[462] Records of State of Connecticut, II, 372; Wharton, Diplomatic Correspondence, II, 642, 650; Hartford Courant, March 16, 1779.
[463] Hartford Courant, June 15, 1779.
[464] Records of State of Connecticut, II, 360.
[465] Records of State of Connecticut, II, 222.
[466] State Archives, Acts of Connecticut, May, 1780.
[467] Ibid., October, 1780.
[468] History of Norwich, F. M. Caulkins, 398.
CHAPTER XIII
THE NAVY OF PENNSYLVANIA
The two objects of Pennsylvania’s naval enterprises were the defence of Philadelphia and the protection in Delaware river and bay of the outward and inward bound trade of the state. These two needs determined the form and size of her armed vessels and the character of their operations. Pennsylvania therefore adapted her fleet to shallow waters. Only in a few instances did her armed vessels pass beyond the Capes of the Delaware into the Atlantic.
On July 5, 1775, the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety, the first Revolutionary executive of this state, visited “Red Bank,” situated a few miles below Philadelphia, near the mouth of the Schuylkill, for the purpose of deciding on the character of the defences which were to be made at this point on the river. On the 6th, having returned to Philadelphia, the Committee reported the results of its inspection; whereupon it came to its first naval resolution, that Robert White and Owen Biddle be a committee for the construction of boats and machines for the defence of the River.[469] On July 8 it ordered John Wharton to immediately build a “Boat or Calevat,” 47 or 50 feet keel, 13 feet broad, and 4½ feet deep. By October, thirteen such galleys or armed boats had been built, at a cost of about £550 each. They were armed chiefly with 18-pounders.[470] During the late summer and the fall of 1775 the Committee of Safety attended to the numerous details of officering, manning, arming, and provisioning these galleys. It chose a captain and lieutenant for each of them; and on October 23 it appointed Thomas Read commodore of the fleet. It organized a naval staff consisting of a muster master, a pay master, a surgeon, an assistant surgeon, a ship’s husband, and a victualer. The distinguished scholar, Dr. Benjamin Rush, was made surgeon. The Committee of Safety prepared a form of commission for officers, a list of rules and regulations, general instructions for the captains, and general instructions for the commodore.[471]