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THE NAVY OF THE
AMERICAN REVOLUTION
The University of Chicago
FOUNDED BY JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER
The Navy of the
American Revolution
Its Administration, its Policy and
its Achievements
A DISSERTATION
Submitted to the Faculty of the
Graduate School of Arts and Literature
In Candidacy for the Degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
Department of History
By
CHARLES OSCAR PAULLIN
CHICAGO
1906
COPYRIGHT, 1906
BY
THE BURROWS BROTHERS COMPANY
REPUBLICAN PRINTING COMPANY
CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA
PREFACE
Several narrative accounts of the navy of the American Revolution
have been written. These usually form the introductory part of a
history of the American Navy since 1789. The earliest of these
accounts is that of Thomas Clark, published in 1814, and probably
the best that of James Fenimore Cooper, first printed in 1839. Later
narratives are rather more popular than Cooper’s. Many sources of
information, which were not accessible to the earlier writers, and
were not much used by the later, were drawn upon in the writing of
this book. Moreover, the information that is here presented is of a
somewhat different sort from that of previous writers; and the method
of treatment is new.
This book is written from the point of view of the naval
administrators; hitherto, historians have written from the point of
view of the naval officers. Their narratives treat almost exclusively
of the doings at sea, the movements of armed vessels, and the details
of sea fights. They have the advantage of dealing primarily with
picturesque, and sometimes dramatic, events. Their accounts, however,
lack unity, since they consist of a series of detached incidents.
In the first place an attempt has been here made to restore the
naval administrative machinery of the Revolution. The center of this
narrative is the origin, organization, and work of naval committees,
secretaries of marine, navy boards, and naval agents. Next, inasmuch
as the men who served as naval executives administered the laws
relating to naval affairs, and indeed often prepared these laws
before their adoption by the legislative authorities, it was thought
best to give a fairly complete _resume_ of the naval legislation of
the Revolution. Those laws with which the naval administrators were
chiefly concerned have received most attention. The legislation with
reference to prize courts and privateering has been treated more
briefly. As the privateers do not, properly speaking, form a part of
the Revolutionary navy, no attempt to write their history has been
made. In order that the subject may be seen in its true relations,
some statistics and other interesting facts concerning this industry
have, however, been introduced. An account of the State Navies is now
given for the first time.
Since naval committees, navy boards, and naval agents issued written
orders to the naval commanders prescribing the time, place, and
manner of their cruises, it has seemed logical and proper to consider
the naval policy of the administrators, and the movements of the
armed vessels. So detailed an account of naval movements, as would
be given by those writers who proceed from the point of view of
the doings of the naval officers, would obviously not be expected
in this book. My plan has been to describe the various classes of
naval movements, to present the sum total of their results, and to
give briefly the details of a few typical cruises and sea fights.
The cruises of the American vessels were much alike; they were minor
affairs, and many of them scarcely merit individual treatment.
It is evident that one who proposes to write the history of the
navy of the American Revolution from the point of view which I
have described, will not only avoid excessive detail in respect to
individual naval achievements, but will be particularly determined
not to allow their brilliancy or their dramatic quality to fix the
amount of detail with which each shall be narrated. For instance,
several historians have been inclined to dwell at some length upon
the brilliant and picturesque achievements of John Paul Jones.
Sometimes they have devoted more than one-third of their narratives
of the Continental navy to this hero, undoubtedly the greatest naval
officer of the Revolution. As a result, the pictures which they have
presented are somewhat distorted, and many brave sea officers have
had scant justice done their gallant services. An attempt is made
in this book to present a better balanced narrative, and to make a
juster estimate of the work of the Revolutionary navy. The scope and
method of treatment adopted by the author has compelled a certain
economy of phrase, precision of statement, and sharpness of outline.
I am very grateful to the many persons who have assisted me. Space
does not permit me to thank each of them by name. I am under
special obligations to the librarians and officials of the Library
of Congress, the Library of the Department of the Navy, the Bureau
of Rolls and Library of the Department of State, the State Library
of Massachusetts, the Office of the Massachusetts State Archives,
the Boston Public Library, the Boston Athenaeum, the library of
Harvard University, the State Library of Rhode Island, the Rhode
Island Historical Society, the State Library of Connecticut,
the Connecticut Historical Society, the Pennsylvania Historical
Society, the State Library of Virginia, the Virginia Historical
Society, the Office of the Secretary of State of South Carolina, the
Charleston (South Carolina) Public Library, and the Library of the
University of Chicago. Far more than to any one else, I am indebted
to Professor John Franklin Jameson, Director of the Department of
Historical Research in the Carnegie Institution of Washington. I
have had the advantage of Professor Jameson’s extensive knowledge
of bibliography, his fruitful suggestions as to treatment, and his
painstaking care in reading and criticising my manuscript. Parts of
the narrative, somewhat popularized, have appeared in the Proceedings
of the United States Naval Institute and the Sewanee Review.
C. O. P.
Washington, D. C.
March 1, 1906.
CONTENTS
THE CONTINENTAL NAVY
CHAPTER I.—The Naval Committee.
The need in 1775 for an army and for a navy 31
Agitation for a navy outside of Congress 32
Agitation for a navy in Congress 34
The first naval legislation 35
Appointment of the Naval Committee 38
First work of the Naval Committee 38
Reconstitution of the Naval Committee 38
John Adams’s description of the Naval Committee 39
The organization and decline of the Naval Committee 40
Growth in Congress of naval sentiment 41
Naval legislation under the Naval Committee 42
The procuring of a fleet 51
The appointment of officers 52
The first naval expedition 55
_Résumé_ of the work of the Naval Committee 60