On the 8th day of February, 1776, one of the committee on naval affairs, Mr. Gadsden, who represented South Carolina in the General Congress, presented that body with a flag that was made of yellow silk with a rattlesnake upon it (see Drayton's American Revolution, Vol. II, page 172; see Fig. 10). No one can tell what became of this flag, yet it was placed in the hall of Congress in a conspicuous place near the seat of John Hancock. Some claim that it was this flag that Paul Jones hoisted on his ship, and others that it was taken South to Fort Moultrie. So therefore we have, as late as April, 1776, a navy of seventeen vessels, proper committees of Congress to look after them, a commander-in-chief, to wit: Esek Hopkins, who was named for that position December 22, 1775; but no national flag had been made nor one even adopted in July, 1776 (see Jay's letter to the committee), nor in October (see Richard's letter, dated October 15, 1776), both written months after the date fixed upon in the Ross claim; but the supposition is that, so far as the navy is concerned, it either flew the Grand Union or a flag similar to the Gadsden device, and this is borne out by the records. As to who was the first naval officer to raise the first American flag to the peak of his vessel and capture the first prize, we only have to quote ex-President John Adams, who wrote from Quincy in 1813 to Vice-president Gerry as follows: "Philadelphia is now boasting that Paul Jones has asserted in his journal that his hand first hoisted the first American flag, and Captain Barry has asserted that the first British flag was struck to him. Now, I assert that the first American flag was hoisted by Captain John Manley and the first British flag was struck to him on the 29th day of November, 1775." As Captain Barry did not go to sea in the Lexington until February, 1776, therefore this claim of President John Adams is undeniably true so far as regards Barry, for the records show that Manley, in a schooner called the Lee, captured the British vessel Nancy, bound to Boston, loaded with munitions of war for the use of the British troops besieged there, and among the articles captured was a mortar, which afterwards was used on Dorchester Heights by Washington's troops in shelling the British in Boston. This same captain on the 8th of December, 1775, captured two more British transports loaded with provisions.