The First Naval and Marine Landing on foreign shores
The Commander in Chief of the Continental Navy Disposes of the First Spoils of War in the History of The U.S. Navy and Marines.
On December 22, 1775, Esek Hopkins, brother of signer Stephen Hopkins, was appointed Commander in Chief of the Continental Navy. He was thus Washington’s counterpart, as Washington was Commander in Chief of the Continental Army. The Navy then consisted of all of seven ships, his flagship being the Alfred. In mid-February 1776,...
On December 22, 1775, Esek Hopkins, brother of signer Stephen Hopkins, was appointed Commander in Chief of the Continental Navy. He was thus Washington’s counterpart, as Washington was Commander in Chief of the Continental Army. The Navy then consisted of all of seven ships, his flagship being the Alfred. In mid-February 1776, Commodore Hopkins sailed from Philadelphia, under orders from the Continental Congress to attack British maritime forces in the Chesapeake Bay, along the southern coast and off Rhode Island. But realizing that enemy strength was too great to permit execution of this ambitious task with such meagre resources, Hopkins instead undertook what would be the Navy’s and Marines’ first amphibious offensive, and headed for New Providence, which was then the capital of the Bahamas. On March 3, his squadron put a landing party of Marines and Navy personnel ashore, stormed and seized the local defensive works, and captured a stock of cannon, equipment and supplies that the American armed forces and defenses on land badly needed. The amount of munitions captured was astounding. A full inventory listed eighty-eight cannon (9-pounders to 36-pounders), fifteen mortars (4 inch to 11 inch), 5458 shells, 11071 round shot, and assorted other stores, though only twenty-four casks of gunpowder (a little over a ton).
With the small fleet in New Providence harbor was at least one American merchant vessel commanded by a Captain Jennings, and another from Dartmouth, Massachusetts. Dartmouth is on Narragansett Bay and was directly exposed to British attack; it had no means of repelling a naval attack, a fact that Jennings informed Hopkins. On March 16, in clear weather with fresh breezes, the fleet left New Providence and headed north. Two days later, in a letter to the Committee of Safety of Dartmouth, Hopkins told the Committee that he had heard that they needed some cannon and was therefore sending them two 9-pounders and some shot. He asked the Committee to forward to Rhode Island any shot that did not fit the cannon.
This is that very letter, the first distribution of spoils in U.S. Naval history. Letter Signed, on board the Alfred, March 18, 1776, to the Dartmouth Committee of Safety. “I understand by Captain Jenning that you was in want of Guns, and I have sent by him two 9 lb. guns and some shott, which please accept and make such use of them as you think best. And if the opportunity permits, send the shot he has ordered that are too big for your guns to Providence or Howlands Ferry, and you will oblige you and your country’s Friend – Esek Hopkins.” This famous letter appears in Naval Documents of the American Revolution and is specifically referenced in the article “The New Providence Expedition of 1776” on the American War of Independence – At Sea website.
There is docketing on the verson. Just beneath the date are the words “Military Stores, Commodore Hopkins of the Alfred — to the Committee of Safety”. Elsewhere it reads “Committee of the Town of Dartmouth, Ephraim Pope.”
On April 4, 1776, while en route home, Hopkins and the Continental fleet encountered and captured two British warships. This was the first at-sea battle of the Continental Navy. Two days later they had an inconclusive engagement with HMS Glasgow. Hopkins’ squadron arrived at New London, Connecticut, on 8 April, thus ending the Navy’s first foray in history.
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