In December, 1775, the Naval Committee was preparing a fleet for sea, which was to make the first naval essay of the new government. The Pennsylvania Committee of Safety was contributing arms, ammunition, and sailors. Commodore Hopkins enlisted for the service of his fleet more than one hundred seamen in Rhode Island, whom Whipple brought to Philadelphia in the “Katy.” On December 3, 1775, John Paul Jones hoisted the Continental flag on board the “Alfred,” Hopkins’s flagship, the first Continental vessel to fly the colors of the new nation.[40] By the end of January, 1776, the Committee had added four other small vessels to the navy, the sloops “Providence,” and “Hornet,” and the schooners, “Wasp,” and “Fly.”[41] The “Providence” had been the “Katy” of the Rhode Island navy. The “Hornet” and the “Wasp” were obtained in Baltimore.
On January 5, 1776, the Naval Committee issued sailing orders to the commander-in-chief. He was ordered, “if Winds and Weather possibly admit of it, to proceed directly for Chesapeake Bay in Virginia.” Here he was to strike the enemy’s fleet under Lord Dunmore, unless it was found to be greatly superior to his own. If he was so fortunate as to execute this business successfully, he was to continue southward and master the British forces off the coast of the Carolinas, and from thence he was to sail northward directly to Rhode Island and “attack, take, and destroy all the enemy’s naval force that you may find there.”[42] This program seems rather ambitious, when one considers the motley assemblage of officers, seamen, and cruisers, that composed this fleet of made-over merchantmen.
The ice in the Delaware greatly delayed the expedition. Early in February, 1776, the fleet was assembling at Cape Henlopen. It then consisted of the flagship “Alfred,” 24, Captain Dudley Saltonstall; the ship “Columbus,” 20, Captain Abraham Whipple; the brigs “Andrew Doria,” 14, Captain Nicholas Biddle, and “Cabot,” 14, Captain J. B. Hopkins; the sloop “Providence,” 12; and the schooner “Fly,” 8. On February 15 the sloop “Hornet,” 10, and the schooner “Wasp,” 8, joined the fleet from Baltimore.[43] On the 17th the fleet sailed outside the Capes into the broad Atlantic. A new nation in whose veins flowed the blood of a long line of seafaring and sea-fighting ancestors was about to put to the initial test its skill in naval warfare, and under conditions far from auspicious. If the doughty Admiral should get all his queer craft once more into a safe harbor he would be doing well.
Hopkins had apparently concluded that his Armada might prove vincible on the stormy coasts of Virginia. Indeed, the enemy must have heard of his intended coming, and awaited it. Not only discretion, but good military judgment advised him to abandon for the present the visitation to the Chesapeake.[44] Before sailing on February 17 he had determined to make a descent on Nassau, New Providence, and accordingly he gave orders to his captains and commanders to keep in company, if possible, but if not, to make for the island of Abaco, one of the Bahamas, where the fleet would next rendezvous.[45]
On the 3rd and 4th of March Nassau was taken after a slight resistance and without bloodshed, by a landing party consisting of two hundred marines under one of their officers, Captain Samuel Nichols, and fifty sailors under Lieutenant Weaver of the “Cabot.” Eighty-eight cannon, fifteen mortars, a large quantity of shot and shell besides other munitions of war were captured. Since the governor of the island succeeded the night before the landing was effected in removing the gunpowder to a safe hiding place, the expedition failed of its chief object.[46]
On March 17, having loaded his vessels and a borrowed sloop with the warlike stores, Hopkins set sail for Rhode Island, taking with him as prisoners of war several important officials, including the Governor and Lieutenant-Governor of New Providence. On April 4 the squadron, having reached the eastward end of Long Island, captured the British schooner “Hawk,” 6, and the bomb brig “Bolton,” 8. At 1 o’clock on the morning of the 6th the “Alfred,” “Cabot,” “Columbus,” “Andrew Doria,” and “Providence” engaged His Majesty’s ship “Glasgow,” 20, Captain Tyringham Howe. After a severe fight of about three hours, the “Glasgow,” was permitted to escape, leaving her tender with the Americans.[47] The loss of the enemy was four; that of the Americans, twenty-four, of which number twenty-three were on board the “Alfred” and “Cabot,” the two vessels which bore the brunt of the encounter.[48] Each of these vessels had a lieutenant killed.
The American commanders in this engagement exhibited little skill in tactics. A fleet permitted a single vessel of the enemy to escape. Something can be said for them by way of extenuating circumstances. It should also be said that they showed no lack of spirit. As was natural, Commodore Hopkins was made the target for much adverse criticism. Nations, it is said, are seldom just under disgrace, imaginary or real.
The expedition to New Providence was the sole naval enterprise made by the Continental vessels, while they were under the direction of the Naval Committee. Early in 1776 this Committee, reduced in membership, yielded its control of marine affairs to a new committee with a fuller complement of members. It scarcely needs to be said that the Naval Committee’s claim to distinction rests not upon its military achievements, but upon its work of a civil character, whereby it laid the foundations of the Revolutionary navy. It acquired the first American fleet, selected its officers, and fitted it for sea. It drafted the first civil and penal code of the navy, and prepared not a little fundamental naval legislation.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Manuscript Letters of John Adams, lodged with the Massachusetts Historical Society by Mr. Charles Francis Adams, who kindly permitted the writer to see them.