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328  of forming a bridge at that place. The unhappy result of General Burgoyne’s expedition for the subjugation of the Colonies, is too well known; and it is almost unnecessary to remark, that the floating bridges, like the army destined to pass over them, were but too soon in the power of the enemy.

It is but fair to suppose that such services as these would be followed by correspondent rewards; and we accordingly find the subject of this memoir promoted, first to the rank of Commander, and then to that of Post-Captain; the latter event occurred Aug. 15, 1783.

It might naturally have been expected, that the interval of public tranquillity that ensued after the contest, which ended in the complete emancipation of our trans-atlantic colonies, would have proved some bar, if not to the expansion, at least to the display of Captain Schanck’s ingenuity and nautical abilities; this, however, was by no means the case. He invented, or might rather be said to have improved, a former invention of his own, relative to the construction of vessels, peculiarly adapted for navigating in shallow water. These were fitted with sliding keels, worked by mechanism.

