[196] See Chapter IX, page 267; also Gomer Williams, Liverpool Privateers, Chapter IV, Privateers of the American War of Independence. From August, 1778, to April, 1779, Liverpool fitted out one hundred and twenty privateers.
[197] See Part II, State Navies.
[198] Journals of Continental Congress, March 23, 1776.
[199] Papers of Silas Deane in the Library of the Connecticut Historical Society.
[200] Clowes, Royal Navy, III, 328.
[201] Few of these vessels were ready for sea for lack of crews. The British also suffered greatly during the Revolution owing to the scarcity of seamen. This the First Lord of the Admiralty attributed to the loss of 18,000 American sailors, who had contributed to the manning of the British fleets in former wars.—Annual Register, 1778, 201.
[202] Boston Gazette, November 4, 1776.
[203] A battleship building in 1903 at the New York navy yard has a displacement of 16,000 tons.
[204] Manuscript list, in Division of Manuscripts, Library of Congress.
[205] Clowes, Royal Navy, III, 327.