George Mason, in a letter to George Washington on April 12, 1776, mentioned that he had under his charge two row-galleys of 40 or 50 tons burden, each to mount light guns, three and four pounders; and the sloop, American Congress, a fine stout vessel of 110 tons burden, mounting fourteen carriage guns, four and six pounders, and was considering mounting two 9-pounders upon her main boom.
On June 6, 1776, the Committee of Safety appointed Christopher Calvert to superintend the building of two row-galleys for the protection of Virginia and North Carolina, to engage a master workman and as many men as he should need to work expeditiously. The two vessels, Caswell and Washington, were built at the South Quay Shipyard on the Blackwater River near the North Carolina line. A North Carolina sloop had been seized in Ocracoke Inlet in April, 1776. Sometime later, a warrant for £100 was issued to Argyle Herbert for the use of Captain Calvert upon account to pay the carpenters employed on his galley.
At the convention of delegates held at the Capitol in Williamsburg on May 6, 1776, resolutions were passed dissolving the Government from Great Britain, establishing Virginia as a Commonwealth or State. A Board of Navy Commissioners composed of five members was appointed to superintend and direct all matters relating to the Navy. Their peculiar duties were defined as follows: To superintend and direct the building and repairing of all vessels; provide the necessary outfits, ordnance, provisions and naval stores; control the public rope walks; erect dockyards; contract for and provide all timber necessary for building purposes; and supervise the shipyards.
On September 12, 1776, this Commission was requested to engage the proper persons for building "in the most expeditious manner", 30 boats for the transportation of troops on the rivers, each boat to be the proper size for carrying a complete company of 68 men with their arms and baggage. Those were small boats without masts but broad and strong enough to transport troops across rivers and to carry from point to point large quantities of ammunition and provisions as they were required. The small boats had been found indispensable in retreats, in rapid marches, and in concentrating land forces.
The Commissioners were authorized in October to provide the necessary plank and timber for the building of four large galleys fit for river and sea service, and to be mounted with proper guns. And for manning these galleys and others being built, the Commissioners were requested to raise the number of men needed, not to exceed 1300 to serve three years.
The Continental Congress directed that two frigates of 36 guns and of 500 tons burthen be built in Virginia, and the Navy Board ordered the work done at Gosport Shipyard in Norfolk County. The following excerpts from a letter of Richard Henry Lee of the United States Congress to James Maxwell, Chief Superintendent of Construction on December 1, 1776, give directions for building the frigates:
The Congress has resolved upon building two ships-of-war of 36 guns each…. You, Sir, have been recommended as a person of great fitness for this business…. I do, in the name of the committee, request you will … determine a most fit place to put these ships upon the stocks at. Safety against the enemy is a very necessary object, proper water for launching, and convenience for getting timber you will consider…. A master builder with four or six workmen will soon go hence to Virginia for this business, and I have no doubt other workmen will be had in that State to carry on the work briskly…. The builder desires that trees be felled immediately whilst the sap is down, that a quantity of locust trunnels be split one and one-half inches and from 18 to 30 inches in length; that sawyers be employed to get out white oak plank of 3½ inches. These things and whatever else may be immediately necessary for this business you will take care to have done…. The builder tells me that cedar, locust, pitch pine, or wild cherry will be the proper timber for the upper works.
On Wednesday, December 18, 1776, it was resolved by the General Assembly that the Governor be desired to write to the Maryland Council of Safety to inform them that four galleys of eighty odd feet keel, intended for the protection of Chesapeake Bay and adjacent capes and coasts, were then building in Virginia and in great forwardness, and that the General Assembly have directed four more galleys, much larger, be immediately built and equipped for the same purpose. The hope was expressed that the sister state, equally interested in mutual defence, would supply a proper quota of galleys to act in concert with those of Virginia. Chesapeake Bay was the chief theatre of action by the enemy because of the principal tories residing near its waters. To watch their movements and prevent intercourse with the enemy became the duty of these galleys.
Two galleys, the Accomack and Diligence, were built in 1777 on Muddy Creek near Guilford in Accomack County, and stationed on the Eastern Shore. These large galleys were about 90 feet in length and each carried two 18-pounders, four 9-pounders, and several swivels, in all ten guns.
The State built and operated in 1777, a ropewalk at Warwick in Chesterfield County about five miles below Richmond, where ducking, sail-cloth, and rope were manufactured under the charge of Captain Charles Thomas. Several important warehouses had been established there. The place was totally destroyed in the British raid of April, 1781.