Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. HAVING, for several years past, been employed in collecting and arranging materials for a General History of the United States, it was suggested by my friends, that, considering the progress I had made in this undertaking, I might be enabled to collect a number of Historical facts relative to the Navy of the United States, that would form a volume of Naval History, which might, at the present moment, be received with considerable interest by the public. In compliance with their desires I have compiled the present work. In addition to this stimulus, it is proper to state, that the heroism and great naval skill manifested on every occasion, in the present war, by Our brave naval officers and seamen; and the opinion I have always entertained of the utility and necessity of an efficient naval establishment, have, in no small degree, animated me in the undertaking, and encouraged me in the progress of the work. Nothing of this description had previously been attempted. Any person desirous of knowing the details of the naval history of the United States, would have had to search for them, scattered through upwards of an hundred volumes, many of which it would now be difficult to procure. The present work, I hope, will, in future, supercede this necessity; and will, while the attention of every American is drawn with so much interest and pleasure to the United States’ navy, serve to gratify curiosity, and prove an useful book of reference for naval affairs. It was intended to supply the deficiency of historical records, by communications from naval commanders, and from persons whose civil stations chapter{Section 4VI enabled them to become minutely acquainted with the naval affairs of the country. Time did not admit of carrying this fully i…