The American Navy

by French Ensor Chadwick

The beginning of Washington’s fleet was the schooner Hannah, which sailed under Captain Nicholas Broughton from Beverly, Massachusetts, on September 5, 1775, and returned two days later with a prize. Naturally many of the improvised army assembled at Cambridge, which was mainly made up of New Englanders, were men of the sea, and thus soon there were eight small vessels, officered and manned from the army in service. The administration of this improvised navy was not an easy task. Washington, writing to the President of the Congress on December 4, 1775, says: “The plague, trouble, and vexation I have had with the crews of all the armed vessels is inexpressible. I do not believe there is on earth a more disorderly set.” Successes came, however, and with these greater contentment among the crews. Captain John Manley was particularly successful, especially in the capture of the brigantine Nancy, which carried ordnance stores of the highest value to our poorly equipped army. The inventory of her cargo gives, among other things, 2,000 muskets, thirty-one tons of musket shot, 3,000 round shot, a considerable quantity of powder, and a thirteen-inch mortar, which was promptly mounted in Cambridge and called the “Congress.”

The British evacuated Boston through want of food, on March 17, 1776, going first to Halifax and thence to New York. Washington had already transferred his army thither and continued his navy, such as it was, until he himself retreated from New York as the result of the unfortunate battle of Long Island.

Rhode Island had, however, taken action toward a sea force several months before Washington had formed his little fleet. The Rhode Island Assembly had, on June 15, 1775, two days before the battle of Bunker Hill, ordered the chartering of two sloops and had appointed Abraham Whipple to the chief command. Whipple was prompt to act, for on the same day he captured the tender to the frigate Rose, the first prize of the war. His evident courage and vigor caused his appointment later as captain in the regular navy which was soon to come.

Rhode Island has also the honor of being the first state to take action toward the establishment of a national navy. Her delegates were instructed on August 26, 1775, to bring the question of a fleet before Congress. This was done on October 3d. The subject received an almost immediate impetus through the arrival of information of two brigs which had left England for Quebec with arms, powder, and stores. A committee of three was proposed to prepare a plan to intercept these, but the idea met with strong opposition as being initiatory to a Continental navy, as in fact it was. It was declared by some opposed to be the “most wild, visionary, mad project that had ever been imagined. It was an infant taking a mad bull by the horns, ... it would ruin the character and morals of our seamen; it would make them selfish, piratical, mercenary, bent wholly upon plunder.” Much of such criticism of the project might have been spared. Our seamen had been living through an age of privateering, and one in which the latter often recked but too little of legal capture, and they had too long been accustomed to the general system of illicit commerce with the islands of the West Indies belonging to France and Spain to have their morals upset by fighting for their country. The better sense prevailed and the three men who had urged most strongly the proposed action were, on October 5, 1775, appointed a committee to report a scheme of action. These were John Adams of Massachusetts, John Langdon of New Hampshire, and Silas Deane of Connecticut.

The immediate advice of the committee which was to instruct Washington to procure two cruisers in Massachusetts, one to carry ten, and the other fourteen, guns, for the purpose of intercepting the two brigs mentioned, was soon changed in a report of October 30, 1775, advising to add two more vessels, one to mount not more than twenty, the other not more than thirty-six, guns, to be employed “for the protection and defence of the United Colonies.” The question of the capture of special ships had been dropped; the subject had become national.

On December 14, 1775, the “Naval Committee” was replaced by a committee of thirteen chosen by ballot. The membership was remarkably like that of some naval committees of later times. Scarcely any on it were really conversant with matters of the sea, but it held one man, Robert Morris of Pennsylvania, whose energy, resource, and ability caused Congress to put in his sole control, before the war ended, all the affairs of the navy. Agents were employed to superintend construction, and prize agents were appointed. On November 6, 1776, Paul Jones wrote in his usual vigorous way to Robert Morris, declaring the necessity of a Board of Admiralty, and on October 28, 1779, one was established. Two of the members were to be members of Congress; the other three, called commissioners, were to be men possessing knowledge of naval matters. The Marine Committee then came to an end, but the navy boards at Philadelphia and Boston, each of “three persons well-skilled in maritime affairs,” appointed by Congress “to execute the business of the navy under the direction of the Marine Committee,” in what became known as the Middle and Eastern districts, and the navy agents were retained under this reorganization. The Board of Admiralty, however, never materialized. On February 7, 1781, Congress resolved that naval affairs should be under a single person, to be called the Secretary of Marine. The office was never filled. Naval matters had, as just said, gradually drifted into the efficient hands of the Superintendent of Finance, Robert Morris, and there they remained until the navy of the Revolution disappeared in the sale of the last ship, the Alliance, in August, 1785. The fact is that naval affairs in the Revolution suffered equally with those of the army through the ineptitude and inefficiency of a Congress which was rather a board of advice than a government, even when the Articles of Confederation were adopted, which was not finally done until March 2, 1781.

On November 2, 1775, $100,000 was voted for ships, and the committee was authorized to select officers and seamen. On November 10th were authorized two battalions of marines. The first intention was to take them from the army, but Washington objecting to such weakening of his force, they were to be raised independently and, with a curious misunderstanding of their use, it was provided that they should be “such as are good seamen.” Rules for the government of the navy were passed November 28th, and the offices of Captain, Lieutenant, Master, Master’s Mate, Surgeon, Chaplain, and Warrant Officer established. The monthly pay of captain was $32; of able seaman $6.67, later raised to $8. A prize court was established. The rules, naturally, were taken from those of the British service, and throughout the whole existence of our navy there has run a strong similarity, until of late years when there have been many changes in the nomenclature of the ratings of the enlisted men. Both services had the “Banyan day,” when no meat was served,[1] though in the American navy this soon ceased to be an actuality. Such phrases as “Chips” (the carpenter) and “Jimmy Legs” (the master-at-arms) were among the many common to both services; but one, “Jack-of-the-Dust” (an adjunct of the paymaster’s department), which is to-day a rating in the American navy, is no longer a part of British ratings.

On December 13, 1775, Congress authorized the building of thirteen frigates, and next day, December 14th, a committee of thirteen was chosen by ballot to superintend their construction and equipment; five of these were to be of 32 guns; five of 28; and three of 24. The Raleigh, of 32 guns, was built at Portsmouth, New Hampshire; the Hancock, 32, and Boston, 24, at Salisbury and Newburyport, Massachusetts; the Warren, 32, and Providence, 28, at Providence, Rhode Island; the Trumbull, 28, at Chatham, on the Connecticut River; the Montgomery, 24, and Congress, 28, at Poughkeepsie, New York; the Randolph, 32, Washington, 32, Effingham, 28, and Delaware, 24, at Philadelphia; the Virginia, 28, at Baltimore. Six of these—the Montgomery, Congress, Washington, Effingham, Delaware, and Virginia—never got to sea, all being destroyed to prevent capture except the Virginia which, having grounded and lost her rudder in the Chesapeake, was taken by a British force in the bay.

These ships were to cost on the average but $66,666, and the whole were expected to be ready by March, 1776. They varied from 121 to 132 feet in length on the gun deck, with a breadth of from 32.6 to 34.5½. Their armament was that of the frigates of the day: 12-pounders on the main deck and 6-pounders on the quarter deck and forecastle. All should have been ready by the time named, for the Raleigh was launched at Portsmouth but two months after her keel was laid. But ill-luck pursued them throughout, and particularly in that the free life and greater gains of the privateersman made it almost impossible to get crews.

Thus the four ships the purchase of which was authorized on October 30, 1775, were the first of our navy. These were the Alfred, of 24 guns; Columbus, 20; Andrew Doria, 14, and the Cabot, 16.