In four days this new committee reported an estimate, which was unsatisfactory and was recommitted.[9] When it again reported on October 30, two more vessels, one to mount not more than twenty and the other not more than thirty-six guns, were ordered to be prepared for sea, and “to be employed in such manner, for the protection and defence of the United Colonies, as the Congress shall direct.” It should be noted that the two vessels for which provision was now made were to engage in the defence of the colonies, and not merely in the interception of transports, an indication of an advance in the naval policy of Congress. Four additional members were now added to the committee, Stephen Hopkins of Rhode Island, Joseph Hewes of North Carolina, R. H. Lee of Virginia, and John Adams of Massachusetts.[10] This reconstituted committee composed of seven members was sometimes called “the committee for fitting out armed vessels,” occasionally the “Marine Committee,” but most frequently the “Naval Committee.” It secured for its use a room in a public house in Philadelphia, and in order that there should be no conflict between its meetings and those of Congress, it fixed its hours from six in the evening until the close of its business. Its sessions were sometimes pleasantly continued, even until midnight, by conversational diversions, marked by a rich flow of soul, history, poetry, wine, and Jamaica rum.
John Adams, who always wrote pungently, has left us a lively picture of the Naval Committee. His description makes it clear that the deliberations of this committee were not always marked by that exalted seriousness and impassive dignity, which we too habitually ascribe to the Revolutionary Fathers. “The pleasantest part of my labors for the four years I spent in Congress from 1774 to 1778,” he said, “was in this Naval Committee. Mr. Lee, Mr. Gadsden, were sensible men, and very cheerful, but Governor Hopkins of Rhode Island, above seventy years of age, kept us all alive. Upon business, his experience and judgment were very useful. But when the business of the evening was over, he kept us in conversation till eleven, and sometimes twelve o’clock. His custom was to drink nothing all day, nor till eight o’clock in the evening, and then his beverage was Jamaica spirit and water. It gave him wit, humor, anecdotes, science, and learning. He had read Greek, Roman, and British history, and was familiar with English poetry, particularly Pope, Thomson, and Milton, and the flow of his soul made all of his reading our own, and seemed to bring to recollection in all of us, all we had ever read. I could neither eat nor drink in these days. The other gentlemen were very temperate. Hopkins never drank to excess, but all he drank was immediately not only converted into wit, sense, knowledge, and good humor, but inspired us with similar qualities.”[11]
The active life of the Naval Committee lasted from October, 1775, until January, 1776, during which time it laid the foundations of the navy. Its chairman in January, 1776, was Stephen Hopkins; whether he was the first to fill this position is not known. His knowledge of the business of shipping made him particularly useful to the Committee.[12] The accounts of the Naval Committee were kept by Joseph Hewes, who was settling them with the Board of Treasury in September, 1776.[13] Early in December, 1775, John Adams returned home, and by January only four members of the Committee were left to transact its business.
In October Congress ordered the fitting out of four vessels, and appointed the Naval Committee, but did nothing more. By the first of November the sentiment of Congress was setting strongly towards organizing a navy. In its debates on the State of Trade during the latter half of October the necessity of having a navy in order both to defend the colonial commerce and to carry on the war was generally recognized.[14] The members from the South were as a rule now lining up with those of the North in behalf of a naval armament. Events had happened and were daily happening in New England which were convincing the doubtful members of Congress. As a military necessity for conducting the siege of Boston, and with no intention whatever to create a navy, as such, Washington had obtained seven small cruisers, and either had sent or was sending them to sea in pursuit of the enemy’s transports. The logic of events had forced him, on his own responsibility, to create a little fleet of his own.[15]
With the passage of each day, the gap between the mother-country and her revolting subjects widened, and the feeling became stronger and more general that an irrepressible war, which must be fought to a just conclusion, had begun. What in October seemed chimerical, might in November appear practicable.
Beginning with November the naval legislation of Congress moved rapidly. The duty of preparing much of it naturally fell to the Naval Committee. Its work in large part may be found in the Journals of the Continental Congress for November and December, 1775, and January, 1776. A brief summary of the most important Congressional resolutions for this period will be here presented.
On November 2, 1775, Congress voted $100,000 for the work of the Naval Committee, and empowered it “to agree with such officers and seamen as are proper to man and command” the four vessels already ordered to be prepared for sea. Congress also fixed the “encouragement” of the officers and seamen at “one-half of all ships of war made prize of by them, and one-third of all transport vessels.”[16]
On November 10 the first legislation relating to the Marine Corps of the United States was passed. Two battalions, which were to be called “the first and second battalions of American Marines,” were to be raised, consisting of one colonel, two lieutenant-colonels, two majors, and “other officers as usual in other regiments.” There is some doubt whether Congress fully understood the duties of marines, for it provided that “no persons be appointed to office, or inlisted into said Battalions, but such as are good seamen, or so acquainted with maritime affairs as to be able to serve to advantage by sea when required.”[17] Such a requirement seems to overlook the fact that the duties of marines are military in character, rather than naval.
The Naval Committee made what probably was its most important report on November 23, when it laid before Congress “a draught of rules for the government of the American navy, and articles to be signed by the officers and men employed in that service.” On the 25th and 28th of November, these were debated by paragraphs and after slight amendment were adopted.[18] The rules, eight or ten pages in length, are brevity itself as compared with the present rules and regulations of the United States navy, which make a book of some six hundred pages. More than one-half of the navy’s first rules are concerned with the feeding, care, rights, duties, and punishments of the ordinary sailor; while the present rules of the American navy in large part apply to officers.
A few of the provisions of these old rules are worthy of notice. The commanders of ships of the thirteen united colonies were “to take care that divine service be performed twice a day on board, and a sermon preached on Sundays, unless bad weather or other extraordinary accidents prevent.” Sailors were to be punished for swearing by the wearing of a wooden collar, “or some other shameful badge of distinction.” Sailors were to be put in irons for drunkenness; while officers guilty of the same offense forfeited two days’ pay. The extreme punishment which an officer might inflict on a seaman was “twelve lashes upon his bare back, with a cat of nine tails.” In case a sailor deserved greater punishment, he must be tried by a court-martial, which should consist of “at least three captains and three first lieutenants, with three captains and three first lieutenants of marines, if there shall be so many of the marines then present, and the eldest captain shall preside.” A penal code was established. A court-martial might inflict death for desertion, mutiny, or murder.