On March 11, 1776, the Provincial Congress appointed five of its members, all from New York, a Marine Committee. It empowered this Committee “to take such measures, and give such directions, and employ such persons for the protection or advantage of trade as they may think proper, useful, or necessary.” The Marine Committee was a permanent navy board vested with the management and direction of the naval affairs of the state. Three of its members formed a quorum. Thomas Randall was its chairman. It was authorized to keep secret such matters as it saw fit. It reported to the Provincial Congress, when the Congress was in session, and at other times to the Committee of Safety. It was directed to apply to the Provincial Congress when in need of advice.[650] In March and April it purchased the sloop “Montgomery,” and the schooner “General Putnam,” and sold the “Bishop Landaff.”[651]
On April 17 the New York Committee of Safety issued commissions to Captain William Rodgers of the “Montgomery,” Captain James Smith of the “General Schuyler,” and Captain Thomas Cregier of the “General Putnam.” Rather singularly, these captains executed bonds in favor of John Hancock, President of the Continental Congress, and were given the commissions of Continental privateers. The naval establishment of New York was a mixed one. Her fleet was governed by the Continental naval rules and regulations. The enlisting contract of the “Montgomery” reads at points as if the vessel belonged to the Continental Congress: “The said William Rogers, for and in behalf of himself and the said Thirteen Colonies of North America, doth hereby covenant and agree to and with said officers, seamen, and marines” to advance a month’s wages. In sharing prizes, in granting bounties to wounded soldiers, and in rewarding exceptional merit, the contract followed the naval regulations of the Continental Congress.[652] On the other hand, the three vessels were owned, fitted out, officered, and manned by New York, which state directed their cruises, and paid their officers and seamen. This mixed establishment may in part be explained by the fact that at first New York’s intention was to have Congress take her vessels into the Continental service.[653]
On the evacuation of Boston by the British on March 17, 1776, Washington at once proceeded to New York, whither, it is recollected, the scene of war soon shifted. In April Washington asked for the loan of the New York vessels to assist in the defence of New York city. After some disagreement as to the terms upon which he should receive them, the “General Putnam” and the “General Schuyler” were turned over to him.[654] Hereafter the state seems not to have had the direction of the “General Schuyler.” In October, 1776, a mutiny having occurred on board the “General Putnam,” the New York Committee of Safety ordered this vessel to be sold.[655]
New York’s fleet captured some eight or ten prizes. It cruised chiefly in the waters surrounding Long Island. The “Montgomery” had best success. On April 19, 1776, the Marine Committee reported to the Committee of Safety a draft of instructions for Captain Rodgers. He was ordered to cruise between Sandy Hook and Cape May, or from Sandy Hook to the east end of Long Island, and he was cautioned to always keep “some inlet under your lee, so that you may secure a retreat from a superior force.”[656] Prizes were to be sent to some place of safety in the United Colonies. The “Montgomery” cruised in this general region until June, 1777; in July she was sold for £3,550. She captured several merchantmen, which were libeled in the admiralty courts of Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Maryland. In the condemning and selling of these prizes, New York’s interests were attended to by agents appointed for the purpose. The “Montgomery’s” most valuable prize was the schooner “Hannah,” libeled in Baltimore, which, with her cargo of clothing, cloths, and provisions, sold for £11,281. Another prize, the “Minerva,” with a cargo of salt, was tried by the court at the same time with the “Hannah,” and was freed; whereupon, Francis Lewis, a delegate of New York to the Continental Congress, which was then in session in Baltimore, appealed the case of the “Minerva” to Congress.[657]
In August, 1776, the Secret Committee, which was assisting in the defence of the Hudson, was fitting out two small armed sloops, the “Camden” and “Hudson.”[658] As late as January, 1777, the Committee of Safety was planning for a naval armament; orders were then given for cutting the timbers for a 74-gun ship.[659] The permanent occupation of New York city by the British stopped New York’s naval enterprises on state account. She continued, however, to grant a few privateering commissions, until the end of the war. In passing, one should mention that in 1776 New York contributed officers, seamen, and naval supplies to Arnold’s campaign on lakes Champlain and George. By the terms of New York’s Constitution of 1777 the Governor was “commander-in-chief of all the militia and admiral of the navy of this state.” The Constitution implied that there was to be a Court of Admiralty, although it did not make definite provision for such court.[660]
New Hampshire’s only naval undertaking was her participation, at the suggestion of Massachusetts, in the Penobscot expedition of July, 1779. She contributed to the ill-starred fleet the “Hampden,” 22, Captain Titus Salter, which vessel was captured by the British.[661] On July 3, 1776, New Hampshire passed an act “to encourage the fixing out of Armed Vessels to defend the seacoast of America, and to cruise on the enemies of the United Colonies, as also for erecting a court to try and condemn all Ships and other Vessels.” This act was modeled on similar acts of Massachusetts. It established state privateering. A “Court Maritime,” consisting of one judge, was erected at Portsmouth to try cases of capture. Salvage was prescribed in accordance with the proportions fixed by the Continental Congress. In cases of prizes captured by a Continental vessel, appeals lay from the Court Maritime to the Continental Congress.[662]
In July, 1776, a Committee of Newark, New Jersey, requested the New Jersey Provincial Congress to build four “gondolas,” or row-galleys, to be mounted with cannon, and to ply between the mouths of the Passaic and Hackensack rivers and the town of Perth Amboy. The Provincial Congress referred the proposition to a committee of four. It finally ended the business by referring the report of this committee to the Continental Congress.[663]
Until October 5, 1776, when New Jersey passed an act establishing an admiralty court, her Provincial Congress decided prize cases. So early as February 15, 1776, a committee of the Provincial Congress, which had been appointed to draft an ordinance for erecting a Court of Admiralty, reported that it had consulted William Livingston, one of the New Jersey delegates to the Continental Congress, on the subject, and had proposed to him, whether it would not be of manifest advantage to the Colonies if “Congress should, by one general ordinance, institute the powers and mode of erecting a Court of Admiralty to be adopted by all the Colonies.” Livingston agreed to take the first opportunity for proposing the matter to Congress.[664] Nothing came of the recommendation.
FOOTNOTES:
[634] Acts and Resolves of Rhode Island, June, 1775.