The Navy of the American Revolution

by Charles Oscar Paullin

When Morris, on September 7, 1781, became Agent of Marine, the direction of the movements of the Continental vessels was vested in him, but with a serious limitation; he was authorized to employ the armed cruisers “according to such instructions as he shall, from time to time, receive from Congress.” Morris could never abide indefinite grants of power which confused authority; and he therefore, by means of a cleverly written letter, elicited a resolution from Congress giving him full power “to fit out and employ the ships of war belonging to these United States, in such manner as shall appear to him best calculated to promote the interest of these United States.”[292]

When Morris fell heir to the duties of the Naval Department, in the summer of 1781, the Continental navy was reduced to small numbers. There were in active service only five captains and seven lieutenants in the navy, and three captains and three lieutenants in the marine corps. Including with these, those officers who were unemployed, were in private service, were prisoners, or were on parole, there were twenty-two captains and thirty-nine lieutenants in the navy, and twelve captains and twelve lieutenants in the marine corps.[293] Only three vessels were now in commission; the frigate “Trumbull,” 28, at Philadelphia, and the “Alliance,” 36, and “Deane,” 32, at Boston. The “America” and “Bourbon” were still on the stocks. About the first of September, 1782, Morris purchased the ship “Washington,” 20, and in October he took over into the Continental service in payment for a debt the ship “Duc de Lauzun,” 20.

The movements of the fleet under Morris’s direction were marked, as formerly, by bits of good and bad fortune, encounters with naval ships, privateers, and merchantmen, and voyages to France and the West Indies. From the summer of 1781 until the end of the war the little fleet captured twenty prizes, some fifteen of which reached safe ports. The last of his Majesty’s vessels to surrender to a Continental ship was the schooner “Jackall,” 20, Commander Logie, which was taken in the spring of 1782 by Captain Samuel Nicholson, when in command of the “Deane,” or the “Hague,” as she was now called. By a singular coincidence the first, and the last, valuable prize captured by a Continental ship during the Revolution, were taken by Captain John Manly. On one of the last days of November, 1775, he received the surrender of the brig “Nancy,” a transport; and in January, 1783, while in command of the “Hague” he captured the ship “Baille” of 340 tons burden, with a cargo consisting of sixteen hundred barrels of provisions.[294]

One of the most interesting, varied, and fortunate cruises of the war was made by Captain John Barry in the “Alliance,” 36, one of the largest and best-built vessels of the Continental navy. Barry left New London on August 4, 1782, and having visited the region of the Bermudas, and the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, he sailed eastward and overhauled a fleet of Jamaicamen, and arrived at L’Orient on October 17. He had captured nine prizes, four of which he carried into L’Orient. These four ships were Jamaicamen, and with their rich cargoes of rum and sugar, they sold for £620,610, one of the largest sums realized on any cruise during the Revolution. On December 8, Captain Barry left France for the West Indies. Having made a call at Madeira, Barry early in January, 1783, anchored at St. Pierre, Martinique, where he found a letter from the Agent of Marine ordering him to proceed to Havana and convoy the “Duc de Lauzun” to Philadelphia. About the first of February the “Alliance” arrived at Havana, after she had put into St. Eustatius and Cape Francois, and had been chased by one fleet off Porto Rico and another off Hispaniola. On account of the closing of the port of Havana, Barry was detained here a month. After considerable correspondence with the Governor of Havana, Barry on March 6 was permitted to sail with his convoy, which had on board seventy-two thousand dollars in specie. On March 10, 1783, Barry fell in with a British vessel, which is said to have been the frigate “Sibylle,” 32, and he now fought the last naval engagement of the Revolution. It lasted forty-five minutes, ended indecisively, and resulted in the loss of ten men on board the “Alliance;” the loss of the British is unknown. The two American vessels now parted company, and each soon reached a safe port; the “Alliance” arrived at Newport, Rhode Island, on March 20, and the “Duc de Lauzun” anchored at Philadelphia on March 21. It was now two months since the Preliminary Articles of Peace had been signed at Versailles.[295] The naval movements of the Continental vessels during the Revolution ended with the arrivals of these two vessels.

While Morris had the direction of the fleet, only one vessel was captured by the enemy, and this before he became Agent of Marine. In July, 1781, he ordered the “Trumbull,” 28, Captain James Nicholson, to proceed to Havana with despatches, letters, and a cargo of flour. The “Trumbull” had scarcely cleared the Capes of the Delaware, on August 8, when she was chased by the frigate “Iris,” 32, Captain George Dawson. Encountering a storm, the “Trumbull” was dismasted, and thus crippled she was overtaken by the “Iris.” The “Trumbull’s” crew were a sorry lot; some of them were British deserters, and others were cowardly and disaffected. It was late in the evening when the fight began. Many of the crew now put out their battle lanterns and flew from their quarters. Captain Nicholson and his officers, with a handful of seamen, bravely defended their ship against impossible odds for an hour before they surrendered. Nicholson lost sixteen men; two of his lieutenants were wounded. It is recalled that the “Iris” was originally the “Hancock,” of the Continental navy, and that she was the first of the thirteen original frigates to surrender to the enemy. The “Iris” was a fast ship, and is said to have made the fortunes of all the British captains that commanded her. It was the irony of fate that the first of the thirteen frigates to be captured should receive the surrender of the last remaining one. A letter from New York, dated August 11, 1781, informs us that “this day arrived the celebrated rebel frigate named the Trumbull.”[296]

The attempts of Morris, in 1782, to obtain an increase in the naval force of Congress, form one of the most interesting and characteristic parts of his naval work. The surrender of Cornwallis on October 19, 1781, was not considered by many contemporaneous Americans as an event that must necessarily end the Revolution. Indeed, the final outcome of the war was in doubt for more than a year. The Agent of Marine was too cautious and conservative to count on peace before its actual accomplishment had been sealed by a formal treaty. After the surrender of Cornwallis he not only continued to send the Continental cruisers against the enemy, but whenever an occasion presented, he vigorously urged on Congress the necessity of a naval increase. To the mind of Morris the need of a navy in 1782 was greater than it had been at any previous time during the Revolution. He conceived that up to this time Britain had attempted to conquer the Colonies on land by means of her army; since she had been defeated in this, it was now her purpose to starve the Colonies into submission by means of her navy and superior sea-power. The United States must meet the enemy’s change of tactics by building a navy.

In April, 1782, Morris took steps to have the frigate “Bourbon” completed. Congress was not convinced of the expediency of this, and was inclined to sell the frigate in its unfinished state. Morris wrote reprovingly to Congress that the most economical thing to do was to complete the vessel; and that “there is also a degree of Dignity in carrying through such measures as Congress have once adopted, unless some change of circumstances renders the execution improper.” He then added: “The present circumstances of the United States I apprehend to be such as should induce our attention to the re-establishment of a Naval Force, and altho’ former attempts have proved unfortunate, we must not take it for granted that future Essays will be unsuccessful. Altho’ the Naval Force of our enemy is powerful, and their Ships Numerous, yet that Force is opposed by equal Numbers, so as to give them much more employment than at the time our infant Fleet was Crushed.”[297]

On May 10, 1782, in response to a request of Congress, Morris submitted an exhaustive report on the state of American commerce. Referring to the intentions of the British, he declared that having been compelled to abandon the idea of conquest, their avowed design was to annihilate the American commerce. The plans of the enemy could be frustrated and the American trade protected by so small a fleet as two ships of the line and ten frigates. The ships of the line, together with two frigates, should be stationed in the Chesapeake, to cruise as occasion might require. The frigates should be divided into two equal squadrons, each of which should serve as a convoy of the American trade between the United States and France. By each squadron making two round trips a year, a quarterly communication both ways between these two countries would be established. The United States of course could not provide this service, but the ships which the plan required might be detailed from the French or Spanish fleet. “It is to be hoped,” Morris said, “that if the war continues much longer, the United States will be able to provide the necessary force for themselves, which at present they are not, tho’ if the above arrangements take place, they might now provide for the trade from America to the West Indies.” Congress authorized Morris to apply to both Spain and France for the needed vessels.[298]

But a more extensive naval plan than this was in Morris’s mind, and one which could be undertaken independent of foreign ships. On July 30, 1782, he submitted to Congress an estimate for the public services of the United States for the year 1783, amounting in all to eleven millions of dollars. More than one-fifth of this sum was to be spent on the navy. “Congress will observe,” he said, “that the estimates for the Marine Department amount to two Millions and a half, whereas there was no Estimate made for that Service in the last year any more than for the civil list.” Morris based this most remarkable recommendation for a naval increase on the belief that the enemy had changed his mode of warfare, and that it was now his purpose to annihilate the commerce of America, and thus starve her into submission. With this sort of a campaign, conducted by the enemy, an American army without a navy would be burdensome without being able to accomplish anything. With a navy, we could prevent the enemy from making predatory excursions, ruining our commerce, and capturing our supplies; he would either be compelled to keep a superior naval force in this country, which would give our allies a naval superiority elsewhere; or else he must permit the balance of naval strength in America to be on our side; in which latter case we could protect our trade, annoy his commerce and cut off the supplies which he would be sending to his posts in America. Then, concluded Morris in words which remind one of the annual report of some recent Secretary of the Navy asking for the yearly quota of battleships: “By oeconomizing our Funds and constructing six ships annually we should advance so rapidly to Maritime importance that our enemy would be convinced not only of the Impossibility of subduing us, but also of the Certainty that his forces in this Country must eventually be lost without being able to produce him any possible Advantage;” and we should in this way regain the “full Possession of our Country without the Expence of Blood, or treasure, which must attend any other Mode of Operations, and while we are pursuing those Steps which lead to the Possession of our natural Strength and Defence.”[299]

The signing on November 30, 1782, of the Provisional Articles of Peace between the United States and Great Britain, news of which reached America early in the spring of 1783, removed the necessity of a naval increase, and in the minds of many the need of a navy at all. Morris did not at once give up the notion that the government on a peace footing should maintain a respectable marine. In May, 1783, he asked Congress to relieve him of his naval duties. “The affairs of the Marine Department,” he writes, “occupy more time and attention than I can easily spare. This Department will now become important, and I hope extensive. I must therefore request that Congress will be pleased to appoint an Agent of Marine as soon as their convenience will admit.”[300] He became convinced however that not much could be done for the navy until the finances of Congress were placed on a better and more permanent basis. In July, 1783, Morris made a report on a proposition of Virginia offering to sell her naval ship “Cormorant” to the United States. Congress agreed to his report, which was as follows: “That although it is an object highly desirable, to establish a respectable marine, yet the situation of the public treasury renders it not advisable to purchase ships for the present, nor until the several states shall grant such funds for the construction of ships, docks, naval arsenals, and for the support of the naval service, as shall enable the United States to establish their marine upon a permanent and respectable footing.”[301]