You’ve come a long way, Navy.
“Resolved, That a swift sailing vessel, to carry ten carriage guns, and a proportionable number of swivels, with eighty men, be fitted, with all possible despatch, for a cruise of three months, and that the commander be instructed to cruize eastward, for intercepting such transports as may be laden with warlike stores and other supplies for our enemies, and for such other purposes as the Congress shall direct.
That a Committee of three be appointed to prepare an estimate of the expence, and lay the same before the Congress, and to contract with proper persons to fit out the vessel.
Resolved, that another vessel be fitted out for the same purposes, and that the said committee report their opinion of a proper vessel, and also an estimate of the expence.”
– Continental Congress, 13 October, 1775
NGNN still uses those specs to build carriers. It’s the changes that cost 3 billion…
Happy Birthday, Junior Service!
I won’t whizz in the punchbowl by reminiscing about G. Washington commissioning those first warships as Continental *Army* assets…
proof positive that since the beginning, it was always all about procurement and committee work..
congrats!
And a glorious 223rd birthday to all my fellow webfoots!
May there be many happy returns of the day.
I may have some few regrets in my life, but joining this storied branch of the tree of liberty was never one of them.
May God bless, and may our nation always honour all those who sail in harm’s way upon the waters great and small, in defense of our Constitution.
BillT,
Keep in mind our Founding Fathers were wise. In the Constitution, they wanted the Legislative branch to “provide and maintain a navy” but only to “raise and support armies” but not appropriate them for more than two years.
Even the Founders didn’t trust the army!
; )
And remember that the USCG (created 1790) is the oldest continuous seagoing service since after the War of Independence the Navy was disbanded. From 1790 till 1798, when the U.S. Navy was created (OK re-created), the cutters of the Revenue Cutter Service were the only national maritime service.
Just sayin’
According to these folks, we’ve already missed the birthday:
Whitehall
Whitehall was settled in 1759 at the southern end of Lake Champlain. Founded as the colonial town of Skenesboro by British Army Captain Philip Skene, this community became the first permanent settlement on Lake Champlain. An important center of maritime trade, Skene developed lake travel north to reach the West Indies via Quebec.
On May 9, 1775, Skenesboro was captured by American forces in the first aggressive revolutionary war action in New York State. Skene’s trading schooner became the first ship of the US Navy when it was taken to Crown Point armed and used under the leadership of Col. Benedict Arnold to capture a British ship renamed Enterprise on May 18, 1775.
In 1776, Congress ordered General Philip Schuyler to construct a fleet of ships capable of countering an expected British invasion. This first US Naval fleet of thirteen ships added to the four already patrolling Lake Champlain was constructed during the summer of 1776. Led by Benedict Arnold, the action of this fleet at the battle of Vancour in October of that year caused a delaying action that ultimately saved the American Forces at Saratoga. This naval fleet was the only one to see active service in the Revolutionary War.
http://www.revolutionaryday.com/usroute4/whitehall/default.htm