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From: Naval
History and Heritage Command |
The Birth of
the Navy of the United States
On Friday,
October 13, 1775, meeting in Philadelphia, the Continental Congress
voted to fit out two sailing vessels, armed with ten carriage guns, as
well as swivel guns, and manned by crews of eighty, and to send them out
on a cruise of three months to intercept transports carrying munitions
and stores to the British army in America. This was the original
legislation out of which the Continental Navy grew and as such
constitutes the birth certificate of the navy.
To understand
the momentous significance of the decision to send two armed vessels to
sea under the authority of the Continental Congress, we need to review
the strategic situation in which it was made and to consider the
political struggle that lay behind it.
Americans first
took up arms in the spring of 1775, not to sever their relationship with
the king, but to defend their rights within the British Empire. By the
autumn of 1775, the British North American colonies from Maine to
Georgia were in open rebellion. Royal governments had been thrust out of
many colonial capitals and revolutionary governments put in their
places. The Continental Congress had assumed some of the
responsibilities of a central government for the colonies, created a
Continental Army, issued paper money for the support of the troops, and
formed a committee to negotiate with foreign countries. Continental
forces captured Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain and launched an
invasion of Canada.
In October 1775
the British held superiority at sea, from which they threatened to stop
up the colonies' trade and to wreak destruction on seaside settlements.
In response, a few of the states had commissioned small fleets of their
own for defense of local waters. Congress had not yet authorized
privateering. Some in Congress worried about pushing the armed struggle
too far, hoping that reconciliation with the mother country was still
possible.
Yet, a small
coterie of men in Congress had been advocating a Continental Navy from
the outset of armed hostilities. Foremost among these men was John
Adams, of Massachusetts. For months, he and a few others had been
agitating in Congress for the establishment of an American fleet. They
argued that a fleet would defend the seacoast towns, protect vital
trade, retaliate against British raiders, and make it possible to seek
out among neutral nations of the world the arms and stores that would
make resistance possible.
Still, the
establishment of a navy seemed too bold a move for some of the timid men
in Congress. Some southerners agreed that a fleet would protect and
secure the trade of New England but denied that it would that of the
southern colonies. Most of the delegates did not consider the break with
England as final and feared that a navy implied sovereignty and
independence. Others thought a navy a hasty and foolish challenge to the
mightiest fleet the world had seen. The most the pro-navy men could do
was to get Congress to urge each colony to fit out armed vessels for the
protection of their coasts and harbors.
Then, on 3
October, Rhode Island's delegates laid before Congress a bold resolution
for the building and equipping of an American fleet, as soon as
possible. When the motion came to the floor for debate, Samuel Chase, of
Maryland, attacked it, saying it was "the maddest Idea in the World to
think of building an American Fleet." Even pro-navy members found the
proposal too vague. It lacked specifics and no one could tell how much
it would cost.
If Congress was
yet unwilling to embrace the idea of establishing a navy as a permanent
measure, it could be tempted by short-term opportunities. Fortuitously,
on 5 October, Congress received intelligence of two English brigs,
unarmed and without convoy, laden with munitions, leaving England bound
for Quebec. Congress immediately appointed a committee to consider how
to take advantage of this opportunity. Its members were all New
Englanders and all ardent supporters of a navy. They recommended first
that the governments of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut be
asked to dispatch armed vessels to lay in wait to intercept the
munitions ships; next they outlined a plan for the equipping by Congress
of two armed vessels to cruise to the eastward to intercept any ships
bearing supplies to the British army. Congress let this plan lie on the
table until 13 October, when another fortuitous event occurred in favor
of the naval movement. A letter from General Washington was read in
Congress in which he reported that he had taken under his command, at
Continental expense, three schooners to cruise off Massachusetts to
intercept enemy supply ships. The commander in chief had preempted
members of Congress reluctant to take the first step of fitting out
warships under Continental authority. Since they already had armed
vessels cruising in their name, it was not such a big step to approve
two more. The committee's proposal, now appearing eminently reasonable
to the reluctant members, was adopted.
The Continental
Navy grew into an important force. Within a few days, Congress
established a Naval Committee charged with equipping a fleet. This
committee directed the purchasing, outfitting, manning, and operations
of the first ships of the new navy, drafted subsequent naval
legislation, and prepared rules and regulations to govern the
Continental Navy's conduct and internal administration.
Over the course
of the War of Independence, the Continental Navy sent to sea more than
fifty armed vessels of various types. The navy's squadrons and cruisers
seized enemy supplies and carried correspondence and diplomats to
Europe, returning with needed munitions. They took nearly 200 British
vessels as prizes, some off the British Isles themselves, contributing
to the demoralization of the enemy and forcing the British to divert
warships to protect convoys and trade routes. In addition, the navy
provoked diplomatic crises that helped bring France into the war against
Great Britain. The Continental Navy began the proud tradition carried on
today by our United States Navy, and whose birthday we celebrate each
year in October. |
Courtesy Jerry Dunnigan (BMSN 65-67) |
|
©2013 by Marshall K DuBois - All Rights Reserved