Chapter XII: The Navy of Connecticut

An introductory word about the government of Connecticut during the Revolution may not be amiss. Speaking generally, the power of legislation was vested in the Governor, Council, and House of Representatives; and of administration in the Governor and Council of Safety.[432] The Legislature or General Assembly met two or three times a year. Jonathan Trumbull, the only Provincial governor in the thirteen colonies who was not displaced by the dominance of the Patriot party, was governor of Connecticut throughout the Revolution. On October 10, 1776, Connecticut, by a resolution of the General Assembly, which made no change in the frame-work of the government, ceased to be a colony and became a state. The Council of Safety, appointed to assist the Governor in administration, was elected each year. Its membership varied in numbers; in 1775 there were five members; in 1779, twenty. About half of its members attended its meetings, which were principally held at Hartford, and at Lebanon, the home of Governor Trumbull. Roger Sherman, Oliver Ellsworth, and other leaders of the Revolution in Connecticut served in the Council of Safety.

Connecticut’s first step towards obtaining a naval armament was made early in July, 1775, when her General Assembly resolved to fit out and arm two vessels of suitable burden for the defence of the seacoasts of the colony, and authorized the Governor and Council to procure, furnish, and employ the two vessels.[433] On July 24, 1775, the Governor and Council of Safety thoroughly considered the “affair of the two armed vessels;” and letters relating thereto from men in New Haven, Middletown, Wethersfield, and other towns were read. Captain John Deshon and Nathaniel Shaw, jr., both of New London, and Captain Giles Hall of Norwich attended the meeting and offered information and advice. A committee of four, consisting of two members of the Council of Safety together with Deshon and Hall, was appointed to visit the principal ports of the colony and ascertain the terms upon which vessels, officers, and men might be had.[434]

On August 2 this committee reported that sundry vessels could be obtained at reasonable prices, but that none of them were perfectly adapted for vessels of war. The committee said that the people of the colony disagreed as to the propriety of arming vessels; many thought that it would be impossible for America to compare by sea with the British, and that to attempt it would provoke insult and would expose the seacoast and trade of Connecticut to increased danger; but others thought that a naval armament would be an advantage, and would afford protection to the colony. The Governor and Council of Safety expressed a doubt whether they had a right to suspend the measure of the General Assembly, even if they should think it advisable. They now resolved to fit out an armed vessel, the brig “Minerva,” of about 108 tons burden, belonging to Captain William Griswold of Wethersfield; and to obtain a smaller and faster vessel of some twenty-five tons burden to be employed as a “spy vessel, to run and course from place to place, to discover the enemy, and carry intelligence.” Captain Samuel Niles of Norwich was appointed captain of the spy-vessel; and Benjamin Huntington of the Council of Safety and John Deshon were appointed a committee to obtain, fit out, and furnish it.[435]

On August 3 the Governor and Council of Safety appointed Captain Giles Hall of Norwich captain and commander of the “Minerva.” A pay-table and a small list of officers were now established. Captain Hall was to receive a monthly salary of £7; the first lieutenant, £5; the second lieutenant, and master, £4 each; seamen, £2, 5s.; and marines, £2. Hall was instructed to raise forty seamen and forty marines.[436]

When the committee for obtaining the spy-vessel reported on August 14, the Governor and Council of Safety resolved to buy the schooner “Britannia,” belonging at Stonington, at a price not to exceed £200. Robert Niles was made captain of the “Spy,” the name now given to the schooner, in place of Samuel Niles.[437] The “Spy” was cruising early in October, 1775, when she recaptured and brought into New London a large ship containing eight thousand bushels of wheat,[438] the first capture of the Connecticut navy.

By October the “Minerva” was ready for sea, and on the ninth of this month, in response to a request of the Continental Congress, the Governor and Council of Safety ordered this vessel to intercept two transports bound from England for Quebec.[439] This detail was not carried out by the “Minerva” for the very sufficient reason “that all the hands or soldiers and marines on board, except about 10 or 12, being duly noticed of said orders, utterly declined and refused to obey the same and perform said cruise,” which through their disobedience wholly failed.[440] The Governor and Council of Safety ordered the mutinous men discharged, and others enlisted in their places; but before the “Minerva” was again ready for service, the General Assembly in December directed Captain Hall to return his vessel to its owner and dismiss his crew.

In December, 1775, the General Assembly deciding to increase the naval forces of the colony, appointed Colonel David Waterbury of Stamford and Captain Isaac Sears of New Haven to examine a certain brigantine at Greenwich with a view to ascertaining its fitness for the naval service; and it resolved to build or otherwise procure an additional armed ship and four row-galleys “for the defence of this and the neighboring colonies.” Waterbury and Sears reported that the Greenwich brigantine was a new vessel which had made one voyage to the West Indies, and that she would mount sixteen six-pounders and twenty-four swivels.[441] The Governor and Council of Safety at once purchased the brigantine, which they named the “Defence,” and appointed Captain Seth Harding of Norwich to command her. By April, 1776, the “Defence” was manned and ready for sea.

On January 9, 1776, the Governor and Council of Safety appointed Benjamin Huntington of the Council of Safety and Captain Seth Harding a committee to visit Middletown and other towns on the Connecticut river to ascertain the terms upon which the second vessel could be purchased or built.[442] In the end the Governor and Council of Safety decided to build a ship of 200 tons burden at Saybrook, and they employed Captain Uriah Hayden at six shillings a day to undertake the task.[443] The ship was built during the spring and summer of 1776. An important event in the history of the “Oliver Cromwell,” as the new ship was called, is thus chronicled in the Connecticut Gazette of August 23, 1776, published at New London: “Last Lord’s Day, the new Ship of War belonging to the State of Connecticut, built at Say-Brook, and commanded by William Coit, Esq., came out of the River and arrived here Tuesday: she is the largest Vessel that has ever come over Say Brook Bar, and was piloted by Capt. James Harris.”[444]

Before building the row-galleys the Governor and Council of Safety sent one builder to Philadelphia and another to Providence in order to take advantage of the experiences of Pennsylvania and Rhode Island in constructing this sort of craft. Of the four galleys ordered in December, 1775, but three were built, the “Whiting” at New Haven, the “Shark” at Norwich, and the “Crane” at East Haddam. They were rigged as schooners; and by July, 1776, their construction was completed and they were officered and manned.

The General Assembly permitted the Governor and Council of Safety a free hand in their control of naval affairs. They were given full power and authority to order, direct, furnish, and supply the navy, during the recess of the General Assembly. It does not appear, however, that the sessions of the General Assembly caused much change in the management of the naval affairs. It was not in session longer than a few weeks or a few days at a time. In October, 1776, the General Assembly directed the Governor and Council of Safety to execute and continue all naval business which they had begun, the sessions of the Assembly notwithstanding.[445] Matters, which in some states were determined by legislation, such as the establishing of naval rules and regulations, the shares of prizes, and the naval pay, were in Connecticut for the most part left to administrative orders. In such work the Governor and Council of Safety often followed Continental models. In July, 1776, they ordered Richard Law, a member of the Council of Safety, to “compile a Code of Laws for the Naval Service of this Colony, as much in conformity to the laws of the naval service of the United Colonies as may consist with the service of this colony.”[446]

The Governor and Council of Safety transacted the naval business, as has already been seen, by means of committees of the Council of Safety, naval agents, and mixed committees composed of members of the Council of Safety and men from the outside. The sending of prizes captured by Connecticut ships of war into the ports of Massachusetts, and the refitting of the state’s vessels in Boston, necessitated the employment of a naval agent in Massachusetts. In April, 1777, Samuel Elliot of Boston was acting for the Governor and Council of Safety in this capacity. In October, 1777, the General Assembly authorized the appointment of a naval agent for Massachusetts, and on the 22nd of this month the Governor and Council of Safety appointed Elliot agent in all marine affairs to be transacted by Connecticut in Massachusetts.[447]

During the Revolution the chief seaport of Connecticut was New London, then one of the largest and most important towns in New England. The most complete naval news of the time is to be found in the Connecticut Gazette published at New London, and not in the Hartford Courant, or in the New Haven paper, the Connecticut Journal. New London was the naval station of the Connecticut fleet, the port where it was refitted and repaired. One of the most wealthy, influential, and public-spirited merchants of New London was Nathaniel Shaw, jr. He was an ardent patriot and was on intimate terms with Washington and other Revolutionary leaders.[448] The Governor and Council of Safety naturally turned to Shaw when naval duties were to be performed in New London. We have already seen that Shaw was present at a meeting of the Council of Safety in July, 1775, and was consulted on the initial naval project of the colony. From 1775 to 1779 the Governor and Council of Safety availed themselves of his services in fitting out their naval vessels. In July, 1776, they appointed him “Agent for the Colony, for the purpose of naval supplies and for taking care of such sick seamen as may be sent on shore to his care.”[449] In October, 1778, the General Assembly appointed Shaw Marine Agent for Connecticut and authorized him to equip the state vessels, to direct their cruises, and to receive and sell their prizes, in all, taking the advice of the Governor and Council of Safety from time to time.[450]

The Governor and Council of Safety showed an enterprising willingness to experiment in naval warfare, when in February, 1776, they permitted David Bushnell to explain to them his machine for blowing up ships, and voted him £60 to complete his invention.[451] Bushnell’s “American Turtle,” as his contrivance was called, anticipated modern inventions in submarine warfare. It consisted of a tortoise-shaped diving boat which could be propelled under water. It contained a supply of air sufficient to last the operator a half-hour, and was guided by means of a compass made visible by phosphorus. Upon reaching the doomed vessel a screw was driven into it by the operator. A magazine of powder was attached by a string to the screw. The casting of the magazine from the diving-boat set going a certain clock-work which gave the operator time to get beyond the reach of danger before it ignited the powder. In 1777 a trial of the “Turtle” against the British ship “Eagle,” 84, in New York Harbor was unsuccessful. The operator succeeded in getting under the “Eagle,” but was unable to drive the screw into her bottom.

Connecticut did not establish state privateering. In May, 1776, the General Assembly authorized the Governor to fill out the blank privateering commissions which the President of Congress should send from time to time, and to deliver them to such persons as should execute the bond prescribed by Congress.[452] A list of Connecticut privateers in which some vessels are counted two or more times has been made out. The totals of this list give 202 vessels, 1,609 guns, and 7,754 men.[453] In order to enlist her quota of troops for the Continental army, Connecticut in May, 1780, placed an embargo upon privateers.[454] In May, 1776, the General Assembly, in pursuance of the recommendations of the Continental Congress relative to the establishment of admiralty courts by each state, vested the county courts of Connecticut with the power to “try, judge, and determine, by jury or otherwise, as in other cases, concerning all captures that have or shall be taken and brought into said respective counties.” The courts were to follow the rules of the civil law, the law of nations, and the resolutions of Congress. Appeals were allowed to the Continental Congress agreeable to its directions and resolves. Connecticut was more liberal in granting appeals to Congress than Massachusetts, which state, it will be recalled, permitted such appeals only in cases of captures made by the vessels of the Continental navy.[455]

The reader may recollect that on August 26, 1776, the Continental Congress recommended that each state should grant certain pensions to its citizens who should receive serious disabilities in the Continental naval service. In May, 1777, the Connecticut General Assembly granted such pensions; and in imitation of the resolutions of Congress it granted half-pay to all officers, seamen, and marines in the Connecticut navy, who were wounded in action so as to be disabled from earning a livelihood; and a fraction of half-pay for lesser disabilities.[456]

In October, 1777, the House of Representatives passed a bill providing an elaborate list of rules and regulations relating to naval discipline, naval courts-martial, pay of officers and seamen, and the sharing of prizes. The bill, however, was rejected by the Council.[457] In April, 1779, when too late to be of much service, the General Assembly passed a statute creating a naval establishment, which was modelled on that of Congress. Two scales of wages were established, one for vessels under twenty guns, and the other for vessels of twenty guns or upwards. Captains of the two classes received a monthly wage, respectively, of $48 and $60; lieutenants and masters, $24 and $30; and boatswains, $13 and $15. The wages for seamen and marines did not vary, being $8 for seamen, and $6.67 for marines. The sharing of prizes among officers and seamen varied for the two classes. In general, the same offices were established as in the Continental navy; there were, however, not so many of them. Following the regulations of Congress, the General Assembly gave the officers, seamen, and marines the whole of captured ships of war and privateers, and one-half of all other vessels.[458]

Besides the vessels already mentioned, there were, in the Connecticut navy, for a short time in 1777, the schooner “Mifflin” and the sloop “Schuyler;” and for an equally brief period in 1779, the sloop “Guilford.”[459] By far the most important vessels in the navy were the “Oliver Cromwell”, 18, “Defence”, 14, and “Spy”, 6. The principal cruising ground of the Connecticut vessels was in and near Long Island Sound. This region was fairly alive with British craft of all sorts. Long Island was a nest of Tories, and New York was of course headquarters for the British in America. Connecticut, being convenient to both places, found much service for her navy in protecting her coasts and in preventing illicit trade with the enemy.

The cruises of the “Oliver Cromwell,” “Defence,” and “Spy” were by no means confined to the waters near home. Several times they visited the ports of Massachusetts. In the summer of 1777 the “Oliver Cromwell” cruised to the northward of the Azores, in the path of the homeward bound West Indiamen, where she captured and sent into Massachusetts the brigantine “Honor” and the “Weymouth” packet. In the spring of 1777 the “Defence” and a privateer met with success to the windward of the Lesser Antilles in capturing British vessels bound for the West Indies. In the following spring the “Oliver Cromwell” and the “Defence” were cruising in the same region, where they captured the letter of marque “Admiral Keppel,” eighteen six-pounders, the most valuable prize taken by the Connecticut navy. The “Admiral Keppel” and her cargo sold in Boston for £22,321. In June and July, 1778, the “Oliver Cromwell” and the “Defence” refitted in Charleston, South Carolina. Towards the end of July the “Oliver Cromwell” sailed for Nantes with a load of indigo, which she expected to exchange for clothing. Encountering a storm, this vessel was dismasted, and forced to return to Connecticut. Some thirty prizes, most of which reached safe ports, were captured during the Revolution by the Connecticut navy.[460]

Upon the urgent and repeated solicitations of Washington, the three Connecticut galleys were sent by the Governor and Council of Safety in the summer of 1776 to New York to assist in the campaign on the Hudson. The “Crane” and “Whiting,” after giving a good account of themselves in an attack on two British vessels near Tarrytown, were lost to the enemy in the fall of 1776. The “Shark” probably met a similar fate.[461] The “Spy,” Captain Robert Niles, was one of several vessels which were selected to carry to France the news of the ratification by Congress of the French treaties of February, 1778. Captain Niles had the honor of reaching France first with his important message and packet. On his return voyage Niles and his vessel were captured. In March, 1779, the “Defence” struck on a reef near Waterford, Connecticut, and sank.[462] On June 5, after a severe fight to the southward of Sandy Hook, the “Oliver Cromwell” surrendered to a superior force.[463] About July 1 the “Guilford,” 8, which had been recently added to the navy, was taken by the enemy.[464] With the capture of this vessel, the navy of Connecticut came to an end.

The warfare of “armed boats” participated in by Connecticut deserves notice. During the Revolution much smuggling was carried on between men in Connecticut and the British and Tories on Long Island and at New York. The feeding of the British army at New York, the supplying of the Tories on Long Island, and the demand for manufactured articles in Connecticut, naturally made good markets. Political law was in rivalry with economic law, and proved, in large part, powerless. In 1778, 1779, and 1780, the Connecticut General Assembly passed a number of stringent acts forbidding illicit commerce with the enemy. Many patriot refugees had fled to Connecticut from Long Island. Some of these men would obtain a license to return to their former homes for their property, and under its cover would engage in smuggling. To prevent this abuse, the General Assembly in April, 1779, recalled the power to issue licenses, which it had previously vested in the selectmen of towns.[465]

Since the trade had assumed alarming proportions, the General Assembly, in May, 1780, authorized the Governor and Council of Safety to commission not more than twelve armed boats to suppress the trade.[466] In October, Colonel William Ledyard, who was in command of the forts at New London and Groton, was ordered to provide three more whaleboats, besides the two which he already had obtained, to be used in the Sound against the smugglers; and the Commandant of the French navy at Newport was asked to send two vessels to aid in the work.[467] These efforts of the state were in large part unavailing. Some of the boats commissioned to stop the trade became participants in it. “On consideration of the Many Evils committed by the armed Boats in this State commissioned to cruise on their own acct. for the pretended purpose of making captures on the enemy and preventing illicit Trade and Traders,” the General Assembly on January 23, 1781, revoked all the commissions which it had given to the armed boats.

A more successful attempt to stamp out the abuse was that made by Norwich, in January, 1782. Certain associators agreed to hold no social or commercial intercourse with those persons detected in evading the laws. They provided boats which kept watch at suspected places; smuggled goods, wherever found, were seized and sold, and the proceeds were devoted to charitable purposes.[468]

FOOTNOTES:

[432] One must distinguish between the Council and Council of Safety. A few members were common to both bodies.

[433] Colonial Records of Connecticut, XV, 99-100. The published Colonial and State Records of Connecticut to which I refer, consist of two parts, the Records of the General Assembly, and the Journals of the Council of Safety. The reader can easily tell from the context to which part each reference refers.

[434] Colonial Records of Connecticut, XV, 108, 109.

[435] Colonial Records of Connecticut, XV, 109, 110.

[436] Ibid., 111-13.

[437] Ibid., 117.

[438] Connecticut Gazette, October 13, 1775.

[439] See Chapter I, Naval Committee, page 35; Colonial Records of Connecticut, XV, 176.

[440] Colonial Records of Connecticut, XV, 176.

[441] Colonial Records of Connecticut, XV, 200-02.

[442] Ibid., 223-24.

[443] Ibid., 229, 232.

[444] Connecticut Gazette, August 23, 1776.

[445] Records of the State of Connecticut, I, 11.

[446] Colonial Records of Connecticut, XV, 492.

[447] Records of State of Connecticut, I, 212, 214, 418, 452. This is either Samuel Elliot, a Boston merchant, or Samuel Eliot, a most distinguished Boston merchant, a benefactor of Harvard college, and grandfather of the present President Eliot.—See New England Historical and Genealogical Register, XXIII (1869), 338-39. I find the agent’s name spelled Elliot, Eliott, and Eliot.

[448] Better evidence of the social standing of the Shaw family in New London may not be needed than that afforded by the statistics contained in the following newspaper clipping: “A great wedding dance took place at New London at the house of Nathaniel Shaw, Esq., June 12, 1769, the day after the marriage of his son Daniel Shaw and Grace Coit; 92 gentlemen and ladies attended, and danced 92 jigs, 52 contra-dances, 45 minuets, and 17 horn-pipes, and retired 45 minutes past midnight.”—F. M. Caulkins, History of Norwich, Connecticut, 332.

[449] Colonial Records of Connecticut, XV, 474.

[450] Records of State of Connecticut, II, 136.

[451] Colonial Records of Connecticut, XV, 233-36. I have followed the familiar accounts of this invention. Washington gave Jefferson an account of Bushnell’s invention in September, 1785.-Ford, Writings of Washington, X, 504-06.

[452] Colonial Records of Connecticut, XV, 318-19.

[453] Records and Papers of New London County Historical Society, I, pt. 4, p. 32.

[454] State Archives, Acts of Connecticut, May, 1780. The laying of embargoes on privateers for short periods in order to obtain men for different purposes was common during the Revolution.

[455] Colonial Records of Connecticut, XV, 280-81.

[456] See Chapter IV, page 129; Records of State of Connecticut, I, 246-49.

[457] Connecticut Revolutionary Archives, VIII, 1777-1778.

[458] Records of State of Connecticut, II, 230-33.

[459] The vessels of the Connecticut navy with the approximate periods of their service were as follows: Brigantine “Minerva,” 1775; schooner “Spy,” 1775-1778; ship “Defence,” 1776-1779; ship “Oliver Cromwell,” 1776-1779; galleys “Crane” and “Whiting,” 1776; galley “Shark,” 1776-1777; schooner “Mifflin,” 1777; sloop “Schuyler,” 1777; and sloop “Guilford,” 1779. The galley “New Defence,” belonging to Branford, received arms, ammunition, and stores from the state. The sloop “Dolphin,” a prize of the “Spy,” was purchased in the fall of 1777, and sent to Philadelphia for flour. The following captains were the chief officers of the navy: Giles Hall, Robert Niles, William Coit, Seth Harding, Timothy Parker, and Samuel Smedley. Coit had commanded the “Harrison” in Washington’s fleet, and Harding was given a commission in the Continental navy.

[460] Revolutionary Files of Connecticut Gazette, Hartford Courant, and Connecticut Journal.

[461] Colonial Records of Connecticut, XV, 481, 488; Records of State of Connecticut, I, 85, 201; Hartford Courant, August 12, 1776; Connecticut in Revolution, 593-94.

[462] Records of State of Connecticut, II, 372; Wharton, Diplomatic Correspondence, II, 642, 650; Hartford Courant, March 16, 1779.

[463] Hartford Courant, June 15, 1779.

[464] Records of State of Connecticut, II, 360.

[465] Records of State of Connecticut, II, 222.

[466] State Archives, Acts of Connecticut, May, 1780.

[467] Ibid., October, 1780.

[468] History of Norwich, F. M. Caulkins, 398.