 Here was a navy that commenced with one ship, bought its war, and ended with one ship, and even she was sold. This was the theater for the contest. Thirteen colonies, nearly three million people. Since the western wilderness was a barrier, the sea was the major highway between the colonies and the outside world. In the long coastline were many harbors. Only three million people, but they could build ships. Timber grew down to the water's edge. Every small river had its shipyard. They were to fight the most powerful navy afloat. The ships of Great Britain, naval and merchant vessels numbered in the thousands. But the thirteen colonies had many ships also. The northern colonies produced lumber, grain and fish, which England forced the colonists to channel through her ports. The Maine and New Hampshire forests grew large pines, which were the principal source of supply for the larger masts of the Royal Navy. The war cut off this supply. From the southern colonies came the prized tobacco and indigo. Before the war, American merchantmen made the sugar run. They swapped their lumber, fish and grain in the West Indies for sugar and molasses, which were exchanged in England for woolens, hardware and manufactured goods. Once at sea, any strange sail might prove an enemy. So most merchant ships of the colonies were armed with guns. Every former sailor had to reach hand and steer and stand ready with pipe or cutlass to repel borders. So in the year 1775, the American merchant seamen was better trained to fight at sea than the American farmer to fight on land. These were the adversaries and these were the ships. Control of the sea helped decide the war. What sparks set off the conflict? George III, after defeating the French at Quebec, found his empire greatly enlarged. But as a result of the war, he had a huge national debt. To administer this empire, protect it and pay this debt, taxes were levied on the colonists without their consent. Accustomed to independence in most matters, the colonists objected. There followed the sugar tax, the stamp act and revolt. British warships were surprised and burned. Boston had its tea party, so did Philadelphia, Annapolis and Etonton in North Carolina. It was the need for gunpowder that shaped the early course of the war. To seize the colonists' powder stored at Concord, the British in April 1775 marched through Lexington to Concord Bridge. But Paul Riviere rode ahead. The British, the British, the British are coming. The alarm was spread. The next morning, on Lexington Green, the gunpowder was saved. In June of 75, at Bunker Hill, the colonists ran out of powder before the British Third Attack. And the British captured the earthworm. Washington took command of the Continental Army at Cambridge. He was warned that the powder reserve was down to nine rounds per man. At this, the general did not utter a word for half an hour. The American armies encircled the British who were being supplied by sea. General Washington planned to capture those supplies, particularly the powder. On September 7, 1775, into the harbor of Gloucester sailed a schooner hammer with a captured vessel. The hammer, the first ship commissioned by Washington, can be called the first man of war of the American Navy. And then more vessels were equipped for Washington's fleet. Fishing schooners with four to six guns manned by crews out of the army by a sailor regiment from Marblehead. 35 prizes they captured. Captain John Manley in the schooner lee took the Nancy, carrying 2,000 muskets, 30,000 round shots, over 30 tons of musket shots, several barrels of gunpowder, 100,000 flints, and a 10,000 pound brass mortar for that waiting army of Washington outside of Boston. Munitions that would have taken the colonies 18 months to manufacture. October 13, 1775 was the birthday of the American Navy. On that day in Philadelphia, Congress authorized the purchase, equipping, and manning of vessels to capture military stores, mainly gunpowder. The Naval Committee drew plans for the Continental Navy. The sides of the Merchantman Alfred were to be pierced for 24 guns. To Philadelphia from the colonies came other trading vessels, an odd assortment, the Columbus and the Andrea Doria, the Watts, the Cabot, the Ply, and the Hornet, and from Rhode Island, the Providence. From Newport, she carried the commander-in-chief of the fleet, Commodore E. C. Hopkins, and E. C. Sun John, Abraham Whipple, Dudley Salton Stahl, Nicholas Biddle from Philadelphia. These were some of the vessel's commanders. First Lieutenant of the Alfred was John Paul Jones. The events came fast in Philadelphia. At the Tongue Tavern, the Marine Corps, founded November 10, 1775, began its recruiting. And other events moved forward that same fall. Two Americans were on their way to take Quebec, General Montgomery by way of Montreal, and Colonel Arnold through Upper Maine. Well, in Philadelphia, early in 76, Commodore Hopkins at long last got his orders to go capture British ships and get some gunpowder, too. If the enemy be not too superior in the Chesapeake, they're to attack him. Or if unforeseen accidents disable you, follow such course as your best judgment will suggest. A British force in Chesapeake Bay was too strong to handle. An all-east gale provided the accident. Commodore Hopkins squared yards away south. Tarnation lucky. On March 3rd at New Providence in the Bahamas, the Commodore landed some 200 Marines under Marine Captain Sam Nicholas and 50 sailors, and got him over a hundred guns and a sight of military stores in the first naval marine amphibious action. Hopkins then hugged North toward Rhode Island. His fleet fetched New London where he delivered his supplies to General Washington, whose army had chased the British out of Boston and was marching to meet them in New York. By the eternal, we declared our independence on July 4th. Dark months were ahead. General Howe drove Washington's troops from Long Island. He defeated them again at Harlem Heights, at White Plains, at the Fort on the Hudson. Support by ships of the British Navy was largely responsible for Howe's success. Washington was pushed across New Jersey into Pennsylvania, where the Delaware River protected him. From there, however, Washington struck back at Tranton and Princeton. Not all was downright bad though. In the fighting of a war, the upshot grows out of little roots. Here was a lake nearly built and manned by the army. On Lake Champlain were those roots. In 76, the British strategy was to split the rebellious colonies in two. Troops could be more easily moved from Canada and New York City by water than by land. The American General Montgomery had been killed while storming Quebec. But Arnold retreated to Lake Champlain and built a fleet at White Hall. The enemy was coming down that way. They had to be stopped on water. Could an army general build and command the fleet? A long, slim chance. But Arnold was an energetic cuss he'd been to sea. His shipwrights he'd brought up from the sea coast towns had to work with green timber. Four galleys with guns and swivels. The Washington, the Lee, the Trumbull, and the Congress. Three guns each for eight keyless flat-bottomed gondolas. One sloop, the Enterprise, and two schooners, the Royal Savage, left on the lake the year previous by the British, and the Revenge. And out on the lake they went to make their fight. On the 11th of October in 76, near heavily wooded Valkour Island, there was a fight that helped decide the entire war. Carrying out their plan of invasion, the British came down from the north stronger than expected. Hidden behind the island, Arnold took station in a crescent line, and the British sailed by unsuspecting. Their full rigged ship, the inflexible, alone could sweep Arnold from that bay. The British then hauled about, and the fight was on. The Royal Savage went aground. The Americans tried to get her off and couldn't. The British took out, tried to get her off, and couldn't. They burned her. The Americans were in trouble. Hustle of fitting out now showed up. Some of the balls did not match the gun. Crew. Green crews fumbled at their stations. Arnold, in the Congress, aimed the guns himself. The New York lost her office. The friar's guns were knocked from their mouths. When darkness came, the rest of the American fleet slipped away. As the two days running fight, Arnold rammed his ships ashore, burned them, and escaped to the woods. Thus ended the Battle of Lake Champlain, fought for the prize of a continent. Arnold had lost the fight, but winter was at hand. The British had been so delayed that their invasion was postponed until the next year. Washington and the Continental Congress used this time to build an army. By the next summer, 14,000 Continentals were in arms. They stopped Burgoyne at Saratoga, where he surrendered after one of the decisive battles of the world. It proved to all that the colonies were determined to be free. Aid came from Europe, especially from France. Louis XVI now agreed to support the American cause and became a fighting ally. Previously, the wise and canny Benjamin Franklin had wished to embroil France with England. Perhaps for this, he had encouraged American privateers and captains Cunningham and Wicks to prey on British commerce. They were joined by others. War was carried to the British front door. By 78, over 700 British ships were taken. The cost of potatoes doubled and redoubled. Lloyd stopped ensuring English shipping. In Breast Harbor, an American sloop of war flew the stars and stripes abroad. It was the ranger under John Paul Jones. In the ranger, Jones bore up the Irish sea, took prizes, set fire to Whitehaven, fought and took his majesty's ship Drake, and brought panic to the British homeland. The ranger was ordered home. So the French put at Jones' disposal an old East Indianman with rotted timbers. Jones named her the Bonhomme Richard, honoring Benjamin Franklin's nickname Poor Richard. This is the ship that fought one of the world's famous fights and cradled a great tradition. Off Lambo ahead, on the 23rd of September, 1779, Jones, with four ships in company, encountered an enemy convoy of 41 sails. The merchant ships maneuvered to escape while their protectors squared away for the Americans. Jones brought his unwieldy Bonhomme Richard in range with a therapist, 50 guns, a new ship of the Royal Navy, Captain Richard Pearson. Aboard the Bonhomme Richard, firing her first broadside, two of the old 18 pounders exploded. One by one, the Bonhomme Richard's guns went out as shots smashed in her rotted side. Only the nine ponders on the quarter deck kept alive, aimed at the enemy's rickets. On the Bonhomme Richard, a gunner rushing to spike the colors, thus give up, was blocked by Jones. From the therapist, have you struck? Have you struck? From the Bonhomme Richard. All have not yet begun to fight. Skeleton ship, fire near the magazine, fleaks gaining fast, guns being abandoned. Prisoners released by the master of arms rushed up on deck and were met by Lieutenant Dale, who sent them to the pumps. Back to the shattered main deck went the gunner. Overside went the main mist of the service. And there was fight left, even on the tops of the Bonhomme Richard. Captain Pearson struck at half past 10. So fought the indomitable little American, John Paul Jones, a true captain of an infant navy. Meanwhile, in America, the war went on. General Hough, instead of joining Burgoyne in 77, attacked Philadelphia. Washington tried to stop the British army at the Battle of Brandywine and to halt the British fleet by forts in the Delaware. But Hough took Philadelphia and settled down comfortably, while Washington encamped outside the city during the bitter winter at Valley Forge. The French recognized the American cause in 1778, February 6th. The next summer, the British, now under General Clinton, headed back to New York. Why? He had heard that the powerful French fleet under Admiral Destin was bound for America. At Philadelphia, he would be bottled up. Washington nearly defeated Clinton at Monmouth, but could not block him from New York. In July, Admiral Destin with his French fleet arrived off New York. But Destin was too cautious to cross the bar as Sandy Hook. He later lay siege to Newport and then tried to take Savannah. Both failures. In July 1780, General Rochambeau and 5,000 French troops landed in Newport with seven ships of the line. On the 21st of May, 1781, Washington called General Rochambeau for a council of war at Weathersfield, Connecticut. Said General Washington. Naval superiority is the pivot upon which everything turns. All plans for his army were based on the support of French sea power. In 1780 and 1781, the British land forces under Cornwallis had concentrated on the reduction of the southern states. After an unsuccessful campaign in the Carolinas, Cornwallis had withdrawn to Virginia and, harassed by Wayne and Lafayette, had entrenched at Yorktown. So in 1781, Washington's dream of a combined operation was realized. In a master plan of grand strategy, Cornwallis was to be attacked by land and by sea. On land, Rochambeau joined Washington above New York and the Allied armies moved south to besiege Cornwallis at Yorktown. The French Admiral de Grasse sailed from Haiti for the Chesapeake. At the same time, Admiral Hood led the British fleet from Antigua. With their copper bottoms, the British ships were faster. Finding no enemy in the Chesapeake, they went on to New York. In New York Bay, Hood joined Admiral Grasse, who took command. They returned to relieve Cornwallis and found the French waiting for them inside the entrance of the bay. The outnumbered British missed their golden chance. They did not fall on the French ban as it emerged. The fleet closed to fight ship to ship. The British made the tactical mistake of coming into battle successively instead of all at once. Night broke off the action. The next day, the two fleets were becombed, but two days later, the French took advantage of a favorable wind and sailed northward for the Chesapeake, 100 miles away. There, the fleet of de Grasse joined them from Newport. For the moment, the Allies had control of the sea. Confronted by a combined French fleet, the outnumbered British retired to New York. They had lost control of the sea. Cornwallis, cut off by water and by land, surrendered the 19th of October, 1781. It was the last great battle of the war. By now, Britain's finances were getting low. For shipping and trade were badly hindered. Strong enemies faced her in Europe. Her merchants were crying for peace. In 1783, the peace of Paris was signed. The war was over. The colonies were free. And the great nation was born. As to the revolution, a little American Navy dwindled to one ship, the Alliance. Later, even she was sold. But the Navy had proved the value of power on the sea. The Navy and the merchant marine had kept the struggling American armies supplied with munitions. The Navy's raids on British commerce by John Paul Jones and other valiant captains had brought home the war to Great Britain and had created a strong desire for peace. New Providence and Yorktown had proved the great value of combined operations by Army and Navy toward a common objective. The fleet had leaders, John Paul Jones, John Berry, who commanded the last ship of the Navy. Men to meet emergencies. But they and the Great Washington were to pass from the sea. A time of peace. But not for long. America would again need a Navy and call on great captains. Berry, Thruxton, Dale, Paul, Preble, and Decatur. America would again need to launch her fighting ships to hold her right on the seven seas.