The Navy of the American Revolution

The Navy of the American Revolution: Its Administration, its Policy and its Achievements is a dissertation in the Department of History by Charles Oscar Paullin, submitted in candidacy for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The chapter headed The Conditions of the Continental Naval Service says that the nineteenth century worked its marvels on sea as well as on land. The text says that among the distinguished men who took passage on board the Continental vessels were John Adams, Lafayette, and Gerard, the first French minister to the United States.

The text records that the Mosquito, Captain Harris, carried into St. Pierre the ship Noble, valued at 75,000 livres, and that the brig Liberty captured the ship Jane, whose cargo of West India goods was valued at £6,000. The text says that a Board might suspend an officer of the navy who treated it with indecency and disrespect, and that on October 23, 1777, the Navy Board at Boston was given power to suspend a naval officer.