Foremost of the three Commissioners was Warren, an eminent patriot, who had been President of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress and also of the Massachusetts Board of War. He was an intimate friend of John and Samuel Adams, and, it is said, much resembled the latter in character. Vernon, who served as President of the Navy Board, was a most distinguished Newport merchant and one of the most self-sacrificing of patriots. During the Revolution he advanced large sums of money to the government, which were only in part repaid. Before the war his trade extended to all the maritime nations of Europe and to the West Indies and Africa.[121] Deshon was of Huguenot descent. He was conspicuous in the Revolutionary party of New London, and was a captain in his state’s military forces. He rendered much assistance in fitting out the Connecticut navy.
These two boards were variously designated in the official documents of the time. The one was most frequently called the Navy Board of the Middle Department or District, or the Navy Board at Philadelphia, Bordentown, or Baltimore, according to its location; and the other, the Navy Board of the Eastern Department or District, or the Navy Board at Boston. The Navy Board at Philadelphia was at first referred to as the Continental Navy Board, or the Board of Assistants. These two names indicate that when the board at Philadelphia was formed, the establishing of a second board was not in contemplation. The Navy Board at Philadelphia seems to have taken little or no part in the naval affairs in New England. It was hardly settled in its work before the Navy Board at Boston was created. Attention should be called to the fact that the offices of Navy Board and of Commissioner of the Navy had long been established in the British navy. The British offices served in some degree as models to Congress and the Marine Committee.[122]
Each board had a secretary, treasurer, and paymaster; but one person sometimes served in two, or even the three, capacities. Each board had one, and sometimes two clerks. A clerkship was at times joined with one of the other offices. The boards as a rule selected their own employees. Any two members of the Navy Board at Boston were empowered by Congress on October 23, 1777, to form a quorum.[123]
With the exception of the resignation of Deshon in May, 1781, the Navy Board at Boston did not change in personnel. Its headquarters remained continually at Boston. On the other hand, the membership of the Navy Board at Philadelphia made several changes. On May 9, 1778, William Smith of Baltimore was elected in the place of John Nixon, who had resigned.[124] On August 19, Hopkinson and Smith having resigned, Captain Nathaniel Falconer and James Searle, both of Pennsylvania, were appointed.[125] Falconer declined the appointment; Searle accepted, but resigned on September 26.[126] Meanwhile, Wharton had resigned, and the three commissionerships were vacant. On November 4, 1778, the vacancies were filled by the reappointment of Wharton, and the selection of James Read of Delaware, the clerk and paymaster of the Board, and William Winder,[127] a captain in the military forces of Maryland and a judge of the court of appeals of Somerset county in that state. When in December, 1776, Philadelphia seemed to be in danger from the enemy, Congress and the Board retreated to Baltimore, where they spent the winter of 1776-1777. The fortunes of war compelled the Board in the fall of 1777 to retreat to Bordentown, New Jersey; and after the American fleet in the Delaware was destroyed, the Marine Committee early in 1778 ordered it to Baltimore,[128] where it was situated for a few months. In the summer of 1778 it returned permanently to Philadelphia.
The salary of a commissioner of the navy was first fixed at $1,500 a year. On October 31, 1778, “in consideration of the extensive business of their departments,” this salary was raised to $3,000, and on November 12, 1779, on the depreciation of the currency, to $12,000. It was reduced on September 25, 1780, to $1,500, and was now paid quarterly in specie or its equivalent. The salaries of the employees of the Navy Boards underwent like variations. Beginning with $500, they advanced in some instances as high as $2,000 a year. On August 4, 1778, the clerk of the Navy Board at Boston was made a special allowance of $500, “in consideration of the great and constant business,” in which he had been engaged.[129]
To recapitulate, the chief agents of the Marine Committee were these: the Navy-Boards, the prize agents, the Continental agents, and the agents for building vessels. After the creation of the Navy Boards, the latter three classes served in part as their sub-agents; but by no means entirely so, for the Marine Committee gave many orders over the heads of the Boards.
The Marine Committee and its principal agents employed many minor agents. One illustration, taken from the work of the Navy Boards as purveyors of the navy, will suffice to show the subordinate character of the services which these minor agents rendered. It is recorded that the Navy Board at Boston had in its employ in New Hampshire “a contractor of beef for the navy,” who in turn had in his employ a single drover, that by September, 1779, had purchased more than one thousand head of cattle for the use of the Navy Board at Boston.[130]
FOOTNOTES:
[88] See Chapter XVII, The Minor Navies of the Northern States.
[89] Force, American Archives, 4th, III, 231; Sparks, American Biography, 2nd, IX, 314-15.