CHAPTER III
Theships put afloat by Congress and which may be taken as the regular navy of the Revolution were, however, strongly supplemented by the navies of the states (except New Jersey and Delaware), and by the multitude of privateers which cruised under both state and Continental commissions. Massachusetts led in the number of state ships; but South Carolina in size and importance. Massachusetts had sixteen vessels, the only one of any size being theProtector, a ship carrying 26 light guns. All the others carried but from ten to twenty. This “navy” made about seventy captures during the war. But the state made one most unfortunate venture, the Penobscot Expedition, to be mentioned later. New Hampshire had one small ship, theHampden, of 22 guns; Georgia, four galleys (vessels propelled by both sails and oars). Connecticut had a navy of ten vessels, the largest of which were theOliver Cromwell, of 18 guns, and theDefence, of 14. All had disappearedby loss or capture by July, 1779, after having made some thirty captures. There was, however, throughout the war great activity in Long Island Sound where there was a warfare of boats against the illicit traffic carried on to supply the British at New York. As always, greed frequently overcame patriotism, and smuggling in both directions was rife throughout the war.
The situation of New York, with its one port in possession of the enemy, precluded anything of a patriot naval force except a few galleys on the Hudson. Pennsylvania, however, had in 1777 a total of fifty-one vessels on the Delaware, the only important one in size being the small purchased shipMontgomery; all the others were but armed boats of the type known as galleys. In 1777 there were in the state naval service (which was administered by a board of six, later of ten) a total of about 700 officers and men. The activities of this force were confined to the Delaware River and Bay, and when the British army was transferred to Philadelphia in 1777 these activities were very active indeed, including the burning of a British line-of-battle ship, theAugusta, 64, and the sloop-of-warMerlin, 18, which had grounded.All these vessels were finally driven up the Delaware by an overpowering force, except theMontgomeryand several smaller craft, which had to be burned to escape capture. What remained after the British evacuation of Philadelphia in 1778, when the French fleet had appeared on our coast under the alliance just made with France, were sold in December of that year. This remainder consisted of ten galleys, nine armed boats, the brigConvention, the sloopsSpeedwell,Sally,Industry, andBlack Duck, and the schoonerLydia.[2]
Maryland in 1776 invested in a ship called theDefencecarrying twenty-two 6-pounders, the largest vessel of her coming small navy; two schooners and seven row galleys formed the remainder. All except two galleys and a schooner were sold in 1779, but British success in the South renewed depredations in the Chesapeake, and four large barges to carry twenty-five men each and 9 and 18 pounders and a schooner to carry ten 4-pounders were ordered. In 1782, depredations continuing, a ship and four additional barges were ordered, and in November of that year such vessels fought a severe andmost gallant action with an overpowering British force of the same character, theProtector, which bore the brunt of the action on the American side, losing fifty-four killed and wounded out of her crew of sixty-five. “Except when used for commercial purposes, Maryland’s vessels rarely passed outside the capes at the mouth of the Chesapeake.” Virginia entered upon the question of a navy with enthusiasm and a number of vessels were authorized; the two frigates voted were, however, never built. Actual construction was confined to galleys and schooners; the number first and last, though very considerable, is indefinite. The state established a navy yard on the Chickahominy, operated a ropewalk, and established naval magazines. The whole force practically disappeared during the raid by Phillips and Arnold when on April 27, 1780, a few miles below Richmond, six ships, eight brigs, five sloops, two schooners, and several smaller vessels and the ropewalk at Warwick were destroyed; twelve were captured which had escaped destruction, and but one vessel remained in the Virginia navy, the armed boatLiberty. A small force later, in 1782, was gathered which operated in the Chesapeake (within which theVirginia force remained almost entirely during the war) until peace in 1783.
Almost foremost in naval activity and expenditure was South Carolina. The state owned in all some fifteen vessels, of which the most important was theBricole, purchased in France, and mounting forty-four 24’s and 18’s, though pierced for sixty. She, with nearly all the other ships of the state, was sunk as an obstacle to the British in the siege ending in the surrender of May 11, 1780. She was the largest American ship of the Revolution in actual service. There survived theIndian, “rented” by Alexander Gillon, who had been commissioned as commodore and sent abroad to raise some £71,000 with which to build three frigates. The only result was the renting of theIndian, which had been built by Congress in Holland, but which, to prevent international complications, had been sold to the King of France and by him given to the Chevalier Luxembourg. TheIndianwas renamed theSouth Carolinaand given an armament of twenty-eight 32’s and twelve 12’s, an unusually heavy battery. It was not until August, 1781, that she got to sea, cruised for a time in the North Sea, but arrived at Havana on January 12, 1782, withfive valuable prizes. She formed one of a combined American and Spanish expedition in May to the Bahamas, which was successful. On May 28th she arrived at Philadelphia, where an agent of Luxembourg caused the removal of Gillon and the appointment of a Captain Joyner; she refitted and left for sea in December. Scarcely outside the Capes of the Delaware, she was chased by a British squadron and taken after a two hours’ fight. Luxembourg demanded under the contract an indemnity of 300,000 livres (francs). This Gillon denied, claiming his removal to be a breach of contract. The claims were unsettled until December, 1874, when the state of South Carolina paid $28,894 to the heirs of Luxembourg as a final settlement. South Carolina is still prosecuting her claims against the United States for a reimbursement of her expenditures for this ship.[3]
The efforts at a state navy of North Carolina, Georgia, and Rhode Island were of too moderate a character to need much comment. That of the first consisted of three brigantines in 1778 and the addition of a small ship, theCaswell, in 1778. By June, 1779, all had disappearedby sale or (in the case of theCaswell) by sinking at Ocracoke. Georgia had but four galleys. But two sloops and two galleys were the extent of Rhode Island’s navy, though it was this state, as mentioned, which took the first steps toward naval defence.
Of vastly greater importance than the state navies were the privateers, a service congenial to the New England seamen from every point of view. There was “more money in it”; there was the absence of a strict and irksome discipline, and the cruises were short. The great number of privateers fitting out made it a matter of extreme difficulty to find men for the ships of the regular service, which thus not infrequently had to lie idle and unemployed. Had a tithe of the effort expended upon privateers been expended upon the building and equipment of a navy, it is not unfair to say that the general results would probably have been much better. But privateering had already been a much-indulged-in occupation. The Seven Years’ War had ended only in 1763, and during this period many American privateers were afloat. The slave trade also was a favorite New England occupation, and piracy itself at the period was not altogether disreputable ifapplied only to those “natural enemies,” the French and Spanish. Nearly all the officers of the new Continental navy had their first war training in privateers, and very frequently during the Revolution officers took a hand at privateering in the moments of enforced leisure when there was no naval ship to which they could be assigned.
Congress authorized privateering on March 23, 1776, and a list printed by the Library of Congress shows the number and kind of vessels furnished with letters of marque by the Continental Congress. This gives a total of such of 1,697. Of these there were ships 301; brigs and brigantines, 541; schooners and sloops, 751; boats and galleys, 104. These are accredited to the several states as follows: New Hampshire, 43; Massachusetts, 626; Rhode Island, 15; Connecticut, 218; New York, 1; New Jersey, 4; Pennsylvania, 500; Maryland, 225; Virginia, 64; South Carolina, 1. Distributed by years there were afloat in 1776, 34; 1777, 69; 1778, 129; 1779, 209; 1780, 301; 1781, 550; 1783, 22. These altogether carried 14,872 guns and 58,400 men. It is, of course, almost a certainty that many of these vessels were duplicated in this list, but such duplication is morethan offset by the issuance of letters of marque by the several states and in France and the West Indies which, according to an excellent authority, would carry the number to over 2,000, with 18,000 guns and 70,000 men. “Judging from the scanty information at hand concerning British privateering, it is probable that their vessels engaged in this form of warfare were considerably less numerous but decidedly superior in force to the Americans; the latter seem to have carried on an average between eight and nine guns and less than thirty-five men; the British about seventeen guns and seventy-five or more men.”[4]
The value of the captures of the privateers was about $18,000,000; that of the captures of the navy, which had thirty-one ships afloat in 1776, thirty-four in 1777, and but seven in 1782, was, proportioned to the number of ships employed, much greater, being some $6,000,000. Altogether (i. e., by both services) some 800 vessels were captured. Our own losses were also very great, but not nearly so great as those of Britain. About 16,000 prisoners were taken afloat, only 6,000 less than those taken by the army.
By July, 1776, the British fleet in the vicinityof New York, where the attack was about to take place on the American army assembled on Long Island near Brooklyn, which resulted in our defeat and the occupancy of New York for the remainder of the war, consisted of nine ships of from 50 to 64 guns; three of 44; twenty-seven of from 28 to 32; fourteen of 20; eleven of 14 to 18; sixteen of from 8 to 10—a total of eighty ships of war. This fleet was under the command of Richard Viscount Howe, whose brother, General Howe, was commander-in-chief of the army of 34,614 men, of whom 13,167 were of the 29,867 Hessians hired for the war by Great Britain. These two brothers were for some two years to conduct the British main operations in America. One, the admiral, was an officer of great ability and rose to high distinction; the General was handicapped by a slothful and unenterprising disposition with a character marred by an extreme looseness in moral conduct. His want of enterprise may have been due in part to the attitude of the Whig party in England, to which he was attached, and which was opposed in general to the use of force against America. In any case, his qualities were such that they went a long way toward the establishment of American independence.
In addition to Howe’s fleet there were, under Commodore Sir Peter Parker, two 50-gun ships, four of 28, two of 20, and three of 8 guns. These were to be employed against Charleston, South Carolina.
On Lake Champlain the British were to have during 1776 a ship of eighteen 12-pounders, a schooner of fourteen 6-pounders; another of 12; three “Radeaux” (flat-bottomed craft), one carrying six 24-pounders, one six 12-pounders, and one two howitzers. There were also a gondola (with oars) carrying seven 9-pounders, and twenty gunboats, each with a brass field piece of from 24 to 9 pounds.
The naval force here mentioned was at times reinforced by accessions of line-of-battle ships, as many as twenty-one being at times available. The British, however, with an unwise conception of the true strategy of the situation, were constantly diverting these to the West Indies, which, during our Revolution, after war was declared by France and Spain, was the great field of naval action. It is within bounds to say that they lost the United States for the sake of the West India Islands.