The Echoes of Babylon: The Rise and Fall of Three Great Republics by Michael Hastings

Author:Michael Hastings [Hastings, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Piscataqua Press
Published: 2016-03-29T16:00:00+00:00

John Paul Jones, father of the United States Navy.

Trevelyan goes on to state, “a Stuart was no sooner on the throne than the British Parliament entered on a course of selfish legislation which killed the direct maritime trade between our dependencies and foreign ports, and deliberately crushed every form of colonial manufacture which could possibly compete with the manufacturers of England.”[56] How better to make friends than to allow people to become wealthy?

In addition, there were probably other historical lessons that would have been of assistance to them. There is no doubt that England was far superior to any combination of nations on earth in regard to its naval supremacy. If engaged in a war against the colonies, this would be of enormous importance, as the colonists were restricted primarily to the coast of North America and its navy would allow England to both blockade the coast, and to easily transport forces to various theatres of operation. Being Englishmen, the colonists would have been familiar with the actions of England during the time of Drake, when England had but a fledgling navy with which to combat the overwhelming superiority of Catholic Spain. It is interesting to note that the naval practices and policies of the newly declared United States were very much similar to those of England around the time of the Amarda.

Almost immediately after the opening of hostilities at Lexington and Concord, America’s new naval policy would take shape. After being appointed as Commander in Chief of the Army by Congress, George Washington arrived to take over the Continental forces at Cambridge on July 15, 1775. In the siege of Boston to follow, recognizing the importance of naval warfare in the new contest, Washington ordered the chartering, arming, and manning of several small merchantmen in order to harass British supply lines. Therefore, in a sense, Washington may be considered as one of the founders of the United States Navy.

In the years to come this policy of naval harassment would continue. Warships with names such as Lexington, Hornet, Wasp, Ranger, and Bon Homme Richard would go on to give faithful service to the new nation and would serve as the forbearers of the great warships of the future to whom their names would be handed down.

It would be the actions of John Paul Jones and his ship Ranger that would serve as an example of how and to what purpose the new navy would be used to challenge British supremacy. In the spring of 1778, Jones sailed the Ranger to European waters where she would enter into the Irish Sea, engage in raids against Whitehaven and St. Mary’s Isle, and capture the British sloop of war, Drake. For these actions, John Paul Jones would become America’s first naval hero, and from the British point of view, he and American sailors would henceforth be regarded as pirates. As to the effectiveness of American raids against British commerce, English naval historians generally consider it a fact that by 1778, American privateers had captured nearly one thousand merchant ships valued at nearly 2,000,000 pounds.

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