{"id":339,"date":"2026-06-02T17:44:03","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T17:44:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prorelocationteam.com\/?p=339"},"modified":"2026-06-02T17:44:03","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T17:44:03","slug":"how-out-of-work-fishermen-saved-the-american-revolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prorelocationteam.com\/?p=339","title":{"rendered":"How out\u2011of\u2011work fishermen saved the American\u00a0Revolution"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

George Washington knew his forces could not win the American Revolutionary War without some measure of sea power. \u201cIt follows then as certain as that night succeeds the day,\u201d he later wrote in a letter, \u201cthat without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, and with it everything honorable and glorious.\u201d <\/p>\n

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The problem was that the American commander did not have a navy.<\/p>\n

As a professor of early American history, I have taught courses on the American Revolution for more than 20 years and have written two books on its maritime dimensions. Washington\u2019s solution wouldn\u2019t come from a French shipyard or a congressional committee. It would come from a group of angry, out-of-work New England fishermen.<\/p>\n

Supplying the army from the sea<\/h2>\n

In 1775, American ground forces managed to lay siege to the British army in Boston, but Washington needed provisions and military stores to sustain pressure on this key commercial hub. Looking out across the Atlantic Ocean, he noticed supply ships arriving in droves from Great Britain \u2013 unescorted \u2013 to supply the British army in Boston with guns and ammunition. <\/p>\n

Unbeknownst to them, the British had already handed the American commander the ships and mariners he needed to capture those resources. <\/p>\n

The Sons of Liberty, a network of political activists, had angered the British government by resisting taxes and commercial regulations \u2013 from the 1765 Stamp Act, which taxed printed documents, to the 1773 Tea Act, which controlled what tea leaves made their way into North American cupboards.<\/p>\n

To punish rebels for their treason, Parliament passed the Restraining Act of 1775, banning New Englanders from fishing on the Atlantic Ocean. Overnight, thousands of skilled mariners \u2013 men who spent their lives wrestling 100-pound cod out of the freezing, storm-tossed North Atlantic \u2013 were out of a job. They weren\u2019t just unemployed; they were furious. These fishermen left their work tools and ships behind, picked up weapons and joined the siege of Boston alongside American farmers. <\/p>\n

Ashley Bowen, who lived and worked in Marblehead, Massachusetts, the principal fishing port in America at the time, recorded in his journal on May 22, 1775, \u201cthe fishermen are enlisting quite quick.\u201d<\/p>\n

A letter from a French diplomat to the foreign minister in Paris confirmed the news a couple of weeks later: \u201c4,800 sailors seeing they were going to be deprived of their fishing rights, deserted their ships and joined their compatriots under arms.\u201d <\/p>\n

Creating the first navy<\/h2>\n

Washington, commissioned by Congress as commander in chief of all American armed forces in June 1775, saw an opportunity. He didn\u2019t wait for Congress to build new frigates. Instead, he reached out to John Glover, a fish merchant from Marblehead and a commissioned officer under his command. <\/p>\n

Washington\u2019s plan was simple: Take the sturdy, salt-stained schooners used for fishing and turn them into armed, seagoing predators.<\/p>\n

The first of these was Glover\u2019s own fishing vessel and trade ship, Hannah. She wasn\u2019t a formidable man-of-war but a 78-ton workhorse that spent summers at the Grand Banks and winters hauling rum and sugar from the Caribbean. Washington armed the trade ship with a few cannons, manned her with fishermen and sent her out to hijack British supply ships to help his army win the siege of Boston. <\/p>\n

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Just two days after the Hannah was underway, the Unity, a sloop loaded with naval stores and lumber, supplies sorely needed by British forces in Boston.<\/p>\n

Between August and October 1775, Washington outfitted a fleet of schooners at Congress\u2019 expense to intercept British supply ships off the coast of New England. These vessels and crews, whose wages were paid by the American government, constituted what many historians consider America\u2019s first navy. Washington reminded each captain that they sailed \u201cat the Continental Expense.\u201d These orders from Washington and the payments made by Congress made these ships official American warships, operating under the authority of what would become the federal government.<\/p>\n

These recruits didn\u2019t need nautical training; they were seasoned seafarers who had battled rough waters and gale force winds. On Oct. 13, 1775, George Washington wrote to his brother, John Augustine Washington, that the fishermen were \u201csoldiers \u2026 who have been bred to the sea.\u201d <\/p>\n

In 1776, Washington informed the governor of Connecticut, who had asked to draft seamen from Washington\u2019s regiments for his own naval expedition, that he could not spare any. \u201cI must depend chiefly upon them for a successful opposition to the Enemy,\u201d Washington explained.<\/p>\n

Keeping the Revolution alive<\/h2>\n

This fleet of converted fishing boats punched above its weight: In the early years of the war they captured 55 British vessels. One such prize, the Nancy, was transporting 2,000 muskets, 30 tons of musket balls and a massive 15-inch brass mortar \u2013 supplies the American army desperately needed for the war effort.<\/p>\n

Because the British navy was spread too thin, with too few warships available to police the Atlantic coastline, the armed fishing vessels were able to disrupt supply lines and keep the Revolution alive through its infancy. By the time the British realized the threat, the damage was done. <\/p>\n

On Feb. 26, 1776, just a few months after Washington launched his fleet, British Admiral Molyneux Shuldham wrote that his forces in Boston were low on everything from naval supplies to weapons. What little they could find had to be purchased \u201cat the most extravagant prices.\u201d <\/p>\n

The British government had not assigned military convoys to trans-Atlantic shipments at the start of the conflict in 1775. Now, Shuldham recommended arming the supply ships themselves, since valuable stores were being intercepted by rebels in small vessels, \u201chowever attentive our Officers to their Duty.\u201d <\/p>\n

He concluded the report with , explaining that he simply did not have the resources to do everything that was being asked of him \u2013 support the army, blockade rebel ports and protect British ships bound for Boston: \u201cI must beg leave to observe to you the very few Ships I am provided with to enable Me to Co-operate with the Army, Cruize off the Ports of the Rebels to prevent their receiving Supplies, or protect those destined to this place from falling into their hands.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A British ban stripped thousands of skilled mariners of their livelihoods overnight \u2013 and gave Washington a chance to turn the tide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":338,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[315],"tags":[1070,371,1065,1066,1067,1061,1069,1068,369,1064,1063,1062],"class_list":["post-339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-250th-anniversary-of-american-revolutionary-war","tag-american-revolution","tag-armed-forces","tag-atlantic-ocean","tag-boston","tag-britain","tag-early-american-history","tag-george-washington","tag-history","tag-navy","tag-new-england","tag-revolution"],"yoast_head":"\nHow out\u2011of\u2011work fishermen saved the American\u00a0Revolution - Pro Relocation Team<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/prorelocationteam.com\/?p=339\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How out\u2011of\u2011work fishermen saved the American\u00a0Revolution - 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