WEBVTT NOTE 21. Privateering and the War at Sea 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.000 Volume 4, Chapter 21, Privateering and the War at Sea 2 00:00:06.000 --> 00:00:19.000 It was clear to all that, militarily, the Americans were most vulnerable at sea, where Britain ruled the waves and no American population lived to support armed operations. 3 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:29.000 We have seen how Lord Dunmore was able to use the ocean with impunity as his base from which to raid and plunder the American coast. 4 00:00:29.000 --> 00:00:33.000 and the entire coastline lay open to raids of this sort. 5 00:00:33.000 --> 00:00:39.000 Soon after the outbreak of war, the separate colonies began to try to defend themselves at sea. 6 00:00:39.000 --> 00:00:46.000 The first to react was Rhode Island, which chartered two vessels in June 1775 7 00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:52.000 to try to save Newport and the coast from the depredations of the British fleet. 8 00:00:52.000 --> 00:00:56.000 Massachusetts and Connecticut soon followed with two ships each 9 00:00:56.000 --> 00:01:05.000 and, in mid-July, Congress correctly, but not very hopefully, urged each colony to defend its coastal areas. 10 00:01:05.000 --> 00:01:11.000 It soon became evident that American ships might accomplish more by taking the offensive, 11 00:01:11.000 --> 00:01:18.000 particularly in harassing the British supply lines to the Army at Boston. 12 00:01:18.000 --> 00:01:22.000 At the end of June, Rhode Island again took the lead. 13 00:01:22.000 --> 00:01:29.560 Indeed, its radical governor, Nicholas Cook, urged just one swift armed ship to seize arms 14 00:01:29.560 --> 00:01:35.880 and supplies. Washington took the hint, and despite lack of congressional authorization, 15 00:01:35.880 --> 00:01:42.080 appointed shipmaster Nicholas Broughton, a captain in the army, and presented him with 16 00:01:42.080 --> 00:01:48.360 a schooner for that purpose. Broughton's successes led to more of the same, and soon Congress 17 00:01:48.360 --> 00:02:00.360 The US began to give its tentative support. By the end of October, the continental fleet consisted of six schooners, which acquitted themselves ably against the British. 18 00:02:00.360 --> 00:02:12.360 Particularly successful was Captain John Manley of the Lee, who cheered the Americans greatly by capturing several military ships filled with supplies and ammunition. 19 00:02:12.360 --> 00:02:29.360 In addition to the schooners, the Americans around Boston organized a fleet of 300 private whale boats which conducted guerrilla-type night raids on the British lighthouses and other installations in Boston Harbor. 20 00:02:29.360 --> 00:02:35.360 Nettled by his utter inability to cope with the American schooners and night raiders, 21 00:02:35.360 --> 00:02:45.360 Admiral Samuel Graves, commander of the British fleet at Boston, decided to punish the Americans collectively in their ports and harbors. 22 00:02:45.360 --> 00:02:54.160 In early October 1775, Graves sent out Captain Henry Mowat with two schooners and nearly 23 00:02:54.160 --> 00:03:00.560 two hundred men on a savage terror raid of the coast north of Boston. He was ordered 24 00:03:00.560 --> 00:03:07.700 to burn, destroy and lay waste every seaport town north to Maine, and to destroy all the 25 00:03:07.700 --> 00:03:12.920 shipping at their harbors. Specifically, he was to concentrate on burning to the ground 26 00:03:12.920 --> 00:03:19.560 The two port towns of Gloucester and Falmouth, now Portland, Maine, whose people, according 27 00:03:19.560 --> 00:03:26.360 to Admiral Lord Howe, were distinguished for their opposition to government. 28 00:03:26.360 --> 00:03:33.640 Finding it impractical to destroy Gloucester, Mowat entered Falmouth on the October 16. 29 00:03:33.640 --> 00:03:39.160 Giving the townspeople one day to evacuate, he shelled and fired the town until it's 30 00:03:39.160 --> 00:03:47.360 Over 200 houses, 11 ships, and wharves and warehouses were completely burned. 31 00:03:47.360 --> 00:03:52.040 The wanton destruction of Falmouth spurred Congress into action. 32 00:03:52.040 --> 00:03:57.820 By December, prodded by John Adams, it was ready to create officially a small marine 33 00:03:57.820 --> 00:04:04.800 corps and a continental fleet of four vessels to name its officers and to establish for 34 00:04:04.800 --> 00:04:09.120 its supervision what would become the Marine Committee. 35 00:04:09.120 --> 00:04:14.380 As Commodore and Commander of the Little Fleet, Congress selected the Veteran General Essek 36 00:04:14.380 --> 00:04:20.620 Hopkins, until then head of the Armed Forces of Rhode Island. By the following spring the 37 00:04:20.620 --> 00:04:27.620 Continental Navy was ready for offensive exploits in the British West Indies. Commodore Hopkins 38 00:04:27.620 --> 00:04:36.380 first operation was to raid Nassau on March 3, 1776 and to seize large stores of British 39 00:04:36.380 --> 00:04:42.860 Gunpowder. Bermuda also proved a good source of enemy powder. Such large-scale raids were 40 00:04:42.860 --> 00:04:49.340 exceptions, however, and usually the tiny Continental Navy was confined to forays by 41 00:04:49.340 --> 00:04:55.180 individual ships. As we have seen in the case of the whale boats around Boston, the great 42 00:04:55.180 --> 00:05:02.180 many privateers were far more important than the governmental fleet. As their name implies, 43 00:05:02.180 --> 00:05:07.160 These ships were wholly private in ownership and operation. 44 00:05:07.160 --> 00:05:13.700 An old tradition of private armed merchant men preying on enemy shipping during wars, 45 00:05:13.700 --> 00:05:19.280 privateering had reached a peak during the 18th century and in America particularly during 46 00:05:19.280 --> 00:05:21.280 the Seven Years' War. 47 00:05:21.280 --> 00:05:28.220 As the Revolutionary War began, many hundreds of ships took to seizing supplies and arms 48 00:05:28.220 --> 00:05:30.780 by capturing British vessels. 49 00:05:30.780 --> 00:05:36.940 New England, particularly Massachusetts, its fishing and carrying trades ruined by the war 50 00:05:36.940 --> 00:05:43.180 and by British control of the northern fishing banks, was an especially successful center 51 00:05:43.180 --> 00:05:49.880 of privateering, as were Philadelphia and Baltimore. The inlet of Little Egg Harbor 52 00:05:49.880 --> 00:05:56.980 on the New Jersey coast was a particularly attractive haven for privateer vessels. Privateering 53 00:05:56.980 --> 00:06:08.980 has been flourished especially during 1775 and 1776, and it has been estimated that as many as 2,000 ships sailed against the British. 54 00:06:08.980 --> 00:06:19.980 During 1776, half the Jamaica fleet was captured by American privateers, along with large quantities of ammunition and military supplies. 55 00:06:19.980 --> 00:06:26.980 That year the British lost several hundred vessels to privateers with ships and cargo 56 00:06:26.980 --> 00:06:33.220 worth over one million pounds sterling, a figure exclusive of government transports and 57 00:06:33.220 --> 00:06:39.740 store ships. Privateering was not only a very effective means of naval warfare, it was a 58 00:06:39.740 --> 00:06:46.740 far less costly and a far more libertarian method than building a government navy. Reliance 59 00:06:46.740 --> 00:06:57.740 Reliance on privateers saved enormous sums and the time necessary to build new ships, since existing merchant ships were used. 60 00:06:57.740 --> 00:07:06.740 Moreover, it saved the taxpayers, including inflation-payers, the expense of construction and operation. 61 00:07:06.740 --> 00:07:13.100 As in all private operations, the costs were borne only by those who assumed the risks, 62 00:07:13.100 --> 00:07:18.080 and their rewards were strictly proportionate to their successes. 63 00:07:18.080 --> 00:07:24.860 And the war effort also benefited pari passu with the successes of the privateers. 64 00:07:24.860 --> 00:07:30.740 Even Washington saw this, and when he created his small fleet in the autumn of 1775, he 65 00:07:30.740 --> 00:07:37.940 We tried to approximate privateering conditions by granting to the seamen on each ship one-third 66 00:07:37.940 --> 00:07:44.300 to one-half of the proceeds from the vessels they captured, about the same incentive pay 67 00:07:44.300 --> 00:07:50.340 received by the crews of privateers. Not the least important advantage of privateers was 68 00:07:50.340 --> 00:07:56.100 the fact that they automatically disappear with the arrival of peace and convert to peaceful 69 00:07:56.100 --> 00:08:09.100 The public would not then be saddled with the burdens, bureaucracy, potential tyranny, and the nuclei for the formending of future wars that are inherent in a governmental navy. 70 00:08:09.100 --> 00:08:13.100 Where in all this was the vaunted British Navy? 71 00:08:13.100 --> 00:08:25.100 Fortunately for the American cause, the overconfident British did not bother to launch a serious naval effort against the rebels, and no attempt was made to blockade the American coast. 72 00:08:25.100 --> 00:08:31.300 American Coast. In these critical first years of the war, only a few British warships were 73 00:08:31.300 --> 00:08:37.940 stationed in American waters and the British did not bother to provide armed convoys to 74 00:08:37.940 --> 00:08:45.980 their merchant shipping on the Atlantic. During 1775, the privateers proceeded happily even 75 00:08:45.980 --> 00:08:53.460 though unauthorized by the governmental authority. In November, Massachusetts authorized the 76 00:08:53.460 --> 00:08:59.960 Issue of Official Letters of Mark and Reprisal to Privateers and Other Colonies Followed 77 00:08:59.960 --> 00:09:08.140 Suit, The Harsh British Prohibitory Act of late December 1775 denouncing the Americans 78 00:09:08.140 --> 00:09:14.700 as traitors and rebels, prohibiting all ships from trading with any part of the thirteen 79 00:09:14.700 --> 00:09:23.180 colonies and subjecting all American and foreign ships trading with them to seizure and confiscation 80 00:09:23.180 --> 00:09:29.180 became known to the Americans by the end of February 1776. 81 00:09:29.180 --> 00:09:32.180 The Prohibitory Act spurred the Continental Congress 82 00:09:32.180 --> 00:09:37.180 to take further bold measures against Great Britain. 83 00:09:37.180 --> 00:09:41.180 In March, Congress officially authorized privateers, 84 00:09:41.180 --> 00:09:46.180 providing them with continental letters of mark and reprisal.