ABSTRACT
Sailing from Brest April 10th, the Ranger at first shaped her course for the west coast of Ireland, but the second day out a westerly gale impelled Captain Jones to alter his cruising plan to the extent of running up through St. George's Channel into the Irish Sea. During the night of April 23d the Ranger stood across the Irish Channel, and the next day Jones learned from some fishermen whose boats he picked up that the Drake, twenty-gun sloop-of-war, guard-ship at Carrickfergus, was coming out in search of him. He had already looked into Carrickfergus on the 21st, and would have attacked the Drake, then at anchor in the roadstead. It is doubtless fortunate for the fame of Paul Jones that he did not find the Earl of Selkirk at home; because, had Jones captured him and taken him to France. Sayre had hitherto posed as a fighting man, and was even considered somewhat rash in personal affairs.
