Coastal Defense Quotes
Without much fanfare, the United States was beginning to deploy naval power internationally.
He was referring to the Algerian Barbary Pirates who had an incredible extortion racket going in the Mediterranean. If nations would pay them an annual sum each year, they would not attack and seize merchant ships of that country and sell the ships and goods while holding the sailors for ransom. Ames was well known for his hyperbole and fear of all the worst possible consequences. He was in many ways like some of the Tea Party of the 21st century who saw immigrants taking over the country and Muslim terrorists in attack on the United States. The Algerians did not have the inclination, skill, or shipbuilding skill to handle trans-Atlantic travel.
This is another example of the preparation that the American patriots were making before 1776 for the coming Revolutionary War. In this case they were urging the arming of ships. There were plenty of ships, and it was a matter of building or buying cannon and mounting them on the decks of the ships. While these were no match for a British Warship in a one-to-one duel, they could be effective against British Smaller Ships that could navigate the shoals, coasts and inlets where the large vessels dared not navigate. This foresight gave George Washington a small navy which he made very good use of. He had 8 schooners ranging from 40-80 tons, each armed with 4-10 cannon and manned by overly large crews (for sailing and firing the guns at the same time) of volunteer expert seamen from Marblehead and Beverly. Of the 35 supply ships the British sent to Boston in 1775, only 8 got through Washington’s Navy. Also note the form of the Continental Congress Resolutions. In effect they mandated nothing as there really was no federal government. Each colony was sovereign, so resolutions were suggestive only with the important decisions all left to the individual colonies and their various governments as some of the colonies had very strong local governments which made all the important decisions.
