American dominions of Spain; a conflict which, by gradual expansion,
drew in the continent of Europe, from Russia to France, spread thence to
the French possessions in India and North America, involved Spanish
Havana in the western hemisphere and Manila in the eastern, and finally
entailed the expulsion of France from our continent. Thence, by
inevitable sequence, issued the independence of the United States. The
contest, thus completed, covered forty-three years.

The four seniors of our series, Hawke, Rodney, Howe, and Jervis,
witnessed the whole of this momentous period, and served conspicuously,
some more, some less, according to their age and rank, during its
various stages. Hawke, indeed, was at the time of the American
Revolution too old to go to sea, but he did not die until October 16,
1781, three days before the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, which
is commonly accepted as the closing incident of our struggle for
independence. On the other hand, the two younger men, Saumarez and
Pellew, though they had entered the navy before the American Revolution,
saw in it the beginnings of an active service which lasted to the end of
the Napoleonic wars, the most continuous and gigantic strife of modern
times. It was as the enemies of our cause that they first saw gunpowder
burned in anger.

Nor was it only amid the commonplaces of naval warfare that they then
gained their early experiences in America. Pellew in 1776, on Lake
Champlain, bore a brilliant part in one of the most decisive--though
among the least noted--campaigns of the Revolutionary contest; and a
year later, as leader of a small contingent of seamen, he shared the
fate of Burgoyne's army at Saratoga. In 1776 also, Saumarez had his part
in an engagement which ranks among the bloodiest recorded between ships
and forts, being on board the British flag-ship Bristol at the attack