COMMODORE TUCKER'S ORDERS.
After original in the Tucker Papers, in Harvard College library, giving him, by direction of Congress, charge of the frigate "Boston."—Ed.
Before the end of 1775 the Continental Congress ordered that five ships of thirty-two guns should be built, five of twenty-eight, and three of twenty-four. This order was carried out, and these vessels are the proper beginning of the navy of the United States.[1230] Almost every one of them, before the war was over, had been captured, or burned to avoid capture. But the names of the little fleet will always be of interest to Americans, and some of those names have always been preserved on the calendar of the navy. They are the "Washington", "Raleigh", "Hancock", "Randolph", "Warren", "Virginia", "Trumbull", "Effingham", "Congress", "Providence", "Boston", "Delaware", "Montgomery." The State of Rhode Island, at the very outbreak of hostilities, commissioned Abraham Whipple, who went with his little vessel as far as Bermuda, and, from his experience in naval warfare earned in the French War, he was recognized as commodore of the little fleet of American cruisers. England had no force at Bermuda to resist him, and he found the inhabitants friendly. A raid, directed by Congress, had already brought from the island all the powder in their stores, and this was one of the first supplies which Washington received at Cambridge.[1231] Meanwhile, every maritime State issued commissions to privateers, and established admiralty or prize courts, with power to condemn prizes when brought in. Legitimate commerce had been largely checked,[1232] and, as has been said, the seamen of the country, who had formerly been employed in the fisheries,[1233] or in our large foreign trade with the West India Islands and with Europe, gladly volunteered in the private service. Till the end of the war the seamen preferred the privateer service to that of the government. This fact, indeed, materially affected the somewhat bold proposals with which the Continental Congress began the war; and, at the time when the war virtually closed by Cornwallis's surrender, the national government, if it can be called such, had very few vessels in its service.
The larger maritime States had in commission one or more vessels from the beginning, but they found the same difficulty which the Congress found in enlisting seamen, when any bold privateer captain came into rivalry with them. The States of Massachusetts, of Rhode Island, of Connecticut, of Pennsylvania, of Virginia, and of South Carolina had, however, as we shall see, each nominally a naval force of its own, all through the war. The general disposition of all parties being the same, it was not difficult to unite Continental ships, state ships, and privateers, on occasion, in the same endeavor.
In March, 1776, the English fleet in Boston Bay, with a large number of transports, carried to Halifax the whole English army, and those inhabitants of Massachusetts who did not venture to remain.[1234] Meanwhile, the English government at home was sending large reinforcements to Howe, and he was not as successful as he could have wished in meeting at sea the vessels which brought them, and turning them into Halifax. Among the first considerable successes of the privateers and the armed ships of Massachusetts Bay were the capture of several of these vessels as they came unsuspiciously toward the harbor of Boston. The Connecticut brig "Defence", of fourteen guns, the Massachusetts State schooner "Lee", of eight, and three privateer schooners attacked two armed English transports off Cape Cod, and captured them after a sharp action of an hour. The next day they took a third, and in this way five hundred prisoners fell into the hands of the Americans. This was on the 17th and 18th of June, 1776.[1235]
As early as the 22d of December, in 1775,[1236] Congress had appointed Esek Hopkins, of Rhode Island, commander-in-chief of its navy, and had named four captains beside, with several lieutenants, the first of whom was John Paul Jones. Hopkins and the rest fitted a squadron of eight small vessels, of which the "Alfred" (twenty-four guns) was his flag-ship. Jones was with him as his lieutenant. With this force they made a descent upon New Providence in the Bahamas, and although they failed in obtaining a stock of powder, which they had hoped for, they did capture a hundred cannon and a large quantity of other military stores.
ESEK HOPKINS.
From an engraving in An Impartial History of the War in America, London, 1780, p. 310, where he is called "Robert Hopkins, Commodore of the American Sea-forces", in a sketch of his life which is far from accurate, and which is cited in the United Service, Feb., 1885, etc. A more common picture is given in Murray's Impartial History (vol. ii.), which has been quently reëngraved. (Cf. The Providence Plantation for 250 Years, Prov., 1886, p. 61; Lossing's Field-Book, ii. 844 Cyclop. U. S. Hist., i. 844; Harper's Mag., xxiv. 160.) There is a German print in the Geschichte der Kriege in und ausser Europa (1778), and a Dutch one in Nederlandsche Mercurius, xxiii. p. 128.