Navy: Naval Forces & Battles - Revolutionary War

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Privateers help end Revolutionary War - Citizen sailors plundered British ships washingtontimes.com :: 2009-01-27
As the formidable British armada cut through ocean waves, sending shock and misery through the Colonies, beleaguered Revolutionary War troops funded by worthless currency, led by a weak Congress and sabotaged by Loyalists, bravely fought on land just to survive. Things were different at sea. War and commerce came together to form a storm called privateering. Private citizens, at their own risk, appetites whetted by the thrill of the hunt for rewards, gorged on the booty of British supply vessels. "Thousands of schemes for privateering are afloat in American imaginations," John Adams wrote. [ Navy: Naval Forces & Battles ]

Plans to rescue wreck of Revolution War gunboat from Lake Champlain wcax.com :: 2008-08-21
Lake Champlain's best held secret? A sunken Revolution War gunboat. "It fell as if it was still sailing. We see artifacts showing in some places," said Art Cohn with the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum. The Spitfire was sunk by the British at the Battle of Valcour Island, one of 8 identical boats that held back the British advance from Canada. "All of them were accounted for, either captured, sunk or burned, except for the Spitfire," said Rich Isenberg with the Maritime Museum. The Spitfire's sister ship the Philadelphia - now at the Smithsonian Institution while a full-sized replica is on show at the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum - is the only ship in the Benedict Arnold fleet to be recovered. [ Navy: Naval Forces & Battles ]

British warship HMS Ontario, which sank during the American War of Independence, found telegraph.co.uk :: 2008-06-19
Warship HMS Ontario, which sank during the American Revolutionary War, has been found in great condition at the bottom of Lake Ontario. It is the oldest shipwreck and only fully intact British warship ever discovered in the Great Lakes. The 22-gunship was lost with barely a trace during a gale in 1780. It was found by shipwreck buffs Jim Kennard and Dan Scoville with side-scanning sonar and an unmanned submersible. Historian Arthur Britton Smith, whose book The Legend of the Lake records the history of the HMS Ontario, said: "To have a Revolutionary War vessel that's practically intact is unbelievable." [ Navy: Naval Forces & Battles ]

Revolutionary War remnant pulled from Delaware River pittsburghlive :: 2007-11-26
Maritime archaeologist J. Lee Cox Jr. was checking the bottom of the Delaware River when he got a hit on the sonar. Later a diver found a pointed object 40 feet down, and Cox id'd it as the business end of a cheval-de-frise, an iron-tipped log once embedded in the river to gore the hulls of British warships threatening Philadelphia in the mid-1770s. The cheval-de-frise was given to the Independence Seaport Museum, which plans to conserve it for Revolutionary War collection. The relic was probably placed in the river in 1775, at a time when the Pennsylvania Council of Safety, under the direction of Benjamin Franklin, was supervising the colony's defense. [ Navy: Naval Forces & Battles ]

Replica of first submarine passes sea trial theday :: 2007-10-24
True to its name, the Turtle moved slowly through the murky waters of the Connecticut River, its rear propeller spinning on the manual power supplied by operator Roy Manstan. On the dock above, Fred Frese, the principal builder of the contraption, looked on as it moved along, a grin on his face: "It works". Frese was among 25 people who turned out for one of the first test launches of the Turtle, a reproduction of the first American submarine, which was built in 1776 by David Bushnell to help Colonial forces sink British warships. This is the third Turtle reproduction Frese has built. [ Navy: Naval Forces & Battles ]

Remnants of major naval defeat found - Penobscot Expedition of 1779 bangornews :: 2007-10-09
The 1779 Penobscot Expedition was the largest Revolutionary War naval expedition and worst naval defeat in US history until Pearl Harbor. The battle, which ended with the loss of 30-40 naval ships and sloops of war by the hands of their own crews, left everything along the bottom of the Penobscot River. Although findings are few and far between, some items that are possibly from the Penobscot Expedition emerged recently. A handful of men have pursued these hidden treasures over the last 228 years, including Robert Neyland, from the Naval Historical Center, but for the most part vessels lost in the historic battle have never been found. [ Navy: Naval Forces & Battles ]

US debt to the French: the greatest naval battle in American waters yorktownpatriot :: 2007-08-30
2 great fleets of ships, French and British, forming battle lines as they run parallel to each other toward the south. And then, out of sight of land, sounds of gunfire roll across the sea like thunder. And the life of a new nation hangs in the balance. This is where the American Revolution was won. This, George Washington said, was the pivot around which the great battle of Yorktown turned, and perhaps the entire tide of war. And yet, the genius of the battle off the Virginia Capes has been forgotten. It couldn't be that we refuse to acknowledge that the greatest naval battle in American waters was won without the participation of a single American? [ New York and YorkTown ]

John Paul Jones: The Scot who saw off the Sassenachs independent.co.uk :: 2007-08-07
Born in Scotland, John Paul Jones fled to America and in 1779 commanded a vessel which won an unlikely victory over a British frigate. The US ship was itself sunk in the battle, now the race is on to find it. --- The prospect of watching the British Navy handing out a drubbing to the Americans was too good to miss for the Yorkshire gentry on 23 Sept 1779 - and they were not disappointed by the spectacle of a 50-gun British frigate Serapis inflicting damage on rebel US vessel Bonhomme Richard. Jones was down to his last ammunition when, with his vessel ablaze, the British asked if he was ready to surrender. "I have not yet begun to fight," he retorted. [ Navy: Naval Forces & Battles ]

Colonial submarine replica causes scare in New York Harbor usatoday :: 2007-08-04
A replica of a Revolutionary War submarine spooked New York City and the U.S. Coast Guard when the egg-shaped vessel was seen bobbing near the Queen Mary 2 luxury liner. The handmade wood-and-fiberglass submersible -- a replica of David Bushnell's one-man American Turtle, the first submarine used in combat -- was the work of artists. [ Navy: Naval Forces & Battles ]

French town rebuilds frigate of U.S. revolutionary war hero iht :: 2007-08-01
Piece by piece, a structure of magic is taking shape in this old river port, fulfilling the dream of a group of Frenchmen to pay tribute to a father of French-American friendship. For a decade now, historians and craftsmen have sought to recreate the Hermione, the 44-meter, 32-gun, 3-masted frigate that in 1780 carried a young French nobleman Marquis de Lafayette on a 38-day voyage to Boston. Lafayette already had made his reputation fighting for the cause of American liberty alongside George Washington against the British. The lean warship known for its speed moved on to take part in the final battles of Chesapeake Bay and the decisive fall of Yorktown in 1781. [ Navy: Naval Forces & Battles ]

Will the North Sea give up America's most prized naval treasure yorkshirepost :: 2007-06-29
The Americans will be taking to the high seas off the Yorkshire coast this August in search of nautical "Holy Grail". A flotilla of American scientists will mount a £175,000 expedition in search of a wreck of USS Bonhomme Richard, which sank in 1779 following a sea battle with the British Navy 25 miles off the Yorkshire coast. Two US teams will plunge into the North Sea in search of the flagship of a Scottish captain John Paul Jones, the "Father of the American Navy". One expedition, led by Ocean Technology Foundation, believe they came close last year to identifying the ship and now hope to pinpoint the wreck using the latest undersea technology. [ Navy: Naval Forces & Battles ]

Six Frigates: The navy was created to stop looting smh :: 2007-02-03
After 1776, the merchant ships of the former American colonies weren't protected by the Royal Navy. For the first time, rich and defenceless merchant vessels, flying the Stars and Stripes, came to be seen in foreign ports. They suffered in the Mediterranean at the hands of the Barbary States which practised piracy. American ships were captured by corsairs operating out of ancient North African sea ports. Crew members were sold into slavery, women to harems. Thus a closely divided US Congress came to enact a resolution for the provision of a naval force "adequate to the protection of the commerce of the US against the Algerian corsairs." [ Navy: Naval Forces & Battles ]

Bonhomme Richard, captained by naval hero John Paul Jones wirelessworkforceonline :: 2006-11-25
A coalition of scientists, historians, and nations get closer than ever before to locating the shipwrecked remains of the Bonhomme Richard, one of the most famous ships in U.S. history using computer modeling technology. The Bonhomme Richard, captained by American naval hero John Paul Jones, sank in the North Sea in 1779, after claiming victory over the British ship HMS Serapis in one of the most pivotal battles of the Revolutionary War. [ Navy: Naval Forces & Battles ]

Shipwreck recovery resumes - date range got from artifacts delmarvanow :: 2006-10-22
Article no longer available from the original source.
The recovery of artifacts from an 18th-century shipwreck and the search for the vessel's name has resumed, and found objects are being added to a local museum's collection. Researchers believe they know the name of the ship and when it sunk, but they cannot fully confirm it. There were four possible ships the wreck could be: the Vaughn, Pitt Packet, Commerce and Severn. "The Severn is the best candidate," said Daniel Griffith. After researching the period of manufacture of the artifacts found, researchers were able to establish a date range of 1769-1775 for the wreck. [ Navy: Naval Forces & Battles ]

Replica ship retraces colonist route -- History alive sfgate :: 2006-10-17
Jamestown, Colonial Williamsburg and Yorktown, Va., are part of the Historic Triangle, "two centuries of history in 23 miles", all on the Virginia peninsula. There are two Jamestowns and 3 Yorktowns: Yorktown Battlefield, Yorktown Victory Center and the little village of Yorktown, a tiny community with antiques shops and its own museums. This is a big year for the Triangle: In addition to the new museums and visitor center at Jamestown, the battlefield park is celebrating the 225th anniversary of the British surrender on Oct. 19, 1781. And next April, the replica ship Godspeed will retrace the colonists' route, reaching Jamestown May 11-13. [ Navy: Naval Forces & Battles ]

Traces of wreck made famous by the founder of the US navy bbc :: 2006-07-28
An operation to locate the wreck of a ship made famous by Solway sailor John Paul Jones has identified what could be part of the vessel. Jones - considered to be the founder of the U.S. navy - captained the Bonhomme Richard which sank in 1779 off Flamborough Head in East Yorkshire. Jones famously engaged the British ship Serapis off Flamborough Head. He captured Serapis but had to watch his own ship sink. The battle on 23 September, 1779, is counted as one of the most unforgettable battles of the American Revolution. [ Navy: Naval Forces & Battles ]

One of the most famous wrecks in the naval history of the US yorkshirepost.co.uk :: 2006-07-06
A team will begin the search in earnest for one of the most famous wrecks in the naval history of the United States. The remains of the warship Bonhomme Richard lie somewhere off the East Coast of Yorkshire - but for decades have eluded the best efforts of some of the top wreckhunters in the world. It foundered after a battle with British warship Serapis in 1779, during the American War of Independence. [ Navy: Naval Forces & Battles ]

Artifacts from 1776 fleet go on display - America's first fleet wcax :: 2006-07-01
Article no longer available from the original source.
The American naval force hastily thrown together by Benedict Arnold 230 years ago was small, but it played a big role in the outcome of the Revolutionary War. Now, more artifacts from America's first fleet are on display near the Lake Champlain site where they were recovered by a marine archaeology project. Divers have found pieces of a gunboat's cannon and a sword. In October 1776, a 15-ship American fleet commanded by Arnold -- before he turned traitor -- engaged a larger British force at Valcour. Although the redcoats won the battle, their plans to invade the colonies from the north were put on hold, giving American forces time to regroup. [ Navy: Naval Forces & Battles ]

Revolutionary War News is an edited review of hand-picked news and articles related to American War of Independence 1775-1783.