The Navy Surprises

"Free ships make free goods. This is bold language to utter to a nation who's seamen have successfully beaten every power in Europe into a confession of their superiority--a nation whose fleets have beaten in succession, those of Spain, Holland, France, Russia and Denmark. Our maritime superiority is, in fact, part of the law of nations....Is Great Britain to be driven from the proud eminance, which the blood and treasure of her sons have attained for her among the nations, by a piece of striped bunting flying at the mastheads of a few fir-built frigates, manned by a handful of bastards and outlaws?" London Evening Post, 1812.

The first ships built for war by the US dominated the sea. For our independence and respect as an independent nation, we cut our teeth against the most dominant force in the world. It took a lot of guts, sweat, blood and conviction.

Back to Work

I had a good flight back to my ship. It took me a week to get used to the drastic time change of being on the other side of the world. Standing officer of the deck underway was very rewarding. I feel like I am getting things accomplished and not too stressed. I thank the Lord for his mercy and goodness.

I feel like it is such an advantage in life to have a purpose--for there to be a reason to live and to live well. Too many people, I'm afraid, don't see a big picture like I am blessed to see, and have to create or borrow a purpose in life. Anyone who isn't a fool can see it's better to have a purpose and for things to matter, but it's even a better blessing to have a good reason and authority to believe. Arbitrary worldviews are unstable.

If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think he shall receive anything of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
James 1:5-8

Freedom at a Cost

I must say it's good to be home. I got to stop by the house for a few days enroute back to the ship by taking advantage of a fortunate situation. I am glad to have the opportunity. I was blessed by meeting with the good saints at Old Union PBC in Saline County. I was lovingly reminded to be patient with God, that patience has a perfect work, and that we cannot be wrong with faithful obedience to God.

I got to visit Boston and the freedom trail last weekend. I was inspired by the scenes of the patriots who stood up to a government with too much power. I hope we continue to remember the legacy of courage and tenacity they left for us without sacrificing law and good order. I want to share an excerpt from a good book by George C. Daughan, If By Sea. (2008, Basic Books, New York)
 The quote begins right after Gen Howe nearly seiged our capital in Philadelphia in December of 1776. In all likelihood he would have had a good chance of crushing the patriots if he had tried at that time, but citing the tenacious patriots who wreaked havoc from their row-galleys on the Delaware River, was afraid to try.

 "Alarmed at how low the patriots' fortunes had sunk, Joseph Reed wrote to Washington on the 22nd, 'Something must be attempted to revive our expiring credit, give our cause some degree of reputation, and prevent a toral depreciation of the Continental money, which is coming on very fast; that even a failure cannot be more fatal than to remain in our present situation; in short, some enterprise must be undertaken in our present circumnsances or we must give up the cause.... In a little time the Continental Army will be dissolved....The scattered, divided state of the enemy affords us a fair oppurtunity.' Reed advocated an action of some sort around Trenton.
  Washington wrote back the next day, 'Our numbers, sorry am I to say, being less than I had any conception of: but of necessity, dire necessity, will, nay must, justify an attempt.'
  The attempt began at six o'clock on Christmas night, as twenty-four hundred patriots marched from their evening parade to McKonkey's Ferry on the Delaware, nine miles above Trenton. The river was only a thousand feet wide at the ferryway, and Washington once again called on Colonel Glover and his Marblehead mariners to ferry the troops across. It was a horrendous task. A blizzard was bloing snow and freezing rain, and large blocks of ice were flowing downriver. Herny Knox recalled that the men 'passed the river...with almost infinite difficulty, with eighteen field pieces. The floating ice...made the labor almost incredible....The night was cold and stormy; it hailed with great violence.'
  Glover's men had to operate unfamiliar Durham boats, river craft desgned to move bulky loads up an down the fast-moving Delaware. Open, forty to sixty feet long, with eight-foot beams and shallow drafts, they were ideal for transporting troops and heavy equipment. A steering sweep, which could be placed at either end, guided the boat while pole men on both sides pushed it forward. In spite of never having managed such vessels before, Glover's patriots, as they had done on the East River in August, performed brilliantly.
  At daylight the army gathered on the Jersey side of the river, and Washington went up and down the ranks. 'Soldiers, keep by your officers,' he shouted. 'For God's sake, keep by your officers!' And they did. Trudging through snow and ice, many of them with bleeding feet, they surprised fourteen hundred Hessians under Colonel Johann Rall at Trenton, routing them and winning the critical victory that kept the Revolution alive."
 

 Never forget the cost of freedom and always dutifully consider what freedoms are important enough for us to keep at any cost.

USS CONSTITUTION
Commissioned 1797