DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
901 M STREET SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060
The Birth of the Navy of the United States
Friday, 13 October 1775. The British North American colonies,
from Maine to Georgia, were in open rebellion. In colonial capitals, Royal
governments had been thrust out and revolutionary governments put in their
places. A British army occupied Boston, besieged by an American army under
George Washington. Another American army, under Richard Montgomery, was
besieging Fort St. John's on its way to attempt to capture Quebec and Montreal,
while Benedict Arnold led a force through the wilderness farther east against
the same targets.
Friday, 13 October 1775, meeting in Philadelphia, the Continental Congress
adopted the original legislation out of which the Continental Navy grew:
"Resolved, That a swift sailing vessel, to carry ten carriage
guns, and a proportionate number of swivels, with eighty men, be fitted,
with all possible dispatch for a cruise of three months, and that the commander
be instructed to cruize eastward, for intercepting such transports as may
be laden with warlike stores and other supplies for our enemies, and for
such other purposes as the Congress shall direct.... Resolved, that
another vessel be fitted out for the same purposes...." This prosaic
language constitutes the Navy's birth certificate.
Within a few days of that vote, Congress established a Naval Committee,
which directed the purchasing, outfitting, manning, and operations of the
first ships of the new navy, drafted naval legislation, and prepared rules
and regulations to govern the navy's conduct and internal administration.
From that beginning, the Continental Navy grew to a force that at its
peak numbered forty armed vessels of various types. During the war, the
navy's squadron's and cruisers seized enemy supplies and carried correspondence
and diplomats to Europe, returning with needed munitions. They took nearly
two hundred British vessels as prizes, some off the British Isles themselves,
contributing to the demoralization of the enemy and forcing the British
to divert warships to protect convoys and trade routes. And the navy provoked
diplomatic crises that helped bring France into the war against Great Britain.
"Success has a thousand fathers, but failure is an orphan."
There are several candidates for the title "father of the Navy,"
and half a dozen places claim the sobriquet "birthplace of the Navy."
Machias, Maine, points to the seizing of the Royal Navy schooner Margaretta
by a small sloop armed with woodsmen on 12 June 1775. Whitehall, New York,
proudly affirms the army's fleet on Lake Champlain under Benedict Arnold
as our first navy. Beverly and Marblehead, Massachusetts, base their claim
on their role in fitting out and manning the small fleet of schooners employed
by George Washington in the autumn and winter of 1775 to prey on enemy transports.
Providence, Rhode Island, asserts its title as the site of the first call
for the establishment of a navy.
While these and other towns contributed to the commencement of naval
operations in the American Revolution, perhaps the best claim for birthplace
of the Navy belongs to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in a logical corollary
to recognizing October 13, 1775, as its birth date. It was in Philadelphia
that the Continental Congress passed the first national naval legislation,
and Philadelphia was the port where the purchase and outfitting of the first
four vessels of the Continental Navy took place.
Candidates for the title "father of the Navy" include George
Washington, Continental Navy officers Esek Hopkins, John Barry, and John
Paul Jones, as well as civilians John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Morris,
Joseph Hewes, and Silas Deane. Many men in numerous locations played prominent
roles in the founding of our national navy. And so, the Navy recognizes
no one individual as "father," to the exclusion of others.
26 March 96