or with Continental vessels; and enterprises were concerted with
all three classes of armed craft. In April, 1777, the state took
into its service for a month nine privateers, mounting 130 guns and
carrying 1,030 men, to cruise with the Continental frigate “Hancock”
and “Boston” after the British frigate “Milford” which had been
especially annoying and destructive to the trade of the state.[421]
In February, 1781, the “Protector” was cruising with the Continental
frigate “Deane” thirty leagues windward of Antigua. In March, 1781,
the Admiral of the French fleet at Newport was requested to send two
French ships to cruise with the “Mars” on the Eastern shore; and a
bounty was offered to privateersmen who would cruise against the
“worthless banditti” in that region.[422]
The capture of a prize often amounted to little more than the
chasing of a merchantman and the firing of a few shots as a signal
for surrender. At times however when the merchantman was armed, or
when the enemy’s vessel happened to be a privateer, the action was
more serious. One of the most severe single engagements in which a
Massachusetts vessel was concerned was that between the “Protector,”
26, Captain John Foster Williams, and the privateer frigate “Admiral
Duff,” 32, Captain Stranger. It occurred on June 9, 1780, in latitude
42° N. and longitude 47° W. The engagement was heavy for an hour and
a half when the “Admiral Duff,” having caught fire, blew up; all
on board were lost except fifty-five men who were picked up by the
“Protector.” The American vessel lost six men.[423] The following
brief account of one of these minor engagements, told in the simple
and direct language of the Massachusetts captain who took part in
it, is taken from a letter of Captain Allen Hallet to the Board of
War. It is dated at sea on board the “Tyrannicide,” latitude 28° N.,
longitude 68° W., March 31, 1779. This simple and vivid description
shows with clearness the character of the minor engagements of the
Revolution.
“I have the pleasure of sending this to you by Mr. John Blanch who
goes prizemaster of my Prize, the Privateer Brig Revenge, lately
commanded by Capt. Robert Fendall belonging to Grenada, but last from
Jamaica, mounting 14 Carriage Guns, 6 & 4 pounders, 4 swivels & 2
Cohorns, & sixty ablebodied Men, which I took after a very smart &
Bloody Engagement, in which they had 8 men killed & fourteen wounded,
the Vessell cut very much to pieces by my Shott, so that they had
no command of her at all—amongst the killed was the 1st Lieut. & one
Quarter Mr.—amongst the wounded is the Capt. 2nd. Lieut. & Gunner—I
captured her as follows: on the 29 Inst. at 4 PM. I made her about
4 leagues to windward coming down upon us, upon which I cleared the
Ship and got all hands to Quarter, ready for an Engagement, I stood
close upon the Wind waiting for her, about half past six PM. she came
up with me, and hailed me, ask’d me where I was from, I told them I
was from Boston & asked where they were from, they said from Jamaica
& that they were a British Cruizer, I immediately told them I was
an American Cruizer, upon which they ordered me to Strike, & seeing
I did not intend to gratify their desires, they rang’d up under my
Lee & gave me a Broadside, I immediately return’d the Compliment &
dropping a Stern, I got under their Lee and then pour’d Broadsides
into her from below and out of the Tops, so fast & so well directed
that in one hour & a Quarter we dismantled two of her Guns & drove
them from their Quarters & compell’d them to Strike their Colors,
during the whole Engagement we were not at any one time more than
half Pistol Shott distant & some part of the Time our Yards were
lock’d with theirs—I had Eight men wounded only two of which are
Bad—amongst the wounded are my first Lieut. & Master, I intended
to man her and keep her as a Consort during the Cruize, but having
twenty wounded Men on board, of my own men & prisoners I thought it
Best to send her home, with all the wounded men on board under the
Care of the Surgeons Mate.”[424]
By far the largest naval undertaking of the Revolution made by the
Americans was the Penobscot Expedition. Until 1779 the general
policy of those who managed the fleet of Massachusetts was to send
its vessels cruising against the British transports, merchantmen,
and small privateers, and to leave the coast to be defended by the
seacoast establishment and by local forces. In August, 1777, the
Council agreed with this policy for it then spoke of the Continental
vessels, the state vessels, and the privateers as “improper” to be
employed in clearing the coasts of these “vermin.”[425] In April,
1779, however, it disapproved this policy. It now in a message to
the House submitted whether, instead of sending the armed vessels
on long cruises after prizes, it would not have been vastly more to
the advantage and profit of the state to have employed them cruising
on the coast of Massachusetts for the protection of trade and the
defence of harbors and seacoast, “which have been left in such an
unguarded and defenceless Situation that where we have taken one
Vessel of the Enemy their small privateers out of New York have taken
ten from us.”[426] It would seem that the Board of War was right
in employing its fleet in prize-getting rather than in defensive
warfare. The capturing of small privateers and of merchantmen were
the only enterprises for which the Revolutionary fleets were adapted.
Those vessels that cruised continually near the American coast,
sooner or later, fell foul of the stouter and better armed ships
of the enemy. Moreover, the Board of War, had it not responded to
the commercial spirit of the times, would have been compelled to
adopt the methods of the privateers, did it wish to succeed in its
competition with them for seamen.
During the first half of 1779 the British vessels were very
destructive to the trade and shipping of Massachusetts and New
Hampshire. On June 9, eight hundred of the enemy, encouraged by
certain Tories in Maine, effected a lodgment on the Maine coast at a
place called Bagaduce, now Castine, near the mouth of the Penobscot
river.[427] This made a fine vantage-point as a base for naval
operations. The appeal for naval protection which the inhabitants
of Massachusetts now made upon her was a strong one. Towards the
close of June the Massachusetts government began concerting with
the Continental Navy Board at Boston and with the government of New
Hampshire an expedition to capture and destroy this British station.
Samuel Adams, who had recently retired from the chairmanship of the
Marine Committee of Congress and had returned to Boston, furthered
the enterprise. To the fleet which was now formed, New Hampshire
contributed the “Hampden,” 22; the Navy Board at Boston, the
Continental vessels, “Warren,” 32, “Providence,” 12, and “Diligent,”
12; and Massachusetts, the three state brigantines, “Tyrannicide,”
16, “Hazard,” 14, and “Active,” 14, together with thirteen
privateers, which were temporarily taken into the state service.
These twenty armed vessels mounted in all 324 guns, and were manned
by more than 2,000 men. Besides the armed fleet there were twenty
transports which carried upwards of 1,000 state militia. The naval
forces were under the command of Captain Dudley Saltonstall of the
Continental navy; and the troops were commanded by Brigadier-General
Solomon Lovell of the state military forces of Massachusetts. Paul
Revere was Chief of Artillery with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.
The assembling, manning, provisioning, and fitting of so many vessels
greatly taxed the resources of Massachusetts. The fleet left Boston
on July 19, and during the last days of the month appeared off the
Penobscot, and attacked Bagaduce with only partial success, since it
failed to take the main fort. Before a second attempt was made, a
British fleet from New York under the command of Sir George Collier,
who had received news of the expedition, appeared in the Penobscot.
The British fleet consisted of the “Raisonnable,” 64; “Blonde,” and
“Virginia,” 32’s; “Greyhound,” “Camilla,” and “Gallatea,” 20’s; and
“Otter,” 14; together with three small vessels at the garrison, the
“Nautilus,” 16, “Albany,” 14, and “North,” 14. The British fleet
mounted 248 guns and carried more than 1,600 men. In number of guns
and men the advantage lay with the Americans, but in weight of metal
and tonnage it was probably with the British. On the morning of
August 14 the British fleet came in sight of the American. The two
fleets were barely in range of each other’s guns when the Americans
were seized with a panic, and fled with their vessels helter skelter
up the river, pursued by the British. The Americans offered almost no
resistance whatever, but ran their ships ashore, set fire to them,
and escaped afoot, when not too closely pursued. With the exception
of two or three vessels which were captured, the American fleet
was annihilated. The British lost 13 men; the American loss has
been placed at 474 men. The larger part of the American sailors and
soldiers returned by woods to New Hampshire and Massachusetts.
The total cost of this expedition to Massachusetts as calculated
by the Board of War was £1,739,175. The larger part of this sum,
£1,390,200, was charged to the account of the navy. It suffered the
loss of three state armed vessels and a victualer, nine privateers,
and twenty transports. Among the twenty transports, with possibly
one exception, was the whole trading fleet of the state. Soon
after the disaster a joint committee of the Massachusetts House of
Representatives and Council with Artemas Ward as president, held
an inquiry and made a report on the causes of the failure of the
expedition. In answer to the question, “What appears the principal
reason of the failure,” the committee decided unanimously, “want
of proper Spirit and Energy on the part of the Commodore.” A
court-martial, which was held on the frigate “Deane” in Boston harbor
about the first of October, decided against Captain Saltonstall;
and he was dismissed from the navy. Rarely has a more ignominious
military operation been made by Americans than the Penobscot
expedition. A New Englander with some justice has likened it to
Hull’s surrender at Detroit. Had it been successful, it would not
have been worth the effort it cost. Its object had no national
significance; it was an eccentric operation. “Bad in conception, bad
in preparation, bad in execution, it naturally ended in disaster and
disgrace.”[428]
Besides the “Tyrannicide,” “Hazard,” and “Active” the Massachusetts
navy lost to the enemy at least three other vessels. Towards the
close of 1777 the British captured the “Freedom” and “Independence.”
On May 5, 1781, His Majesty’s ships “Roebuck,” 44, and “Medea,” 28,
captured the “Protector,” 26, with more than one hundred and thirty
men on board.[429] She was added to the Royal Navy as the “Hussar.”
In the latter half of 1782 Captain George Little in the “Winthrop”
cruised on the Eastern Coast, and captured and sent into Boston
“nearly the whole of the arm’d force they possessed at Penobscot;”
he thus in part retrieved the naval honor of his state.[430] Acting
under orders of Governor Hancock, Little in the “Winthrop” made
the last cruise of the Massachusetts navy, when in the winter of
1782-1783 he visited Martinique. On his return, he was fitting for
a cruise on the Eastern Coast, when about April 1 news of permanent
peace arrived. On June 4, 1783, the Commissary-General was directed
to sell the “Winthrop,” the last vessel in the navy. The “Tartar” had
been sold during the past winter.[431] Captain Little’s accounts were
being settled in March, 1785.
FOOTNOTES:
[383] Journals of Third Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, June
7, June 10, June 11, June 12, June 13, June 16, June 19, and June
20, 1775. All references to the state records of Massachusetts refer
to the manuscripts or early printed copies to be found in the State
Library or State Archives at Boston.
[384] Journals of Massachusetts House of Representatives, August 21,
1775. O’Brian’s name is found spelled in various ways.
[385] Ibid., September 29, October 2, October 4,. 1775; Records of
General Court of Massachusetts, October 4, 1775.
[386] Journals of Massachusetts House of Representatives, September
28, October 6, 9, 14 17, 18, 19, 27, November 1, 1775.
[387] Austin’s Gerry, I, 94-95; Works of John Adams, X, 37.
[388] Amory’s Sullivan, II, 378-79, James Sullivan to Gerry, December
25, 1779.
[389] Records of Massachusetts Council, November 14, December 9,
December 12, 1775; Pickering’s Pickering, I, 79-80; Amory’s Sullivan,
I, 63.
[390] Records of General Court of Massachusetts, December 29, 1775.
[391] Journals of Massachusetts House of Representatives, January
12, 1776. On January 11 the Council resolved that two ships, one of
36, and the other of 32 guns, should be built. On the same day both
House and Council voted to recommit the resolution in order that
the committee which prepared it might report on the expense to be
incurred in building and fitting the two ships. It does not appear
that further action was taken.—Records of Massachusetts Council,
January 11, 1776.
[392] Journals of Massachusetts House of Representatives, February 6,
1776; Records of Massachusetts Council, February 7, 1776.
[393] Journals of Massachusetts House of Representatives, February
16, 1776.
[394] Journals of Massachusetts House of Representatives, February 7,
1776; Records of Massachusetts Council, February 8, 1776.
[395] Journals of Massachusetts House of Representatives, April 12,
1776.
[396] Ibid., April 27, 1776.
[397] Journals of Massachusetts House of Representatives, April 29,
1776; Records of Massachusetts Council, April 29, 1776.
[398] Ibid. (Records), July 26, 1776.
[399] Goodell, Laws of Massachusetts, February 14, April 13, May 8,
1776.
[400] Records of Massachusetts Council, October 29, 1776. The naval
documents introduced in the narrative on the Massachusetts navy are
typical of similar ones in other states.
[401] Resolves of Massachusetts, October 26, 1776.
[402] Winsor’s Memorial History of Boston, II, 543.
[403] Massachusetts Revolutionary Archives, XL, 110-11. The influence
on the naming of vessels of the friendly relations existing between
the United States and France during the Revolution early manifested
itself. On December 27, 1776, the Massachusetts Board of War changed
the names of its trading vessels as follows: ships, “Julius Cæsar”
to “Bourbon,” “Venus” to “Versailles,” and “Friend” to “Paris;”
brigantines, “Charming Sally” to “Penet,” and “Isabella” to “Count
D’Estaing.” The brigantine “Penet,” which was named for a French
merchant at Nantes, a member of the firm of Pliarne, Penet and
Company, agents for the United States, has been sometimes confused
with the brigantine “Perch,” which was obtained by Massachusetts
in the fall of 1777 for the sole purpose of conveying the news of
Burgoyne’s surrender to the American Commissioners at Paris. The
letters and dispatches were intrusted with Jonathan Loring Austin,
secretary of the Board of War, who after a passage of thirty days
reached the Commissioners at Passy on December 4, 1777.—Board of War
Minutes, December 27, 1776; Hale’s Franklin in France, I, 155.
[404] Board of War Letters, Massachusetts Revolutionary Archives, May
23, 1777.
[405] Massachusetts Resolves, January 8, January 24, 1777. On
December 6, 1776, six naval offices were established, which included
a captain’s clerk, prizemaster, and sergeant of marines.
[406] Massachusetts Resolves, March 21, 1777.
[407] Ibid., August 6, 1777; January 17, 1778.
[408] The following is an extract from the enlisting contract of
the armed brig “Active,” which was signed by officers, seamen, and
marines: “And we hereby bind ourselves to Submit to all orders and
regulations of the Navy of the United States of North America and
this State and faithfully to observe and obey all such orders, and
Commands as we shall receive from time to time from our Superior
Officers on board or belonging to the said Brig Active and on board
any Such Boats or Vessel or Vessels as foresaid.
“And it is on the part of the State that such persons as by Land
or sea shall loose a Limb in any Engagement with the Enemies of
these United States of America or be otherwise so disabled as to
be rendered incapable of getting a Lively Hood Shall be entitled
to the same Provisions as the disabled Persons in the Continental
Service.”—Massachusetts Revolutionary Archives, XL, 20.
[409] Massachusetts Resolves, April 21, 1778.
[410] Massachusetts Revolutionary Archives, XLIV, 279.
[411] Massachusetts Resolves, February 8, 1781. Three members of the
Board of War and two clerks were continued for a few months to settle
the accounts of the Board.
[412] Massachusetts Resolves, October 4, 1782.
[413] Massachusetts Resolves, March 21, 1780; February 19, March 6,
April 23, 1781; November 12, 1782; March 26, 1783.
[414] Winsor, Narrative and Critical History, VI, 564; Maclay,
History of American Privateering, 52-60.
[415] Massachusetts Revolutionary Archives. The total numbers of
privateering commissions always exceed the total numbers of vessels,
as the same vessels were often commissioned two or more times.
[416] Boston Gazette for 1779.
[417] Virginia Gazette, June 19, 1779.
[418] Journals of House of Representatives, January 6, 1779.
[419] The vessels in the Massachusetts navy with the approximate
periods of their service were as follows: Sloop “Machias Liberty,”
1775-1776; schooner “Diligent,” 1775-1776; brigantine (at first
a sloop) “Tyrannicide,” 1776-1779; brigantine “Rising Empire,”
1776-1777; brigantine “Independence,” 1776-1777; sloop “Republic,”
1776-1777; sloop “Freedom,” 1776-1777; brigantine “Massachusetts,”
1776-1778; brigantine “Hazard,” 1777-1779; brigantine “Active,”
1779; frigate “Protector,” 1779-1781; ship “Mars,” 1780-1781;
sloop “Defence,” 1781; ship “Tartar,” 1782-1783; sloop “Winthrop,”
1782-1783; and galley “Lincoln,” 1779-1781. Most of these vessels
mounted from ten to twenty guns, 4’s and 6’s. The only larger vessel
was the “Protector,” 26. Vessels such as the “Tyrannicide,” “Hazard,”
and “Winthrop” carried about 125 officers and men. The following
captains or commanders were the chief officers in the Massachusetts
navy: Jeremiah O’Brian, John Lambert, John Fisk, John Foster
Williams, John Clouston, Jonathan Haraden, Daniel Souther, Simeon
Samson, Richard Welden, Allen Hallet, James Nevens, John Cathcart and
George Little. Massachusetts did not establish the rank of commodore.
[420] These three vessels captured the four prizes mentioned in
the following advertisement, which appeared in the Continental
Journal and Weekly Advertiser for July 3, 1777, a paper published at
Boston. The advertisement is introduced here to illustrate the final
disposition of prize vessels:
“To be sold by Public Auction at eleven o’clock on Wednesday the
23rd of July instant at Mr. Tileston’s wharf in Boston the following
prizes with their appurtenances.
“The Ship Lonsdale, about 250 tons
Brig Britannia, about 140 ”
Brig Penelope, about 130 ”
Snow Sally, about 180 ”
“The above prizes lay at Tileston’s wharf. They are all good vessels
and well found. Inventories to be seen at the sheriff’s office
Cornhill, and at the place of sale.
“W. Greenleaf, Sheriff.”
[421] Massachusetts Resolves, April 26, 1777; Massachusetts
Revolutionary Archives, XL, 29, 55.
[422] Massachusetts Resolves, March 2, 1781.
[423] Boston Gazette, July 24, 1780.
[424] Massachusetts Revolutionary Archives, XLIV, 408.
[425] Ibid., 268.
[426] Journals of Massachusetts House of Representatives, April 7,
1779.
[427] Amory’s Sullivan, II, 376-78, James Sullivan to John Sullivan,
August 30, 1779. James Sullivan says that, on the occupation of
Bagaduce by the British, Boston and neighboring seaports were greatly
alarmed at the prospect of a scarcity of wood; and that men who had
made their fortunes by war, for once and for a moment, felt a public
spirit, and freely offered their ships to the government. They were
careful to have them appraised and insured by the state, which of
course suffered the loss on the failure of the expedition.
[428] Massachusetts Revolutionary Archives, CXLV, 199-203, 350;
Weymouth Historical Society Publications, I, chapters VII-X, gives
the best account of the Penobscot expedition, also contains the
Original Journal of General Solomon Lovell kept on the expedition;
Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, 7th, II, 430;
Proceedings of Massachusetts Historical Society, 2nd, XII, 201-202;
Clowes, Royal Navy, IV, 28-29.
[429] Massachusetts Revolutionary Archives, XXXIX, 45.
[430] Ibid., CLVIII, 274, Message of Governor Hancock to House of
Representatives, February 6, 1783.
[431] Massachusetts Resolves, June 4, 1783. Those naval vessels
which were not captured, destroyed, or sold, were either returned to
their owners, or were thrown out of commission and employed in other
services.
CHAPTER XII
THE NAVY OF CONNECTICUT
An introductory word about the government of Connecticut during
the Revolution may not be amiss. Speaking generally, the power
of legislation was vested in the Governor, Council, and House of
Representatives; and of administration in the Governor and Council
of Safety.[432] The Legislature or General Assembly met two or three
times a year. Jonathan Trumbull, the only Provincial governor in
the thirteen colonies who was not displaced by the dominance of the
Patriot party, was governor of Connecticut throughout the Revolution.
On October 10, 1776, Connecticut, by a resolution of the General
Assembly, which made no change in the frame-work of the government,
ceased to be a colony and became a state. The Council of Safety,
appointed to assist the Governor in administration, was elected each
year. Its membership varied in numbers; in 1775 there were five
members; in 1779, twenty. About half of its members attended its
meetings, which were principally held at Hartford, and at Lebanon,
the home of Governor Trumbull. Roger Sherman, Oliver Ellsworth, and
other leaders of the Revolution in Connecticut served in the Council
of Safety.
Connecticut’s first step towards obtaining a naval armament was
made early in July, 1775, when her General Assembly resolved to fit
out and arm two vessels of suitable burden for the defence of the
seacoasts of the colony, and authorized the Governor and Council to
procure, furnish, and employ the two vessels.[433] On July 24, 1775,
the Governor and Council of Safety thoroughly considered the “affair
of the two armed vessels;” and letters relating thereto from men
in New Haven, Middletown, Wethersfield, and other towns were read.
Captain John Deshon and Nathaniel Shaw, jr., both of New London,
and Captain Giles Hall of Norwich attended the meeting and offered
information and advice. A committee of four, consisting of two
members of the Council of Safety together with Deshon and Hall, was
appointed to visit the principal ports of the colony and ascertain
the terms upon which vessels, officers, and men might be had.[434]
On August 2 this committee reported that sundry vessels could be
obtained at reasonable prices, but that none of them were perfectly
adapted for vessels of war. The committee said that the people of the
colony disagreed as to the propriety of arming vessels; many thought
that it would be impossible for America to compare by sea with the
British, and that to attempt it would provoke insult and would
expose the seacoast and trade of Connecticut to increased danger;
but others thought that a naval armament would be an advantage, and
would afford protection to the colony. The Governor and Council
of Safety expressed a doubt whether they had a right to suspend
the measure of the General Assembly, even if they should think it
advisable. They now resolved to fit out an armed vessel, the brig
“Minerva,” of about 108 tons burden, belonging to Captain William
Griswold of Wethersfield; and to obtain a smaller and faster vessel
of some twenty-five tons burden to be employed as a “spy vessel, to
run and course from place to place, to discover the enemy, and carry
intelligence.” Captain Samuel Niles of Norwich was appointed captain
of the spy-vessel; and Benjamin Huntington of the Council of Safety
and John Deshon were appointed a committee to obtain, fit out, and
furnish it.[435]
On August 3 the Governor and Council of Safety appointed Captain
Giles Hall of Norwich captain and commander of the “Minerva.” A
pay-table and a small list of officers were now established. Captain
Hall was to receive a monthly salary of £7; the first lieutenant,
£5; the second lieutenant, and master, £4 each; seamen, £2, 5s.; and
marines, £2. Hall was instructed to raise forty seamen and forty
marines.[436]
When the committee for obtaining the spy-vessel reported on August
14, the Governor and Council of Safety resolved to buy the schooner
“Britannia,” belonging at Stonington, at a price not to exceed £200.
Robert Niles was made captain of the “Spy,” the name now given to the
schooner, in place of Samuel Niles.[437] The “Spy” was cruising early
in October, 1775, when she recaptured and brought into New London a
large ship containing eight thousand bushels of wheat,[438] the first
capture of the Connecticut navy.
By October the “Minerva” was ready for sea, and on the ninth of this
month, in response to a request of the Continental Congress, the
Governor and Council of Safety ordered this vessel to intercept
two transports bound from England for Quebec.[439] This detail was
not carried out by the “Minerva” for the very sufficient reason
“that all the hands or soldiers and marines on board, except about
10 or 12, being duly noticed of said orders, utterly declined and
refused to obey the same and perform said cruise,” which through
their disobedience wholly failed.[440] The Governor and Council of
Safety ordered the mutinous men discharged, and others enlisted in
their places; but before the “Minerva” was again ready for service,
the General Assembly in December directed Captain Hall to return his
vessel to its owner and dismiss his crew.
In December, 1775, the General Assembly deciding to increase the
naval forces of the colony, appointed Colonel David Waterbury of
Stamford and Captain Isaac Sears of New Haven to examine a certain
brigantine at Greenwich with a view to ascertaining its fitness for
the naval service; and it resolved to build or otherwise procure an
additional armed ship and four row-galleys “for the defence of this
and the neighboring colonies.” Waterbury and Sears reported that
the Greenwich brigantine was a new vessel which had made one voyage
to the West Indies, and that she would mount sixteen six-pounders
and twenty-four swivels.[441] The Governor and Council of Safety at
once purchased the brigantine, which they named the “Defence,” and
appointed Captain Seth Harding of Norwich to command her. By April,
1776, the “Defence” was manned and ready for sea.
On January 9, 1776, the Governor and Council of Safety appointed
Benjamin Huntington of the Council of Safety and Captain Seth Harding
a committee to visit Middletown and other towns on the Connecticut
river to ascertain the terms upon which the second vessel could
be purchased or built.[442] In the end the Governor and Council
of Safety decided to build a ship of 200 tons burden at Saybrook,
and they employed Captain Uriah Hayden at six shillings a day to
undertake the task.[443] The ship was built during the spring and
summer of 1776. An important event in the history of the “Oliver
Cromwell,” as the new ship was called, is thus chronicled in the
Connecticut Gazette of August 23, 1776, published at New London:
“Last Lord’s Day, the new Ship of War belonging to the State of
Connecticut, built at Say-Brook, and commanded by William Coit, Esq.,
came out of the River and arrived here Tuesday: she is the largest
Vessel that has ever come over Say Brook Bar, and was piloted by
Capt. James Harris.”[444]
Before building the row-galleys the Governor and Council of Safety
sent one builder to Philadelphia and another to Providence in order
to take advantage of the experiences of Pennsylvania and Rhode Island
in constructing this sort of craft. Of the four galleys ordered in
December, 1775, but three were built, the “Whiting” at New Haven, the
“Shark” at Norwich, and the “Crane” at East Haddam. They were rigged
as schooners; and by July, 1776, their construction was completed and
they were officered and manned.
The General Assembly permitted the Governor and Council of Safety a
free hand in their control of naval affairs. They were given full
power and authority to order, direct, furnish, and supply the navy,
during the recess of the General Assembly. It does not appear,
however, that the sessions of the General Assembly caused much
change in the management of the naval affairs. It was not in session
longer than a few weeks or a few days at a time. In October, 1776,
the General Assembly directed the Governor and Council of Safety to
execute and continue all naval business which they had begun, the
sessions of the Assembly notwithstanding.[445] Matters, which in
some states were determined by legislation, such as the establishing
of naval rules and regulations, the shares of prizes, and the naval
pay, were in Connecticut for the most part left to administrative
orders. In such work the Governor and Council of Safety often
followed Continental models. In July, 1776, they ordered Richard Law,
a member of the Council of Safety, to “compile a Code of Laws for
the Naval Service of this Colony, as much in conformity to the laws
of the naval service of the United Colonies as may consist with the
service of this colony.”[446]
The Governor and Council of Safety transacted the naval business,
as has already been seen, by means of committees of the Council of
Safety, naval agents, and mixed committees composed of members of the
Council of Safety and men from the outside. The sending of prizes
captured by Connecticut ships of war into the ports of Massachusetts,
and the refitting of the state’s vessels in Boston, necessitated the
employment of a naval agent in Massachusetts. In April, 1777, Samuel
Elliot of Boston was acting for the Governor and Council of Safety
in this capacity. In October, 1777, the General Assembly authorized
the appointment of a naval agent for Massachusetts, and on the 22nd
of this month the Governor and Council of Safety appointed Elliot
agent in all marine affairs to be transacted by Connecticut in
Massachusetts.[447]
During the Revolution the chief seaport of Connecticut was New
London, then one of the largest and most important towns in New
England. The most complete naval news of the time is to be found
in the Connecticut Gazette published at New London, and not in
the Hartford Courant, or in the New Haven paper, the Connecticut
Journal. New London was the naval station of the Connecticut fleet,
the port where it was refitted and repaired. One of the most
wealthy, influential, and public-spirited merchants of New London
was Nathaniel Shaw, jr. He was an ardent patriot and was on intimate
terms with Washington and other Revolutionary leaders.[448] The
Governor and Council of Safety naturally turned to Shaw when naval
duties were to be performed in New London. We have already seen that
Shaw was present at a meeting of the Council of Safety in July, 1775,
and was consulted on the initial naval project of the colony. From
1775 to 1779 the Governor and Council of Safety availed themselves
of his services in fitting out their naval vessels. In July, 1776,
they appointed him “Agent for the Colony, for the purpose of naval
supplies and for taking care of such sick seamen as may be sent on
shore to his care.”[449] In October, 1778, the General Assembly
appointed Shaw Marine Agent for Connecticut and authorized him to
equip the state vessels, to direct their cruises, and to receive and
sell their prizes, in all, taking the advice of the Governor and
Council of Safety from time to time.[450]
The Governor and Council of Safety showed an enterprising willingness
to experiment in naval warfare, when in February, 1776, they
permitted David Bushnell to explain to them his machine for
blowing up ships, and voted him £60 to complete his invention.[451]
Bushnell’s “American Turtle,” as his contrivance was called,
anticipated modern inventions in submarine warfare. It consisted
of a tortoise-shaped diving boat which could be propelled under
water. It contained a supply of air sufficient to last the operator
a half-hour, and was guided by means of a compass made visible by
phosphorus. Upon reaching the doomed vessel a screw was driven into
it by the operator. A magazine of powder was attached by a string to
the screw. The casting of the magazine from the diving-boat set going
a certain clock-work which gave the operator time to get beyond the
reach of danger before it ignited the powder. In 1777 a trial of the
“Turtle” against the British ship “Eagle,” 84, in New York Harbor was
unsuccessful. The operator succeeded in getting under the “Eagle,”
but was unable to drive the screw into her bottom.
Connecticut did not establish state privateering. In May, 1776,
the General Assembly authorized the Governor to fill out the blank
privateering commissions which the President of Congress should send
from time to time, and to deliver them to such persons as should
execute the bond prescribed by Congress.[452] A list of Connecticut
privateers in which some vessels are counted two or more times has
been made out. The totals of this list give 202 vessels, 1,609 guns,
and 7,754 men.[453] In order to enlist her quota of troops for the
Continental army, Connecticut in May, 1780, placed an embargo upon
privateers.[454] In May, 1776, the General Assembly, in pursuance
of the recommendations of the Continental Congress relative to the
establishment of admiralty courts by each state, vested the county
courts of Connecticut with the power to “try, judge, and determine,
by jury or otherwise, as in other cases, concerning all captures that
have or shall be taken and brought into said respective counties.”
The courts were to follow the rules of the civil law, the law of
nations, and the resolutions of Congress. Appeals were allowed to
the Continental Congress agreeable to its directions and resolves.
Connecticut was more liberal in granting appeals to Congress than
Massachusetts, which state, it will be recalled, permitted such
appeals only in cases of captures made by the vessels of the
Continental navy.[455]
The reader may recollect that on August 26, 1776, the Continental
Congress recommended that each state should grant certain pensions
to its citizens who should receive serious disabilities in the
Continental naval service. In May, 1777, the Connecticut General
Assembly granted such pensions; and in imitation of the resolutions
of Congress it granted half-pay to all officers, seamen, and marines
in the Connecticut navy, who were wounded in action so as to be
disabled from earning a livelihood; and a fraction of half-pay for
lesser disabilities.[456]
In October, 1777, the House of Representatives passed a bill
providing an elaborate list of rules and regulations relating to
naval discipline, naval courts-martial, pay of officers and seamen,
and the sharing of prizes. The bill, however, was rejected by the
Council.[457] In April, 1779, when too late to be of much service,
the General Assembly passed a statute creating a naval establishment,
which was modelled on that of Congress. Two scales of wages were
established, one for vessels under twenty guns, and the other for
vessels of twenty guns or upwards. Captains of the two classes
received a monthly wage, respectively, of $48 and $60; lieutenants
and masters, $24 and $30; and boatswains, $13 and $15. The wages for
seamen and marines did not vary, being $8 for seamen, and $6.67 for
marines. The sharing of prizes among officers and seamen varied for
the two classes. In general, the same offices were established as
in the Continental navy; there were, however, not so many of them.
Following the regulations of Congress, the General Assembly gave the
officers, seamen, and marines the whole of captured ships of war and
privateers, and one-half of all other vessels.[458]
Besides the vessels already mentioned, there were, in the Connecticut
navy, for a short time in 1777, the schooner “Mifflin” and the
sloop “Schuyler;” and for an equally brief period in 1779, the
sloop “Guilford.”[459] By far the most important vessels in the
navy were the “Oliver Cromwell”, 18, “Defence”, 14, and “Spy”, 6.
The principal cruising ground of the Connecticut vessels was in and
near Long Island Sound. This region was fairly alive with British
craft of all sorts. Long Island was a nest of Tories, and New York
was of course headquarters for the British in America. Connecticut,
being convenient to both places, found much service for her navy in
protecting her coasts and in preventing illicit trade with the enemy.
The cruises of the “Oliver Cromwell,” “Defence,” and “Spy” were
by no means confined to the waters near home. Several times they
visited the ports of Massachusetts. In the summer of 1777 the “Oliver
Cromwell” cruised to the northward of the Azores, in the path of
the homeward bound West Indiamen, where she captured and sent into
Massachusetts the brigantine “Honor” and the “Weymouth” packet. In
the spring of 1777 the “Defence” and a privateer met with success to
the windward of the Lesser Antilles in capturing British vessels
bound for the West Indies. In the following spring the “Oliver
Cromwell” and the “Defence” were cruising in the same region, where
they captured the letter of marque “Admiral Keppel,” eighteen
six-pounders, the most valuable prize taken by the Connecticut navy.
The “Admiral Keppel” and her cargo sold in Boston for £22,321. In
June and July, 1778, the “Oliver Cromwell” and the “Defence” refitted
in Charleston, South Carolina. Towards the end of July the “Oliver
Cromwell” sailed for Nantes with a load of indigo, which she expected
to exchange for clothing. Encountering a storm, this vessel was
dismasted, and forced to return to Connecticut. Some thirty prizes,
most of which reached safe ports, were captured during the Revolution
by the Connecticut navy.[460]
Upon the urgent and repeated solicitations of Washington, the three
Connecticut galleys were sent by the Governor and Council of Safety
in the summer of 1776 to New York to assist in the campaign on the
Hudson. The “Crane” and “Whiting,” after giving a good account of
themselves in an attack on two British vessels near Tarrytown, were
lost to the enemy in the fall of 1776. The “Shark” probably met a
similar fate.[461] The “Spy,” Captain Robert Niles, was one of
several vessels which were selected to carry to France the news of
the ratification by Congress of the French treaties of February,
1778. Captain Niles had the honor of reaching France first with his
important message and packet. On his return voyage Niles and his
vessel were captured. In March, 1779, the “Defence” struck on a
reef near Waterford, Connecticut, and sank.[462] On June 5, after a
severe fight to the southward of Sandy Hook, the “Oliver Cromwell”
surrendered to a superior force.[463] About July 1 the “Guilford,”
8, which had been recently added to the navy, was taken by the
enemy.[464] With the capture of this vessel, the navy of Connecticut
came to an end.
The warfare of “armed boats” participated in by Connecticut deserves
notice. During the Revolution much smuggling was carried on between
men in Connecticut and the British and Tories on Long Island and at
New York. The feeding of the British army at New York, the supplying
of the Tories on Long Island, and the demand for manufactured
articles in Connecticut, naturally made good markets. Political
law was in rivalry with economic law, and proved, in large part,
powerless. In 1778, 1779, and 1780, the Connecticut General Assembly
passed a number of stringent acts forbidding illicit commerce with
the enemy. Many patriot refugees had fled to Connecticut from Long
Island. Some of these men would obtain a license to return to their
former homes for their property, and under its cover would engage
in smuggling. To prevent this abuse, the General Assembly in April,
1779, recalled the power to issue licenses, which it had previously
vested in the selectmen of towns.[465]
Since the trade had assumed alarming proportions, the General
Assembly, in May, 1780, authorized the Governor and Council of Safety
to commission not more than twelve armed boats to suppress the
trade.[466] In October, Colonel William Ledyard, who was in command
of the forts at New London and Groton, was ordered to provide three
more whaleboats, besides the two which he already had obtained, to be
used in the Sound against the smugglers; and the Commandant of the
French navy at Newport was asked to send two vessels to aid in the
work.[467] These efforts of the state were in large part unavailing.
Some of the boats commissioned to stop the trade became participants
in it. “On consideration of the Many Evils committed by the armed
Boats in this State commissioned to cruise on their own acct. for
the pretended purpose of making captures on the enemy and preventing
illicit Trade and Traders,” the General Assembly on January 23, 1781,
revoked all the commissions which it had given to the armed boats.
A more successful attempt to stamp out the abuse was that made by
Norwich, in January, 1782. Certain associators agreed to hold no
social or commercial intercourse with those persons detected in
evading the laws. They provided boats which kept watch at suspected
places; smuggled goods, wherever found, were seized and sold, and the
proceeds were devoted to charitable purposes.[468]
FOOTNOTES:
[432] One must distinguish between the Council and Council of Safety.
A few members were common to both bodies.
[433] Colonial Records of Connecticut, XV, 99-100. The published
Colonial and State Records of Connecticut to which I refer, consist
of two parts, the Records of the General Assembly, and the Journals
of the Council of Safety. The reader can easily tell from the context
to which part each reference refers.
[434] Colonial Records of Connecticut, XV, 108, 109.
[435] Colonial Records of Connecticut, XV, 109, 110.
[436] Ibid., 111-13.
[437] Ibid., 117.
[438] Connecticut Gazette, October 13, 1775.
[439] See Chapter I, Naval Committee, page 35; Colonial Records of
Connecticut, XV, 176.
[440] Colonial Records of Connecticut, XV, 176.
[441] Colonial Records of Connecticut, XV, 200-02.
[442] Ibid., 223-24.
[443] Ibid., 229, 232.
[444] Connecticut Gazette, August 23, 1776.
[445] Records of the State of Connecticut, I, 11.
[446] Colonial Records of Connecticut, XV, 492.
[447] Records of State of Connecticut, I, 212, 214, 418, 452. This
is either Samuel Elliot, a Boston merchant, or Samuel Eliot, a most
distinguished Boston merchant, a benefactor of Harvard college,
and grandfather of the present President Eliot.—See New England
Historical and Genealogical Register, XXIII (1869), 338-39. I find
the agent’s name spelled Elliot, Eliott, and Eliot.
[448] Better evidence of the social standing of the Shaw family in
New London may not be needed than that afforded by the statistics
contained in the following newspaper clipping: “A great wedding
dance took place at New London at the house of Nathaniel Shaw, Esq.,
June 12, 1769, the day after the marriage of his son Daniel Shaw and
Grace Coit; 92 gentlemen and ladies attended, and danced 92 jigs, 52
contra-dances, 45 minuets, and 17 horn-pipes, and retired 45 minutes
past midnight.”—F. M. Caulkins, History of Norwich, Connecticut, 332.
[449] Colonial Records of Connecticut, XV, 474.
[450] Records of State of Connecticut, II, 136.
[451] Colonial Records of Connecticut, XV, 233-36. I have followed
the familiar accounts of this invention. Washington gave Jefferson an
account of Bushnell’s invention in September, 1785.-Ford, Writings of
Washington, X, 504-06.
[452] Colonial Records of Connecticut, XV, 318-19.
[453] Records and Papers of New London County Historical Society, I,
pt. 4, p. 32.
[454] State Archives, Acts of Connecticut, May, 1780. The laying of
embargoes on privateers for short periods in order to obtain men for
different purposes was common during the Revolution.
[455] Colonial Records of Connecticut, XV, 280-81.
[456] See Chapter IV, page 129; Records of State of Connecticut, I,
246-49.
[457] Connecticut Revolutionary Archives, VIII, 1777-1778.
[458] Records of State of Connecticut, II, 230-33.
[459] The vessels of the Connecticut navy with the approximate
periods of their service were as follows: Brigantine “Minerva,” 1775;
schooner “Spy,” 1775-1778; ship “Defence,” 1776-1779; ship “Oliver
Cromwell,” 1776-1779; galleys “Crane” and “Whiting,” 1776; galley
“Shark,” 1776-1777; schooner “Mifflin,” 1777; sloop “Schuyler,” 1777;
and sloop “Guilford,” 1779. The galley “New Defence,” belonging to
Branford, received arms, ammunition, and stores from the state. The
sloop “Dolphin,” a prize of the “Spy,” was purchased in the fall of
1777, and sent to Philadelphia for flour. The following captains were
the chief officers of the navy: Giles Hall, Robert Niles, William
Coit, Seth Harding, Timothy Parker, and Samuel Smedley. Coit had
commanded the “Harrison” in Washington’s fleet, and Harding was given
a commission in the Continental navy.
[460] Revolutionary Files of Connecticut Gazette, Hartford Courant,
and Connecticut Journal.
[461] Colonial Records of Connecticut, XV, 481, 488; Records of
State of Connecticut, I, 85, 201; Hartford Courant, August 12, 1776;
Connecticut in Revolution, 593-94.
[462] Records of State of Connecticut, II, 372; Wharton, Diplomatic
Correspondence, II, 642, 650; Hartford Courant, March 16, 1779.
[463] Hartford Courant, June 15, 1779.
[464] Records of State of Connecticut, II, 360.
[465] Records of State of Connecticut, II, 222.
[466] State Archives, Acts of Connecticut, May, 1780.
[467] Ibid., October, 1780.
[468] History of Norwich, F. M. Caulkins, 398.
CHAPTER XIII
THE NAVY OF PENNSYLVANIA
The two objects of Pennsylvania’s naval enterprises were the defence
of Philadelphia and the protection in Delaware river and bay of
the outward and inward bound trade of the state. These two needs
determined the form and size of her armed vessels and the character
of their operations. Pennsylvania therefore adapted her fleet to
shallow waters. Only in a few instances did her armed vessels pass
beyond the Capes of the Delaware into the Atlantic.
On July 5, 1775, the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety, the first
Revolutionary executive of this state, visited “Red Bank,” situated
a few miles below Philadelphia, near the mouth of the Schuylkill,
for the purpose of deciding on the character of the defences which
were to be made at this point on the river. On the 6th, having
returned to Philadelphia, the Committee reported the results of its
inspection; whereupon it came to its first naval resolution, that
Robert White and Owen Biddle be a committee for the construction of
boats and machines for the defence of the River.[469] On July 8 it
ordered John Wharton to immediately build a “Boat or Calevat,” 47 or
50 feet keel, 13 feet broad, and 4½ feet deep. By October, thirteen
such galleys or armed boats had been built, at a cost of about £550
each. They were armed chiefly with 18-pounders.[470] During the late
summer and the fall of 1775 the Committee of Safety attended to the
numerous details of officering, manning, arming, and provisioning
these galleys. It chose a captain and lieutenant for each of them;
and on October 23 it appointed Thomas Read commodore of the fleet. It
organized a naval staff consisting of a muster master, a pay master,
a surgeon, an assistant surgeon, a ship’s husband, and a victualer.
The distinguished scholar, Dr. Benjamin Rush, was made surgeon. The
Committee of Safety prepared a form of commission for officers, a
list of rules and regulations, general instructions for the captains,
and general instructions for the commodore.[471]
The rules and regulations of the Pennsylvania navy were concerned
with little else than the establishing of a penal code. All penal
offenses were to be tried by a court-martial, which, in capital
cases, was to consist of fifteen naval officers; and in all other
cases, of five officers, unless so many could not be assembled, when
it might consist of three. A majority of the court was sufficient to
convict, except in capital cases, where two-thirds were necessary.
In returning a verdict, the officers of lowest rank voted first.
Except in cases of mutiny, or of cowardice in time of action, all
sentences of death needed the approval of the General Assembly, or,
in its recess, of the Committee of Safety. Besides the death penalty,
a court-martial could inflict no punishment other than “degrading,
cashiering, drumming out of the fleet, whipping, not exceeding
thirty-nine lashes, fine, not exceeding two months’ pay, and
imprisonment, not exceeding one month.” All fines were to go to the
relief of those maimed and disabled in the service, or to the widows
and families of such as should be killed. These rules, apparently,
were not influenced by those of the Continental navy prepared by John
Adams.[472]
On November 7, 1775, the Committee of Safety decided to build a
ship for the service on the Delaware, which would mount twenty
18-pounders; and it appointed six of its members, among whom were
Robert Morris and John Nixon, a committee to build and arm the
vessel. This committee estimated that £9,000 would be necessary to
construct the ship. Later, owing to the unfitness of the season for
shipbuilding, it was authorized to purchase a vessel.[473] By April,
1776, it had obtained and equipped the ship “Montgomery,” and Thomas
Read had been given command of it. A number of small and unimportant
craft were gradually added to the navy. On December 28, 1775, Captain
John Hazelwood was appointed commander of ten fire-rafts. These rafts
were thirty-five feet long and thirteen feet wide, were loaded with
oil barrels, rosin casks, turpentine, brimstone, and various other
inflammables, and were designed to float down stream and set fire to
the enemy’s ships through direct contact.[474] An inventory of the
navy, dated August 1, 1776, shows the following vessels and men: the
ship “Montgomery,” 138 men; the floating battery “Arnold,” 82 men;
thirteen galleys, 35 men each; six guard boats, 12 men each; six
small vessels, including fire-ships, a total of 27 men. The total
number of officers, seamen, and marines was 768; the Pennsylvania
land forces at this time amounted to 1,365 men.[475] In August, 1776,
the schooner “Delaware” and the brig “Convention” were added; and in
the fall the “Putnam” floating battery.
I have found no mention of the uniform of the officers of the
Pennsylvania navy. The uniform of the Pennsylvania marines was “a
brown coat faced with green, letters 1. P. B. on the buttons, and a
cocked hat.” In October, 1776, the flag for the naval vessels had
not been provided. The following memorandum, taken from the minutes
of the Pennsylvania Navy Board of May 29, 1777, shows that flags had
then been procured: “An Order on William Webb to Elizabeth Ross, for
fourteen pounds twelve shillings and two pence, for Making Ships’
Colours etc.”[476]
The Committee of Safety was assisted and directed in its naval work
by committees of its own members, of which the principal ones are
as follows: “ship committee,” “armed boat committee,” “committee
for fitting out two of the armed boats,” “committee for building
two galleys for the Bay Service,” and “committee for fitting out
four guard boats to cruise at Cape May.” The Committee of Safety was
composed of twenty-five members, any seven of whom formed a quorum.
Benjamin Franklin was its first president. Robert Morris was for a
time its vice-president. In the absence of Franklin, Morris or John
Nixon often presided. On July 23, 1776, the Pennsylvania Convention
appointed a Council of Safety to succeed the Committee of Safety, a
succession which involved merely a change of personnel and of name.
From July 24, 1776, until March 4, 1777, when the Supreme Executive
Council, the executive under the first state constitution, assumed
control, the administration of the Pennsylvania navy was vested in
the Council of Safety.
Much difficulty was experienced by the several Pennsylvania
executives in finding suitable commodores for the fleet. The office
on October 23, 1775, first fell to Thomas Read. On January 13,
1776, Thomas Caldwell was made commodore; and on March 6, 1776,
Read was formally placed second in command. Failing in health,
Caldwell, on May 25, resigned, and on June 15 the Committee of
Safety appointed Samuel Davidson. This succession met with serious
and continued opposition on the part of the officers of the navy.
They declared that the appointment of Davidson violated the rule
of promotion according to seniority in service; and they made
vigorous remonstrances, which received countenance and support
from men of influence in Philadelphia. So serious was the clamor
and insubordination, that the Committee of Safety was compelled to
yield to the demands of a resolution of the Provincial Conference
of Committees, and remove Davidson from the command of all the
vessels except the ship “Montgomery” and the “Arnold” floating
battery. The Committee, however, in an “Address to the Inhabitants of
Pennsylvania,” upheld the propriety and justice of their appointment;
and it declared that by the support which the dissatisfied officers
had received “mutiny was justified and abetted and disobedience
triumphed over Authority.”[477]
When the Council of Safety assumed control of the navy on July 24,
1776, it found the spirit of dissatisfaction and insubordination so
strong among the naval officers that it removed Davidson from the
navy; at the same time, however, it declared that the charges made
against him were frivolous.[478] On September 2, 1776, the Council
of Safety gave Samuel Mifflin an opportunity to decline the office of
commodore. Thomas Seymour was named for the place on September 26,
1776. Early in 1777 Captain John Hazelwood, “Commander-in-Chief of
the Fire Vessels, Boats and Rafts belonging to the State,” objected
to being subject to the orders of Commodore Seymour, who was an old
man, infirm, and incapacitated for his position. On September 6,
1777, when Philadelphia was threatened by the British, Seymour was
discharged, and Hazelwood was appointed in his place.[479] Hazelwood
was the sixth commodore within less than two years.
The Committee of Safety and the Council of Safety passed a number of
resolutions fixing the naval pay. For a time the officers on board
the ship “Montgomery” and the two floating batteries were generally
paid larger wages than those on board the galleys. On February 22,
1777, the Council of Safety adopted a new pay-table, which gave
the same salary to officers of the same rank, on whatever vessel
employed. The monthly wages of the leading officers were as follows:
commodore, $75; captains, $48; first lieutenants, $30; second
lieutenants, $20; and surgeons, $48. Seamen were paid $12 a month. A
bounty of $12 was now given to recruits.[480] On June 25, 1777, the
salary of the commodore was raised to $125 a month.[481] On February
4, 1776, the Committee of Safety gave captors two-thirds of the
proceeds of the prizes taken on the Delaware river, and reserved the
remaining one-third for the maintenance of disabled sailors and the
widows and families of those who should be killed.[482]
Recognizing the navy’s need of a permanent body of administrators,
the Council of Safety on February 13, 1777, appointed a Navy Board
of six members who were authorized to take under their care all the
vessels of the navy. On February 19 four additional members were
added.[483] On March 13, 1777, the Supreme Executive Council, which
on March 4 had become the executive of the state, reconstituted the
naval board. It was now to consist of eleven members, any three of
whom formed a quorum. It was given “full power and authority to do
and perform all Matters and things Relating to the Navy of this
State, subject nevertheless to the directions and examinations of the
Council, from time to time, as we may judge expedient, and saving to
ourselves always the power of appointing officers.” William Bradford
and Joseph Blewer, who each served for a time as chairman of the
Board, were its most useful members. On the same day, March 13, the
Supreme Executive Council constituted a Board of War.[484]
The work of the Navy Board consisted of a great variety of details
relating to provisioning, arming, equipping, officering, and manning
the numerous craft of the navy. Soon after entering into office
it reported to the Council that it found the armed boats needing
repairs and alterations, and that owing to the better wages paid to
the seamen on board privateers there was a shameful deficiency in
the armed boats’ complement of men. The Board recommended the laying
of an embargo to prevent the sailing of private ships until the
navy should be recruited. It found that additional officers were
needed.[485] The Council immediately ordered the Board to appoint
the requisite number of warrant officers and to recommend proper
commissioned officers.
During 1777 the naval business of Pennsylvania was large and
complicated. A list of stores issued to the navy for one month during
the year contains the names of fifty-one vessels. Many of these are
minor and unimportant craft, such as half-galleys, fire-ships, and
accommodation sloops. A return of the Naval Department on February
1, 1777, shows 71 commissioned officers, 2 staff officers, 123
non-commissioned officers, and 513 privates; total officers and men
in the navy, 709. Many men who enlisted in the navy had little or no
experience at sea. The amount of the pay rolls for May, 1777, was
£6,325.[486]
The salient event in the history of the Pennsylvania navy was the
campaign on the Delaware river which followed the occupation of
Philadelphia by the British in September, 1777. Before this time the
navy had rendered miscellaneous services on the Delaware river and
bay, which had been useful though not at all brilliant. Now and then
some of the vessels were ordered down the river to protect incoming
and outgoing merchantmen, or to drive back the venturesome craft of
the enemy. On May 8, 1776, the galleys had a spirited engagement
with the “Roebuck,” 44, and the “Liverpool,” 28, in the Delaware
river near the mouth of Christiana Creek. Little injury was done on
either side. The British vessels returned to the Delaware Capes, and
the Americans returned to their station at Mud Island, which was
generally the headquarters for the state fleet.
The reader is familiar with the military movements of Howe during the
summer and fall of 1777; his irretrievable blunder in sailing from
New York for Philadelphia, instead of coöperating with Burgoyne in
the campaign on the Hudson; his landing with an army at the head of
Elk in Maryland late in August; his march to Philadelphia; and after
fighting the battle of Brandywine, his entry into that city late
in September. Upon occupying Philadelphia the British were forced
to open a communication with the sea. This was for the time being
prevented by the American defences at Mud Island and Red Bank just
below the mouth of the Schuylkill. Here were situated Forts Mercer
and Mifflin; and here were stationed the vessels of the Pennsylvania
and Continental navy under the command of Commodore Hazelwood. During
October and November, 1777, the Pennsylvania navy did its best
fighting and rendered its most valuable services. At this time the
Pennsylvania Navy Board made its headquarters near the fleet on board
the sloop “Speedwell.”
On October 22 and 23, when the British fleet below the American
defences on the Delaware attempted to pass them, Commodore Hazelwood
with two floating batteries and twelve galleys forced them to retire,
and succeeded in burning two of their vessels, the “Augusta,” 64,
and “Merlin,” 18, which ran aground. Congress voted Hazelwood an
elegant sword in recognition of his merit. On the fall of Forts
Mifflin and Mercer the American fleet was left without support. At
a council of war held on board the sloop “Speedwell” on November
19, it was decided to pass Philadelphia with the fleet in the night
and gain a point of safety to the northward of the city. Thirteen
galleys, twelve armed boats, the brig “Convention,” and a number of
minor craft passed the city without receiving a shot. Before the ship
“Montgomery,” schooner “Delaware,” floating batteries “Arnold” and
“Putnam,” and several Continental vessels could get under sail, the
wind died away; and thus becalmed it was found necessary to set fire
to them in order to prevent their capture.[487]
On October 11, 1777, Commodore Hazelwood reported a capture of
fifty-eight prisoners. About seventy men were killed or wounded in
the different actions of the navy in the fall of 1777. Hazelwood
wrote in October, 1777, that he had lost two hundred and fifty men
through desertion owing to their cowardice and disaffection; and in
February, 1778, that a great many men had run away since he had been
in winter quarters.[488]
Several cases of the desertion of commissioned officers which
took place during the campaign on the Delaware, were tried by
courts-martial during the summer of 1778. First Lieutenant Samuel
Lyon of the “Dickinson” galley was charged with deserting his vessel
and going over to the enemy with seven men. Lyon pleaded guilty to
the charge, and a court of fifteen fellow officers sentenced him “to
suffer Death by being Shott.” On September 1 Lyon, together with
Samuel Ford, a lieutenant lately attached to the “Effingham” galley
who also had been convicted of desertion, were executed on one of
the guard boats in the Delaware. The first conviction for a capital
crime in the Pennsylvania navy is said to have been made in the case
of the boatswain of the “Montgomery,” who was sentenced to death
for desertion on June 25, 1778. On the trial of John Lawrence for
desertion, a gunner on board the “Dickinson” galley, the accused
acknowledged that he “took the Oath of Allegiance to the King of
Great Britain, and received three and a half Guineas for his share
of the Boat and Arms,” which he assisted in carrying to the enemy.
The court sentenced him to “suffer Death by being hung with a Rope
around his Neck till he is Dead, Dead, Dead.” Lawrence together with
the lieutenant of the galley “Ranger” were reprieved on September 1,
1778.[489] These desertions from the Pennsylvania navy are but one
instance of many which prove that it was without _esprit de corps_,
and that its officers and men were often raw, undisciplined, and
insubordinate. Used to a free and easy life, they did not take kindly
to the routine and discipline of the naval service.
During the winter of 1777-1778 when the British were in Philadelphia,
the navy and Navy Board were some miles up the Delaware. A few
members of the Board continued to hold its sessions at Bordentown,
Trenton, or other convenient points. The navy was disorganized
at this time, and the work of the Board was naturally dull and
disheartening. In January, 1778, William Bradford, its chairman,
wrote from Trenton to President Wharton of the Supreme Executive
Council: “I am left here alone, none of the Board being with me. I
am also tired of being here, had much rather be in action with the
Militia.”[490]
In April, 1778, the Navy Board, acting reluctantly on Washington’s
advice who feared that the British would make a raid and capture the
fleet, dismantled and sank all or nearly all of the state craft in
the Delaware river.[491] On May 8 the British made their expected
foray on the shipping to the northward of Philadelphia, and destroyed
some forty-five vessels, among which were the two Continental
frigates, “Effingham” and “Washington,” and probably a few of the
minor craft belonging to the Pennsylvania navy.[492]
As soon as the British received intelligence of the sailing of a
French fleet under D’Estaing for America, they prepared to evacuate
Philadelphia. In anticipation of this event Hazelwood was in June
raising and refitting his fleet, and wishing that he had it in his
“power to give the enemy a scouring before they got out of the
river.” On July 19 he reported his vessels afloat and ready for use.
Already the Supreme Executive Council had ordered the navy to be put
into commission, and the brig “Convention” to make a cruise down the
Bay.
The Pennsylvania navy had cost the state at the rate of £100,000
a year.[493] It had been serviceable in defending the Delaware,
but it had in the end failed to hold it. Always hampered by a lack
of seamen, of naval supplies, and of an armed force comparable to
that of the enemy, the Navy Board found the greatest difficulty in
enforcing the orders of the Council. It was naturally blamed for a
part of the inactivity and the misfortunes of the fleet. Since the
British had abandoned Philadelphia, and a strong French fleet was
in American waters, the need for a naval defence of the Delaware
seemed more remote than it did in the first years of the Revolution.
These considerations moved the Supreme Executive Council on August
14, 1778, to recommend to the General Assembly the dismissal of the
Navy Board, and all the officers and men of the navy, except those
that were necessary to man two or three galleys, two or three guard
boats, and the brig “Convention.” The General Assembly at once
agreed to the recommendation. Finally, on Friday, December 11, the
following vessels were sold at the “Coffee House” in Philadelphia:
“Ten galleys, Nine armed Boats, the Brig ‘Convention,’ the sloops
‘Speedwell,’ ‘Sally,’ ‘Industry,’ and ‘Black Duck;’ and the schooner
‘Lydia.’”[494]
In March, 1779, there remained in the navy six small craft,
namely, the galleys “Franklin,” “Hancock,” and “Chatham,” and the
armed boats, “Lion,” “Fame” and “Viper;” and there were still in
commission five captains, six lieutenants, and one hundred and
eighteen men.[495] This little fleet was quite insufficient to
protect the commerce of the state. In March, 1779, the Supreme
Executive Council, in response to a petition from the merchants of
Philadelphia praying for the protection of their trade, purchased
the ship “General Greene,” at a cost of £53,000; and placed it in
charge of two agents, who were to fit it for sea, and receive and
dispose of its prizes. Part of the money which was used in fitting
the “General Greene,” 14, was raised by private subscription. During
the summer and fall of 1779 the new ship, under the command of
Captain James Montgomery, cruised along the Atlantic coast between
Sandy Hook and the Virginia Capes either alone, in company with the
Continental frigates, “Boston,” “Deane,” and “Confederacy,” or in
company with the well-known Philadelphia privateer, “Holker.” The
“General Greene” was quite fortunate, as she sent into Philadelphia
six prizes. In the spring before a full complement of men could
be enlisted, President Reed of the Supreme Executive Council was
compelled to lay an embargo on privateers. Her crew were a mutinous
rabble. In June Captain Montgomery wrote that he had arrived at New
Castle with a “Great number of Prisoners on board and a Great Part of
my own Crew Such Villons that they would be glad of an opportunity
to take the Ship from me. Som of the Ringleaders I have sent up in
Irons.” On October 27 the Council ordered the “General Greene” to be
sold, as this was more economical than laying her up for the winter.
Her sale, much below her real value, aroused suspicions of collusion
and corruption.[496]
Naval legislation in Pennsylvania was not extensive. In 1775, 1776,
and 1777 almost all naval rules and provisions were established by
executive decrees. Before the middle of January, 1776, the Committee
of Safety had established courts for the trying of prize cases.[497]
It permitted appeals from the state prize courts to Congress. On
September 9, 1778, however, the General Assembly established a Court
of Admiralty. A law passed in 1780 provided that a judge of admiralty
should be appointed and commissioned for seven years by the Supreme
Executive Council.[498] On September 17, 1777, an act was passed
for the relief of officers, seamen and marines, who, being in the
service of the United States and residents of Pennsylvania, should
be disabled from earning a livelihood. In all probability this was
passed in accordance with the recommendations of the Continental
Congress of August 26, 1776. On March 1, 1780, the General Assembly
granted officers, seamen, and marines in the Pennsylvania navy, who
were in actual service on March 13, 1779, and who should continue
therein until the end of the war, half-pay for life.[499]
It is believed that Pennsylvania did not establish state
privateering. Her executives in commissioning privateers in all
probability followed the regulations of Congress. The Pennsylvania
Archives contain a list of 448 privateering commissions issued for
the years from 1776 to 1782. Most of the privateers were small
vessels, mounting six to twelve cannon, and carrying twenty-five to
fifty men. Out of the 448 commissions, only 14 commissions were for
vessels mounting twenty or more guns. In 1779 Pennsylvania issued
commissions for one hundred different vessels.[500]
The spring of 1782 was marked by a renewal in naval enterprise
similar to that in the spring of 1779. Armed ships, refugee boats,
and picaroon privateers fitted out at New York, had been greatly
distressing the shipping and trade of Philadelphia. Within eight
months the British frigate “Medea” had taken nine Philadelphia
privateers; the whale-boat “Trimmer” from New York had been very
destructive to the shipping on the Delaware; and the British naval
ship “General Monk,” formerly the American privateer “Washington,”
was inflicting serious losses on Pennsylvania’s commerce.[501] The
merchants and traders of Philadelphia now appealed by petition to the
General Assembly for protection. Accordingly, on April 9, that body
appointed three commissioners to procure and equip a naval armament
for the defence of Delaware river and bay. The commissioners were
authorized to borrow £50,000, which was to be repaid from certain old
tonnage and impost duties, and from a new impost on certain specified
articles. The act also provided for a distribution of the proceeds of
prizes. This act is significant in its being the first instance where
the General Assembly authorized a naval increase and appointed a
committee to take charge of naval vessels. It met with considerable
disfavor. The Supreme Executive Council informed the General
Assembly that it considered the appointment of commissioners and the
conferring upon them of full administrative powers unconstitutional
and an encroachment of the legislative on the administrative
body.[502]
Anticipating the act of the legislature, the merchants of
Philadelphia had fitted out the ship “Hyder Ally,” 18, and had
appointed Lieutenant Joshua Barney of the Continental navy to command
her. Proceeding down the Bay, Barney on April 8 made his memorable
capture of the “General Monk,” 18, Captain Josias Rogers. Both the
“Hyder Ally” and the “General Monk” were now taken into the service
of the state. The “General Monk,” which was renamed the “Washington,”
was in May, 1782, loaned to Robert Morris, the Continental Agent
of Marine, who sent her on a commercial errand to the West Indies.
On the return of the “Washington” Morris purchased her for the
service of Congress. The “Hyder Ally” under different commanders
cruised for the rest of the year with little success. In December
the commissioners obtained permission from the Supreme Executive
Council to sell her, and build a vessel of more suitable construction
for the defence of the Delaware, for which purpose they were already
equipping an armed schooner. When the “Hyder Ally” was offered for
sale, the commissioners bid her in for the state, as the bidders
refused to give her full value.[503]
The establishment of officers and seamen on board the “Hyder Ally”
and the “Washington” was a new one. On February 13, 1781, the
officers and seamen of the first establishment were all discharged,
except Captain Boys and certain disabled seamen; and on December 20
Boys was dismissed, since the service in which he was engaged was
at an end.[504] When peace was declared in the spring of 1783, a
few men were probably in naval employ under the new establishment.
That the state still owned a few small vessels is certain. On April
10, 1783, the Supreme Executive Council endorsed a letter from
the commissioners saying “that as no doubt appears to remain that
Hostilities are ceased, we conceive it our Duty to request your
permission to dispose of the Armed vessels under our direction
belonging to the State, in order to enable us to close our accounts
with the Public.”[505]
FOOTNOTES:
[469] Colonial Records of Pennsylvania, X, Minutes of Committee of
Safety, July 4, 6, 8, 1775.
[470] Pennsylvania Archives 2nd, I, 246; Wallace’s William Bradford,
203.
[471] Colonial Records of Pennsylvania, X, Minutes of Committee of
Safety, August 26, September 1, October 2, 12, 16, 23, November 6,
1775. See also the Minutes of the Committee of Safety for each day of
this period.
[472] Colonial Records of Pennsylvania, X, Minutes of Committee of
Safety, August 29, 1775.
[473] Colonial Records of Pennsylvania, X, Minutes of Committee of
Safety, November 7, November 10, 1775.
[474] Ibid., December 28, 1775; Pennsylvania Archives, 2nd, I, 248,
note.
[475] Pennsylvania Archives, 1st, V, 3-5. The names of the thirteen
galleys were as follows: “Bull Dog,” “Burke,” “Camden,” “Chatham,”
“Congress,” “Dickinson,” “Experiment,” “Effingham,” “Franklin,”
“Hancock,” “Ranger,” “Warren,” and “Washington.” The “Delaware” and
“Convention” were at times referred to as galleys.
[476] Pennsylvania Archives, 1st, V, 46; 2nd, I, Minutes of
Pennsylvania Navy Board, May 29, 1777; 2nd, I, 251.
[477] Colonial Records of Pennsylvania, X, Minutes of Committee
of Safety, July 2, 1776; Proceedings of Provincial Conference of
Committees of Pennsylvania, June 23, June 24, 1776.
[478] Colonial Records of Pennsylvania, X, Minutes of Council of
Safety, August 22, August 27, 1776.
[479] Ibid., XI, Minutes of Supreme Executive Council, September 6,
1777.
[480] Colonial Records of Pennsylvania, XI, Minutes of Council of
Safety, February 22, 1777.
[481] Ibid., Minutes of Supreme Executive Council, June 25, 1777.
[482] Ibid., X, Minutes of Committee of Safety, February 4, 1776.
[483] Ibid., XI, Minutes of Council of Safety, February 13, February
19, 1777.
[484] Colonial Records of Pennsylvania, XI, Minutes of Supreme
Executive Council, March 13, 1777. The members of the Navy Board as
constituted by the Supreme Executive Council were as follows: Andrew
Caldwell, Joseph Blewer, Joseph Marsh, Emanuel Eyre, Robert Ritchie,
Paul Cox, Samuel Massey, William Bradford, Thomas Fitzsimmons, Samuel
Morris, jr., and Thomas Barclay.
[485] Captains Nicholas Biddle, Thomas Read and Charles Alexander,
and Lieutenant James Josiah resigned from the Pennsylvania navy to
enter the Continental navy.
[486] Pennsylvania Archives, 2nd, I, 416-24.
[487] Wallace’s William Bradford, 252-53, 366-67; Pennsylvania
Archives, 1st, VI, 21, 47-50.
[488] Pennsylvania Archives, 1st, V, 663, 721; VI, 235; VII, 165.
[489] Pennsylvania Archives, 2nd, I, 425-31.
[490] Pennsylvania Archives, 1st, VI, 204.
[491] Ibid., 332-33.
[492] Almon’s Remembrancer, 1778, 148-50.
[493] Scharf and Westcott, History of Philadelphia, I, 300.
[494] Colonial Records of Pennsylvania, XI, Minutes of Supreme
Executive Council, August 14, August 16, December 9, 1778. The
capture of the sloop “Active” by the “Convention” in the fall
of 1778, gave rise to the most celebrated prize case of the
Revolution.—Jameson, Essays in Constitutional History of United
States, 17-21.
[495] Pennsylvania Archives, 2nd, I, 255.
[496] Pennsylvania Archives, 1st, VII, 320, 476; Colonial Records of
Pennsylvania, XI, 724, 750; XII, 150; Scharf and Westcott, History of
Philadelphia, I, 403.
[497] J. F. Jameson, Essays in Constitutional History of United
States, 9.
[498] Laws of Pennsylvania, September 9, 1778, March 8, 1780.
[499] Ibid., September 17, 1777; March 1, 1780.
[500] Pennsylvania Archives, 2nd, I, 388-402.
[501] Scharf and Westcott, History of Philadelphia, I, 421-22.
[502] Laws of Pennsylvania, April 9, April 15, 1782; Mary Barney,
Memoirs of Commodore Barney, 303-04. Pennsylvania Archives, 1st, IX,
531-32. The three Commissioners were John Patton, Francis Gurney, and
William Allibone.
[503] Colonial Records of Pennsylvania, XIII, Minutes of Supreme
Executive Council, December 6, 1782.
[504] Pennsylvania Archives, 2nd, I, 256.
[505] Ibid., 1st, X, 26.
CHAPTER XIV
THE NAVY OF VIRGINIA
In July, 1775, Virginia began to raise and officer an army of more
than one thousand men. By fall Lord Dunmore, the Provincial Governor
of Virginia, who in June had retreated to His Majesty’s ship “Fowey”
at Yorktown, had collected a small flotilla, and had begun a series
of desultory attacks upon the river banks of Virginia. On October
25 he was repulsed at Hampton; on December 9 he was beaten by the
Virginia patriots at Great Ridge; and on January 1 he burned Norfolk.
His movements excited so much alarm that the leading patriot families
on the James, York, Rappahannock, and Potomac rivers retreated inland
for safety. In order to prevent the depredations of Lord Dunmore,
and to provide effectually for the general defence of the state, the
Virginia Provincial Convention in December authorized the Committee
of Safety of the state “to provide from time to time such and so
many armed vessels as they may judge necessary for the protection
of the several rivers in this colony, in the best manner the
circumstances of the country will admit.” The Committee of Safety was
further directed to raise a sufficient number of officers, sailors,
and marines; and settle their pay, which was not to exceed certain
specified rates. The maximum wage of “the chief commander of the
whole as commodore” was fixed at fifteen shillings a day.[506]
Between December, 1775, and July, 1776, the Committee of Safety
procured and established a small navy. On April 1 it fixed the naval
pay, generally at the maximum rates permitted. Captains in the navy
were to receive a daily wage of 8s.; captains of marines, 6s.;
midshipmen, 3s.; marines, 1s., 6d. The Committee resolved that two
years ought to be a maximum period of service. It appointed a number
of the most prominent officers in the Virginia navy, among whom
were Captains James Barron, Richard Barron, Richard Taylor, Thomas
Lilly, and Edward Travis. It fixed the relative rank between army
and navy officers. It purchased the boats “Liberty” and “Patriot,”
the brigs “Liberty” and “Adventure,” and the schooner “Adventure.”
It contracted for the construction of a number of galleys on the
different rivers of the state.[507]
George Mason and John Dalton were appointed a committee to build two
row-galleys, and buy three cutters for the defence of the Potomac. In
April, 1776, Mason wrote that the galleys were well under way, and
that three small vessels had been purchased, of which the largest was
a fine stout craft of about 110 tons burden, mounting fourteen 8’s
and 4’s, carrying ninety-six men, and named the “American Congress.”
A company of marines for this vessel, he said, were being exercised
in the use of the great guns.[508] The Committee of Safety chose a
“Lieutenant of Marines in the Potomac river Department.”
The Provincial Convention of Virginia, which met at Williamsburg
on May 6, 1776, being convinced that the naval preparations would
be conducted more expeditiously and successfully if proper persons
were appointed to superintend and direct the same, chose a Board of
Naval Commissioners, consisting of five persons.[509] The Board
was authorized to appoint a clerk and assistants, and to elect from
their membership a First Commissioner of the Navy—the title of a
well-known officer in the English naval service. No member of the
Board could sit in the legislature or hold a military office. Each
Commissioner was to receive twenty shillings a day, when employed. On
the depreciation of the currency this was doubled.[510] A majority
of the Board constituted a quorum. Thomas Whiting served as First
Commissioner of the Board throughout its existence.
In general, the business of the Navy Board was “to superintend and
direct all matters and things to the navy relating.” It had charge of
the building, purchase, fitting, arming, provisioning, and repairing
of all armed vessels and transports. It had charge of the shipyards
and the public rope-walk. In case of vacancies in the navy or marines
it recommended officers to the Governor and Council. It could suspend
an officer for neglect of duty or for misbehavior. It was to keep
itself informed on the state of the navy through reports from the
naval officers. It was authorized to draw warrants on the treasury
for money expended in the naval department, and to audit the naval
accounts.
The Navy Board had charge of naval affairs in Virginia for three
years, from the summer of 1776 until the summer of 1779. During 1776
and 1777 vessels were built on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, on the
Potomac, Rappahannock, Mattapony, Chickahominy, and James rivers,
and at Portsmouth, Gosport, and South Quay. After 1777 vessels were
chiefly built at the Chickahominy and Gosport shipyards. No other
state owned so much land, property, and manufactories, devoted to
naval purposes, as Virginia. In April, 1777, the Navy Board purchased
115 acres of land, for £595, on the Chickahominy, twelve miles from
its confluence with the James.[511] On this site was located the
Chickahominy shipyard. Virginia’s ships found here a safer retreat
than at Gosport, which lay convenient for the enemy’s ships. It is
said that before the Revolution the British had established a marine
yard at Gosport, and named it for Gosport, England, where many
supplies for the Royal Navy were manufactured. In some way Virginia
came into possession of the shipyard at this place.[512] Two ships
were built for the defence of Ocracoke Inlet, the chief entrance to
Albemarle Sound, at South Quay, on the Blackwater, a few miles north
of the North Carolina line.
At Warwick, on the James, a few miles below Richmond, the state
built and operated a rope-walk. The state owned a manufactory of
sail-duck and a foundry. In July, 1776, four naval magazines were
established, one each for the James, York, Rappahannock, and Potomac
rivers. For each magazine one or two agents were appointed to collect
and issue provisions, ships’ supplies, and naval stores.[513] For
the location of the magazine on the Potomac the General Assembly
authorized the Navy Board to purchase an acre of land at the head of
“Potomack Creek.”[514] In January, 1777, the Navy Board appointed
James Maxwell, Naval Agent, to superintend the shipyards, and the
building, rigging, equipping, and repairing of the naval vessels. He
was to follow the instructions of the Board, and keep it informed on
the state of the navy.[515] Maxwell’s annual salary was £300, payable
quarterly. He lived at the Chickahominy shipyard.
Virginia had a naval staff consisting of pay masters, muster
masters, surgeons, and chaplains. The captains and recruiting
officers enlisted seamen. Their task was rendered difficult, not
so much because of the superior attractions of privateering, as in
New England, as because of the small number of seamen resident in
the state. The first commodore of the Virginia navy was John Henry
Boucher. He was serving as lieutenant in the Maryland navy, when,
in March, 1776, Virginia called him to the command of her Potomac
fleet, and soon promoted him to the head of her navy.[516] He served
as commodore for only a few months, resigning in November, 1776.
Walter Brooke was commodore from April, 1777, until September, 1778.
Brooke’s successor, James Barron, was not appointed until July, 1780;
he served until the end of the war. The commodore of the navy made
his headquarters regularly at or about Hampton, and superintended the
armed vessels in that part of the state.[517]
In Virginia, as in the other states and in the Continental Congress,
naval enthusiasm and interest was at its height in 1776. In the
fall the Navy Board contracted for the building of twenty-four
small transports.[518] The General Assembly in its October session
authorized the Navy Board to construct two frigates of thirty-two
guns each, and four large galleys, adapted “for river or sea
service.” For manning these galleys and those already building, the
Navy Board was empowered to raise thirteen hundred men, exclusive
of officers, to serve three years from March 3, 1777. It was to
recommend proper officers to the Governor and Council. Having been
commissioned by the Governor, the officers were to enlist the crews
for their respective galleys. Since to secure a sufficient number of
experienced seamen would be impossible, it was provided that each
crew should consist of three classes of men: able seamen, at a daily
wage of 3s.; ordinary seamen, at 2s.; and common landsmen, at 1s.,
6d. As the men in the second and third classes became proficient,
they were to be promoted. Every recruit was given a bounty of
$20.[519]
The Provincial Convention, in its December session in 1775, erected
a Court of Admiralty, consisting of three judges, to enforce the
Continental Association against trading with England. In its May
session in 1776, it gave this court jurisdiction over all captures
of the enemy’s vessels. The General Assembly, at its October session
in 1776, superseded all previous admiralty legislation by an “Act
for Establishing a Court of Admiralty.” Such court was to consist
of three judges, elected by joint ballot of the two houses of the
General Assembly. The judges were to hold their offices “for so long
time as they shall demean themselves well therein.” The court, which
was to be held at some place to be fixed by the General Assembly,
was to have cognizance of “all causes heretofore of admiralty
jurisdiction in this country.” Its proceedings and decisions were
to be governed by the regulations of the Continental Congress, the
acts of the General Assembly of Virginia, the English statutes
prior to the fourth year of the reign of James, and by the laws of
Oleron and the Rhodian and Imperial laws, so far as they have been
heretofore observed in the English courts of admiralty. In cases
which related to captures from a public enemy with whom the United
States should be at war, and in which a conflict should arise between
the regulations of Congress and the acts of the General Assembly, the
regulations of Congress should take precedence; in all other cases
of conflict, the acts of Virginia were to prevail. This provision is
of particular interest. It is one of the first instances in which
a state recognized the superiority of federal law when in conflict
with state law. Virginia was liberal in granting appeals to Congress,
as she permitted them in all cases of the capture of the enemy’s
vessels.[520]
The Admiralty Court of Virginia tried few prize cases. Governor
Thomas Jefferson in writing to the President of Congress in June,
1779, no doubt understates the truth when he says that “a British
prize would be a more rare phenomenon here than a comet, because
one has been seen, but the other never was.” His state, he said,
had long suffered from a lack of blank letters of marque, and he
wished fifty to be sent to him.[521] Virginia did not establish
state privateering, but followed the regulations of Congress on the
subject. Because of the lack of seamen and the continual presence
of the enemy’s vessels at the mouths of the Virginia rivers, the
privateering interest was not important in this state.
The Navy Board superintended both the trading and armed vessels of
the state until April, 1777, when the trading vessels were placed in
charge of William Aylett.[522] Writers on the Virginia navy have not,
as a rule, distinguished one class of vessels from the other, nor is
it always easy to do so. During 1776 seven vessels were employed
chiefly in commerce.[523] In the fall, most of them were ordered to
the West Indies with cargoes of flour and tobacco; one, the brig
“Adventure,” was directed to proceed to Dunkirk, France. The armed
fleet for 1776 consisted of sixteen small craft adapted chiefly for
service in the rivers of Virginia and in Chesapeake Bay.[524] In
1777 the galleys “Accomac” and “Diligence” were built and stationed
on the Eastern Shore; and the ships “Caswell” and “Washington” were
built at South Quay on the Blackwater, for the defence of Ocracoke
Inlet, which Virginia was undertaking jointly with North Carolina.
Besides these four vessels, two brigs, one armed boat, and the ships
“Gloucester,” “Protector,” “Dragon,” and “Tartar,” were this year
added to the navy. In 1778 an armed boat and the ships “Tempest”
and “Thetis” were built; and in 1779 two armed boats, the brig
“Jefferson” and the ship “Virginia,” were added.[525]
This fleet is formidable only in its enumeration. It was poorly
armed, incompletely manned, and in almost every respect ill fitted
for service. But few of its vessels went beyond the Chesapeake Bay.
It showed most activity during 1776 and the spring of 1777. From 1775
until 1779 fifteen small prizes were captured. In May, 1776, Captain
Taylor seized four small merchantmen; in June, one of the Barrons
brought up to Jamestown the transport “Oxford,” with 220 Highlanders
on board; in the spring of 1777 the “Mosquito,” Captain Harris,
carried into St. Pierre the ship “Noble,” valued at 75,000 livres;
and a few months earlier the brig “Liberty” captured the ship “Jane,”
whose cargo of West India goods was valued at £6,000. These were the
most fortunate captures made by the Virginia navy.[526]
Virginia’s naval craft met with the usual misfortunes. During
the first half of 1777 His Majesty’s ship “Ariadne” captured the
“Mosquito.” About the same time the frigate “Phœnix” took the
“Raleigh.” The British made two raids into Virginia which were
destructive both to the shipping of the state and to private
individuals. The first was ordered by Clinton in the spring of 1779;
the troops were under the command of Matthews and Collier. At the
Gosport shipyard they destroyed five uncompleted vessels, three
of which were frigates, besides a large quantity of masts, yards,
timber, plank, iron, and other ships’ stores. The shipyards on the
Nansemond were looted; and twenty-two vessels with a considerable
quantity of powder were taken or destroyed on the “South Branch of
the navy.” Suffolk was burned, and upwards of two thousand barrels of
Continental pork and fifteen hundred barrels of flour were destroyed.
In all one hundred and thirty vessels were burned.[527] The raid of
Arnold and Phillips will be considered later.
The General Assembly at its May session in 1779 discontinued the Navy
Board, and vested its strictly naval duties with the newly created
Board of War, consisting of five members. The Board of War was
empowered to appoint a Naval Commissioner. A Board of Trade was now
given charge of the trading vessels of the state, and of the state
manufactories of military supplies.[528]
The General Assembly in its May session, 1780, “for the purpose
of introducing oeconomy into all the various departments of
government, and for conducting the publick business with the greatest
expedition,” abolished the Boards of War and Trade, and authorized
the Governor to appoint a Commissioner of War, a Commercial Agent,
and coördinate with these two, a Commissioner of the Navy. This act
is the outgrowth of the same movement for economy and efficiency in
administration, which resulted in the establishment in January and
February, 1781, of the single-headed executive departments of the
Continental Congress. The salary of the Commissioner of the Navy was
fixed at thirty thousand pounds of tobacco a year, and that of his
clerk at ten thousand pounds.[529] The Commissioner was to be under
the “controul and direction of the governour and council.” Governor
Jefferson appointed James Maxwell, the naval agent under the Navy
Board, Commissioner of the Navy.
The General Assembly in the May session of 1779, as an inducement
to enlistment, granted seamen and marines additional bounties and
pensions. Recruits entering for the rest of the war were now to
receive $750 and one hundred acres of land. They were to be furnished
upon enlistment, and once a year thereafterwards, with a complete
suit of clothes. Naval officers were entitled to a “grant of the like
quantity of lands as is allowed to officers of the same rank in the
Virginia regiments on continental establishment.” Disabled sailors
and the widows of the slain were entitled to immediate relief, and
an annual pension. At the October session of this year, moved by the
need for money and the impossibility of fitting out the whole fleet,
the General Assembly ordered the governor to sell nine of the armed
vessels, and to equip and man the remaining six with all diligence.
For some reason the governor did not carry out the order. There was
probably little market for the vessels.[530]
The years 1780 and 1781 were marked by a renewed naval activity in
Virginia. It is recalled that the theater of war had now shifted
to the Southern states. Savannah was in the hands of the enemy.
Charleston surrendered in May, 1780. By the fall of that year the
lowlands of the states to the south of Virginia were generally in the
possession of the British. Apparently Virginia would be the next to
feel the rough hand of the conquering enemy. British privateers and
naval craft lay off the mouths of the Virginia rivers, and captured
all her vessels that ventured towards the Bay or the sea. Early in
1780 it was apprehended that the enemy meditated an invasion of the
coasts of the state.
When the General Assembly came together in May, 1780, it at once
took measures for the protection of the coasts. It passed “an act
for putting the eastern frontier of this commonwealth into a posture
of defence.” This act, after providing for calling out the militia
in the seaport counties, ordered the Governor and Council to direct
the Commissioner of the Navy to immediately make ready for service
in the Bay and on the seacoast the ships “Thetis,” “Tempest,” and
“Dragon,” the brig “Jefferson,” and the galleys “Henry,” “Accomac,”
and “Diligence.” Three hundred marines, to be commanded by five
captains and fifteen lieutenants, were to be recruited. Marines and
sailors who enlisted for three years were to receive a bounty of
$1,000. Naval officers were put upon the same footing in regard to
pay, rations, and privileges as officers of the same rank in the land
service.[531]
When the Legislature came together in October, since the situation
was still more critical, it was moved to pass an additional act for
the defence of the seacoast. This act shows that the navy was in sore
need for seamen and money. It provided drastic measures to obtain
both. Naval officers were now authorized, under certain restrictions
and limitations, to impress seamen. The eastern counties of the state
were directed to bind to the sea, “under the most prudent captains
that can be procured to take them,” one-half of all orphans of
certain descriptions living below the falls of the Virginia rivers. A
hospital for seamen was established at Hampton, to be maintained by a
tax of nine pence a month on the salaries of all mariners and seamen
in either the navy or the merchant service of the state. Officers
and seamen were given the whole of their captures; and still other
inducements to enlistment by way of pay and clothing were held out.
Two new galleys, of the same construction as those built by Congress
in 1776, carrying two 32’s at the bow and at the stern, and 6’s at
the sides, were ordered for the defence of the Chesapeake. Five
vessels of the state fleet were to be immediately made ready for
service; and all the other naval vessels were to be sold and the
proceeds devoted to naval purposes. For the use of the navy import
duties were laid upon rum, gin, brandy, and other spirits; on
wine, molasses and sugar; and on all imported dry goods, except
salt, munitions of war, and iron from Maryland. Tonnage was laid
upon merchant vessels. Despite these efforts few seamen and little
money were raised, and the fleet during 1780 accomplished almost
nothing.[532]
The salient event in the history of the Virginia navy in 1781 was
the invasion of Arnold and Phillips during the first half of the
year. Arnold was first reported on the coast of Virginia on December
29, 1780, when his fleet consisting of twenty-seven sail was seen
at Willoughby Point.[533] Governor Jefferson began at once to
make strenuous efforts to get the Virginia fleet in condition to
oppose Arnold. The role of admiral was an odd one for Jefferson. In
February he sent Benjamin Harrison, speaker of the Virginia House
of Delegates, to Philadelphia to request of the French minister the
aid of the French fleet.[534] A half-dozen or more privateers were
taken into the service of the state. Twelve vessels of the state
fleet of 1776-1779 still remained. Most if not all of these vessels
were either at the Chickahominy shipyard and near by on the James, or
else at the mouth of the James. Few of them were sufficiently manned
to render much service. On April 26 Maxwell reported 78 men on board
seven vessels, whose complement was 520 men. Other ships had neither
arms nor men.[535]
In April, 1781, Arnold and Phillips made their raid up the James,
penetrating as far as Richmond. On April 21 and 22, a detachment
under Lieutenant-Colonel Abercrombie destroyed the shipyard on the
Chickahominy, including a number of naval craft and the warehouses.
On April 27, at Osbornes on the James a few miles below Richmond,
the Virginia fleet, supported by two or three hundred militia upon
the shore opposite the British army, drew up to oppose the enemy.
It consisted of six ships, eight brigs, five sloops, two schooners,
and several smaller craft. Its chief vessels were the “Tempest,” 16,
“Renown,” 16, and “Jefferson,” 14. The British sent a flag of truce
to the Commodore of the Virginia fleet, proposing to treat with him
for its surrender. He sent back the spirited reply that “he was
determined to defend it to the last extremity.” A few cannon planted
on the shore soon gave the enemy a command of the situation. After
a short engagement, the Virginians scuttled or set fire to several
of their vessels and fled to the opposite shore. None of the fleet
escaped. The British captured twelve vessels, which the Virginians
were unable to destroy. On this expedition the British burnt the
state rope-walk at Warwick. After the raid of Arnold and Phillips,
but one vessel remained in the Virginia navy, the armed boat
“Liberty.”[536]
The officers and seamen of the Virginia navy, thrown out of
employment by the destruction of the fleet, aided the allied forces
at the siege of Yorktown in collecting supplies and transporting
troops. The boat “Liberty” was used as a transport; and also the
ships “Cormorant,” “Loyalist,” and “Oliver Cromwell,” which three
vessels, it is believed, Virginia purchased for this purpose. Soon
after the surrender of Cornwallis the Virginia General Assembly,
recognizing that “during the continuance of the present expensive
war it is necessary to husband the resources of the state with the
utmost oeconomy,” dismissed almost all the officers and seamen, the
Commissioner of the Navy, the chaplains, surgeons, pay masters, and
all others on the naval staff.[537]
A number of times during the Revolution, and now for the last time in
1782, Virginia and Maryland undertook to concert a naval defence of
their trade on the Chesapeake. The General Assembly of Virginia which
met in May, 1782, appointed three commissioners to superintend the
work of protecting; the Bay. The “Cormorant” and “Liberty” were to
be immediately prepared for this service. Two galleys and two barges
or whale boats were to be built. For this work the state appropriated
£1,000, the proceeds arising from the sale of the “Loyalist,” and
certain tonnage and import duties. The commissioners were to fix
the pay and subsistence of the seamen; the fleet was not to be sent
outside of the Capes.[538]
The commissioners managed a small naval force during 1782 and
1783 until the war came to an end. Commodore Barron, stationed at
Hampton, was chiefly occupied at this time with the exchanging of
prisoners. Beyond the building of a few naval craft, it does not
appear that this final naval enterprise of Virginia was attended
with fruitful results. When peace was declared in the spring of
1783, the commissioners had in different stages of construction the
schooners “Harrison,” “Fly,” and “Patriot,” and the barges “York”
and “Richmond.” Virginia now disposed of all her fleet except the
“Liberty” and “Patriot,” which she retained as revenue cutters.[539]
In order to keep these two armed vessels in time of peace, Virginia,
in accordance with a provision in the Articles of Confederation,
obtained the permission of Congress.[540] These two boats were still
in the employ of the state in 1787. The “Liberty” saw more service
than any other state or Continental vessel of the Revolution. She was
in the employ of Virginia from 1775 until 1787.
FOOTNOTES:
[506] Hening, Statutes of Virginia, IX, 83.
[507] Calendar of Virginia State Papers, VIII, 75-240, Journal of
Committee of Safety of Virginia, February 7 to July 5, 1776. Virginia
had a class of vessels which she referred to as “armed boats.” They
were smart craft, and appear to have been schooner-rigged.
[508] Miss Rowland’s George Mason, I, 214, 218.
[509] Hening, Statutes of Virginia, IX, 149-51. The Provincial
Convention which met May 6, 1776, adopted a Constitution which
provided for a Legislature of two houses, and an Executive consisting
of a Governor and a Privy Council of eight members.
[510] Hening, Statutes of Virginia, IX, 521-22, October session of
General Assembly in 1778.
[511] Southern Literary Messenger, 1857, 14. The references to
this magazine refer to a series of valuable articles entitled “The
Virginia Navy of the Revolution.”
[512] E. P. Lull, History of U. S. Navy Yard, at Gosport, Virginia,
8-11; Hening, Statutes of Virginia, XI, 407.
[513] Journals of Virginia Navy Board, Virginia State Archives, June
25, June 26, 1776.
[514] Hening, Statutes of Virginia, IX, 235-36.
[515] Journals of Virginia Navy Board, January 7, 1777.
[516] Maryland Archives, XI, 293-94.
[517] Journals of Virginia Navy Board; State Navy Papers, I; Southern
Literary Messenger, 1857, 3.
[518] Journal of Virginia Navy Board, September, October, 1776.
[519] Hening, Statutes of Virginia, IX, 196-97. In August, 1776, the
Navy Board drew up a list of naval rules which were endorsed by the
Governor and Council.—Journals of Virginia Navy Board, August 2, 1776.
[520] Hening, Statutes of Virginia, IX, 103, 131-32, 202-06.
[521] Ford, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, II, 241-43.
[522] Journals of Virginia Navy Board, April 8, 1777.
[523] These vessels were the brig “Adventure;” the schooners
“Hornet,” “Peace and Plenty,” “Revenge,” and “Speedwell;” the sloop
“Agatha;” and the armed boat “Molly.” The lists of vessels here given
were compiled from the Virginia naval archives.
[524] These vessels were the galleys “Henry,” “Hero,” “Lewis,”
“Manly,” “Norfolk Revenge,” “Page,” and “Safeguard;” the brigs
“Liberty,” “Mosquito,” “Northampton,” and “Raleigh;” the schooners
“Liberty” and “Adventure;” the sloop “Scorpion;” and the armed boats
“Liberty” and “Patriot.” The schooner “Liberty” was taken into the
trading fleet as the “Hornet.” It is believed that this list does not
contain the vessels in Mason’s Potomac fleet.
[525] The names of the vessels not mentioned in the text, which were
added during 1777, 1778, and 1779 were the brigs “Greyhound” and
“Hampton” and the armed boats “Nicholson,” “Experiment,” “Fly,” and
“Dolphin.” The names of several other vessels which were probably
used in trade, occur during this period. Some of the ships are at
times referred to as galleys.
[526] Files of Virginia Gazette; Journals of Virginia Convention, May
8, 1776; Virginia Historical Register I, 77; Calendar of Virginia
State Papers, III, 365.
[527] Almon’s Remembrancer, 1779, 289-95, account given by British
officers; Records of State of North Carolina, XIV, 85-86, 94-95. Some
of the vessels destroyed at Gosport probably belonged to Congress.
[528] Hening, Statutes of Virginia, X, 15-18, 123.
[529] Ibid., 278, 291-92.
[530] Hening, IX, 537; X, 23-24, 217.
[531] Hening, X, 296-99.
[532] Hening, X, 379-86.
[533] Ford, Writings of Jefferson, II, 392.
[534] Ibid., 443-44.
[535] Virginia Calendar of State Papers, I, 588; II, 74.
[536] Almon’s Remembrancer, 1781, II, 62-63, Arnold to Clinton,
Petersburg, May 12, 1781.
[537] Hening, Statutes of Virginia, X, 450; Virginia Navy Papers, I,
and II.
[538] Hening, Statutes of Virginia, XI, 42-44. In March, 1783, the
three commissioners were Paul Loyall, Thomas Brown, and Thomas
Newton, jr.—Virginia Calendar of State Papers, III, 456.
[539] Virginia Navy Papers, II.
[540] Journals of Continental Congress, October 3, 1783.
CHAPTER XV
THE NAVY OF SOUTH CAROLINA[541]
South Carolina employed her first armed vessels in obtaining a supply
of gunpowder, the need of which article was so keenly felt throughout
the colonies during the first years of the Revolution. In July, 1775,
the South Carolina Council of Safety sent Captains John Barnwell and
John Joyner of Beaufort with forty men in two large and well-armed
barges to assist the Georgians in taking an English supply-ship,
which was daily expected at Savannah. The enterprise was wholly
successful. The ship with its cargo of sixteen thousand pounds of
gunpowder was captured by the combined forces of the two colonies.
South Carolina sent four thousand pounds of her share of the powder
to the Continental Congress at Philadelphia.[542]
In the same month of July the Council of Safety planned to seize
certain gunpowder stored at Nassau, New Providence, and for this
purpose the “Commerce,” a sloop belonging to citizens of New York,
was temporarily taken into the service of the state. It will be
recalled that Commodore Esek Hopkins in the initial essay of the
Continental fleet in February and March, 1776, attempted to capture
this gunpowder. Before the “Commerce” was ready to set sail, word
came that the brigantine “Betsey” from London with a cargo of
ammunition was soon to arrive at St. Augustine. Captain Clement
Lemprière, the commander of the “Commerce,” was therefore ordered to
cruise off St. Augustine in watch for the expected vessel. On August
8 he captured the “Betsey” with her load of gunpowder amounting to
almost twelve thousand pounds.[543]
Neither of these two episodes led to a permanent naval armament.
This, as was to be expected, was brought about by the necessity of
protecting Charles Town, the capital and chief port of the Province.
The critical month in South Carolina in 1775 was September. During
this month two of His Majesty’s vessels, the “Tamar,” 16, and
“Cherokee,” 6, lay in Charles Town harbor. It was in September that
Lord William Campbell, the Royal Governor of the Province, fled
from Charles Town on board the “Tamar.” In September the South
Carolina Council of Safety began to seize the forts commanding the
channel leading to Charles Town from the sea. The executive of the
Revolutionary government at this time consisted of the Council of
Safety of thirteen members. About the first of October the Council
of Safety obtained the schooner “Defence” and placed it under the
command of Captain Simon Tufts, a native of Massachusetts, but now
a resident of Charles Town. The Council of Safety fixed the pay of
officers and men on board the schooner.
During November, naval affairs were chiefly in the hands of the
Second Provincial Congress, the Revolutionary legislature, which body
on November 10 appointed Edward Blake Commissary of Stores for the
Naval Department. On November 11 the “Defence,” 10, manned by her
regular complement of seamen, and thirty-five marines taken from the
land forces, was detailed to cover a party sent to obstruct certain
channels near Charles Town by sinking old schooners. While engaged
in this service she exchanged shots with the “Tamar” and “Cherokee”
without causing much damage on either side. On November 12, stirred
by this encounter, the Provincial Congress voted, though by a narrow
majority, to impress, fit out, and arm the ship “Prosper” for the
purpose of capturing the British ships in Charles Town harbor; and
appointed commissioners to superintend the work.[544]
The Provincial Congress having adjourned on the 29th of November,
the Second Council of Safety continued the naval preparations. On
December 16 it appointed William Henry Drayton, the well-known
Revolutionary agitator and leader, to command the “Prosper” in place
of Captain Tufts who had some time before been transferred from the
“Defence” to the “Prosper.”[545] A third vessel was now obtained,
the schooner “Comet,” and was placed in charge of Captain Joseph
Turpin. Owing to the paucity of seamen in South Carolina, the Council
of Safety in December directed Captain Robert Cochran to proceed to
Massachusetts and obtain recruits for the navy. When in January,
1776, Cochran was in Philadelphia, the delegates of South Carolina to
the Continental Congress called that body’s attention to Cochran’s
mission. In order that no friction should arise between Cochran and
the military authorities in Massachusetts over the enlistment of men,
Congress recommended to him that he offer to seamen moderate wages
and bounties; that he immediately repair to the camp at Cambridge
and take Washington’s advice; and that he enlist the seamen in
those parts of the country where he would least interfere with the
Continental service. The Massachusetts Council agreed to permit
Cochran to raise three hundred men.[546] South Carolina also enlisted
seamen in Georgia.[547]
On February 15 the Second Provincial Congress, which had met on
the 1st, appointed a committee to report on the best means and
the expense of building two frigates of thirty-two guns each. It
authorized the enlisting, if necessary, of two hundred marines.
On March 5 a committee was appointed to prepare “proper Rules and
Articles for the better regulation and government of the Navy of this
Colony.” On the 25th, the report of this committee after amendment
was adopted, and on the next day the respective rank of army and navy
officers was fixed. On March 14th the Provincial Congress authorized
the committee at Georgetown, a port to the north of Charles Town,
to purchase and fit out proper armed vessels for the defence of the
trade of Georgetown, and on the same day gave similar orders to a
committee of Beaufort, a port to the south of Charles Town. Provision
was now made for a Muster-Master General of the Army and Navy.[548]
In March the armed schooner “Peggy” was in the service of the state.
On March 26, 1776, a new government under a Constitution went
into effect in South Carolina. This provided for a legislature
consisting of two houses, a General Assembly and a Legislative
Council. The executive of the state was a President, or “President
and Commander-in-chief,” the title ran, and a Privy Council of seven
members. According to the constitution the captains of the navy were
to be chosen by a joint ballot of the two houses of the Legislature,
and were to be commissioned by the President.[549] Early in April
Colonel Pinckney presented in the General Assembly an ordinance to
appoint a Commander of the Navy to be subject to the President.[550]
On April 9 the Legislature passed an act to prevent the desertion of
soldiers and sailors. A hospital for sick and wounded soldiers and
sailors was established at Charles Town. On April 11 the Legislature
established a Court of Admiralty which was given jurisdiction over
all captured ships belonging to “Great Britain, Ireland, the British
West Indies, Nova Scotia, East and West Florida.” The facts in cases
of capture were to be tried by a jury.[551]
On September 21, 1776, President John Rutledge, in a message to
the Legislature, recommended the appointment of commissioners to
superintend the naval affairs of the state, believing that thereby
the navy would be placed upon a better footing. On the same day,
in accordance with the President’s recommendation, the General
Assembly appointed a committee to draft a bill. On October 8 an
act was passed which established a Board of Naval Commissioners,
consisting of seven men, and empowered “to superintend and direct all
matters and things whatsoever to the navy of this state in any wise
relating.”[552] This act was modelled on the act of Virginia on the
same subject. It varies from the Virginia act in a few particulars,
and is a little more detailed. The Navy Board was charged with the
building, hiring or buying of all naval vessels, and the arming,
outfitting and provisioning of the same, and with the construction
of rope-walks and shipyards. It was authorized to audit the naval
accounts, draw warrants on the treasury for necessary expenditures,
recommend officers, fill vacancies temporarily with the approval
of the President, keep itself informed as to the state of the
navy, and report thereon to the Legislature. With the concurrence
of the President and the Privy Council the Board could remove or
suspend officers for neglect of duty or misbehavior. Soon after the
organization of the Board, the question was raised whether it had
the power to order the vessels on cruises; the President and Privy
Council decided that the Board had no such power, and that the
detailing of vessels was a function of their own.[553] In addition
to its strictly naval duties the Board directed the procuring and
fitting out of trading vessels and transports.
The Navy Board held its first meeting on October 9, 1776, at Charles
Town, and organized by electing Edward Blake First Commissioner. On
the 12th it chose its clerk.[554] The duty of this officer was to
keep a regular journal of the transactions of the Board; and once in
three months, or oftener if necessary, to go aboard the vessels and
take an account of the officers and seamen and pay them their wages.
His salary was £1,400 currency, a year. At first a majority of the
Board constituted a quorum. When it became difficult to assemble four
out of its seven members, two more members were added to the Board,
and a quorum was reduced to three men.[555] The act which established
the Board was to continue in effect two years. On October 9, 1778,
the Board was continued until October 8, 1779, and from thence until
the end of the Legislature then in session. The introduction of a
bill into the House of Representatives on February 8, 1780, to repeal
all previous acts establishing a Board of Naval Commissioners makes
it highly probable that the Navy Board was discontinued about this
time.[556]
On taking charge of naval affairs the Navy Board found one of its
most engrossing duties to be the purchasing of supplies of all
sorts—salted beef and pork, bread, pitch, tar, turpentine, tallow,
duck, cordage, and spars. On October 17, 1776, it appointed a naval
agent at Georgetown to procure and issue supplies to the schooner
“Rattlesnake,” Captain Stephen Seymour, now in the employ of the
state for the protection of this port.[557] The Board continued the
building of four galleys, which had been begun by President Rutledge.
In April, 1777, it leased Captain Cochran’s shipyard at Charles Town,
together with five negroes, for the term of five years.[558] In
October, 1778, it bought of Paul Pritchard, shipwright, eighty-five
acres on Hobcaw creek, near Charles Town, for a shipyard.[559]
During 1777 and 1778 the Legislature passed a few ordinances relating
to the navy. On January 16, 1777, it fixed the shares of prizes.
Officers and seamen were to receive one-half the net proceeds of all
captures. This half was then to be divided into sixteen parts and
allotted to officers and seamen according to a fixed scale. Captains
were given two-sixteenths; seamen and marines, three-sixteenths.[560]
In February the captors’ share of vessels of war and privateers
was increased to the whole of the prize. In January, 1778, a law
of obvious purpose was passed, which freed all seamen who entered
into the Continental or state naval service from the obligations of
previous contracts made with the owners of private ships. In March,
1778, the appointment of a commodore to command the navy of the
state necessitated a new distribution of the proceeds of captures
among officers and seamen. The commodore’s share was fixed at
two-sixteenths.[561] In October, 1778, the Legislature authorized the
Navy Board to purchase any “negroes or other slaves for the use of
the publick shipyard or rope work,” which property was to be vested
in the public forever.[562]
During 1776, 1777, and 1778 the Navy Board added a few vessels to
the navy. Several galleys were built during this period. In the fall
of 1776 the brigantine “Notre Dame” was procured, armed, and sent
to France under the command of Captain Robert Cochran on a trading
voyage.[563] In 1777 one finds the sloop “Beaufort” in the service of
the state, being probably stationed at Beaufort for the defence of
the trade of that port. Early in 1779 the Navy Board completed the
construction of the brig “Hornet.” Now and then the state obtained
the loan of privateers for short periods. Information concerning
South Carolina’s privateers is scant. We know, however, that she had
a considerable fleet. Between August 17, 1776, and April 16, 1777,
President Rutledge granted thirty-seven letters of marque.[564]
Few states exceeded South Carolina in naval expenditures. With the
exception of Massachusetts, the vessels of no other state went to sea
so often as did those of South Carolina. The navy of South Carolina
was smaller than that of Virginia, but much more active. From 1776
to 1779 it captured some thirty-five small prizes, only about half
of which, however, reached safe ports.[565] Its principal cruising
grounds were off the South Carolina and Florida coasts and in the
West Indies. The South Carolina vessels frequently cruised off St.
Augustine. This was an important British port during the Revolution,
and many privateers and smaller British vessels visited it. The
noting of a few captures will show the character of the work of the
South Carolina navy. In July, 1777, the “Notre Dame” carried into
a South Carolina port the brig “Judith,” 12, laden with dry goods
for St. Augustine; and in October the same vessel captured the brig
“John,” and the schooner “Jemmy and Sally” with cargoes of staves and
shingles outward bound from the Mississippi.[566] In the spring of
1779 the “Notre Dame,” “Hornet,” and “Eagle” made prizes of the sloop
“Prince of Wales,” 12, and the brig “Royal Charlotte,” both bound for
Georgia, with West India products.[567]
In December, 1777, President Rutledge and the Privy Council, in
opposition to the best military judgment in South Carolina, concerted
with Captain Nicholas Biddle, of the Continental frigate “Randolph,”
32, an expedition to clear the coasts of the enemy’s vessels. South
Carolina furnished the “Notre Dame,” 16, Captain Hall, and three
privateers, which were temporarily taken into the public service.
These were the ships “General Moultrie,” 18, Captain Sullivan,
“Polly,” 16, Captain Anthony, and “Fair American,” 14, Captain
Morgan. One hundred and fifty South Carolina troops were taken on
board to serve as marines. Sailing about February 1, 1779, the fleet
soon cleared the coast of the enemy, and then proceeded to the West
Indies on the lookout for rich West India merchantmen—an object
which was probably in view from the first. On March 7, when the
fleet was to the windward of Barbadoes, the “Randolph” fell in with
the British ship of the line “Yarmouth,” 64. During a running fight
an explosion of tremendous force occurred on board the “Randolph.”
Burning spars and timbers six feet long, together with an undamaged
ensign, fell upon the decks of the “Yarmouth.” The “Randolph,” with
almost her entire crew of 315 men, including Captain Joseph Ioor and
fifty South Carolina marines, sank soon after the accident. Five
days after the fight the “Yarmouth” picked up four men clinging to
the wreckage, the only men rescued. Two of the four South Carolina
vessels, the “General Moultrie” and the “Fair American,” now returned
home, taking on the way a valuable Guineaman. The “Notre Dame” and
the “Polly” continued their cruise within the West Indies, the “Notre
Dame” reaching as far westward as the Isle of Pines. The two vessels
captured eleven small prizes, a number of which, however, were
recaptured before reaching safe ports.[568]
The transference of the seat of war from the Northern to the Southern
states, in 1779, and the British naval expedition against Charles
Town, early in 1780, caused increased naval activity in South
Carolina. In August, 1779, the House of Representatives sent to the
Senate a bill offering bounties and fixing a new rate of wages for
officers and seamen.[569] In September the House passed a bill for
building two floating batteries and four galleys.[570] Acting on the
recommendations of the Governor, the House in February, 1780, voted
that it would be of public utility to employ a number of negroes not
to exceed one thousand to act as pioneers and fatigue men in the
army and as oarsmen and mariners in the navy.[571] Additional armed
vessels were now obtained in different ways. During 1779 the Governor
issued commissions to fourteen vessels. A number of small craft,
used chiefly as transports, were impressed.[572] The “Notre Dame,”
16, and the “General Moultrie,” 20, were assigned to the defence of
Charles Town. The state purchased from France the “Bricole,” 44,
and the “Truite,” 26. The “Bricole” was pierced for sixty guns, and
mounted forty-four 24’s and 18’s. She was the largest vessel owned
by any of the states. For the defence of Charles Town France sent
“L’Aventure,” 26, and “Polacre,” 16; and Congress the “Providence,”
28, “Boston,” 24, “Queen of France,” 28, and “Ranger,” 18.[573]
The naval defence of Charles Town was intrusted to Captain Abraham
Whipple, the senior officer of the four Continental vessels. Whipple
advised that a naval defence at the bar on the seacoast, which lay
to the eastward of the forts that commanded the entrance to Charles
Town harbor, should not be undertaken; and later he gave it as his
opinion that it was impracticable for the armed vessels to coöperate
with the forts. Such timid counsels prevailed, and no naval defence
of Charles Town was made. With the exception of the “Ranger” all the
vessels were dismantled and their guns and crews removed to reinforce
the land batteries and troops in Charles Town. With the fall of the
city on May 12, 1780, South Carolina lost her entire navy, with the
exception of the frigate “South Carolina,” whose fortunes we are
about ready to consider. The “Bricole,” “Truite,” “General Moultrie,”
and “Notre Dame” were sunk.[574] The “Boston” and “Ranger” were added
to the Royal Navy.
In 1781, with the returning tide of the patriot forces a few small
vessels were armed at Georgetown.[575] In February, 1783, Governor
Guerard recommended the purchase of a ship, which had lately been
carried into Wilmington, North Carolina, for the defence of Charles
Town harbor. The House was unfavorable to the transaction, because
of the lack of means, the difficulty of manning the ship, and the
risk of bringing it around.[576] In March, 1783, a committee of the
House was appointed to consider what arrangements should be made with
respect to the naval officers of the state; and it reported that, by
the Articles of Confederation, South Carolina was precluded from
having a navy, and that it was therefore of the opinion that the
state could not retain in its service its naval officers.[577]
A most interesting episode in the history of the South Carolina navy
remains to be told. It properly begins with the commissioning on
March 11, 1778, of Alexander Gillon, a prosperous and influential
merchant of South Carolina, to be a commodore in the navy with “full
and ample power and authority to take the Command, Direction, and
Ordering of the said Navy,” agreeable to its rules and articles.
On the same day John Joyner, William Robertson, and John McQueen
received commissions as captains. On March 26 the state decided
to raise abroad £500,000 currency, or £71,429 sterling, for the
purpose of building or purchasing three frigates. On July 17 Gillon
was commissioned to go abroad and undertake the task of securing
the loan and procuring the vessels. The exact sum which Gillon was
now directed to borrow was less than £500,000 by the sum of the
proceeds which he would derive from the sale of certain produce, to
be exported from South Carolina to Europe, and consisting chiefly of
indigo and rice. Early in the fall of 1778 the “Notre Dame” carried
Gillon, his three captains, and other naval officers to Havana,
whence they took passage to Europe.
On January 31, 1779, Gillon was empowered to borrow, in addition
to previous authorizations, £15,000 sterling, which was to be
invested in arms, ammunition, and “Indian goods.” Of the total sum,
£86,429, which he was authorized to obtain, he actually borrowed
in Amsterdam, Ghent, Bordeaux and Paris £46,725, and received as
the proceeds arising from the sale of exported produce £10,000. It
is thus seen that Gillon, in his financial mission, was moderately
successful. He was less fortunate in making the proposed naval
increase. He succeeded, however, in renting the frigate “Indian”
from the Chevalier Luxembourg for one-fourth of her prizes, for a
period of three years. The reader recollects that this ship was
built at Amsterdam in 1777 by the American Commissioners at Paris,
and that owing to lack of money and to complications growing out of
the laws of neutrality, they had sold the “Indian” to the French
king. Louis XVI. had, in turn, ceded the “Indian” to the Chevalier
Luxembourg.[578]
Gillon renamed his frigate the “South Carolina,” and mounted her
with twenty-eight 32’s and twelve 12’s. Numerous delays ensued in
getting to sea. Owing to shallow water and the heavy draught of the
“South Carolina,” she was from July to November, 1780, moving from
Amsterdam to the Texel. She spent the winter of 1780-1781 in a small
creek near the Texel. These delays caused much expense, and in order
to pay off some of his bills, Gillon, in the spring of 1781, sold to
Colonel John Laurens for Congress military supplies, which he had
recently purchased for South Carolina, to the amount of £10,000.
Laurens now engaged Gillon to take these supplies together with
others to Philadelphia. Gillon had been given full power to man and
officer his vessel, having carried over with him fifteen commissions
and thirty warrants in blank. In March, 1781, he wrote that he had
about two hundred men on board, and that he expected two hundred and
eighty from Dunkirk which the Chevalier Luxembourg had raised for the
state.[579]
The “South Carolina” finally got to sea about the first of August,
1781, leaving behind the convoy which had expected to accompany
her. Gillon’s movements and dealings abroad are not at all points
clear. He aroused suspicions as to his honesty, and made a number of
enemies. Exactly why he did not at once proceed to Philadelphia with
the supplies for Congress which he had on board is not certain. On
sailing he cruised for a month in the North Sea, and for a time near
the English Channel, and then, about the first of October, he put
into Coruña, Spain. Gillon said that he had been detained by contrary
winds, and had returned for fresh provisions before sailing for
America.[580]
On January 12, 1782, Gillon arrived at Havana with five valuable
Jamaicamen, loaded with rum and sugar, and said to be worth $150,000.
Here he found the Spaniards planning a descent on the Bahama Islands,
and he now agreed to take command of the sea-forces consisting of
fifty-nine Spanish and American vessels—probably chiefly Spanish.
General Cadrigal commanded the troops. The expedition left Havana on
April 22, and on May 8 the Bahamas surrendered without firing a shot.
Gillon not very modestly attributed the success of the enterprise to
the “great attention which the captains and officers of the American
vessels of war paid in conveying such a fleet through so difficult
and so unfrequented a passage, with a beating wind all the way,
whereby we disappointed any plans the enemy might have formed of
attacking us in our way through the gulph of Florida.” The island
surrendered, not to the joint American and Spanish forces, but to the
Spaniards alone.[581] It was reported that the Spaniards and Gillon
captured three hundred troops and ninety sail of vessels.[582]
On May 28th the “South Carolina” arrived in Philadelphia, where she
was refitting during the summer and fall of 1782. An agent of the
Chevalier Luxembourg now removed Gillon from the command of his
vessel, which was given to Captain Joyner. The “South Carolina” did
not get to sea until December, 1782. Soon after leaving the Capes
of the Delaware she was chased by a British squadron, which, after
a race of eighteen hours, overhauled her, and at the end of a two
hours’ fight, forced her to surrender.[583] For the loss of this
vessel the Chevalier Luxembourg, in accordance with the terms of his
contract, demanded from South Carolina the payment of 300,000 livres.
Gillon asserted that Luxembourg had forfeited all right to the money
by displacing him at Philadelphia from his command of the vessel.
Further, Gillon declared that the Chevalier had subjected the state
to serious losses by sending its marines, in the winter of 1780-1781,
on an expedition to the Island of Jersey.[584] One estimate makes
the total cost of the frigate to the state more than $200,000, and
another puts it at $500,000.[585] The Luxembourg claims remained
unsettled until December 21, 1814, when the state made a final
payment of $28,894 to the heirs of the Chevalier.[586] South Carolina
is still prosecuting her claims against the United States for a
reimbursement of the expenses contracted in behalf of the “South
Carolina.”[587]
FOOTNOTES:
[541] In writing this chapter I have been much assisted by Mr. A. S.
Salley, Jr., Secretary of the Historical Commission of South Carolina.
[542] Drayton, Memoirs of American Revolution, I, 269-71. Collections
of South Carolina Historical Society, II, 50.
[543] Collections of South Carolina Historical Society, II, 43, 44,
57, 59, 62, 63. Drayton, Memoirs of American Revolution, I, 304-06.
[544] Journals of South Carolina Provincial Congress, November 9, 10,
12, 1775.
[545] Collections of South Carolina Historical Society, III, Journals
of South Carolina Council of Safety, December 16, 1775.
[546] Force, American Archives, 4th, IV, 1307-08. Journals of
Continental Congress, January 16, January 19, 1776.
[547] Gibbes, Documentary History of the American Revolution,
1764-1776, 258.
[548] Journals of South Carolina Provincial Congress, February 15,
February 22, March 5, 14, 25, 26, 1776.
[549] Constitution of South Carolina of 1776.
[550] Journals of South Carolina General Assembly, April 10, April
11, 1776.
[551] Journals of South Carolina General Assembly, April 11, 1776;
Cooper, Statutes of South Carolina, IV, April 9, April 11, 1776.
[552] Journals of South Carolina General Assembly, September 21,
1776; Cooper, Statutes of South Carolina, IV, October 8, 1776.
[553] Force, American Archives, 5th, II, Journals of South Carolina
Navy Board, October 25, 1776.