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The Birth of the Navy of the United States

On Friday, October 13, 1775, meeting in Philadelphia, the Continental Congress voted to fit out two sailing vessels, armed with ten carriage guns, as well as  swivel guns, and manned by crews of eighty, and to send them out on a cruise of  three months to intercept transports carrying munitions and stores to the  British army in America. This was the original legislation out of which the Continental Navy grew and as such constitutes the birth certificate of the  navy.

To understand the momentous significance of the decision to send two armed  vessels to sea under the authority of the Continental Congress, we need to review the strategic situation in which it was made and to consider the political struggle that lay behind it.

Americans first took up arms in the spring of 1775 not to sever their  relationship with the king, but to defend their rights within the British  Empire. By the autumn of 1775, the British North American colonies from Maine to Georgia were in open rebellion. Royal governments had been thrust out of many colonial capitals and revolutionary governments put in their places. The Continental Congress had assumed some of the responsibilities of a central  government for the colonies, created a Continental Army, issued paper money for the support of the troops, and formed a committee to negotiate with foreign countries. Continental forces captured Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain and  launched an invasion of Canada.

In October 1775 the British held superiority at sea, from which they threatened to stop up the colonies' trade and to wreak destruction on seaside settlements. In response a few of the states had commissioned small fleets of  their own for defense of local waters. Congress had not yet authorized privateering. Some in Congress worried about pushing the armed struggle too far,  hoping that reconciliation with the mother country was still possible.

Yet, a small coterie of men in Congress had been advocating a Continental  Navy from the outset of armed hostilities. Foremost among these men was John  Adams, of Massachusetts. For months, he and a few others had been agitating in Congress for the establishment of an American fleet. They argued that a fleet would defend the seacoast towns, protect vital trade, retaliate against British  raiders, and make it possible to seek out among neutral nations of the world the arms and stores that would make resistance possible.

Still, the establishment of a navy seemed too bold a move for some of the timid men in Congress. Some southerners agreed that a fleet would protect and secure the trade of New England but denied that it would that of the southern colonies. Most of the delegates did not consider the break with England as final  and feared that a navy implied sovereignty and independence. Others thought a navy a hasty and foolish challenge to the mightiest fleet the world had seen. The most the pro-navy men could do was to get Congress to urge each colony to  fit out armed vessels for the protection of their coasts and harbors.

Then, on 3 October, Rhode Island's delegates laid before Congress a bold  resolution for the building and equipping of an American fleet, as soon as possible. When the motion came to the floor for debate, Samuel Chase, of  Maryland, attacked it, saying it was "the maddest Idea in the World to think of building an American Fleet." Even pro-navy members found the proposal too vague. It lacked specifics and no one could tell how much it would cost.

If Congress was yet unwilling to embrace the idea of establishing a navy as a  permanent measure, it could be tempted by short-term opportunities. Fortuitously, on 5 October, Congress received intelligence of two English brigs, unarmed and without convoy, laden with munitions, leaving England bound for Quebec. Congress immediately appointed a committee to consider how to take advantage of this opportunity. Its members were all New Englanders and all ardent supporters of a navy. They recommended first that the governments of  Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut be asked to dispatch armed vessels  to lay in wait to intercept the munitions ships; next they outlined a plan for  the equipping by Congress of two armed vessels to cruise to the eastward to  intercept any ships bearing supplies to the British army. Congress let this plan  lie on the table until 13 October, when another fortuitous event occurred in  favor of the naval movement. A letter from General Washington was read in  Congress in which he reported that he had taken under his command, at Continental expense, three schooners to cruise off Massachusetts to intercept enemy supply ships. The commander in chief had preempted members of Congress reluctant to take the first step of fitting out warships under Continental  authority. Since they already had armed vessels cruising in their name, it was not such a big step to approve two more. The committee's proposal, now appearing eminently reasonable to the reluctant members, was adopted.

The Continental Navy grew into an important force. Within a few days, Congress established a Naval Committee charged with equipping a fleet. This  committee directed the purchasing, outfitting, manning, and operations of the  first ships of the new navy, drafted subsequent naval legislation, and prepared  rules and regulations to govern the Continental Navy's conduct and internal  administration.

Over the course of the War of Independence, the Continental Navy sent to sea  more than fifty armed vessels of various types. The navy's squadrons and cruisers seized enemy supplies and carried correspondence and diplomats to Europe, returning with needed munitions. They took nearly 200 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. In addition, the navy provoked diplomatic crises that helped bring France into the war against Great Britain. The  Continental Navy began the proud tradition carried on today by our United States  Navy, and whose birthday we celebrate each year in October.

Not to be confused with the Navy Birthday October 13 or the founding of the Navy Department is Navy Day. The navy League sponsored the first national observance of Navy Day in 1922 Designed to give recognition to the naval service. The Navy League of the New York Propsosed that officaial observance be on 27 Cctober in honor of President Theodore Roosevelt, who had been born on that day October 13 1858.

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