain Joseph Olney, and the “Ranger,” 18, Captain Thomas Simpson, sailed from Boston, for the coast of the Southern states. On April 7 they captured the privateer schooner, “Hibernia.” This vessel told them of the sailing of a fleet of transports from New York, bound for Brigadier-General Campbell’s army in Georgia, and laden with stores and supplies. The next day fifteen leagues off Cape Henry, Hopkins fell in with the fleet; and meeting with a trifling resistance, he made prizes of seven out of its nine vessels. These prizes were all sent to New England. On April 22, the “Queen of France” arrived in Boston with the ship “Maria,” 16, carrying eighty-four men, the schooner “Hibernia,” 8, also carrying eighty-four men, and the brigs “John,” 200 tons, “Batchelor,” 120 tons, and “Prince Frederick,” 160 tons. Another prize, His Majesty’s ship “Jason,” 16, with one hundred men, also reached Boston. The “Ranger” put into Portsmouth with the schooner “Chance” and a brig. The Marine Committee wrote to Captain Hopkins congratulating him and his fellow captains on the fortunate outcome of their cruise.[210] The most important objective of the Marine Committee in its naval operations was the capture of England’s commerce in transit at sea. The Committee planned to intercept her sugar ships of the West Indies, her Newfoundland fishing craft, her Hudson bay fleet laden with skins and peltries, her Guineamen with cargoes of ivory and slaves, and her Mississippi trade with its lumber and furs. The Committee’s agents and the naval officers abroad hoped to ensnare the enemy’s Baltic trade, the Irish linen ships, the Brazil whaling fleet, and homeward bound East Indiamen. The sending of frigates to the Coromandel Coast to intercept the enemy’s China ships and the trade of India was seriously considered. On one occasion the Committee designed to attack English vessels bound for Canada with cargoes of “Indian goods.” But generally the blows were aimed at the fleets of rich merchantmen returning to England, for their many vessels were like honey-laden bees flying homeward to their hives.