Q. What was the Continental Navy and when was it formed?
A. The Continental Navy was the first American navy. It was formed during the American Revolutionary War. When 12 of the 13 American colonies sent delegates to Philadelphia for the First Continental Congress in 1774, their goal was not independence from Great Britain. Instead, the delegates wanted to present a united front in the hopes of being granted a hearing in England on the wrongs that had been committed against them. Although it would later pass the Declaration of Independence, when the Second Continental Congress first met in 1775, after the battles of Lexington and Concord, delegates still viewed reconciliation as the probable outcome. In 1775, the Continental Congress approved the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking up Arms, which expressed loyalty to the King, but explained the need to take up arms and threatened independence if wrongs committed against the colonies were not righted. Part of taking up arms was the creation of the Continental Navy to protect the colonists from the British fleet.
Q. How was the Continental Navy formed?
A. The Continental Congress discussed the creation of a naval fleet in 1775. On October 13, the Continental Congress passed the legislation from which today’s navy was created. The legislation authorized colonial ships to intercept and rob boats carrying supplies to the British army in America. Though the U.S. Navy today celebrates its birthday on October 13, it wasn’t until December 22, 1775 that officers were commissioned for the Continental Navy.
Q. When did the Continental Navy become the U.S. Navy?
A. In 1783, after the American Revolution, the Continental Navy was disbanded. In 1794, under President Washington, the United States Navy was authorized, but it wasn’t until 1798, under President Adams, that the Department of the Navy was created to chart out a plan to protect American merchant ships from the French, who had begun seizing American ships after the U.S. ratified the Jay Treaty with Great Britain. Though many consider President Washington the father of the U.S. Navy, it was actually President Adams who championed the creation and expansion of a naval force, beginning during the Continental Congress.