of his falling in with a stranger, who had persuaded him to go off on a mad undertaking of revenge on a piratical Yankee captain, in consequence of which he got into prison. After a while he broke out with others, since which she had heard nothing from him, and presumed he must be dead.
    "At length he had sufficiently drawn forth these reminiscences of the good woman, the traveler assumed his natural speech and manner, and announced himself as her missing son. At first she was incredulous, and unable to recognize him, till opening the bosom of his shirt, he showed her a mole on his breast. This well remembered mark convinced her of his identity. She fell on his neck, and like the father of the prodigal, wept tears of joy over her long lost boy.

Chapter 6

COMMODORE ISAAC HULL

    Isaac Hull was born March 9, 1773  in the Town of Derby, the son of  Joseph and Sarah Bennett Hull. When he reached the age of ten, his father sent the boy to stay with his uncle, General William Hull. Under that arrangement, young Isaac could have more than the two months of education given in the wintertime in Derby.
    Hull remained with his uncle for a year in Newton, Massachusetts. Then he went to sea, becoming a ship's boy on a packet going from New Haven harbor to the West Indies.
    Once during one of his voyages, he saved the life of his captain and survived a shipwreck.
    At the age of 18, he returned to Boston to study navigation. By 1796 Hull was captain of a privately owned merchant ship.  On one of his voyages, his ship was captured by a French privateer. His ship was sent to France, and Hull was held prisoner. A British ship rescued him when it captured the privateers' ship. Hull was landed, without a ship or any money at the Port of Martinique.
    He was captured a second time by the French and imprisoned