The Navy of the American Revolution

by Charles Oscar Paullin

FOOTNOTES:

[506] Hening, Statutes of Virginia, IX, 83.

[507] Calendar of Virginia State Papers, VIII, 75-240, Journal of Committee of Safety of Virginia, February 7 to July 5, 1776. Virginia had a class of vessels which she referred to as “armed boats.” They were smart craft, and appear to have been schooner-rigged.

[508] Miss Rowland’s George Mason, I, 214, 218.

[509] Hening, Statutes of Virginia, IX, 149-51. The Provincial Convention which met May 6, 1776, adopted a Constitution which provided for a Legislature of two houses, and an Executive consisting of a Governor and a Privy Council of eight members.

[510] Hening, Statutes of Virginia, IX, 521-22, October session of General Assembly in 1778.

[511] Southern Literary Messenger, 1857, 14. The references to this magazine refer to a series of valuable articles entitled “The Virginia Navy of the Revolution.”

[512] E. P. Lull, History of U. S. Navy Yard, at Gosport, Virginia, 8-11; Hening, Statutes of Virginia, XI, 407.

[513] Journals of Virginia Navy Board, Virginia State Archives, June 25, June 26, 1776.

[514] Hening, Statutes of Virginia, IX, 235-36.

[515] Journals of Virginia Navy Board, January 7, 1777.

[516] Maryland Archives, XI, 293-94.

[517] Journals of Virginia Navy Board; State Navy Papers, I; Southern Literary Messenger, 1857, 3.

[518] Journal of Virginia Navy Board, September, October, 1776.

[519] Hening, Statutes of Virginia, IX, 196-97. In August, 1776, the Navy Board drew up a list of naval rules which were endorsed by the Governor and Council.—Journals of Virginia Navy Board, August 2, 1776.

[520] Hening, Statutes of Virginia, IX, 103, 131-32, 202-06.

[521] Ford, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, II, 241-43.

[522] Journals of Virginia Navy Board, April 8, 1777.

[523] These vessels were the brig “Adventure;” the schooners “Hornet,” “Peace and Plenty,” “Revenge,” and “Speedwell;” the sloop “Agatha;” and the armed boat “Molly.” The lists of vessels here given were compiled from the Virginia naval archives.

[524] These vessels were the galleys “Henry,” “Hero,” “Lewis,” “Manly,” “Norfolk Revenge,” “Page,” and “Safeguard;” the brigs “Liberty,” “Mosquito,” “Northampton,” and “Raleigh;” the schooners “Liberty” and “Adventure;” the sloop “Scorpion;” and the armed boats “Liberty” and “Patriot.” The schooner “Liberty” was taken into the trading fleet as the “Hornet.” It is believed that this list does not contain the vessels in Mason’s Potomac fleet.

[525] The names of the vessels not mentioned in the text, which were added during 1777, 1778, and 1779 were the brigs “Greyhound” and “Hampton” and the armed boats “Nicholson,” “Experiment,” “Fly,” and “Dolphin.” The names of several other vessels which were probably used in trade, occur during this period. Some of the ships are at times referred to as galleys.

[526] Files of Virginia Gazette; Journals of Virginia Convention, May 8, 1776; Virginia Historical Register I, 77; Calendar of Virginia State Papers, III, 365.

[527] Almon’s Remembrancer, 1779, 289-95, account given by British officers; Records of State of North Carolina, XIV, 85-86, 94-95. Some of the vessels destroyed at Gosport probably belonged to Congress.

[528] Hening, Statutes of Virginia, X, 15-18, 123.

[529] Ibid., 278, 291-92.

[530] Hening, IX, 537; X, 23-24, 217.

[531] Hening, X, 296-99.

[532] Hening, X, 379-86.

[533] Ford, Writings of Jefferson, II, 392.

[534] Ibid., 443-44.

[535] Virginia Calendar of State Papers, I, 588; II, 74.

[536] Almon’s Remembrancer, 1781, II, 62-63, Arnold to Clinton, Petersburg, May 12, 1781.

[537] Hening, Statutes of Virginia, X, 450; Virginia Navy Papers, I, and II.

[538] Hening, Statutes of Virginia, XI, 42-44. In March, 1783, the three commissioners were Paul Loyall, Thomas Brown, and Thomas Newton, jr.—Virginia Calendar of State Papers, III, 456.

[539] Virginia Navy Papers, II.

[540] Journals of Continental Congress, October 3, 1783.

CHAPTER XV
THE NAVY OF SOUTH CAROLINA [541]

South Carolina employed her first armed vessels in obtaining a supply of gunpowder, the need of which article was so keenly felt throughout the colonies during the first years of the Revolution. In July, 1775, the South Carolina Council of Safety sent Captains John Barnwell and John Joyner of Beaufort with forty men in two large and well-armed barges to assist the Georgians in taking an English supply-ship, which was daily expected at Savannah. The enterprise was wholly successful. The ship with its cargo of sixteen thousand pounds of gunpowder was captured by the combined forces of the two colonies. South Carolina sent four thousand pounds of her share of the powder to the Continental Congress at Philadelphia.[542]

In the same month of July the Council of Safety planned to seize certain gunpowder stored at Nassau, New Providence, and for this purpose the “Commerce,” a sloop belonging to citizens of New York, was temporarily taken into the service of the state. It will be recalled that Commodore Esek Hopkins in the initial essay of the Continental fleet in February and March, 1776, attempted to capture this gunpowder. Before the “Commerce” was ready to set sail, word came that the brigantine “Betsey” from London with a cargo of ammunition was soon to arrive at St. Augustine. Captain Clement Lemprière, the commander of the “Commerce,” was therefore ordered to cruise off St. Augustine in watch for the expected vessel. On August 8 he captured the “Betsey” with her load of gunpowder amounting to almost twelve thousand pounds.[543]

Neither of these two episodes led to a permanent naval armament. This, as was to be expected, was brought about by the necessity of protecting Charles Town, the capital and chief port of the Province. The critical month in South Carolina in 1775 was September. During this month two of His Majesty’s vessels, the “Tamar,” 16, and “Cherokee,” 6, lay in Charles Town harbor. It was in September that Lord William Campbell, the Royal Governor of the Province, fled from Charles Town on board the “Tamar.” In September the South Carolina Council of Safety began to seize the forts commanding the channel leading to Charles Town from the sea. The executive of the Revolutionary government at this time consisted of the Council of Safety of thirteen members. About the first of October the Council of Safety obtained the schooner “Defence” and placed it under the command of Captain Simon Tufts, a native of Massachusetts, but now a resident of Charles Town. The Council of Safety fixed the pay of officers and men on board the schooner.

During November, naval affairs were chiefly in the hands of the Second Provincial Congress, the Revolutionary legislature, which body on November 10 appointed Edward Blake Commissary of Stores for the Naval Department. On November 11 the “Defence,” 10, manned by her regular complement of seamen, and thirty-five marines taken from the land forces, was detailed to cover a party sent to obstruct certain channels near Charles Town by sinking old schooners. While engaged in this service she exchanged shots with the “Tamar” and “Cherokee” without causing much damage on either side. On November 12, stirred by this encounter, the Provincial Congress voted, though by a narrow majority, to impress, fit out, and arm the ship “Prosper” for the purpose of capturing the British ships in Charles Town harbor; and appointed commissioners to superintend the work.[544]

The Provincial Congress having adjourned on the 29th of November, the Second Council of Safety continued the naval preparations. On December 16 it appointed William Henry Drayton, the well-known Revolutionary agitator and leader, to command the “Prosper” in place of Captain Tufts who had some time before been transferred from the “Defence” to the “Prosper.”[545] A third vessel was now obtained, the schooner “Comet,” and was placed in charge of Captain Joseph Turpin. Owing to the paucity of seamen in South Carolina, the Council of Safety in December directed Captain Robert Cochran to proceed to Massachusetts and obtain recruits for the navy. When in January, 1776, Cochran was in Philadelphia, the delegates of South Carolina to the Continental Congress called that body’s attention to Cochran’s mission. In order that no friction should arise between Cochran and the military authorities in Massachusetts over the enlistment of men, Congress recommended to him that he offer to seamen moderate wages and bounties; that he immediately repair to the camp at Cambridge and take Washington’s advice; and that he enlist the seamen in those parts of the country where he would least interfere with the Continental service. The Massachusetts Council agreed to permit Cochran to raise three hundred men.[546] South Carolina also enlisted seamen in Georgia.[547]

On February 15 the Second Provincial Congress, which had met on the 1st, appointed a committee to report on the best means and the expense of building two frigates of thirty-two guns each. It authorized the enlisting, if necessary, of two hundred marines. On March 5 a committee was appointed to prepare “proper Rules and Articles for the better regulation and government of the Navy of this Colony.” On the 25th, the report of this committee after amendment was adopted, and on the next day the respective rank of army and navy officers was fixed. On March 14th the Provincial Congress authorized the committee at Georgetown, a port to the north of Charles Town, to purchase and fit out proper armed vessels for the defence of the trade of Georgetown, and on the same day gave similar orders to a committee of Beaufort, a port to the south of Charles Town. Provision was now made for a Muster-Master General of the Army and Navy.[548] In March the armed schooner “Peggy” was in the service of the state.

On March 26, 1776, a new government under a Constitution went into effect in South Carolina. This provided for a legislature consisting of two houses, a General Assembly and a Legislative Council. The executive of the state was a President, or “President and Commander-in-chief,” the title ran, and a Privy Council of seven members. According to the constitution the captains of the navy were to be chosen by a joint ballot of the two houses of the Legislature, and were to be commissioned by the President.[549] Early in April Colonel Pinckney presented in the General Assembly an ordinance to appoint a Commander of the Navy to be subject to the President.[550] On April 9 the Legislature passed an act to prevent the desertion of soldiers and sailors. A hospital for sick and wounded soldiers and sailors was established at Charles Town. On April 11 the Legislature established a Court of Admiralty which was given jurisdiction over all captured ships belonging to “Great Britain, Ireland, the British West Indies, Nova Scotia, East and West Florida.” The facts in cases of capture were to be tried by a jury.[551]

On September 21, 1776, President John Rutledge, in a message to the Legislature, recommended the appointment of commissioners to superintend the naval affairs of the state, believing that thereby the navy would be placed upon a better footing. On the same day, in accordance with the President’s recommendation, the General Assembly appointed a committee to draft a bill. On October 8 an act was passed which established a Board of Naval Commissioners, consisting of seven men, and empowered “to superintend and direct all matters and things whatsoever to the navy of this state in any wise relating.”[552] This act was modelled on the act of Virginia on the same subject. It varies from the Virginia act in a few particulars, and is a little more detailed. The Navy Board was charged with the building, hiring or buying of all naval vessels, and the arming, outfitting and provisioning of the same, and with the construction of rope-walks and shipyards. It was authorized to audit the naval accounts, draw warrants on the treasury for necessary expenditures, recommend officers, fill vacancies temporarily with the approval of the President, keep itself informed as to the state of the navy, and report thereon to the Legislature. With the concurrence of the President and the Privy Council the Board could remove or suspend officers for neglect of duty or misbehavior. Soon after the organization of the Board, the question was raised whether it had the power to order the vessels on cruises; the President and Privy Council decided that the Board had no such power, and that the detailing of vessels was a function of their own.[553] In addition to its strictly naval duties the Board directed the procuring and fitting out of trading vessels and transports.

The Navy Board held its first meeting on October 9, 1776, at Charles Town, and organized by electing Edward Blake First Commissioner. On the 12th it chose its clerk.[554] The duty of this officer was to keep a regular journal of the transactions of the Board; and once in three months, or oftener if necessary, to go aboard the vessels and take an account of the officers and seamen and pay them their wages. His salary was £1,400 currency, a year. At first a majority of the Board constituted a quorum. When it became difficult to assemble four out of its seven members, two more members were added to the Board, and a quorum was reduced to three men.[555] The act which established the Board was to continue in effect two years. On October 9, 1778, the Board was continued until October 8, 1779, and from thence until the end of the Legislature then in session. The introduction of a bill into the House of Representatives on February 8, 1780, to repeal all previous acts establishing a Board of Naval Commissioners makes it highly probable that the Navy Board was discontinued about this time.[556]

On taking charge of naval affairs the Navy Board found one of its most engrossing duties to be the purchasing of supplies of all sorts—salted beef and pork, bread, pitch, tar, turpentine, tallow, duck, cordage, and spars. On October 17, 1776, it appointed a naval agent at Georgetown to procure and issue supplies to the schooner “Rattlesnake,” Captain Stephen Seymour, now in the employ of the state for the protection of this port.[557] The Board continued the building of four galleys, which had been begun by President Rutledge. In April, 1777, it leased Captain Cochran’s shipyard at Charles Town, together with five negroes, for the term of five years.[558] In October, 1778, it bought of Paul Pritchard, shipwright, eighty-five acres on Hobcaw creek, near Charles Town, for a shipyard.[559]

During 1777 and 1778 the Legislature passed a few ordinances relating to the navy. On January 16, 1777, it fixed the shares of prizes. Officers and seamen were to receive one-half the net proceeds of all captures. This half was then to be divided into sixteen parts and allotted to officers and seamen according to a fixed scale. Captains were given two-sixteenths; seamen and marines, three-sixteenths.[560] In February the captors’ share of vessels of war and privateers was increased to the whole of the prize. In January, 1778, a law of obvious purpose was passed, which freed all seamen who entered into the Continental or state naval service from the obligations of previous contracts made with the owners of private ships. In March, 1778, the appointment of a commodore to command the navy of the state necessitated a new distribution of the proceeds of captures among officers and seamen. The commodore’s share was fixed at two-sixteenths.[561] In October, 1778, the Legislature authorized the Navy Board to purchase any “negroes or other slaves for the use of the publick shipyard or rope work,” which property was to be vested in the public forever.[562]

During 1776, 1777, and 1778 the Navy Board added a few vessels to the navy. Several galleys were built during this period. In the fall of 1776 the brigantine “Notre Dame” was procured, armed, and sent to France under the command of Captain Robert Cochran on a trading voyage.[563] In 1777 one finds the sloop “Beaufort” in the service of the state, being probably stationed at Beaufort for the defence of the trade of that port. Early in 1779 the Navy Board completed the construction of the brig “Hornet.” Now and then the state obtained the loan of privateers for short periods. Information concerning South Carolina’s privateers is scant. We know, however, that she had a considerable fleet. Between August 17, 1776, and April 16, 1777, President Rutledge granted thirty-seven letters of marque.[564]

Few states exceeded South Carolina in naval expenditures. With the exception of Massachusetts, the vessels of no other state went to sea so often as did those of South Carolina. The navy of South Carolina was smaller than that of Virginia, but much more active. From 1776 to 1779 it captured some thirty-five small prizes, only about half of which, however, reached safe ports.[565] Its principal cruising grounds were off the South Carolina and Florida coasts and in the West Indies. The South Carolina vessels frequently cruised off St. Augustine. This was an important British port during the Revolution, and many privateers and smaller British vessels visited it. The noting of a few captures will show the character of the work of the South Carolina navy. In July, 1777, the “Notre Dame” carried into a South Carolina port the brig “Judith,” 12, laden with dry goods for St. Augustine; and in October the same vessel captured the brig “John,” and the schooner “Jemmy and Sally” with cargoes of staves and shingles outward bound from the Mississippi.[566] In the spring of 1779 the “Notre Dame,” “Hornet,” and “Eagle” made prizes of the sloop “Prince of Wales,” 12, and the brig “Royal Charlotte,” both bound for Georgia, with West India products.[567]

In December, 1777, President Rutledge and the Privy Council, in opposition to the best military judgment in South Carolina, concerted with Captain Nicholas Biddle, of the Continental frigate “Randolph,” 32, an expedition to clear the coasts of the enemy’s vessels. South Carolina furnished the “Notre Dame,” 16, Captain Hall, and three privateers, which were temporarily taken into the public service. These were the ships “General Moultrie,” 18, Captain Sullivan, “Polly,” 16, Captain Anthony, and “Fair American,” 14, Captain Morgan. One hundred and fifty South Carolina troops were taken on board to serve as marines. Sailing about February 1, 1779, the fleet soon cleared the coast of the enemy, and then proceeded to the West Indies on the lookout for rich West India merchantmen—an object which was probably in view from the first. On March 7, when the fleet was to the windward of Barbadoes, the “Randolph” fell in with the British ship of the line “Yarmouth,” 64. During a running fight an explosion of tremendous force occurred on board the “Randolph.” Burning spars and timbers six feet long, together with an undamaged ensign, fell upon the decks of the “Yarmouth.” The “Randolph,” with almost her entire crew of 315 men, including Captain Joseph Ioor and fifty South Carolina marines, sank soon after the accident. Five days after the fight the “Yarmouth” picked up four men clinging to the wreckage, the only men rescued. Two of the four South Carolina vessels, the “General Moultrie” and the “Fair American,” now returned home, taking on the way a valuable Guineaman. The “Notre Dame” and the “Polly” continued their cruise within the West Indies, the “Notre Dame” reaching as far westward as the Isle of Pines. The two vessels captured eleven small prizes, a number of which, however, were recaptured before reaching safe ports.[568]

The transference of the seat of war from the Northern to the Southern states, in 1779, and the British naval expedition against Charles Town, early in 1780, caused increased naval activity in South Carolina. In August, 1779, the House of Representatives sent to the Senate a bill offering bounties and fixing a new rate of wages for officers and seamen.[569] In September the House passed a bill for building two floating batteries and four galleys.[570] Acting on the recommendations of the Governor, the House in February, 1780, voted that it would be of public utility to employ a number of negroes not to exceed one thousand to act as pioneers and fatigue men in the army and as oarsmen and mariners in the navy.[571] Additional armed vessels were now obtained in different ways. During 1779 the Governor issued commissions to fourteen vessels. A number of small craft, used chiefly as transports, were impressed.[572] The “Notre Dame,” 16, and the “General Moultrie,” 20, were assigned to the defence of Charles Town. The state purchased from France the “Bricole,” 44, and the “Truite,” 26. The “Bricole” was pierced for sixty guns, and mounted forty-four 24’s and 18’s. She was the largest vessel owned by any of the states. For the defence of Charles Town France sent “L’Aventure,” 26, and “Polacre,” 16; and Congress the “Providence,” 28, “Boston,” 24, “Queen of France,” 28, and “Ranger,” 18.[573]

The naval defence of Charles Town was intrusted to Captain Abraham Whipple, the senior officer of the four Continental vessels. Whipple advised that a naval defence at the bar on the seacoast, which lay to the eastward of the forts that commanded the entrance to Charles Town harbor, should not be undertaken; and later he gave it as his opinion that it was impracticable for the armed vessels to coöperate with the forts. Such timid counsels prevailed, and no naval defence of Charles Town was made. With the exception of the “Ranger” all the vessels were dismantled and their guns and crews removed to reinforce the land batteries and troops in Charles Town. With the fall of the city on May 12, 1780, South Carolina lost her entire navy, with the exception of the frigate “South Carolina,” whose fortunes we are about ready to consider. The “Bricole,” “Truite,” “General Moultrie,” and “Notre Dame” were sunk.[574] The “Boston” and “Ranger” were added to the Royal Navy.

In 1781, with the returning tide of the patriot forces a few small vessels were armed at Georgetown.[575] In February, 1783, Governor Guerard recommended the purchase of a ship, which had lately been carried into Wilmington, North Carolina, for the defence of Charles Town harbor. The House was unfavorable to the transaction, because of the lack of means, the difficulty of manning the ship, and the risk of bringing it around.[576] In March, 1783, a committee of the House was appointed to consider what arrangements should be made with respect to the naval officers of the state; and it reported that, by the Articles of Confederation, South Carolina was precluded from having a navy, and that it was therefore of the opinion that the state could not retain in its service its naval officers.[577]

A most interesting episode in the history of the South Carolina navy remains to be told. It properly begins with the commissioning on March 11, 1778, of Alexander Gillon, a prosperous and influential merchant of South Carolina, to be a commodore in the navy with “full and ample power and authority to take the Command, Direction, and Ordering of the said Navy,” agreeable to its rules and articles. On the same day John Joyner, William Robertson, and John McQueen received commissions as captains. On March 26 the state decided to raise abroad £500,000 currency, or £71,429 sterling, for the purpose of building or purchasing three frigates. On July 17 Gillon was commissioned to go abroad and undertake the task of securing the loan and procuring the vessels. The exact sum which Gillon was now directed to borrow was less than £500,000 by the sum of the proceeds which he would derive from the sale of certain produce, to be exported from South Carolina to Europe, and consisting chiefly of indigo and rice. Early in the fall of 1778 the “Notre Dame” carried Gillon, his three captains, and other naval officers to Havana, whence they took passage to Europe.

On January 31, 1779, Gillon was empowered to borrow, in addition to previous authorizations, £15,000 sterling, which was to be invested in arms, ammunition, and “Indian goods.” Of the total sum, £86,429, which he was authorized to obtain, he actually borrowed in Amsterdam, Ghent, Bordeaux and Paris £46,725, and received as the proceeds arising from the sale of exported produce £10,000. It is thus seen that Gillon, in his financial mission, was moderately successful. He was less fortunate in making the proposed naval increase. He succeeded, however, in renting the frigate “Indian” from the Chevalier Luxembourg for one-fourth of her prizes, for a period of three years. The reader recollects that this ship was built at Amsterdam in 1777 by the American Commissioners at Paris, and that owing to lack of money and to complications growing out of the laws of neutrality, they had sold the “Indian” to the French king. Louis XVI. had, in turn, ceded the “Indian” to the Chevalier Luxembourg.[578]

Gillon renamed his frigate the “South Carolina,” and mounted her with twenty-eight 32’s and twelve 12’s. Numerous delays ensued in getting to sea. Owing to shallow water and the heavy draught of the “South Carolina,” she was from July to November, 1780, moving from Amsterdam to the Texel. She spent the winter of 1780-1781 in a small creek near the Texel. These delays caused much expense, and in order to pay off some of his bills, Gillon, in the spring of 1781, sold to Colonel John Laurens for Congress military supplies, which he had recently purchased for South Carolina, to the amount of £10,000. Laurens now engaged Gillon to take these supplies together with others to Philadelphia. Gillon had been given full power to man and officer his vessel, having carried over with him fifteen commissions and thirty warrants in blank. In March, 1781, he wrote that he had about two hundred men on board, and that he expected two hundred and eighty from Dunkirk which the Chevalier Luxembourg had raised for the state.[579]

The “South Carolina” finally got to sea about the first of August, 1781, leaving behind the convoy which had expected to accompany her. Gillon’s movements and dealings abroad are not at all points clear. He aroused suspicions as to his honesty, and made a number of enemies. Exactly why he did not at once proceed to Philadelphia with the supplies for Congress which he had on board is not certain. On sailing he cruised for a month in the North Sea, and for a time near the English Channel, and then, about the first of October, he put into Coruña, Spain. Gillon said that he had been detained by contrary winds, and had returned for fresh provisions before sailing for America.[580]

On January 12, 1782, Gillon arrived at Havana with five valuable Jamaicamen, loaded with rum and sugar, and said to be worth $150,000. Here he found the Spaniards planning a descent on the Bahama Islands, and he now agreed to take command of the sea-forces consisting of fifty-nine Spanish and American vessels—probably chiefly Spanish. General Cadrigal commanded the troops. The expedition left Havana on April 22, and on May 8 the Bahamas surrendered without firing a shot. Gillon not very modestly attributed the success of the enterprise to the “great attention which the captains and officers of the American vessels of war paid in conveying such a fleet through so difficult and so unfrequented a passage, with a beating wind all the way, whereby we disappointed any plans the enemy might have formed of attacking us in our way through the gulph of Florida.” The island surrendered, not to the joint American and Spanish forces, but to the Spaniards alone.[581] It was reported that the Spaniards and Gillon captured three hundred troops and ninety sail of vessels.[582]

On May 28th the “South Carolina” arrived in Philadelphia, where she was refitting during the summer and fall of 1782. An agent of the Chevalier Luxembourg now removed Gillon from the command of his vessel, which was given to Captain Joyner. The “South Carolina” did not get to sea until December, 1782. Soon after leaving the Capes of the Delaware she was chased by a British squadron, which, after a race of eighteen hours, overhauled her, and at the end of a two hours’ fight, forced her to surrender.[583] For the loss of this vessel the Chevalier Luxembourg, in accordance with the terms of his contract, demanded from South Carolina the payment of 300,000 livres. Gillon asserted that Luxembourg had forfeited all right to the money by displacing him at Philadelphia from his command of the vessel. Further, Gillon declared that the Chevalier had subjected the state to serious losses by sending its marines, in the winter of 1780-1781, on an expedition to the Island of Jersey.[584] One estimate makes the total cost of the frigate to the state more than $200,000, and another puts it at $500,000.[585] The Luxembourg claims remained unsettled until December 21, 1814, when the state made a final payment of $28,894 to the heirs of the Chevalier.[586] South Carolina is still prosecuting her claims against the United States for a reimbursement of the expenses contracted in behalf of the “South Carolina.”[587]