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Daughan's Explanation For The Poor Performance Of The Continental Navy

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Daughan builds a convincing case that a navy of row galleys, whaleboats, and gun boats could have performed much better. In fact, early in the war, before Royal Navy admiration took hold, swarms of small boats made effective raids on British vessels. These boats allowed the colonists to take advantage of their local knowledge: They could hide in creeks, strike at the enemy, and escape into the shallows. This was precisely the strategy British commanders feared most, but the Continental Congress wanted a large navy. Overall, Daughan offers a strong explanation for the poor performance of the Continental Navy and issues an important challenge for policymakers today: Fight the war you are faced with by using the strategy it demands. Moving into the early republic, Daughan frames the large …show more content…

On May 8, 1776, thirteen Pennsylvania Navy row galleys, engaging a British forty-four-gun frigate and twenty-gun ship in the Delaware River, forced the forty-four aground. Daughan builds his thesis on this obscure incident. The general effectiveness of row galleys against broadside vessels, however, remains debatable. During the War of 1812, British warships in Chesapeake Bay easily neutralized Joshua Barney’s substantial flotilla of galleys and barges. Nor is it clear why “a blue water fleet that could be a force outside harbors, rivers, and the immediate coast” was any less essential for asserting America’s nationhood in 1777 than it would be in 1807. Daughan undervalues the services the Continental navy performed at sea; transporting diplomats, convoying specie, and showing the flag. None of the ministers that the Continental frigates carried to Europe was captured, whereas Henry Laurens, sent by Congress to Europe in a packet, was taken and imprisoned in the Tower of London. Congress could not place confidence in privateers for public missions. It would have been foolish to commit the shipment of

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