The Navy of the American Revolution

by Charles Oscar Paullin

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]