October 1775

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