In 1793 the Napoleonic wars began, to continue with slight interruptions until 1815.

France and England were the chief contestants, and between them American shipping was sorely harried.

The French at first seemed to extend to the enterprising Americans a boon of incalculable value to the maritime interest, for the National Convention promulgated a decree giving to neutral ships--practically to American ships, for they were the bulk of the neutral shipping--the rights of French ships.

Overjoyed by this sudden opening of a rich market long closed, the Yankee barks and brigs slipped out of the New England harbors in schools, while the shipyards rung with the blows of the hammers, and the forest resounded with the shouts of the woodsmen getting out ship-timbers.

The ocean pathway to the French West Indies was flecked with sails, and the harbors of St.Kitts, Guadaloupe, and Martinique were crowded.