America's First Frigates

In 1775 the British military situation in North America appeared desperate.  New England militia, and Continental troops under the command of General George Washington, besieged the British army in Boston.  In Quebec, a successful campaign by General Philip Schuyler left General Sir Guy Carleton facing a similar predicament to that of General Thomas Gage in Massachusetts.

Fortunately for the British, the Royal Navy provided resupply, reinforcement, and redeployment of forces as needed.  Despite the fact that British attention was focused on conflicts in Europe, British command of the sea posed a severe threat to the thirteen colonies.  Given their navy and merchant marine, royal forces could range unmolested along the shores, outmaneuver rebel armies, and blockade trade.  In response to this threat, the Rhode Island General Assembly sponsored a proposal to construct a fleet of Continental warships in the summer of 1775.  On 11 December, Congress formed a committee of thirteen to discuss the matter, and two days later the committee passed a resolution authorizing the construction of thirteen frigates.

Illustrations included in this essay show typical warships of the period.  There are no drawings, paintings or photos in the literature. 

 

These ships represented a concerted effort on the part of Congress to interdict British supply lines in the Atlantic Ocean and to limit their ability to range forces along the coast.  Though heroic efforts were taken to complete them, these thirteen vessels proved a disappointment to the war effort.  In total, one was lost due to enemy action, seven surrendered, and five were destroyed to prevent their capture, an unglamorous end, but the beginning to the legacy of the United States Navy.

Though accounts of these thirteen frigates exist in Revolutionary War naval histories, little is known of the period from the authorization of the ships to their initial sailing.  The difficulties that the colonies experienced in outfitting these thirteen ships plagued the navy throughout the war.  The Continental Navy attempted to wage a guerre-de-course style of warfare, an action later criticized by Alfred T. Mahan, who advocated the construction of a large battle fleet to counter the Royal Navy.  But this manner of fighting on the high-seas, along with the outfitting of private men-of-war – privateers – proved the only possible course of action open to the colonies.

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The construction of the ships themselves did not pose a great difficulty, but the acquisition of cannon proved another matter.  The original plan devised by Congress called for four Pennsylvania foundries to produce the needed armament.  According to the authorized designs, the ships would require nearly four hundred cannon, together with supporting carriages, tackle, wads and shot.  As it happened, American foundries had little experience in casting cannon, and as a consequence, more than half of the guns that were produced split on their initial trials.  Additionally, the frigates had to compete with the army and private ship owners, who paid top dollar to outfit their vessels as privateers.

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In historical studies of the Revolutionary War, the performance of the Continental Navy and the thirteen frigates remain unimportant footnotes to outcome of the conflict.  Although it could have relied solely on privateers and state navies, Congress decided to establish a national force.  The difficulties encountered in outfitting these thirteen ships did not deter Congress from authorizing additional ships.  On 20 November 1776, it passed an act calling for the construction of five new frigates, several smaller ships, and three 74-gun ship-of-the-line blockade busters.  Although construction of most of these ships never even began, the gesture demonstrated the resolve of the fledging nation not to accede to Britain’s control of the seas.

The delays in construction and outfitting the frigates prevented their sailing upon the Atlantic en masse.  Such a force could have posed a threat to British lines of communication.  Although the Continental Navy could never had challenged the British fleet, it could have pounced on supply ships while eluding ships-of-the-line.  With such a force committed to guerre de course, the British would have been compelled to re-spond by dispatching large naval forces to hunt down the Americans, much like the strategy used by the Confederacy against the Union navy in the Civil War.  Instead the staggered completion of the ships ena-bled the British to hunt them down and eliminate them individually, or even before they were completed.




     The Origins and Fates of America’s First Thirteen Frigates

Ship & Guns            Builder & Location             Launch Date     Fate _____________________                                                                                         

Hancock 32          Jonathan Greenleaf               July 10, 1776     Captured off Nova Scotia by HMS Rainbow

                      Newburyport, MA                                               on July 8, 1777.

Raleigh 32             James Hackett, Stephan       May 21, 1776   Captured by British squadron off Wooden

                              Paul & James Hill,                                              Island, Maine, September 28, 1778.

                              Portsmouth, NH

Randolph 32        John Wharton and                 July 10, 1776     Blown up in action with HMS Yarmouth

                            Joshua Humphreys,                                              on March 7, 1778.

                            Kensington, PA

Warren 32             Benjamin Talman,                May 15, 1776   Burned to avoid capture near Frankfort,

                             Warren, RI                                                           Maine on August 14, 1779.

 

Washington 32     Manuel Jehu & Benjamin August 7, 1776     Scuttled at White Hill, NJ on November 2

                             Eyre, Kensington, PA                                          1777 and burned on May 8, 1778.

Congress 28          Lancaster Burling,         October 29, 1776?   Burned to avoid capture on October 7, 1777.

                             Poughkeepsie, NY

Effingham 28       Joseph and Thomas         October 31, 1776   Scuttled at White Hill, NJ on November 2

                             Grice, Southwark, PA                                          1777 and burned on May 8, 1778.

Providence 28      Sylvester Bowers,            May 18, 1776        Captured at Charleston, May 12, 1780.

                             Providence, RI

Trumbull 28          John Colton,                   September 5, 1776   Captured by HMS Iris and General Monk

                              Portland, CT                                                         off Delaware Capes on August 28, 1781.

Virginia 28            George Wells,                August 12, 1776       Captured by British squadron off Hampton,

                              Fells Point, MD                                                    Virginia on March 31, 1778.

Boston 24             Stephan and Ralph         June 3, 1776            Captured at Charleston, May 12, 1780.

                             Cross, Newburyport, MA                                  

Delaware 24         Warwick Coats,              July 21, 1776          Captured in Delaware River on

                             Southwark, PA                                                     September 27, 1777.

Montgomery 24   Lancaster Burling,        November 4, 1776    Burned to avoid capture on October 7, 1777.

                             Poughkeepsie, NY

Excerpts from an article prepared by Salvatore R. Mercogliano for Sea History 103, Winter 2002-2003.      

The author is Lecturer of History at East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, and Adjunct Professor of History at Campbell University, Buies Creek, North Carolina.

2003

LFC