“I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast, for I intend to go in harm’s way.”
John Paul Jones
Resolved, That a swift sailing vessel, to carry ten carriage guns, and a proportionable number of swivels, with eighty men, be fitted, with all possible despatch, for a cruise of three months, and that the commander be instructed to cruize eastward, for intercepting such transports as may be laden with warlike stores and other supplies for our enemies, and for such other purposes as the Congress shall direct.
That a Committee of three be appointed to prepare an estimate of the expence, and lay the same before the Congress, and to contract with proper persons to fit out the vessel.
Resolved, that another vessel be fitted out for the same purposes, and that the said committee report their opinion of a proper vessel, and also an estimate of the expence.
The British Navy by far was the mightiest Navy in the world during the American Revolution. The new born Navy of the United States could not match her ship for ship in stand up fight. However the Navy, and American privateers, wreaked havoc on British commerce, and reminded the world that British ships could, after all, be beaten in individual fights. No more glorious page occurs in the Revolutionary War than that written by our sailors, who risked quick death in battle and the slow death of being taken captive and imprisoned in the rotting hulks of the Royal Navy.
“I have not yet begun to fight.” John Paul Jones