During the Revolutionary War, the Continentals never had much of a navy. They managed to launch thirteen relatively small frigates, which were converted merchant vessels armed with a few cannons. Most of the naval power came from privateers. Even many state navies were larger than the Continental Navy.
No Navy
Despite its small size, Congress could not even afford that handful of ships. The few ships that had not been captured or destroyed during the war were sold off at the war's end. One ship that was not quite finished, and which the government could not afford to finish, was given to France as a gift. France ended up decommissioning the ship and trashing it as it was not considered sea worthy. The Continentals held onto a single 36 gun frigate after the war, the Alliance. John Paul Jones had captained it for a time. John Barry commanded her when she fought the last naval battle of the Revolutionary War off the coast of Havana on March 10, 1783. Even the cost of that single ship was too much expense for Congress. They auctioned off the Alliance in 1785 to a Philadelphia merchant.
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| USS Constitution |
After establishing the Constitution, the Congress began reestablishing an army, but no navy. The army was needed to deal with Indians. There was no immediate naval threat, and what threats did exist could not be confronted with any pitiably small navy that Congress could afford. So, for several years, Congress ignored the issue of having no navy. The Treasury Department under Hamilton formed what would later be called the Coast Guard, building a few small ships that would be on the lookout for smugglers trying to avoid import duties. But there was nothing that could challenge an enemy warship.
Merchant shipping got off to a slow start after the war. In 1783, following the peace treaty, Britain banned US merchant ships for entering any port in the British West Indies. Before the war, colonists made most of their trade income carrying food to the West Indies to feed the large slave populations on islands that did not want to waste space growing their own food for the slaves instead of valuable cash crops like sugar.
The cut off of British ports caused American trade to suffer in the post war years Some trade continued when British officials were willing to look the other way. But by 1788, US trade with the British West Indies was about half what it had been before the Revolution. Prices for exports fell Many New England fishermen moved to Nova Scotia so that they could continue to trade with the British colonies in the West Indies. Before the war, New England also had a strong ship building business, building ships for British merchants. Britain also forbade British merchants from buying ships from America. Economic depression hit the port cities, especially in New England. The weak economy created higher unemployment and led to the foreclosures that had resulted in revolts like Shays Rebellion.
American merchants began looking for other markets. In 1785, a ship out of New York sailed all the way to China, bringing back a profitable cargo. Many other ships followed, opening up a growing trade with China. Others found new opportunities in Bengal, where the East India Company was still willing to trade with American merchants. They also found new markets in the Baltic and in Mediterranean ports. Others sailed for West African ports to continue the slave trade.
France was also considered an important new trading partner. When Jefferson became the French Ambassador in 1784, one of his first priorities was to establish more commercial treaties, both with France and with the French West Indies.
Trade picked up over time. When most of Europe went to war with Revolutionary France, European ports were willing to pay top dollar for American products. Many of the products made in America could be sold for two or three times the cost in foreign ports.
As American merchant vessels began to spread across the globe, the lack of a navy to support them became more and more of an issue. Many Americans had naively thought that since they were not at war with anyone, their vessels would be largely safe sailing the high seas. This was not the case.
Barbary Pirates
The need for a navy became more pressing over the years. When the new war in Europe began, it became downright urgent. Washington had declared neutrality, primarily to protect US shipping. That did not work. As Alexander Hamilton warned in one of his Federalist papers: "A nation, despicable by its weakness, forfeits even the privilege of being neutral.”
In 1793, Britain ordered the seizure of all neutral vessels headed to France or the French West Indies. Any cargos were seized as contraband. Britain had embarked on a policy of starving out the French. After the Revolutionaries had executed so many land owners, they found the peasants were incapable of managing the farms. French agricultural productivity plummeted and the famine stricken nation was dependent on imports. The British wanted to deny any relief to the enemy.
Frequently, the British Navy would take captured American crew members and impress them into British service. During wartime especially the Royal Navy was in desperate need of capable sailors. English speaking sailors were especially in demand.
France also became a threat to American shipping. French authorities found it easier to seize American merchant ships at sea. They kept the ships, confiscated the cargo and threw crews into prison where they were held for ransom. That proved much more profitable than actually buying the cargoes.
US authorities protested these actions, but neither Britain nor France cared. What could the US do other than protest? It had no navy to threaten any sort of retaliation.
It wasn’t just major powers that picked on easy American prizes at sea. In 1785, the same year that Congress sold off its last warship, ships from the Barbary states captured American merchant ships in the Mediterranean. They kept the ships and cargo and put the crews to work as slaves. US negotiators had to provide ransoms to get their return. Attacks continued, and some American sailors remained held as slaves for years. In 1792, the Dey of Algiers demanded a ransom of $60,000 for the return of one hundred Americans and a dozen ships.
The Mediterranean became off limits to American shipping. In 1793, the situation worsened. Portugal had been blockading the strait of Gibraltar, keeping Barbary ships bottled up in the Mediterranean. Portugal and Algiers negotiated a truce, ending the blockade. Algerian cruisers sailed into the Atlantic, capturing ten American merchant ships in October of that year, the first month that they could get into the open seas. American merchant ships were easy prey, and there was no danger of retaliation of an American Navy that did not exist.
Naval Act of 1794
Congress had been debating establishing a Navy for years. The Constitution had explicitly authorized Congress to provide for and maintain a navy. The administration had recommended this. In 1790, Secretary of War Henry Knox submitted estimates for the construction of several frigates. Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson also recommended the construction of a small fleet based on his prior diplomatic dealings with the Barbary states.
Congress dithered. The country was still trying to get its debt under control, and the people would not tolerate higher taxes. In 1793, the Senate endorsed the idea of a navy, but only “as soon as the state of the public finances will admit.”
The expansion of Barbary attacks on American shipping in the Atlantic finally focused Congress’ attention. Word of the October attacks reached Philadelphia by the end of the year. On January, 2, 1794 the House of Representatives enacted a resolution that the government needed “a naval force adequate to the protection of the commerce of the United States, against the Algerine corsairs”. Even then, the vote was pretty closely divided. The matter was referred to a committee to study the matter.
The committee was largely made up of New Englanders who supported a navy. Several committee members owned ships themselves After less than three weeks, the committee recommended building four large 44 gun frigates and two smaller 20 gun ships. The committee estimated the cost for the fleet would be $600,000. This may not sound like much today, but this was close to 15% of the entire federal budget. In 1793, the government spent a total of $4.5 million including debt retirement. The committee's estimate would also prove to be a rather low estimate of the actual cost.
Opposition to a navy remained strong in Congress. Leading the opposition was none other than Congressman James Madison. He and other Republicans viewed a permanent navy as that one opponent called a “self-feeding organism.” It would result in higher taxes, and more debt. Opposition was particularly strong in southern and western states. They viewed a navy as yet another subsidy to New England merchants. Wealthy ship owners in large northeastern towns were essentially trying to use the tax dollars of southern and western farmers to get free security for their assets.
Beyond the cost of a navy, some also voiced ideological opposition. Like a standing army in peacetime, a standing navy was a symbol of a military autocracy. Even worse, a standing navy cost much more than a standing army. It was something meant for the projection of power abroad. America only needed a military to defend its land. A navy contributed little to that. One opponent characterized all navies as “the playthings of kings and tyrants.”
In response, pro-navy advocates argued that a navy was necessary for the US economy. Marine insurance premiums had increased to 25% of the value of a ship and its cargo. This imposed a $2 million burden on the cost of trade, which impacted everyone who purchased imported goods or who had their crops or other products sold abroad. These costs far exceeded the cost of building and maintaining a navy and would fall considerably if the Navy deterred attacks on American shipping. Supporters also raised the issue of national pride. America had to have a navy if it expected foreign powers to treat it as a sovereign power.
Debate raged in the House for over a month. This was really controversial. In the end, the issue of the Barbary pirates kidnapping and enslaving American sailors seemed to push the majority in favor of building the ships. To get to the majority, those in favor had to accept a Republican amendment that if the US reached a truce with Algiers, that construction of the ships would halt immediately.
The final House bill included six ships as proposed by the committee. There would be four 44 gun frigates. The two smaller 20 gun frigates were upgraded to 36 guns each.
The bill gave the president the authority to appoint six captains who would each supervise the construction of their frigate. The bill also got into the details for all the officers, pay, and details over rations for the crew, even though it would be years before the ships would be ready to sail.
The House passed the bill on March 10, by a vote of 50 to 39. Voting was pretty strongly divided by region. Northern representatives voted for the bill. Representatives from southern and western states voted no. The Senate did not seem to find the bill nearly as controversial. After minimal debate, the Senate passed the bill with a voice vote. President Washington signed the bill on March 29, 1794. The final appropriation for the project in that bill was $688,888.
Naval Appointments
Oversight for building the new navy fell to Henry Knox, the Secretary of War. Congress would not create a separate Secretary of the Navy until 1798, after several of the ships were completed. Even before Congress passed the naval bill, Knox began looking for a ship designer. He selected Joshua Humphreys, considered the most talented ship builder in America.
Humphreys had been building ships since he was apprenticed to a Philadelphia ship builder at age 14. By age 20, he was a master shipwright with his own yard. Despite his Quaker upbringing, Humphreys supported the patriots during the revolution. He built several warships and outfitted more privateers. By 1794 he had designed, built, or repaired hundreds of ships
Humphreys recommended a radical new design for the proposed frigates. The ships would be longer and wider than most ships of similar ratings at the time. They would carry large 24 pound canons at a time when most ships maxed out at 18 pounders. This would give the ships greater firing range and could inflict more damage per shot. They were designed with the purpose of intimidating the smaller Barbary ships, but Humphreys could see them being a real threat to British ships as well.
A 44 gun ship would be only a 5th rate ship in the British Navy. They had plenty that were larger and with more guns. But the size and speed of the new American frigates, along with greater range and firepower, would be able to surprise the enemy with the greater firepower in such a smaller ship.
His new designs drew criticism that they would not be as stable or structurally sound as European ships. They also had a heavier draw, meaning they could not follow enemies into shallower waters. In the end, the government accepted his designs for the ships, and building commenced.
Washington and Knox worked together to come up with the names for each of the ships and determine where they would be built. The President wanted each ship built in a separate town, in part to spread out the economic benefits of the project, but also to prevent any single town from becoming the exclusive expert in building ships for the navy.
President Washington also appointed navy captains within a few months of passage. The most senior captain appointed was John Barry, who would oversee the building of the ship named the United States in Philadelphia. Barry would also have input on the other appointments.
Barry was the only captain who had appeared on the original captain’s list of the Continental Navy back in 1775. I won’t get into all of his commands during the Revolution but he ended the war as one of its naval heroes. Following the war, he returned to the command of merchant vessels. By 1794, he was nearly 50 years old, but had a great war reputation and was still ready for action. Washington would later appoint him commodore of the entire fleet.
Second in seniority was Samuel Nicholson, tasked with overseeing the construction of the Constitution in Boston. Nicolson had served as a lieutenant under Lambert Wickes and later under John Paul Jones during the war. He commanded one of the smaller ships alongside the Bonhomme Richard during its famous battle with the Serapis. Later in the war he captained the 32 gun frigate the Deane. He spent many years after the war trying to get paid prize money for ships he had captured during the war.
The third appointment went to Richard Dale, who oversaw construction of the Chesapeake in Norfolk. Dale’s war service during the Revolution began as a lieutenant of a ship commissioned by Virginia. His ship was quickly captured by the British and impressed into British service. Later, his ship was captured by John Barry in command of the Lexington at the time. Dale happily volunteered for service and became a midshipman. The British captured him again, holding him as a prisoner until he returned to the Lexington. Captured a third time, Dale was imprisoned in England. After his escape, he joined John Paul Jones on the Bonhomme Richard. Dale was captured again, imprisoned in British occupied New York City. After his exchange, he went to work on a privateer ship. He never served as a captain during the war, but became a merchant captain after the war, and also married a relative of John Barry.
The fourth appointment went to James Sever, who oversaw the Congress being built in Portsmouth. Sever had been in the army during the war, joining late at age 20 in 1781 after graduating from Harvard. He had no naval experience, prior to his appointment but had been a merchant captain after the war.
Silas Talbot got the fifth appointment, building the President in New York. Talbot had served in the Continental Army, but volunteered for the navy when the Continental Congress established one. Although he commanded several small ships in the navy, he retained his army commission, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel. Although he received a naval commission as a captain in 1779, Congress did not have any ships available, so he took command of a privateer ship. The British captured that ship and he remained a prisoner until 1781. After the war, Talbot served as a ship’s captain in the slave trade. He settled in New York where he got elected to the state assembly. He was serving in the US Congress when the president appointed him to be the captain of the President.
The sixth and final appointment went to Thomas Truxtun to supervise construction of the ship Constellation in Baltimore. Truxton had been born in New York but went to sea at age 12. When the Revolutionary War began, he was impressed into the British Navy. While he had no choice in serving, he declined an appointment as midshipman. After being wounded, he escaped and commanded several privateer ships under a Continental letter of marque. After the war he was a successful merchant captain, making one of the first trips to China from the United States.
Work on the project began almost immediately. Washington approved the ship designs on April 16, less than three weeks after the bill was signed into law. Over the summer, the government began establishing federal navy yards in each of the six towns that would build the ships. By fall, teams were already harvesting oak timber from St. Simon’s Island in Georgia to build the ships. By the end of the year, the first keel was already laid in Philadelphia. The project would take years to complete, but was already well underway.
Next week: The government faces another internal rebellion over the tax on whiskey.
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Next Episode 385 Whiskey Rebellion(coming soon)
Previous Episode 383 Eli Whitney & Dolley Madison
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Further Reading
Websites
The Naval Act of 1794: https://www.mountvernon.org/education/primary-source-collections/primary-source-collections/article/the-naval-act-of-1794
President Washington Signs the Naval Act of 1794: 27 March 1794 https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/heritage/origins-of-the-navy/washington-naval-act-1794.html
The Reestablishment of the Navy, 1787-1801: https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/bibliographies/reestablishment-navy-1787-1801.html
March 27th, 1794: The Navy As We Know Now: https://usnforlife.com/blogs/usnforlife-blog/march-27th-1794-the-navy-as-we-know-now-nbsp
The Navy: The Continental Period, 1775-1890: https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/h/history-of-the-us-navy/continental-period.html
Bauer, K. Jack. “Naval Shipbuilding Programs 1794-1860.” Military Affairs, vol. 29, no. 1, 1965, pp. 29–40. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1985025
The Seventh Frigate https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2020/august/seventh-frigate
Free eBooks
(from archive.org unless noted)
Brant, Irving James Madison: Father of the Constitution, 1787-1800. Bobbs-Merrill Co. 1950 (borrow only).
Griffin, Martin I. J. The story of Commodore John Barry, "father of the American navy" Philadelphia: Society of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, 1908.
Maas, John R. Defending a New Nation 1783-1811, Washington, DC: Center of Military History, 2013. (US Army website).
Meany, William Barry Commodore John Barry, the father of the American navy, New York: Harper & Brothers, 1911.
Books Worth Buying
(links to Amazon.com unless otherwise noted)*
Chernow, Ron Alexander Hamilton, Penguin Press, 2004.
Chernow, Ron Washington, A Life, Penguin Press, 2010.
Chervinsky, Lindsay M. The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution, Belknap Press, 2020.
McDonald, Forrest, The Presidency of George Washington, Univ of Kansas Press, 1974.
Meacham, Jon Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power, Random House, 2012.
Miller, John C. Alexander Hamilton and the Growth of the New Nation, Routledge, 2017.
Miller, Nathan The U.S. Navy: A History, Naval Institute Press, 1977.
Randall, Willard Sterne Thomas Jefferson: A Life, Henry Holt and Co. 1993.
Toll, Ian W. Six Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of the US Navy, W.W. Norton & Co. 2006.
Unger, Harlow G. "Mr. President": George Washington and the Making of the Nation's Highest Office, Da Capo Press, 2013.
* As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
