FOOTNOTES:
[348] Wharton, Diplomatic Correspondence, II, 296-97, 355-58, 370.
[349] Ibid., 119-20, Deane to Committee of Secret Correspondence, August 18, 1776.
[350] Wharton, Diplomatic Correspondence, II, 178-79.
[351] Stevens’s Facsimiles, 1392, 1-2, Lord Stormont to Lord Weymouth, December 18, 1776.
[352] Wharton, Diplomatic Correspondence, II, 283-84, 364, 379.
[353] Wharton, Diplomatic Correspondence, II, 379-80; Stevens’s Facsimiles, 1445, 1536, 1568.
[354] Stevens’s Facsimiles, 1529, Lord Stormont to Lord Weymouth, May 8, 1777.
[355] Stevens’s Facsimiles, 703, 1539; Wharton, Diplomatic Correspondence, II, 379-80, Deane to Robert Morris, August 23, 1777.
[356] Stevens’s Facsimiles, 1562, Lord Weymouth to Lord Stormont, July 4, 1777.
[357] Stevens’s Facsimiles, 1677; Wharton, Diplomatic Correspondence, II, 364-66, Vergennes to Commissioners at Paris, July 16, 1777, and Franklin and Deane to Vergennes, July 17, 1777.
[358] C. H. Jones, Captain Gustavus Conyngham, 15-17; Outlook for January 3, 1903, 71-83, James Barnes, Tragedy of the Lost Commission; Hale’s Franklin in France, I, 139; Wharton, Diplomatic Correspondence, II, 375, 377, 406.
[359] Wharton, Diplomatic Correspondence, II, 471-72.
[360] Sherburne’s John Paul Jones, 43-53, Jones to Commissioners, May 27, 1778; Clowes, Royal Navy, IV, 11-13.
[361] Wharton, Diplomatic Correspondence, III, 242.
[362] Sherburne’s John Paul Jones, 111-125, Jones to Franklin, October 3, 1779, giving an account of cruise; Clowes, Royal Navy, IV, 33-39.
[363] Wharton, Diplomatic Correspondence, III, 375-77, 378-79, 535, 547-49, 562-63; IV, 293; Bigelow’s Franklin, VII, 108-09.
[364] Hale, Franklin in France, I, 327-28; Chapter XVII, Captain Landais, prints many original letters connected with the dispute.
[365] Hale, Franklin in France, I, 330-31.
[366] Bigelow’s Franklin, VII, 97-98, Franklin to Jonathan Williams, June 27, 1780.
[367] Wharton, Diplomatic Correspondence, III, 535.
[368] Force Transcripts, Library of Congress, 137, 3, p. 313.
[369] Journals of Continental Congress, November 4, 1780; July 10, 1781.
[370] Force Transcripts, Library of Congress, 137, 1, p. 463, Instructions to Barclay.
[371] Journals of Continental Congress, November 18, 1782; Force Transcripts, 137, p. 55, Instructions to Barclay.
[372] Journals of Congress, November 1, 1783; C. H. Lincoln, Calendar of John Paul Jones Manuscripts, 188, Franklin to Jones, December 17, 1783.
[373] Records and Papers of Continental Congress, 90, p. 9.
[374] Ibid., 90, pp. 21, 27.
[375] Force Transcripts, Library of Congress, 137, 1, p. 357.
[376] Records and Papers of Continental Congress, 50, pp. 1-13, Pollock to President of Congress, a résumé of Pollock’s services as commercial agent at New Orleans.
[377] Records and Papers of Continental Congress, 50, p. 66.
[378] Ibid., 50, pp. 77-81.
[379] Records and Papers of Continental Congress, 50, p. 97.
[380] Records and Papers of Continental Congress, 50, p. 120, Copy of Capitulation of Inhabitants of the Settlements on Lake Pontchartrain, dated October 16, 1779, with signatures of nineteen men.
[381] Records and Papers of Continental Congress, 50, pp. 123-25, Pollock to Pickles, January 20, 1780.
[382] Force Transcripts, Library of Congress, 137, 2, p. 281; 37, p. 95.
PART II
THE STATE NAVIES
CHAPTER XI
THE NAVY OF MASSACHUSETTS
With the exception of New Jersey and Delaware, each of the thirteen original states during the Revolution owned one or more armed vessels. Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina had the largest fleets. New Hampshire with its one ship and Georgia with its four galleys just escaped from being in the same class with New Jersey and Delaware. The navies of Rhode Island, New York, and North Carolina were small. The navy of no one state was so large as that of Congress. The total number of state craft, however, greatly exceeded the number of vessels in the Continental navy. The state vessels on the average were smaller and not so well armed as the Continental vessels. The states generally had less means for naval purposes at their disposal than had Congress, and were therefore not so well able to build large vessels. Then, too, the chief need of each state for a navy was to defend its seaports, coasts, and trade. For such service small craft, adapted for running in and out of shallow harbors, rivers, and bays, was demanded. The states therefore provided themselves with armed boats of various sizes, galleys with and without sails, half-galleys, floating batteries, barges, and fire-ships. Besides such vessels as these, most of the states had a few larger and stouter sailing craft, mounting generally from ten to twenty guns, and fairly well fitted for deep-sea navigation. The one state whose deep-sea exceeded its inshore craft was Massachusetts.
The history of naval administration in the several states possesses some common features. It will be recalled that in most of the states the provincial government about the year 1775 was superseded by a revolutionary government, and this in turn about a year later was succeeded by a permanent state government. The revolutionary government consisted of a legislative body, or provincial congress, and an executive body, or committee of safety. The permanent state government consisted of a legislature of one or two houses and an executive, which was either a council, or a governor and council. The initial naval administration in the states usually fell to the committee of safety, or revolutionary executive, which, upon the change to a permanent state government, bequeathed its naval duties to the council or to the governor and council. In most of the states the details of naval administration were at some time during the Revolution lodged with an executive board. Some states had separate boards for naval and military affairs; in other states, one board performed both functions.
The history of naval administration in the states falls into two periods, one embracing the years from 1775 to 1778, the other the years from 1779 to 1783. In the first period each state procured a naval armament, as a rule, for the general purpose of providing a naval defence, and not to meet some specific call for armed vessels. By 1779 the first naval craft had been largely captured, destroyed, or sold; and often the first machinery of naval administration had been in large part removed. In response to special needs for armed vessels, calls for which came most often from those who were suffering from the ravages of the British fleets, the states now procured additional vessels, and often devised new administrative machinery to manage them.
In defensive warfare, the problem in each state was to provide for the defence of its ports, trade, coasts, and shipping. The offensive warfare of the state navies, which was quite secondary in importance, consisted chiefly of commerce-destroying, conducted along the great ocean-paths of British trade. The principal problem here was for the American vessels in leaving home ports and in returning with their prizes to elude the British vessels, which hovered along the American coast, especially at the mouths of the Chesapeake, Delaware, and Narragansett bays. It is always to be remembered that in all the states the privateers exceeded the state craft, which were often insignificant in comparison.
The reader recalls that in June, 1775, the battle of Bunker Hill was fought, a British army occupied Boston, and British vessels sailed the New England seas with little or no opposition. These vessels had already committed depredations and “piracies” upon the coasts and trade of Massachusetts, and were obstructing the importation of ammunition and provisions for the Continental army. It was under these circumstances that Massachusetts took her first step towards procuring a naval armament. On June 7 her third Provincial Congress appointed a committee of nine “to consider the expediency of establishing a number of small armed vessels, to cruise on our sea coasts, for the protection of our trade, and the annoyance of our enemies.” The Provincial Congress, which moved very cautiously, enjoined secrecy on the committee. On June 10 three additional members were added to the committee; but later in the day a new committee consisting of seven members was apparently substituted for the old one. On June 12 the committee “appointed to consider the expediency of establishing a number of armed vessels” made a report which provided for the fitting out of not less than six vessels, to mount eight to fourteen carriage guns, and to cruise under the orders of the Committee of Safety—the chief executive organ of the Provincial Congress consisting of nine members, three of whom were from Boston. This report came up several times between June 12 and June 20. Finally on the latter date “the matter was ordered to subside.”[383] The Battle of Bunker Hill which was fought on June 17 may have had something to do with this action of the Provincial Congress.
On July 19, 1775, the Revolutionary government in Massachusetts was superseded by a permanent government consisting of a House of Representatives and a Council of eighteen members elected by the House; the two houses were called the General Court. The continued depredations of the British now caused several endangered ports to ask the General Court to provide them with a naval defence. The part of Massachusetts which during the Revolution was most exposed to the attacks of the British, and which was most troublesome to defend, was the coast of Maine, then often referred to as the Eastern Coast. In August, 1775, a petition came to the General Court from Machias, a town situated on the Maine coast a few miles west of the present Eastport, asking that commissions be granted to officers and men on board two armed vessels which citizens of Machias had fitted out for the defense of their town. In response the General Court took into the service of the state the sloop “Machias Liberty” and the schooner “Diligent.”[384] Jeremiah O’Brian, one of the men who had signed the petition, was commissioned by the Council commander-in-chief of the two vessels; and he was directed to enlist a number of men, not to exceed thirty, for each vessel. The “Machias Liberty” and the “Diligent” were in the service of the state until October, 1776, when they were discharged. About the first of October, 1775, Salem and Newburyport each asked the General Court for naval aid similar to that granted to Machias, but did not receive it.[385]
The General Court of Massachusetts next turned its attention to privateering. The acts of the states on this head fall into two general classes; those which in terms established state privateering, and those which adopted Continental privateering or accommodated state laws to the same. After the first half of 1776 all the states used Continental commissions and bonds. Massachusetts, moving in this matter before Congress, necessarily established state privateering. On September 28, 1775, her House of Representatives, having such establishment in view, appointed a committee of seven to consider the “Expediency of fitting out a Number of Armed Vessels.” On October 9, this committee reported in favor of instituting privateering and a prize court to try cases of capture. On October 14 a bill embodying the committee’s recommendations was introduced. It now passed slowly through the legislative mill, and on November 1 it became a law.[386] John Adams once referred to this statute of Massachusetts as one of the most important documents in the history of the Revolution. Its preamble was the work of Elbridge Gerry, and the body of the law was drafted by James Sullivan, many years later Governor of Massachusetts.[387] Gerry stated the sanctions for the law. These he found in the arbitrary and sanguinary acts of Great Britain, in the charter of Massachusetts granted by King William and Queen Mary, and lastly in the resolution of the Continental Congress of July 18, 1775, recommending each colony to provide by armed vessels or otherwise for the protection of its harbors and navigation.
The Massachusetts law provided that all vessels convicted of making unlawful invasions or attacks on the seacoasts or navigation of any part of America should be forfeited. The Council was authorized to grant letters of marque and reprisal to masters and owners of vessels upon their entering into bond faithfully to discharge the duties of their office and to observe the naval laws of the colony. Three admiralty districts embracing the counties on the Massachusetts seacoast were established. The Southern district with the seat of its court at Plymouth embraced Plymouth county and the counties to the southward; the Middle district with the seat of its court at Ipswich embraced the counties of Suffolk, Middlesex, and Essex and extended from Plymouth county to New Hampshire; and the Eastern district with the seat of its court at North Yarmouth embraced the seacoast counties of Maine. The form of procedure in these courts was fixed for both captured and recaptured vessels. In the latter case salvage was from one-third to one-fourth of the selling price of the vessel. The facts in prize cases were to be tried by twelve good and lawful men. At this time the people of Massachusetts were so enraged at the judges of the former Provincial admiralty court that they would have universally condemned the trying of facts in prize cases by judges.[388]
The Council soon appointed three judges of admiralty, Nathan Cushing for the Southern district, Timothy Pickering for the Middle district, and James Sullivan for the Eastern district. Elbridge Gerry declined the judgeship for the Middle district. After trying about one hundred and fifty prize cases, Pickering in June, 1777, resigned, and was succeeded by Nathan Cushing, who now served as judge in both the Southern and Middle districts.[389] Comparatively few cases were tried in the Southern and Eastern districts. Timothy Langdon was for a long time judge of the Eastern district.
During the fall of 1775 the General Court took no steps towards establishing a state navy. It was at this time assisting Washington in obtaining and arming vessels for the Continental military service around Boston. Early in December the House of Representatives, acting on a recommendation contained in a letter from John Adams at Philadelphia, resolved to obtain statistics on the number of officers, seamen, and vessels, suitable for naval purposes, in the seaports of Massachusetts. On December 29 the Council declared for a navy by passing the following resolution: “Whereas several of the United Colonies have of late thought it expedient and necessary to fit out armed Vessels for the Defence of American Liberty, and it appears to this Court necessary that Measures be taken by this Colony for our further Protection by Sea: Therefore, Resolved that John Adams and Joseph Palmer, Esqurs. with such as the Hon. House shall join be a committee for fitting out one or more Vessels for the Defence of American Liberty.”[390]
The House at once appointed its members of the committee, which on January 12, 1776, made a report favorable to the establishment of a navy.[391] Accordingly, on February 7 a resolution passed the General Court to build ten sloops of war, of 110 or 115 tons burden, each, suitable for carrying fourteen to sixteen carriage guns, 6-pounders and 4-pounders. A joint committee of the two houses was appointed to build the vessels, and £10,000 was voted for that purpose.[392] On the 16th the committee was authorized to contract for the building of only five vessels, until there was a prospect of procuring materials for ten; it was authorized to buy five vessels, if it thought best.[393] By July, 1776, the sloop “Tyrannicide” built at Salisbury, the brigantine “Rising Empire” built at Dartmouth, and the brigantine “Independence” built at Kingston were ready for sea; and by September the sloops “Republic” and “Freedom” built at Swanzey, and the “Massachusetts” built at Salisbury were completed.
Meanwhile the General Court had prepared and adopted the legislation necessary to establish a navy. It had drafted proper naval forms; and it had appointed a number of naval officers. A partial pay-table was established on February 8.[394] This on April 12 was succeeded by a new one, which generally raised wages, and which provided for a number of new offices. A captain was now to receive a monthly wage of £8; a first lieutenant, £5, 8s.; a second lieutenant, £5; a master, £4; a mate, £3; a surgeon, £7; and an ordinary seaman, £2. Each vessel was to be provided with 115 officers and seamen. No better proof of the rawness of the naval service is needed than that afforded by the regulation that recruits, whether officers, seamen, or marines, should furnish themselves with “a good effective Fire Arm, Cartouch Box, Cutlass, and Blanket.” The captains were ordered to recommend to the Council a list of inferior officers and to enlist the proposed number of seamen and marines. Captors were given one-third of the proceeds of prizes.[395]
On April 27, 1776, the General Court fixed the respective shares of the proceeds of prizes for officers and seamen: a captain was to receive six shares, and “all the Cabbin Furniture;” a first lieutenant, five shares; a drummer, one and one-fourth shares; a seaman, one share; and a boy, one-half a share.[396] On April 29, in order to encourage enlistment, an advance of one month’s wages was voted to recruits. On the same day it was decided that “the Uniform of Officers be Green and White, and that the Colours be a white Flagg, with a green Pine Tree, and an Inscription, ‘Appeal to Heaven.’”[397] On July 26 the Council appointed a prize agent in each of the three admiralty districts, whose duty was to represent the state in receiving, trying, and selling prizes.[398] At times the prize agents assisted in fitting out vessels.
During the first half of 1776 the law of November 1, 1775, establishing privateering, was three times amended and remodelled.[399] The law was thereby accommodated to the resolutions of the Continental Congress fixing the kinds of property subject to capture, and the respective shares of captors and recaptors. Doubts which had arisen as to the proper construction of the original act were now removed. The procedure before admiralty courts was made more specific. In cases of captures made by Continental vessels, appeals were permitted from state admiralty courts to the Continental Congress; in all other cases, appeals were allowed to the superior state courts. In each of the three admiralty districts in Massachusetts additional towns were named where court might be held. The towns named for the Middle district were Boston, Salem, Ipswich, and Newburyport.
During the summer and fall of 1776 the instructions and orders to the captains of the armed vessels were issued to them by the Council, having been previously prepared by a committee. The following instructions, which were drafted by Thomas Cushing and Daniel Hopkins, were given to Captain John Fisk, and will suffice as a sample of such documents:
“The Brigantine Tyrannicide under your Command being properly Armed and Man’d and in other respects fitted for a Cruise you are hereby Ordered and directed immediately to proceed to sea and use your utmost Endeavors to protect the Sea Coast and Trade of the United States and you are also directed to exert yourself in making Captures of all Ships and other Vessels Goods Wares and Merchandise belonging to the King of Great Britain or any of his subjects wherever residing excepting only the Ships and Goods of the Inhabitants of Bermuda and the Bahama Islands—You are directed not to Cruize further Southward than Latitude Twelve North nor farther East than Longitude Nine Degrees West from London nor farther West than the Shoals of Nantucket. At all times using necessary precautions to prevent your Vessel from falling into the hands of the Enemy.
“And Whereas you have received a Commission authorizing you to make Captures aforesaid and a set of Instructions have been delivered you for regulating your Conduct in that matter; these Instructions you are Hereby directed diligently to attend to, and if you are so fortunate as to make any Captures you are to Order them to make the first safe Harbor within the United States.-and you are further Ordered not to expend your Ammunition unnecessarily and only in time of Action or firing Alarm or Signal guns.”[400]
Until October, 1776, the Massachusetts navy was administered by the General Court, committees of its members, the Council, and naval agents. The General Court for the period of its recess in May, 1776, placed the armed vessels in the charge of “the committee for fortifying the harbor of Boston.” By the fall of that year it realized that “secrecy, dispatch, and economy in conducting the war” demanded a special executive department. Accordingly, on October 26 it established a Board of War consisting of nine members, any five of whom constituted a quorum. The Board of War was “empowered to Order and Direct the Operations of the Forces in the Pay of this State, both by sea and land, by giving the Commanders of the Troops, Garrisons, and Vessels of War, such Orders for their Conduct and Cruizes from time to time as they shall think proper.”[401] It organized by electing a president and secretary; and it rented permanent quarters near the State House in Boston. In December, 1776, James Warren, later Commissioner for the Continental Navy Board at Boston, was president of the Board of War. Philip Henry Savage was for a long time its president. Savage presided at the meeting in 1773 at Old South Church which decided that the tea should not be landed.[402] The Board of War entered upon its work with vigor in November, 1776. It was yearly renewed, until it was dissolved in February, 1781.
The principal business of the Board of War was the administration of the naval, commercial, and military affairs of the state. Its naval and commercial duties were quite engrossing. The Board kept fairly distinct the activities of its “armed” and “trading” vessels. It is true that the armed vessels were now and then sent on commercial errands, or combined in a single voyage naval and trading duties. The sloop “Republic,” used for a short time as a naval vessel, was taken into the commercial service. The Massachusetts Archives contain a list of thirty-two trading vessels owned or chartered by the Board of War.[403] These vessels visited Nantes, Bilbao, Martinique, Guadaloupe, St. Eustatius, Cape Francois, Baltimore, and the ports of North and South Carolina. They carried as staple exports, fish, lumber, and New England rum.
As a rule the work of the Board of War in looking after its trading vessels exceeded its naval work. At times, as in the case of the Penobscot expedition, the naval duties were the important ones. A week’s work of the Board in behalf of its armed vessels shows a curious mixture of orders on the commissary-general for clothing and provisions, and on the state storekeeper for naval stores; and of directions to the prize agents, the agents for building armed vessels, and the naval captains. The General Court permitted the Board a rather free hand in its management of the navy. The Board carried on a considerable correspondence with the commanders of the armed vessels. The following letter written to the Board by Captain John Clouston of the armed sloop “Freedom” on May 23, 1777, from Paimboeuf, France, will illustrate this correspondence from the Captain’s side. Clouston’s disregard of orthography and punctuation is exceptional even for a Revolutionary officer.
“Gentlemen:
I have the pleasure of Informing your Honours by Capt. Fisk of the ‘Massachusetts’ That on the first Instant I arrived safe in this Port after taking twelve Sail of Englis Vessels Seven of which I despatched for Boston Burnt three gave one smal Brigg to our Prisners and one Retaken by the ‘Futereange’ which Chast us fore Glasses and finding she Could not Cume up with us she gave Chase to our Prize and toock her in our sight—I have Cleaned & Refited my Vessel and Taken in forty Tons of War like Stores and have bin waiting for a wind to go this fore days—Capt. Fisk being short of Provisions I have supplied him with foreteen Barels of Pork and Eleven of Beef and have Suffisantse for my Vessel left.”[404]
In January, 1777, a new sea establishment was effected. Wages were generally raised, no doubt chiefly to meet their decrease caused by the depreciation of the currency. A captain was now to receive a monthly wage of £14, 8s.; a lieutenant or a master, £7, 4s.; a seaman, £2, 8s.; and a boy, £1, 4s. The offices established in the Massachusetts navy, while not quite so many, were in general the same as those in the Continental navy. The Massachusetts navy, however, had the offices of prizemaster, pilot, and boy, which did not occur in the Continental list. Following the regulations of Congress, the General Court now gave captors one-half of their captures. The rations for seamen were modelled on the Continental bill of fare.[405] On March 21, 1777, the General Court adopted rules and regulations for its ships of war; and it ordered that they should be read by the commanding officer of a vessel at least once a week. These rules, while briefer than the Continental rules, naturally followed the same general lines. They show either the influence of the Continental rules or of the English rules upon which the Continental rules were based. The following curious rule in part parallels quotations made from the Continental rules in Chapter I:
“And if any Person belonging to either of such Vessels shall be convicted of Theft, Drunkenness, profane Cursing, or Swearing, disregarding the Sabbath, or using the Name of God lightly, or profanely, or shall be guilty of quarreling or fighting, or of any reproachful or provoking Language tending to make Quarrels, or of any turbulent or mutinous Behavior, or if any Person shall sleep upon his Watch, or forsake his Station, or shall in any wise neglect to perform the Duty enjoined him, he shall be punished for any of the said Offences at the Discretion of the commissioned Officers of such Vessel, or the Major Part of them, according to the Nature and Aggravation of the Offence, by sitting in the Stocks, or wearing a wooden Collar about his Neck, not exceeding 4 Hours, nor less than one, or by whipping, not exceeding 12 Lashes, or by being put in Irons for so long Time as the said Officers shall judge the Safety and well being of the Ship and Crew requires, or otherwise shall forfeit to the State not more than six, nor less than two Days Pay for each offence.”[406]
During every year of the Revolution attempts were made to increase the Massachusetts navy. In the fall of 1777 the brigantine “Hazard” was added. On August 6, 1777, the General Court resolved that, since the armed vessels at the lowest computation had netted the state £55,000, the Board of War should purchase or build two vessels mounting 28 and 32 guns, respectively. In January, 1778, it reduced the sizes of these vessels almost one-half; and finally it gave up building them.[407] In the spring of 1779 a prize of the “Hazard,” the brigantine “Active,” taken in April off the island of St. Thomas in the West Indies, was purchased.[408] In April, 1778, the General Court resolved to build a frigate of 28 guns, which would carry two hundred officers and men.[409] This vessel was built at Newburyport and was named the “Protector.” In the fall of 1779 it was nearing completion. The launching of the “Protector,” which was the largest ship in the Massachusetts navy, was a matter of more than usual local interest. Stephen Cross who was in charge of the construction of the frigate wrote a letter to the Board of War in July, 1779, which throws light upon the minor naval duties of the Board. Cross’s language is somewhat involved, but his meaning is clear; it is hardly necessary to say that the “souring” refers to lemons.
“Gentlemen.
it being customary for the owners of Vessels when they are Launched to give the Workmen something Better than New England Rum to drink & Likewise some thing to Eat and also all those Persons who Attend the Launching Expect to be asked to Drink and Eat something and Especially Publick Vessells it will be Expected that something be Provided and it is my opinion about sixty Galls of West India Rum & sugars for the same & souring if to be had and one Quarter Cask of Wine and A Hamper of ale or Beer together with a Tierce hams Neet Tongs or Corn Beef will be necessary to comply with the Customs in these Cases.”[410]
After August, 1779, when the disaster on the Penobscot occurred, the naval duties of the Board of War were slight. For a time the “Protector” was the only vessel in the navy. With the coming in of a new government under a Constitution on October 25, 1780, there was no longer much need for a Board of War. According to the provisions of the new Constitution, the Governor was commander-in-chief of the navy; and he was authorized to “train, instruct, exercise, and govern it,” and to call it into service in time of war. On February 8, 1781, the Board of War was discontinued, and Caleb Davis, who was appointed Agent of the Commonwealth, succeeded to its ministerial duties.[411] The Governor and the Agent now shared the naval duties. The Governor commissioned officers, issued orders to the naval commanders, and was responsible to the General Court; the Agent had direct oversight of the fitting out of vessels, the selling of prizes, and was responsible to the Governor. As the Revolution spent itself the simplification of the administrative machinery of the state continued. On January 1, 1783, the Agent was discontinued. His naval duties fell to the Commissary-General.[412]
During each year from 1780 to 1783 the General Court made one or more attempts to increase the naval force of the state. It was spurred to action by the ravages of the British cruisers on the Eastern Coast. On March 21, 1780, two armed vessels mounting not less than ten or more than fourteen 4’s or 6’s were ordered. The expense incurred was to be met by the sale of the “Rising Empire” and of the confiscated estates of Loyalists, and from the rents of the property of absentees. On March 6, 1781, the Agent was directed to obtain a small vessel of eight to twelve guns to serve as a tender for the “Mars;” and on April 23, he was ordered to procure by hire or purchase two small craft to be employed as “guarda coasta.” On November 12, 1782, a committee was appointed to purchase a vessel of twelve or sixteen guns to be used in protecting the coast. On March 26, 1783, the Commissary-General was ordered to obtain a small vessel and a whale boat to cruise against the enemy in Casco Bay and along the Eastern Shore.[413] As the result of these resolutions, four armed vessels were added to the navy: in the spring of 1780 the “Mars;” in the summer of 1781, the “Defence;” in the winter of 1781-1782, the “Tartar,” which was built by the state; and in the spring of 1782, the “Winthrop.”
Private naval enterprise throughout the Revolution was exceedingly active in Massachusetts. In 1775, some months before the General Court granted letters of marque, Massachusetts citizens, unauthorized, were capturing the vessels of the enemy. Scarcely a fortnight after the battles of Lexington and Concord men from New Bedford and Dartmouth fitted out a vessel and attacked and cut out from a harbor in Martha’s Vineyard a prize of the British sloop of war “Falcon,” 16. This act was called forth by the captures which the “Falcon” had made from the people of Buzzard’s Bay. On June 12, 1775, the inhabitants of Machias, Maine, had captured the King’s sloop “Margaretta,” Lieutenant Moore, after mortally wounding the commander and inflicting a loss of fourteen men. Still other British vessels were captured off the coast of Maine during the summer of 1775.[414]
With the act of November 1, 1775, granting to the Council the power to issue letters of marque and reprisal, all such private enterprises as the above, when done under the authority of a commission, were legal. It does not appear however that Massachusetts granted many commissions until the second half of 1776. In 1777 she granted 96 commissions. The best year was 1779 when she issued 222 commissions; the year 1781 with 216 commissions was not far behind. The total number of commissions issued by Massachusetts for the years 1777 to 1783 was 998.[415] In 1779 one hundred and eighty-four prizes captured by privateers were libelled in the Massachusetts prize courts.[416] The privateering industry for this year was very active. The following is an extract from a letter dated May 16, 1779, written from a Massachusetts seaport:
“Privateering was never more in vogue than at present; two or three privateers sail every week from this port, and men seem as plenty as grasshoppers in the field; no vessel being detained an hour for want of them. We have near 1,000 prisoners on board the guard-ships in Boston, and a great balance due us from the enemy. Cruisers from New York, &c are daily brought in, and often by vessels of inferior force; our privateersmen being as confident of victory, when upon an equal footing with the English, as these were of gaining it of the French in the last war.”[417]
The rivalry between the state service and the privateers for seamen was exceedingly active. The latter service was always the more popular. In 1779 the Council recommended that some effectual measures be taken to prevent the owners of private ships of war and merchantmen from seducing seamen away that were engaged in the public service. It declared that proper encouragement must be given to state officers and seamen, and that commanders must have the aid of the government in manning their vessels, “or they will lie by the Walls and so be of little or no service.”[418] In 1778 the General Court found some difficulty in securing commanders.
The movements of the armed vessels of the Massachusetts navy are quite similar to the movements of the naval vessels of Congress.[419] The smaller fleet like the larger cruised in European waters, in the region of the West Indies, and to the eastward of the Bermudas in the path of the richly-laden West Indiamen. The Massachusetts vessels, however, cruised more frequently nearer home. About the first of June, 1779, the “Hazard” and “Tyrannicide” were in the region of Nantucket. After 1779 the vessels were frequently ordered to protect the Eastern Coast. In the spring of 1777 the “Tyrannicide,” Captain Jonathan Haraden, “Massachusetts,” Captain John Fisk, and “Freedom,” Captain John Clouston, cruised eastward as far as the coasts of France and Spain, capturing some twenty-five prizes, many of which however, were recaptured by the British.[420] This was a most fortunate venture, for all told one can not now count more than seventy prizes captured by the Massachusetts navy. In the summer of 1780 the Board of War turned over the “Mars,” Captain Simeon Samson, to the Massachusetts Committee for Foreign Affairs which sent her to France and Holland for supplies.
The state vessels were at times joined in cruises with privateers or with Continental vessels; and enterprises were concerted with all three classes of armed craft. In April, 1777, the state took into its service for a month nine privateers, mounting 130 guns and carrying 1,030 men, to cruise with the Continental frigate “Hancock” and “Boston” after the British frigate “Milford” which had been especially annoying and destructive to the trade of the state.[421] In February, 1781, the “Protector” was cruising with the Continental frigate “Deane” thirty leagues windward of Antigua. In March, 1781, the Admiral of the French fleet at Newport was requested to send two French ships to cruise with the “Mars” on the Eastern shore; and a bounty was offered to privateersmen who would cruise against the “worthless banditti” in that region.[422]
The capture of a prize often amounted to little more than the chasing of a merchantman and the firing of a few shots as a signal for surrender. At times however when the merchantman was armed, or when the enemy’s vessel happened to be a privateer, the action was more serious. One of the most severe single engagements in which a Massachusetts vessel was concerned was that between the “Protector,” 26, Captain John Foster Williams, and the privateer frigate “Admiral Duff,” 32, Captain Stranger. It occurred on June 9, 1780, in latitude 42° N. and longitude 47° W. The engagement was heavy for an hour and a half when the “Admiral Duff,” having caught fire, blew up; all on board were lost except fifty-five men who were picked up by the “Protector.” The American vessel lost six men.[423] The following brief account of one of these minor engagements, told in the simple and direct language of the Massachusetts captain who took part in it, is taken from a letter of Captain Allen Hallet to the Board of War. It is dated at sea on board the “Tyrannicide,” latitude 28° N., longitude 68° W., March 31, 1779. This simple and vivid description shows with clearness the character of the minor engagements of the Revolution.
“I have the pleasure of sending this to you by Mr. John Blanch who goes prizemaster of my Prize, the Privateer Brig Revenge, lately commanded by Capt. Robert Fendall belonging to Grenada, but last from Jamaica, mounting 14 Carriage Guns, 6 & 4 pounders, 4 swivels & 2 Cohorns, & sixty ablebodied Men, which I took after a very smart & Bloody Engagement, in which they had 8 men killed & fourteen wounded, the Vessell cut very much to pieces by my Shott, so that they had no command of her at all—amongst the killed was the 1st Lieut. & one Quarter Mr.—amongst the wounded is the Capt. 2nd. Lieut. & Gunner—I captured her as follows: on the 29 Inst. at 4 PM. I made her about 4 leagues to windward coming down upon us, upon which I cleared the Ship and got all hands to Quarter, ready for an Engagement, I stood close upon the Wind waiting for her, about half past six PM. she came up with me, and hailed me, ask’d me where I was from, I told them I was from Boston & asked where they were from, they said from Jamaica & that they were a British Cruizer, I immediately told them I was an American Cruizer, upon which they ordered me to Strike, & seeing I did not intend to gratify their desires, they rang’d up under my Lee & gave me a Broadside, I immediately return’d the Compliment & dropping a Stern, I got under their Lee and then pour’d Broadsides into her from below and out of the Tops, so fast & so well directed that in one hour & a Quarter we dismantled two of her Guns & drove them from their Quarters & compell’d them to Strike their Colors, during the whole Engagement we were not at any one time more than half Pistol Shott distant & some part of the Time our Yards were lock’d with theirs—I had Eight men wounded only two of which are Bad—amongst the wounded are my first Lieut. & Master, I intended to man her and keep her as a Consort during the Cruize, but having twenty wounded Men on board, of my own men & prisoners I thought it Best to send her home, with all the wounded men on board under the Care of the Surgeons Mate.”[424]
By far the largest naval undertaking of the Revolution made by the Americans was the Penobscot Expedition. Until 1779 the general policy of those who managed the fleet of Massachusetts was to send its vessels cruising against the British transports, merchantmen, and small privateers, and to leave the coast to be defended by the seacoast establishment and by local forces. In August, 1777, the Council agreed with this policy for it then spoke of the Continental vessels, the state vessels, and the privateers as “improper” to be employed in clearing the coasts of these “vermin.”[425] In April, 1779, however, it disapproved this policy. It now in a message to the House submitted whether, instead of sending the armed vessels on long cruises after prizes, it would not have been vastly more to the advantage and profit of the state to have employed them cruising on the coast of Massachusetts for the protection of trade and the defence of harbors and seacoast, “which have been left in such an unguarded and defenceless Situation that where we have taken one Vessel of the Enemy their small privateers out of New York have taken ten from us.”[426] It would seem that the Board of War was right in employing its fleet in prize-getting rather than in defensive warfare. The capturing of small privateers and of merchantmen were the only enterprises for which the Revolutionary fleets were adapted. Those vessels that cruised continually near the American coast, sooner or later, fell foul of the stouter and better armed ships of the enemy. Moreover, the Board of War, had it not responded to the commercial spirit of the times, would have been compelled to adopt the methods of the privateers, did it wish to succeed in its competition with them for seamen.
During the first half of 1779 the British vessels were very destructive to the trade and shipping of Massachusetts and New Hampshire. On June 9, eight hundred of the enemy, encouraged by certain Tories in Maine, effected a lodgment on the Maine coast at a place called Bagaduce, now Castine, near the mouth of the Penobscot river.[427] This made a fine vantage-point as a base for naval operations. The appeal for naval protection which the inhabitants of Massachusetts now made upon her was a strong one. Towards the close of June the Massachusetts government began concerting with the Continental Navy Board at Boston and with the government of New Hampshire an expedition to capture and destroy this British station. Samuel Adams, who had recently retired from the chairmanship of the Marine Committee of Congress and had returned to Boston, furthered the enterprise. To the fleet which was now formed, New Hampshire contributed the “Hampden,” 22; the Navy Board at Boston, the Continental vessels, “Warren,” 32, “Providence,” 12, and “Diligent,” 12; and Massachusetts, the three state brigantines, “Tyrannicide,” 16, “Hazard,” 14, and “Active,” 14, together with thirteen privateers, which were temporarily taken into the state service. These twenty armed vessels mounted in all 324 guns, and were manned by more than 2,000 men. Besides the armed fleet there were twenty transports which carried upwards of 1,000 state militia. The naval forces were under the command of Captain Dudley Saltonstall of the Continental navy; and the troops were commanded by Brigadier-General Solomon Lovell of the state military forces of Massachusetts. Paul Revere was Chief of Artillery with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.
The assembling, manning, provisioning, and fitting of so many vessels greatly taxed the resources of Massachusetts. The fleet left Boston on July 19, and during the last days of the month appeared off the Penobscot, and attacked Bagaduce with only partial success, since it failed to take the main fort. Before a second attempt was made, a British fleet from New York under the command of Sir George Collier, who had received news of the expedition, appeared in the Penobscot. The British fleet consisted of the “Raisonnable,” 64; “Blonde,” and “Virginia,” 32’s; “Greyhound,” “Camilla,” and “Gallatea,” 20’s; and “Otter,” 14; together with three small vessels at the garrison, the “Nautilus,” 16, “Albany,” 14, and “North,” 14. The British fleet mounted 248 guns and carried more than 1,600 men. In number of guns and men the advantage lay with the Americans, but in weight of metal and tonnage it was probably with the British. On the morning of August 14 the British fleet came in sight of the American. The two fleets were barely in range of each other’s guns when the Americans were seized with a panic, and fled with their vessels helter skelter up the river, pursued by the British. The Americans offered almost no resistance whatever, but ran their ships ashore, set fire to them, and escaped afoot, when not too closely pursued. With the exception of two or three vessels which were captured, the American fleet was annihilated. The British lost 13 men; the American loss has been placed at 474 men. The larger part of the American sailors and soldiers returned by woods to New Hampshire and Massachusetts.
The total cost of this expedition to Massachusetts as calculated by the Board of War was £1,739,175. The larger part of this sum, £1,390,200, was charged to the account of the navy. It suffered the loss of three state armed vessels and a victualer, nine privateers, and twenty transports. Among the twenty transports, with possibly one exception, was the whole trading fleet of the state. Soon after the disaster a joint committee of the Massachusetts House of Representatives and Council with Artemas Ward as president, held an inquiry and made a report on the causes of the failure of the expedition. In answer to the question, “What appears the principal reason of the failure,” the committee decided unanimously, “want of proper Spirit and Energy on the part of the Commodore.” A court-martial, which was held on the frigate “Deane” in Boston harbor about the first of October, decided against Captain Saltonstall; and he was dismissed from the navy. Rarely has a more ignominious military operation been made by Americans than the Penobscot expedition. A New Englander with some justice has likened it to Hull’s surrender at Detroit. Had it been successful, it would not have been worth the effort it cost. Its object had no national significance; it was an eccentric operation. “Bad in conception, bad in preparation, bad in execution, it naturally ended in disaster and disgrace.”[428]
Besides the “Tyrannicide,” “Hazard,” and “Active” the Massachusetts navy lost to the enemy at least three other vessels. Towards the close of 1777 the British captured the “Freedom” and “Independence.” On May 5, 1781, His Majesty’s ships “Roebuck,” 44, and “Medea,” 28, captured the “Protector,” 26, with more than one hundred and thirty men on board.[429] She was added to the Royal Navy as the “Hussar.” In the latter half of 1782 Captain George Little in the “Winthrop” cruised on the Eastern Coast, and captured and sent into Boston “nearly the whole of the arm’d force they possessed at Penobscot;” he thus in part retrieved the naval honor of his state.[430] Acting under orders of Governor Hancock, Little in the “Winthrop” made the last cruise of the Massachusetts navy, when in the winter of 1782-1783 he visited Martinique. On his return, he was fitting for a cruise on the Eastern Coast, when about April 1 news of permanent peace arrived. On June 4, 1783, the Commissary-General was directed to sell the “Winthrop,” the last vessel in the navy. The “Tartar” had been sold during the past winter.[431] Captain Little’s accounts were being settled in March, 1785.