The American Navy

by French Ensor Chadwick

Hopkins’s squadron was now broken up, though the several ships had remained under his general orders until his dismissal. They cruised chiefly “down East” off New England and Nova Scotia, making a number of prizes, one of which, the Mellish, taken by the Alfred, now commanded by Jones, carried a cargo of soldiers’ clothing for Burgoyne’s army of 13,000 men now in Canada, intended to proceed by Lake Champlain to New York and thus occupy a line which would separate New England entirely from the rest of the country.

A considerable fleet chiefly of gunboats had, as mentioned, been built by the British for service on Lake Champlain. The offset to this, by the building of a flotilla under Arnold, has also already been noted. The building of this little fleet was to change history.

The British naval preparations were so delayed that it was not until October, 1776 (on the 11th and 13th), that the two forces came together, with the result, after a most gallant contest, of a defeat to the Americans, who retreated up the lake, destroying all their vessels but one galley, a sloop, and two small schooners, and the galley Washington, which last was captured. The gallantry of the American force is all the more to be commended as it was one gathered from raw material, most of which was unaccustomed to work of the kind it was called upon to do; the British, on the other hand, were all men-of-war’s men “detached from his Majesty’s ships and vessels in the river St. Lawrence to serve on Lake Champlain,” to the number of 670.

As the Americans were about 700, the forces were almost equal in numbers. It was far otherwise in strength, the British in numbers of vessels, in size, and in armament far outclassing the Americans. They were in numbers 29 to 15, and the ship Inflexible alone, which carried eighteen 12-pounders, was able to look after a large proportion of the American squadron. The American loss was over eighty; that of the British did not exceed forty. The former had lost all, but to good purpose, for this little fleet had delayed the advance southward of Burgoyne’s army another year, thus giving time to prepare resistance, and what perhaps was equally to the purpose, so far as the fortunes of America were concerned, affording time to General Howe to carry out, in July, 1777, his views as to the necessity of occupying Philadelphia; for had Burgoyne, as proposed, started from Canada in the summer of 1776, Howe, with his whole large army would have been at New York within easy support of this movement of so vital moment to the British. As it was, in 1777, the forces were widely separated, and Burgoyne, instead of being aided as he had expected, went to his destruction. Thus “Never,” says Clowes in the great history of “The Royal Navy,” speaking of this action, “had any force, big or small, lived to better purpose or died more gloriously.” “That the war spread from America to Europe, from the English Channel to the Baltic, from the Bay of Biscay to the Mediterranean, from the West Indies to the Mississippi, and ultimately involved the remote waters of Hindostan, is traceable, through Saratoga, to the rude flotilla which in 1776 anticipated its enemy in the possession of Lake Champlain.”

It was as just mentioned when Burgoyne most needed support in his advance south the next year (1777) that, Sir William Howe (the British commander-in-chief in America) embarked 14,000 men, and escorted by the fleet under command of his brother, Lord Howe, sailed from Sandy Hook, the expedition numbering 280 ships, including the transports and men-of-war. Eight thousand men were left at New York under Sir Henry Clinton. Howe’s objective was Philadelphia. His first intention was to go up the Delaware, but obstructions in the river being reported by one of the naval captains, he changed to the very roundabout way of the Chesapeake Bay. He was not able to land his troops at the head of the bay until August 25th. He defeated Washington at the battle of the Brandywine on September 11th, and on the 26th occupied Philadelphia.

The General’s brother, Lord Howe, in command of the fleet, was a good month returning from the head of the Chesapeake round to and up the Delaware as far as Chester, where he arrived on October 6th, so slow and uncertain were the movements of sailing ships in those days. A small squadron had been sent in advance to clear the channel. This move on the part of the British to occupy the river was necessary to keep up the supplies of their army. In this fleet there were eleven vessels, two of which were 64’s, one 50, and three frigates of 28 to 44 guns. The total of their armament was 364 guns, 74 of which were 24-pounders, with somewhat over 2,000 men. To resist this powerful force there were in the river the new Continental frigate Delaware, of twenty-four 12-pounders; the brig Andrew Doria, of fourteen 6-pounders; and the sloop Hornet, with twelve 9-pounders; besides six smaller vessels carrying from four to ten 9-pounders, and twelve galleys with one gun each, of 18, 24, or 32 pounds. These were assisted by the whole of the Pennsylvania navy, which consisted of the ship Montgomery, of fourteen 14-pounders, and thirty-eight small craft carrying fifty-one guns varying from 4 to 18 pounders. The total armament was 175 guns. The combined Continental and state fleets were under the command of Commodore John Hazelwood of the latter. To support these there were Fort Mifflin on an island, with also two small batteries on the mainland, just below the mouth of the Schuylkill and two miles from League Island on the Pennsylvania side, and opposite, on the New Jersey shore, at Red Bank, Fort Mercer; a battery opposite Hog Island, and three and a half miles below this, another. Obstructions of heavy timbers, shod at their points with iron, were placed opposite this last battery and in the channel near Fort Mifflin.

The Delaware River has a somewhat tortuous, and in places a narrow, channel. Its defensive advantages are thus very strong, and the Americans had a fair chance of success. The most powerful of the naval defence was lost in the beginning by the grounding of the Delaware near a British battery on the city front.

Notwithstanding, the Americans made a fine defence of more than six weeks. It was not until November 10th that the British succeeded in clearing the river to Philadelphia and then with heavy loss in men and in ships, two of which, a ship-of-the-line and a sloop-of-war, were burned. Later, in May, 1778, they invaded the river above Philadelphia. The frigates Washington and Effingham, nearly ready for sea, had to be burned, and besides these a ship of 18 guns, and brigs, schooners, and small craft, some fifty-four in all, destroyed; a sad ending to a long and gallant struggle.

It was in the Delaware that in December, 1777, David Bushnell made a second trial of his torpedoes (the first having been in the Hudson). He used kegs of powder fitted with a detonating fuse, which should have succeeded. No damage was done through, as Bushnell claims, bad management. The British fleet was alarmed enough, however, to justify Francis Hopkinson, one of the signers of American Independence, in producing the well-known poem of the “Battle of the Kegs,” once a favorite with our fathers.

The Randolph, Hancock, Raleigh, and Boston were the only frigates at sea in this year. The Hancock, Captain Manley, was captured July 7th, on this her first cruise, by a British forty-four; the Raleigh, under Captain John Barry, during an action with two British ships, one of which was of 50 guns, ran on a rocky islet near Penobscot Bay, September 27, 1778. Her crew escaped ashore, but the ship, though an effort had been made to burn her, was hauled off by the British. Both the captured ships were taken into the British service. The Randolph, which had been one of the earliest of the new frigates to get to sea, had, in the period of her sea service, been actively cruising in our southern waters under the command of Captain Biddle, and was ordered to France in October, 1777. She remained there but a short time owing to the protests of the British ambassador against our ships remaining in French ports, and returned to Charleston, whence she had sailed. Here a squadron was organized with four other small vessels of the South Carolina navy, which went to sea February 12, 1778, and cruised in the vicinity of the Windward Islands. On March 7th was met the Yarmouth, 64. Biddle gallantly engaged the ship twice his force, but the Randolph after an action of about fifteen minutes blew up. Only four men were saved, and these were picked up five days after the explosion, on a piece of wreckage, by the Yarmouth, which meanwhile had been actively cruising. The incident is certainly among the most extraordinary of happenings even on the sea, so prolific in adventures. Three hundred and eleven men were lost besides officers. The loss of Captain Biddle, one of the most promising of our sea officers, was specially deplored.