Virginia State Navy - American Revolutionary War

American Revolutionary War

Virginia, along with the other Thirteen Colonies, was increasingly dissatisfied with the actions of Lord Dunmore, the royal governor of the colony. After the Gunpowder Incident in April 1775 and the news of the war's outbreak with the Battles of Lexington and Concord, Dunmore, fearing for his safety, fled with his family to a Royal Navy ship. From there, he attempted to organize Loyalist forces in the colony to counter the rising rebellion. In order to counter his ability to move around on the rivers of the state and in Chesapeake Bay, the provisional assembly voted in December 1775 to authorize the Committee of Safety to acquire and outfit ships, and to hire officers and crew to operate them. Over the next six months, the committee acquired five ships, and ordered the construction of several more, and hired its first captains: James Barron, Richard Barron, Richard Taylor, Thomas Lilly, and Edward Travis. In May 1776 the assembly established a Navy Board to oversee most naval matters, and established an admiralty court. Ships were built on the eastern shore and in various shipyards throughout the state, but were eventually consolidated into facilities on the Chickahominy River and at Gosport. In 1779 the Navy Board was superseded by a Board of War, with the state's trading vessels to be managed by a Board of Trade. This organization lasted only one year, when the state established a Commissioner of War, a Commercial Agent, and a Commissioner of the Navy to coordinate the military and trade activities.

The fleet's first commodore was John Henry Boucher, who was lured away from a command in the Maryland State Navy. He served only briefly, and was followed by Walter Brooke and then James Barron, who led the fleet until the end of the war. The state had difficulty recruiting men for its ships (as other states also did) due to the lucrative nature of privateering, and also by a relative shortage of skilled seamen in the state. The state did not itself authorize privateering, instead issuing letters of marque covered by legislation of the Second Continental Congress.