 | Naval operations in the American Revolutionary War: Encyclopedia II - Naval operations in the American Revolutionary War - Operations in America 1775-1778
Naval operations in the American Revolutionary War - Operations in America 1775-1778
The history of the naval war from 1775 to 1778 was made up of many small operations. The naval force at the disposal of the admirals commanding on the station, who until Admiral Lord Howe took up the command on July 12, 1776 were Samuel Graves and Molyneux Shuldham, was insufficient to patrol the long line of coast. A large part of such squadrons as there were was necessarily limited to aiding General Gage and Sir William Howe at Boston, in seeking stores for the army and in supplying naval brigades.
At other points of the coast the British navy was employed in punitive expeditions against the coast towns—as for example the burning of Falmouth (now Portland, Maine) in October 1775—which served to exasperate, rather than to weaken the enemy, or the unsuccessful attack on Charleston, in June 1776. It was wholly unequal to the task of blockading the many towns from which privateers could be fitted out. British commerce therefore suffered severely, even as far off as the Irish coasts, where it was found necessary to supply convoy to the Belfast linen trade.
The Americans were not yet in a position to provide a fleet. On March 23, 1776 Congress did indeed issue letters of marque and reprisal, and efforts were made to fit out a national force. But the so-called "continental" vessels which sailed with the commission of the Congress hardly differed in character, or in the nature of their operations, from the privateers.
The British navy was able to cover the retreat of the army from Boston to Halifax in April 1776, and to convey it to New York in June. It assisted in the expedition to Philadelphia in July 1777. On the St Lawrence and the Lakes it was able to play a more aggressive part. The relief of Quebec by Captain Charles Douglas in May 1776 forced the American general Benedict Arnold to retreat. The destruction of his squadron on Lake Champlain in October covered the frontier of Canada, and supplied a basis for the march of General John Burgoyne in 1777 which ended in the surrender at Saratoga.
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 Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Operations in America 1775-1778", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki |
