All the colonies, with the exception of New Hampshire, had an ocean coastline, or, in the case of Pennsylvania, a river that led to the Atlantic. Many had deep water ports and some had their own navy, but al had an abundance of mariners and these men were quick to take to the sea when the Revolution began. During the course of the war nearly 2,000 privateers harassed British shipping, capturing or destroying more than $18,000,000 worth of ships and goods. The word privateer means private man of war, and that is exactly what these were, privately owned vessels, commissioned by the Congress, out for a prize. While they had their successes, the romantic adventure of privateering drew heavily from the men and shps available for the official United States Navy.

George Washington created the navy when he commissioned the Hannah on September 2, 1775 to check enemy supplies to Boston during the seige. congress commissioned four warships one month later, and on November 25 the Continental Navy was established. Esek Hopkins was appointed Commander in Chief of eight vessels constructed at Philadelphia by the end of the year; the Alfred, Columbus, Andrea Doria, Cabot, Providence, Hornet, Wasp, and Fly. The little navy was put to sea on February 17, 1776, with John Paul Jones as the ranking lieutenant. Hopkin's only claim to fame with his fleet was the capture of Nassau, Bahamas, March 1776. Jones immediately established himself as the outstanding officer by capturing or sinking 22 enemy ships the rest of that year.

Although no American navy could challenge the British for control of the Atlantic seacoast, much less the ocean, the French could and late in the war did. DeGrasse and the French fleet off Yorktown in the Chesapeake Bay in October 1781, was the deciding factor in the British surrender.

The first major naval action of the Revolution, and in many ways the most important, occured on Lake Champlain at Valcour Island on October 11, 1776. Benedict Arnold assembled 15 vessels, four captured and 11 constructed at Skenesborough, now Whitehall, N.Y. This makeshift, and totally inexperienced, American "navy" met the British fleet from Canada, 29 armed vessels and 24 other boats with men and supplies. It was probably one of the most valiant battles fought by any American force in the war.

Surviving that battle is the only intact naval vessel of the Revolutionary War, the gunboat Philadelphia. Today it is one of our famous and certainly the largest of our Revolutionary relics, occupying an honored place int eh Smithsonian Institution's Museum of History and Technology, Washington, D.C.

The Philadelphia was one of the first of Arnold's navy to go down at Valcour. Taking a British ball in its hull, it sank "about one hour after the engagement was over." For 159 years she rested almost totally intact in the cold clear waters of Lake Champlain just of Valcour Island. In 1935, Capt. L.F. Hagglund, diver extraordinaire, brought the Philadelphia to the surface, along with the ball that sent her to the bottom. For many years, Hagglund exhibited the gunboat around Lake Champlain. In 1961, she was brought to the Smithsonian, including shoes, guns, shot, eating utensils, and uniform buttons, and is today a part of the Armed Forces Exhibit.
The rest of Arnold's navy was either destroyed in the battle or captured by the British and later lost. Pieces of some of these vessels do survive, however (recovered in various diving expeditions), and can be seen in such museums as the Naval Museum, Navy yard, Washington, D.C.; Bixby Memorial Library, Vergennes, Vt.; Kent-Delord House, and the Clinton County Historical Society, Plattsburgh, N.Y.; Skenesborough Museum, Whitehall, N.Y.; Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company Museum, Faneuil Hall, Boston; and Fort Ticonderoga Museum, Ticonderoga, N.Y.

With the exception of raids on British forts and expeditions against Indians and Loyalists in New York and Pennsylvania, the war in the north was over. Again the action shifted to other partsof the country.

In May 1778, Col. George Rogers Clark commanded an expedition of 200 men against British forts in the Virginia claimed northwest territory, now Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana. His first objective, Kaskaskia on the Mississippi, fell on July 5. With the help of the French in the region, and the advantage of the new alliance with France, Fort Sackville, at Vincennes, surrendered next. On December 17, Lt. Gov. Henry Hamilton in Detroit, recaptured Fort Sackville. Clark, at Kaskaskia, marched against Hamilton the following February and successfully regained Vincennes and effectually reduced British power in the northwest.

In the south, Savannah, GA, fell to the British on December 29, 1778. Augusta surrendered within the month.

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