Commodore Paul Jones 4

Commodore Paul Jones 4

This may be considered as the real and actual beginning of the

American navy. There had been numerous naval encounters between

vessels of war of the enemy and private armed vessels acting under the

authority of the various colonies; and Washington himself, with the

approval of the Congress, which passed some explicit resolutions on

the subject on October 5th, had made use of the individual colonial

naval forces, and had issued commissions to competent men empowering

them to cruise and intercept the transports and other vessels laden

with powder and supplies for the enemy, but no formal action looking

to the creation of a regular naval force had been taken heretofore.

 

Congress had long clung to the hope of reconciliation with the mother

country, and had been exceedingly loath to take the radical step

involved in the establishment of a navy, for in the mind of the

Anglo-Saxon, who always claimed supremacy on the sea, a navy is

primarily for offense. To constitute a navy for defense alone is to

invite defeat. Aggression and initiative are of the essence of success

in war on the sea. Now, in the peculiar condition in which the United

Colonies found themselves, a naval force could be used for no other

purpose than offense. The capacity of any navy which the colonies

could hope to create, for defensive warfare, would be so slender as to

be not worth the outlay, and the creation of a navy to prey upon the

enemy's commerce and to take such of his armed vessels as could be

overcome would controvert the fiction that we were simply resisting

oppression. It would be making war in the most unmistakable way.

 

It is a singular thing that men have been willing to do, or condone

the doing of, things on land which they have hesitated to do or

condone on the sea. The universal diffusion of such sentiments is seen

in the absurdly illogical contention on the part of the British

Government subsequently, that, although a soldier on land was a rebel,

he could be treated as a belligerent; while a man who stood in exactly

the same relation to the King of England whose field of action

happened to be the sea was of necessity a pirate.

 

At any rate, by the acts of Congress enumerated, a navy was assembled,

and the plan of Rhode Island was adopted. It was Rhode Island, by the

way, which, by preamble and resolution, sundered its allegiance to

Great Britain just two months to a day before the Declaration of

Independence. To the naval committee already constituted, Stephen

Hopkins, Richard Henry Lee, John Adams, and Joseph Hewes were soon

added. The committee at once undertook the work of carrying out the

instructions they had received. On the 5th of November they selected

for the command of the proposed navy Esek Hopkins, of Rhode Island, a

brother of the famous Stephen Hopkins who was a member of the

committee and one of the most influential members of the Congress.

Other officers were commissioned from time to time as selections were

made, and commissions and orders were issued to them by the committee,

subject, of course, to the ratification or other action by the

Congress. Paul Jones' commission as a lieutenant, as has been stated,

was dated the 7th of December, 1775.

 

Esek Hopkins, who was born in 1718, was therefore fifty-seven years of

age. He had been a master mariner for thirty years. He was a man of

condition and substance who had traded in his own ships in all the

then visited parts of the globe. As a commander of privateers and

letters of marque he was not without experience in arms. He had been

created a brigadier general of the Rhode Island militia on the

threatened outbreak of hostilities, a position he resigned to take

command of the navy. On the 22d of December Congress confirmed the

nomination of Hopkins as commander-in-chief, and regularly appointed

the following officers:

 

 

Captains:

Dudley Saltonstall,

Abraham Whipple,

Nicholas Biddle,

John Burroughs Hopkins.

 

First Lieutenants:

John Paul Jones,

Rhodes Arnold,

---- Stansbury,

Hoysted Hacker,

Jonathan Pitcher.

 

Second Lieutenants:

Benjamin Seabury,

Joseph Olney,

Elisha Warner,

Thomas Weaver,

---- McDougall.

 

Third Lieutenants:

John Fanning,

Ezekiel Burroughs,

Daniel Vaughan.

 

 

These were, therefore, the forerunners of that long line of

distinguished naval officers who have borne the honorable commission

of the United States.

 

In addition to the regular course pursued, other action bearing upon

the subject of naval affairs was had. On Saturday, November, 25th,

Congress, enraged by the burning of Falmouth, adopted radical

resolutions, looking toward the capture and confiscation of armed

British vessels and transports, directing the issuance of commissions

to the captains of cruisers and privateers, and creating admiralty

courts and prescribing a scheme for distributing prize money. On

November 28th resolutions prescribing "Regulations for the Government

of the Navy of the United Colonies" were adopted, the first appearance

of that significant phrase in the records, by the way.

 

On December 5th the seizure of merchant vessels engaging in trade

between the Tories of Virginia and the West Indies under the

inspiration of Lord Dunmore, was ordered. On December 11th a special

committee to devise ways and means for "furnishing these colonies with

a naval armament" was appointed. Two days later the report of the

committee was adopted, and thirteen ships were ordered built, five of

thirty-two, five of twenty-eight, and three of twenty-four guns. They

were to be constructed one in New Hampshire, two in Massachusetts, one

in Connecticut, two in Rhode Island, two in New York, four in

Pennsylvania, and one in Maryland; the maximum cost of each of them

was sixty-six thousand six hundred and sixty-six dollars and sixty-six

and two thirds cents. They had a fine idea of accuracy in the

construction corps of that day.

 

But, while Congress had been therefore preparing to build the navy,

the regular marine committee had not been idle. By strenuous effort

the committee assembled a squadron. A merchant vessel called the Black

Prince, which had lately arrived from London under the command of John

Barry (afterward a famous American commodore), was purchased and

renamed the Alfred, after King Alfred the Great, who is commonly

believed to be the founder of the British navy. She was a small,

stanch trading vessel, very heavily timbered, and with unusually stout

scantlings for a ship of her class, although of course not equal to a

properly constructed ship of war. The committee armed her with twenty

9-pounders on the main deck, and four smaller guns, possibly 6- or

4-pounders, on the forecastle and poop, and she was placed under the

command of Captain Dudley Saltonstall. Jones, whose name stood first

on the list of first lieutenants, was appointed her executive officer.

Hopkins selected her for his flagship. Jones had been offered the

command of one of the smaller vessels of the squadron, but elected to

fill his present station, as presenting more opportunities for

acquiring information and seeing service. His experience in armed

vessels had been limited; he knew but little of the requirements of a

man-of-war, and deemed he could best fit himself for that higher

command to which he aspired and determined to deserve by beginning his

service under older and more experienced officers--a wise decision.

 

The next important vessel was another converted merchantman,

originally called the Sally, now named the Columbus, after the great

discoverer. She was a full-rigged ship of slightly less force and

armament than the Alfred, commanded by Captain Abraham Whipple,

already distinguished in a privateering way. In addition to these

there were two brigs called the Andrea Doria and the Cabot, commanded

by Captains Nicholas Biddle and John Burroughs Hopkins, a son of the

commander-in-chief. The Andrea Doria and Cabot carried fourteen

4-pounders each.

 

Hopkins arrived at Philadelphia in December, 1775, in the brig Katy,

of the Rhode Island navy, which was at once taken into the Continental

service and renamed the Providence, after the commander's native town.

She carried twelve light guns, 4-pounders. There were also secured a

ten-gun schooner called the Hornet, and the Wasp and Fly, two

eight-gun schooners or tenders, one of which Jones had refused. The

work of outfitting these ships as generously as the meager resources

of the colonies permitted had been carried on assiduously before the

arrival of the commander-in-chief, whose first duty, when he reached

Philadelphia, was formally to assume the command.

 

This assumption of command entailed the putting of the ships in

commission by publicly reading the orders appointing the commodore,

and assigning him to command, and hoisting and saluting the flags. The

officers previously appointed had been proceeding somewhat

irregularly, doubtless, by going on with their preparations prior to

this important ceremony. At any rate, in the latter part of December,

1775, or the early part of January, 1776--the date not being clear,

the authorities not only differing, but in no single case venturing

upon a definite statement--all things having been made ready,

Commodore Hopkins with his staff officers entered the commodore's

barge, lying at the foot of Walnut Street, and was rowed to the

flagship. The wharves and houses facing the river were crowded with

spectators to witness so momentous a ceremony as the commissioning of

the first American fleet.

 

It has been recorded that it was a bright, cold, clear winter morning.

The barge picked its way among the floating ice cakes of the Delaware,

and finally reached the Alfred. The commodore mounted the side,

followed by his staff, and was received with due honors in the gangway

by the captain and his officers in such full dress as they could

muster. The crew and the marines were drawn up in orderly ranks in the

waist and on the quarter deck. After the reading of the commodore's

commission and the orders assigning him to the command of the fleet,