Photograph from Central News Photo Service, official naval photograph VICE-ADMIRAL SIMS WITH BRITISH AND AMERICAN STAFF OFFICERS AT THE HOISTING OF THE AMERICAN VICE-ADMIRAL'S FLAG (65) AT ADMIRALTY HOUSE WHEN HE TOOK TEMPORARY COMMAND OF QUEENSTOWN AND DISTRICT Vice-Admiral Bayley's flag (606) is being hauled down U. S. S. "SYLPH" FLYING THE FOUR-STAR FLAG OF ADMIRAL BENSON, CHIEF OF OF VICE-ADMIRAL BROWNING, OF THE BRITISH Our naval jack (4) is flying at the jackstaff, but the motion of the steamer has given the stars a striped effect great need. Two hundred marines were landed, under the command of Captain Nichols, supported by fifty sailors, under Lieutenant Weaver, of the Cabot. The Providence and the Wasp covered the landing party. Fort Nassau was taken and a great quantity of military stores. fell into the hands of the expedition. A correspondent of the London "Ladies' Magazine," who was in New Providence at the time of the capture of the fort by the American forces, under date of May 13, 1776, described the colors displayed by the marines and sailors as "striped under the union (the British union of the crosses of St. George and St. Andrew) with thirteen stripes" (364), while "the standard (the commodore's flag) bore a rattlesnake and the motto "Don't Tread on Me" (398). THE FIRST FOREIGN SALUTE TO AN AMERICAN FLAG The first salute ever fired in honor of an American flag (the Grand Union ensign) was an eleven-gun volley given by the Fort of Orange, on the island of St. Eustatius, Dutch West Indies, on No vember 16, 1776. The salute was in acknowledgment of a similar number of guns fired by the Andrew Doria (see also page 401), one of the original vessels of Commodore Hopkins' fleet, which had been sent to the West Indies, under command of Captain Isaiah Robinson, for a cargo of military supplies. The commander of the near-by British island of St. Christopher, hearing of the salute, protested to the Dutch governor of St. Eustatius, Johannes de Graef, who promptly replied that "in regard to the reception given by the forts of this island, under my commandment, to the vessel Andrew Doria, I flatter myself that if my masters exact it I shall be able to give such an account as will be satisfactory." Whereupon the British commander responded that "the unpartial world will judge between us whether these honor shots, answered on purpose by a Dutch fort to a rebellious brigantine, with a flag known to the commander of that fort as the flag of His Majesty's rebellious subjects, is or is not a partiality in favor of those rebels." The British governor then forwarded In times of peace the launching of a battleship is a gala event, attended by elaborate ceremonies and witnessed by enthusiastic throngs proud of the privilege of seeing the "marriage to the sea" of another man-of-war destined to uphold the honor of America. In times of war, however, no such crowds as attended the Michigan's launching are admitted to the shipyards, for an enemy might, with a bomb, undo the labor of years and destroy a formidable unit of our growing sea power. to London a report of the affair, accompanied by affidavits that the brigantine "during the time of the salute and the answer to it, had the flag of the Continental Congress flying." The British Government protested sharply to the States General of the Republic of the Netherlands. The Dutch demurred at the asperity with which England demanded an explanation, but immediately recalled Commander de Graef from St. Eustatius. Thus the first salute to the new ensign was disavowed, although the Holland Republic recognized American independence shortly thereafter. In the literature of the Revolution frequent reference is found to a "plain striped flag" (404). Official correspondence shows that whenever this flag was used afloat it was as the badge of merchant shipping and privateers and not as the ensign of the regular commissioned vessels of the navy. How long the Grand Union Flag was in use has never been definitely established; but official records of the navy fail to show that any other ensign was used until after the Star Spangled Banner's adoption by Congress. BIRTHDAY OF THE STARS AND STRIPES It was nearly one year after the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress assembled, had pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor for the support of the Declaration of Independence that the crosses of St. George and St. Andrew, emblematic of the Mother Country, which had formed the union of the Continental Union flag (364), were discarded and replaced by a union composed of white stars in a blue field, "representing a new constellation" (see flag No. 6, page 310). The date of the birth of the Stars and Stripes was June 14, 1777, and its creation was proclaimed in a resolution of the The ceremonies aboard a ship in commission when the ensign is raised and lowered are most impressive. At morning "colors" the band plays THE STORY OF THE AMERICAN FLAG "Resolved, That the Marine Committee be empowered to give such directions. respecting the Continental ships of war in the river Delaware as they think proper in case the enemy succeed in their attempts on said river. Resolved, That the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation. "The Council of the State of Massachusetts Bay having represented by letter to the president of Congress that Captain John Roach, some time since appointed to command the Continental ship of war Ranger, is a doubtful character and ought not to be entrusted with such a command; therefore "Resolved, That Captain John Roach be suspended until the Navy Board for the eastern department shall have enquired fully into his character and report thereon to the Marine Committee. "Resolved, That Captain John Paul Jones be appointed to command the said ship Ranger." Thus it would seem that not only was the first flag of the Continental Congress (364) displayed for the first time from a naval vessel, the Alfred (see page 288), but that from the navy (in the person of the Marine Committee of the Congress of 1777) the nation also received the Stars and Stripes. MANY THEORIES AS TO THE ORIGIN OF THE STARS AND STRIPES There have been advanced almost as many theories as to the genesis of the Stars and Stripes as there were stars in the original ensign. Many hold to the Many hold to the view that the new flag borrowed the stripes from the ensign (364) raised by 29 John Paul Jones on the Alfred on De cember 3, 1775, and the stars from the colonial banner of Rhode Island (396) others maintain that the idea for the flag came from Netherlands, offering in sup port of this claim the statements of Benjamin Franklin and John Adams, who went to Holland to borrow money for the struggling colonies and who told the Dutch that America had borrowed much from them, including the ideas represented in the flag. Whatever their origin, there is no persuasive evidence in the official records of the time which would lead to the conclusion that the Stars and Stripes were in use before the resolution of June 14, 1777. It is true, however, that the paintings of Trumbull and Peale do point to its earlier use. But, as to the flags appearing in their paintings, it should be recalled that an anachronism could be readily excused in the case of Trumbull, because he had left the colonies while Washington was before Boston and was abroad for seven years. Peale's picture of Washington crossing the Delaware, with respect to the colors carried, is believed to be a case of "artist's license." The well known story of Betsy Ross, so-called maker of the Stars and Stripes, is one of the picturesque legends which has grown up around the origin of the flag, but it is one to which few unsentimental historians subscribe. There was, however, a Mrs. Ross, who was a flagmaker by trade, living in Philadelphia at the time of the flag's adoption. BILLS RENDERED BY A FLAG DESIGNER A more authentic individual connection with the designing of the flag is to be found in the official records concerning Francis Hopkinson, one of the delegates to Congress from New Jersey, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and a member of the Marine Committee. In November, 1776, Hopkinson was appointed one of a committee of three to "execute the business of the navy under the direction of the Marine Committee." He resigned as a member of the Navy Board in August, 1778, but continued to take an interest in naval affairs, as shown |