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Why Build Another Navy?

Meeting in a waterfront Philadelphia tavern in 1775,  the Marine Committee of the Continental Congress, (which included John Adams as a member),  decided to form the Continental Navy, authorizing construction of thirteen frigates.  Since the British had tended to jealously guard its own  ship building industry,  the Colonists would take time developing one for themselves.  Thus in the meantime, some of the first war ships were simply converted merchant vessels and commissioned privateers.  As the war progressed, these makeshift war vessels would prove a bit more successful than the Continental Navy’s ships, most of which were either captured or destroyed by the Royal Navy.  Even John Paul Jones’ illustrious Bonhomme Richard, though victorious over HMS Serapis, sank off the coast of England.  In any event, by the end of the war, only a handful of the estimated sixty-five ships that served in the Continental Navy survived, and in 1785 Congress auctioned the last vessel of the Continental Navy to a private owner. As late as the 1900s, remnants of the 36  gun frigate Alliance, known for having fired the last shot of the war, could be seen resting on a mud bar along the Delaware River.

While there might have been talk about building another Navy, legislative discussions tended to hit a dead end over matters of  funding, taxes, and the increased power and authority a Navy might give to a new central government.  Then America found itself drawn into European affairs as the Algerians closed off  access to lucrative Mediterranean markets by seizing her ships and cargo and enslaving and ransoming the crew. This drove up maritime insurance rates and bankrupted merchant houses, some of which operated out of Philadelphia, the seat of government at the time. After some political wrangling, some of it regional,  and some along Federalist-Republican partisan lines, Congress authorized funds to build six frigates.  In this letter, Secretary of War Knox asks to meet with Philadelphia Quaker and master ship builder Joshua Humphreys to discuss the design of proposed frigates.

Their names? During the initial design stages, the frigates were simply designated A-F.  Later, the names would be chosen by the War Department,  some as symbols of the  new U.S. Constitution.  Their names and place built included: Portsmouth New Hampshire, Congress; Boston, Constitution; New York, President; Philadelphia, United States; Norfolk, Chesapeake; and Baltimore, Constellation.