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I know this is the last thing you want to do when you get on the internet, but I need you to think of your history for a moment. When you think of the American Revolution, what comes to mind? Probably you thought of the major land battles in the north. Notice that I said land battles because the only place in the entire war where the navy got any recognition was at Yorktown. I intend to shed some light on this important aspect of the war. The navy’s importance wasn’t as much in ships captured or sunk as it was in raised morale and convincing the Colonists themselves that there might just be a way to separate from England.
One of the major functions of the navy was to harass British trade. Any success at this point is a major one because of the size of the British navy. Comparing the British navy to the American navy is like comparing the military power of every other country in Asia to that of North Korea, as the first ships in the navy were converted merchant ships. Most of what the navy did during the war was rely on the French. That being said, I must stress the importance of even one captured ship. The trip from England to America took one month as a minimum, during which the ships were at the mercy of the weather, disease, and privateers (pirates). One notable capture was that of the HMS Blue Mountain Valley. Some Landsmen got in a boat and pretended they were fishing. As the Blue Mountain valley turned to go around a small peninsula, it slowed down and they boarded it.
One of the major acts of the navy was the siege of Yorktown, so my report would be incomplete without it. Cornwallis was losing his campaign in the south, so, after two years, he retreated to Yorktown for men and supplies. He then seceded to board his ships and retreat further. When Washington learns of Cornwallis’ new position, he recommends transporting both French and American soldiers to Yorktown. Soon after, he learns that the French Admiral Francois de Grasse and his twenty-eight ships stationed in the West Indies are sailing for Chesapeake Bay. You can see the clamp beginning to close even now. Cornwallis is outnumbered about two to one, so fighting is a bad idea compared to escape, but he can’t if de Grasse blockades Chesapeake Bay. De Grasse reaches the bay first and defeats the resident ships under Admiral Tomas Grave in the Battle of the Chesapeake, also called the Battle of the Capes. The first side of the clamp was in place. When Washington and French general Rochambeau raced to Yorktown around August of 1781, they affixed the second part of the clamp.
When the soldiers arrived, they immediately started work on a siege line and subjected the British to heavy firing. It might have been possible even then for Cornwallis to escape with a dark night and a sleeping American sentry, but he stayed, hoping for nonexistent reinforcements from either General Clinton or the British fleet. When Cornwallis realized the extent of the situation, he sent a message to Clinton asking for help. Clinton promised that five-thousand soldiers would be marching to Yorktown by October Fifth. Soon after, the Americans finished their first siege line and started on a second, capturing two fortified outposts. While he was being suffocated, he receives a message to the effect that reinforcements would be late. On the sixteenth of October, an attack hoping to destroy a French battery failed. Soon after, the British attempted to reach Gloucester Point across the York River failed due to the weather. Cornwallis’ army was running out of food and ammunition and still waiting for assistance. He offered to surrender on the seventeenth of October, and surrendered officially two days later. Cornwallis refused to attend his surrender ceremony out of embarrassment and said he was sick. Legend says that Cornwallis’ deputy surrendered to Rochambeau, but he said “Vous vous trompez, le general en chef de notre armee est a la droiteâ€, which means “You are mistaken; the commander-in-chief of our army is to the rightâ€. He then surrendered to Washington, who refused because it wasn’t Cornwallis himself. He was told to surrender to General Benjamin Lincoln, Field commander of the Americans, and did so.
Yorktown ended a long and bloody battle that began in part due to the blockade of Boston, and that started with a tea party. Three British merchant ships with a cargo of tea were stuck in Boston harbor. They couldn’t obtain permission from the English governor there to return to England, and the colonists, acting in protest of the tax that remained on tea after the Stamp Act was repealed, wouldn’t let the tea be unloaded. After a little while, some colonists decided that they had to do more than simply guard the ships. In the dead of night, the three ships were boarded by men dressed as they thought Native Americans dressed, and their cargo thrown overboard. When knowledge of this reached England it infuriated the British, and they sought to punish the unruly Colonies. They sent soldiers and ships to Boston to cease all economic activity until the tea was paid for. Obtaining aid would be difficult enough without considering the fact that Boston was a peninsula, connected to the other colonies by a narrow strip of land. Naturally, the colonies were seeing red at this, and defiantly sent all the goods they could. The people of Boston, however, were seeing more red than most, and took the actions that put a match to the powder keg of discontent and anger that was the colonies. The Bostonians objected to blockade and to having to feed and house the soldiers first in peaceful then in armed protest. When the people took up arms, the English soldiers took action and shot them down, that incident is called the Boston Massacre, and that was the match that blew up the gunpowder, both literally and metaphorically.
As I said before, most of what the Colonial Navy did was rely on the French. France attempted to retain a state of respectful neutrality, but even they provided aid to the navy in the form of the use of their ports and supplies. Through the American ambassadors, the Americans had a constant ear in all relevant French matters. Once the French acknowledged the Colonies as an independent country and proclaimed their allegiance to them, the colonies gained the use of French ships to combat what was perhaps the strongest navy sense the Byzantines. Until that point, fighting the English navy was like trying to nail oatmeal to the wall. You can try as hard as you like, but you won’t make much progress.
One of the best examples of English navel power was the destruction of the thirteen frigates. Frigates are moderately sized ships attempting to find a balance between power and speed. Their main job was to scout and to bring the larger, slower ships into combat, though they were perfectly capable of fighting on their own. That being said, the thirteen frigates were the first ships specifically designed and built for use in the American navy. Five of these ships were destroyed, and all were eventually sunk or captured. Most of the eight remaining frigates had at least partially prosperous voyages, but there are exceptions. In late September of 1775, the Delaware was attempting to delay the English army in their march pursuing Washington’s forces, and if some deserted in the confusion, so much the better, though it was rather unlikely. Low tide came. And left the Delaware beached as an open invitation to capture. The Hancock had a more prosperous voyage, capturing two merchant vessels and the English warship Fox before being captured by the HMS Rainbow. The Randolph took five ships early in its career. It was destroyed while escorting some merchant ships. The English ship Yarmouth, which was much stronger than the Randolph, bore down on them. Captain Nicholas Biddle, who commanded the Randolph, defended the merchant ships. Both ships were handled rather roughly. The only thing that saved the Randolph was the fact that the magazine, which is the room where gunpowder is stored, blew up, destroying the Randolph and sending enough stuff flying to cripple the Yarmouth so much that it couldn’t peruse the merchant ships. The Virginia tried numerous times to punch through the blockade, but failed. Eventually, it ran aground in another bid for freedom, and two ships came to accept its surrender if it was offered, and beat the Virginia into a wreck and sink it if surrender wasn’t offered, but it was. The Raleigh took three prizes before running aground. The crew drilled holes in it, but the English repaired and captured it. The Providence captures fourteen ships in its early actions, but was captured with the Boston, which had seventeen prizes under its belt, when Charleston, South Carolina was overrun. The most ironic frigate action was that of the Trumbull, which gained fame after its bloody action against the Watt, was captured by the Iris and the General Monk. The ironic part is that the Iris was the frigate Hancock, and the General Monk was the General Washington.
I hope I have shed some light on this rather obscure topic. The American navy is little thought of before WW1. The navy was profitable while it lasted, though again not so much in captures as in raised morale and helping the colonists believe that victory might just be possible.
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