Formation and First Vessels of the Continental Navy
Given that the Thirteen Colonies lay along the vast Atlantic Ocean, the maritime trade had always played a large role in their existence. And the quarrels the colonists had with Great Britain extended to this sphere as well. In 1772, three years before the war would begin, colonists in Rhode Island captured and burned the Royal Navy ship HMS Gaspee, as retaliation for what they viewed as heavy-handed enforcement of anti-smuggling laws.1 In 1774, the British government banned the colonies from importing gunpowder, and on December 14 of that year, colonists attacked Fort William and Mary on the Piscataway River, seizing British powder and guns.2 Thus, when the war began at Lexington and Concord the next year, it was clear that the battle for independence would be won not just on land, but at sea as well. The first movements for state navies began in the summer of 1775, as the Connecticut General Assembly did on July 1.3
Some of the first actions taken were to procure vessels, which was often done by theft. For example, on July 10, Robert Niles of Connecticut captured the brig Nancy, which was owned by a loyalist from Boston. Other early vessels were purchased, as the Connecticut Assembly would do over August and September of 1775, as did other states.4 Despite these individual colonies beginning to form their own navies, the Continental Congress did not take action immediately. Before there was a Continental Navy, George Washington took it upon himself to outfit several ships with army officers and men. His goal was to disrupt British munitions transports into Boston, which till this point went unmolested. Furthermore, his men were so low on powder he thought that the capture of even one ship would breathe new life into the campaign.5
Meanwhile in the Continental Congress, debates occurred about how to proceed in this area. The first motions came from Rhode Island, which instructed its delegates in Congress to introduce a resolution to build a Continental Navy.6 They meant to take advantage of the vast New England forests, and the shipbuilding capabilities of the colonies, which already supported much of the ships built for the Royal Navy. Utilizing this to the Revolutionaries' goals would simultaneously deprive the British of a key resource.7 John Adams supported the idea of a navy, and to encourage privateers to attack British shipping. Finally, on October 13, 1775, legislation was passed in the Continental Congress to outfit two vessels for the purposes of capturing British munitions transports bound for Quebec. These vessels would be considered the first of the Continental Navy.8
Massachusetts was the first colony to officially commission privateers, doing so in November of 1775, and New Hampshire followed two months later. Months before the Continental Congress would begin to seriously commission admirals and fleets, privateers were taking prizes up and down the Atlantic Coast.9 By the end of December, privateers such as Simeon Sellecks, had taken prizes and ceded them to the Congress for their use. These privateers, as well as those efforts of Washington and others, marked the first major efforts of the colonists to fight back and resist the British dominion at sea.
1 Kylie Hulbert, The Untold War at Sea: America’s Revolutionary Privateers (Georgia University Press, 2002) pg. 13-14
2 Naval Documents of the American Revolution, Volume 1, edited by William Bell Clark, (Naval History Division, 1964), pg. xxxii
3 Cohen, Sheldon S. “Captain Robert Niles and the Connecticut State Navy.” The New England Quarterly 89, no. 1 (2016): 84–108. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24718655.
4 Cohen. “Captain Robert Niles” The New England Quarterly (2016): 84–108.
5 Miller, US Navy, pg. 15
6 Miller, US Navy, pg. 14
7 Miller, US Navy, pg. 14-15
8 Naval Documents of the American Revolution, Volume 2, edited by William Bell Clark, (Naval History Division), pg. 2
9 Hulbert, Untold War at Sea, pg. 17