The Navy of the American Revolution

by Charles Oscar Paullin

On April 20, 1780, Congress adopted a new form of commission for naval officers, which the Board of Admiralty had drafted.[249] This varied little from the one which had been used since the beginning of the Revolution. With slight changes in phraseology made to adapt it to the government under the Constitution, it is still used in the Department of the Navy at Washington. It is this form properly filled out which constitutes our present Admiral’s title to his rank and office. The Board also prepared a form of commission, of bond, and of instructions for commanders of private vessels of war.[250] In the instructions the rights of neutrals were especially guarded. Following the lead of “Her Imperial Majesty of all the Russias,” Congress declared that the goods of belligerents on board neutral vessels, with the exception of contraband, were not subject to capture. It confined the term contraband to those articles expressly declared to be such in the treaty of amity and commerce of February 6, 1778, between the United States and France.[251]

Congress on March 27, 1781, passed an ordinance relative to the capture and condemnation of prizes. This law was enacted by virtue of the ninth article of the Articles of Confederation, which vested the war powers in Congress. It codified the resolutions of November 25, 1775, and March 23, 1776. It was more severe than these resolutions, and omitted certain indulgences and exemptions, which they contained. It prescribed the penalty of forfeiture of vessel without trial for those captors who destroyed or falsified their ship papers. One of its provisions related to salvage.[252] This law and also the one of April 7, 1781, fixing the instructions of commanders of private armed vessels, brought former legislation into conformity with the Articles of Confederation.

The Board of Admiralty and Congress were inclined to disagree as to the proper construction to be placed upon the ninth article of the Articles of Confederation, which gave Congress “the sole and exclusive right and power of determining on peace and war.” In a report which it made to Congress under date of May 29, 1781, after referring to the commissions which Massachusetts had issued to the “Protector” and “Mars,” two ships of the navy of that state, it said that “the Board humbly conceives that Commissions issuing from different Fountains of Power, is a matter which may merit the attention of the United States in Congress assembled who are the supreme power in Peace and War.” The Board was inclined to take the view that Massachusetts had no right to issue these commissions. The committee of Congress to whom the report was referred interpreted more narrowly the war powers of Congress than did the Board of Admiralty. It conceived that each state had the right to issue commissions to ships of war under the regulations established by Congress, and that the only step necessary to be taken for the present was for the Board to transmit to each state a copy of the present regulations governing the issuing of commissions.[253] This incident is noteworthy in its indicating the existence of “strict” and “loose” constructionists within three months after the Articles of Confederation were adopted.

If another illustration is needed to show the dependence of the makers of the American navy upon British models, some words of the Board of Admiralty are in point. For a long time it had under consideration a revision of the rules and regulations of the Continental navy. Concerning its intention to inspect the British rules and incorporate into its new code such of them as were adapted to the American navy, it observed that it did not “think it unlawful to be taught by an enemy whose naval skill and power, until the reign of the present illustrious King of France, were superior to that of any kingdom or state on earth.”[254] It is believed that the work of the Board in this particular was not brought before Congress.

On January 15, 1780, Congress created a permanent Court of Appeals for the trial of prize cases appealed from state admiralty courts. Since January 30, 1777, such cases had been heard and determined by a standing committee composed of five members of Congress. Such a committee naturally lacked permanency, expertness, and technical and legal knowledge. The Court established in January, 1780, was to consist of three judges, who were to try, in accordance with the law of nations, questions of fact as well as law. On January 22, 1780, Congress chose as the three judges of the Court, George Wythe of Virginia, William Paca of Maryland, and Titus Hosmer of Connecticut.[255]

When the Board of Admiralty took charge of the navy in December, 1779, there were ten Continental cruisers in American waters. The “Deane,” 32, was fitting for sea at Boston; the “Trumbull,” 28, was still in the Connecticut river; the “Providence,” 28, “Boston,” 24, “Queen of France,” 28, and “Ranger,” 18, were on their way to Charleston, South Carolina, in whose defence they were to assist; the “Confederacy,” 32, was at Martinique repairing and refitting; and three vessels were still on the stocks, the “America,” 74, at Portsmouth, “Bourbon,” 36, at Chatham on the Connecticut river, and “Saratoga,” 18, at Philadelphia. The “Alliance” was at the Texel in Holland where she had arrived after playing an ignominious part in the celebrated fight of Jones off Flamborough Head. This is not a formidable fleet, and its future movements have little bearing upon the great naval conflict now being waged between the mistress of the seas on the one side and France and Spain on the other. The Continental navy, however, still had some important errands to run, both Washington and the French were to ask its assistance, and on a few occasions the enemy was to find its officers and sailors no mean combatants.

In completing the vessels which were building and in refitting those which were in commission, the Board of Admiralty was from the first sorely embarrassed by a lack of money. The difficulties which the Marine Committee had encountered were now intensified by the prostration of the country’s finances and credit. The Board resorted to all means within reason in its attempts to obtain the requisites for prosecuting its work. In January, 1780, it wrote to the Board of Treasury that unless money was at once forthcoming the Naval Department would be at a standstill; and that not less than one hundred thousand dollars would be sufficient for its needs.[256] It eagerly sought the proceeds to be derived from the sale of rum, wine, fruit, and sugar, taken from Continental prizes. In the summer of 1780 in order that its vessels might be in condition to render assistance to the expected French fleet, the Board solicited aid from the governors of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut; pressed the Commissary-General of Issues of the Continental Army to furnish it with “62,820 weight of Bread and 13,260 weight of Flour” with all despatch;[257] and finally, applied to John Holker, the Consul-General of France at Philadelphia, for a loan of 60,000 pounds of bread, promising to take special pains to repay it.[258]

Thus hampered, the Board was unable to accomplish much with its little fleet. During its incumbency some half-dozen cruises were made by the Continental vessels. Twenty prizes were captured; half of them only reached safe ports. Two of the prizes were His Majesty’s brigs “Atalanta,” 16, and “Trepassey,” 14, which were taken by the “Alliance,” 36, Captain John Barry, in May, 1781, when returning from France. During the fight, which lasted four hours, the gallant Barry was wounded in the shoulder. This voyage of Barry, during which he captured seven prizes, was the most successful one made under the direction of the Board of Admiralty.

In June, 1780, one of the most hotly contested engagements fought at sea during the Revolution occurred to the northward of the Bermudas between the “Trumbull,” 28, Captain James Nicholson, the ranking officer of the Continental navy, and the Liverpool privateer “Watt,” 32, Captain Coulthard. After a fight of two hours and a half both vessels withdrew seriously disabled, and with difficulty made their ways to their respective ports—the “Trumbull” to Boston and the “Watt” to New York. A British account of the engagement places the loss of the “Watt” at eighty-eight men, and that of the “Trumbull” at “considerable more.” The Americans gave their own loss as thirty-eight men, and the British as ninety-two. The “Trumbull” had two lieutenants killed. Gilbert Saltonstall, the captain of marines onboard the “Trumbull,” wrote a vivid account of the fight. He was in the thick of it, and received eleven wounds. He said that “upon the whole there has not been a more close, obstinate, and bloody engagement since the war. I hope it won’t be treason if I don’t except even Paul Jones’. All things considered we may dispute titles with him.”[259] This was the first cruise of the “Trumbull.” The other twelve frigates of the original thirteen were at this time either destroyed or captured.

In July, 1780, a futile plan for an attack on New York was made. The Continental navy and army were to coöperate with the French fleet under the Admiral the Chevalier de Ternay. Under the direction of the Board of Admiralty, the Continental vessels continued to make voyages to France and the West Indies. The losses suffered by the navy during 1780 and the first half of 1781 were considerable. The “Boston,” “Providence,” “Queen of France,” and “Ranger” were surrendered to the British on the fall of Charleston in May, 1780. The “Confederacy,” 32, Captain Seth Harding, returning from Cape Francois with a load of military stores and colonial produce, was, on April 14, 1781, captured by the British naval ships, “Roebuck,” 44, and “Orpheus,” 32. The “Confederacy” was taken into the British navy under the name of “Confederate.” In March, 1781, the “Saratoga,” 18, Captain John Young, foundered at sea and all on board were lost.[260]