Massachusetts supplied General George Washington, then stationed in
Massachusetts, with an armed schooner and a sloop for the purpose of seizing
British supplies. At the same time, Connecticut and Rhode Island would arm
merchant vessels to patrol the near North Atlantic for British transports. These
small forays found immediate success.
On the heels of these successes, the Continental Congress committed itself to
naval expansion in three key ways. First, the Congress authorized the purchase
of four more ships of war. Second, it enlarged the Naval Committee to seven
men. And third, it extended the committee’s brief to building up a naval force
south of New England waters, all the way to Georgia, “for the protection and
defense of the United Colonies.”
And Thus the US Navy was founded in October 1775. I took this information from the DAR National Defender
