. Historic fields and mansions of Middlesex. e honor not only of hoisting with his ownhands the American flag on board the Alfred, in 1775, whichhe says was then displayed for the first time, but of receivingin the Eanger the first salute to that flag by a foreign poAverfrom M. de la Motte Piquet, who, with a French squadron, onboard of which was Lafayette, was lying in the bay of Quiberon,ready to sail for America. This occurred February 13, 1778. Next comes a half-acre of round-shot and shell arrangedin pyramids, and waiting till the now torpid Dahlgrens orParrotts shake ofi their lethargy a
. Historic fields and mansions of Middlesex. e honor not only of hoisting with his ownhands the American flag on board the Alfred, in 1775, whichhe says was then displayed for the first time, but of receivingin the Eanger the first salute to that flag by a foreign poAverfrom M. de la Motte Piquet, who, with a French squadron, onboard of which was Lafayette, was lying in the bay of Quiberon,ready to sail for America. This occurred February 13, 1778. Next comes a half-acre of round-shot and shell arrangedin pyramids, and waiting till the now torpid Dahlgrens orParrotts shake ofi their lethargy and demand their indigest-ible food. Some of the globes are painted black, befittingtheir funereal purpose, while we observed that others hadreceived a coat of white, and now looked like great sugar-coated pills, — a sharp medicine to carry ofl the nationalbile. To the field of deadly projectiles succeeds a field of anchors,the last resource of the seaman, the symbol of Hope in all thecivilized world. AN HOUK IN THE GOVERNMENT DOCKYARD. 39. STANCH AND STRONG The invention of the anchor is ascribed by Pliny to theTyrrhenians, and by other writers to Midas, the son of Gor-dias, whose anchor Pausanias declares was preserved until histime in a temple dedicated to Jupiter. The most ancient an-chors were made of stone, and af-terwards of woodwhich containeda great quantityof lead; some-times basketsfilled with stones,or shingle, andeven sacks ofsand were Greeks used much the same anchor as is now in vogue,except the transverse piece called the stock. Many of the an-chors used by our first war-vessels came from the Old Eorge atHanover, Mass. If we might linger here, it would be to reflect on which ofthese ponderous masses of metal the fate of some good shipwith her precious burden of lives had depended ; with whatagony of suspense the tension of the stout cable had beenwatched from hour to hour as the greedy waves rushed by tothrow themselves with a roar of baflled rage upon
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, bookidhistoricfiel, bookyear1874
