The value of the captures of the privateers was about $18,000,000; that of the captures of the navy, which had thirty-one ships afloat in 1776, thirty-four in 1777, and but seven in 1782, was, proportioned to the number of ships employed, much greater, being some $6,000,000. Altogether (i. e., by both services) some 800 vessels were captured. Our own losses were also very great, but not nearly so great as those of Britain. About 16,000 prisoners were taken afloat, only 6,000 less than those taken by the army. By July, 1776, the British fleet in the vicinity of New York, where the attack was about to take place on the American army assembled on Long Island near Brooklyn, which resulted in our defeat and the occupancy of New York for the remainder of the war, consisted of nine ships of from 50 to 64 guns; three of 44; twenty-seven of from 28 to 32; fourteen of 20; eleven of 14 to 18; sixteen of from 8 to 10--a total of eighty ships of war. This fleet was under the command of Richard Viscount Howe, whose brother, General Howe, was commander-in-chief of the army of 34,614 men, of whom 13,167 were of the 29,867 Hessians hired for the war by Great Britain. These two brothers were for some two years to conduct the British main operations in America. One, the admiral, was an officer of great ability and rose to high distinction; the General was handicapped by a slothful and unenterprising disposition with a character marred by an extreme looseness in moral conduct. His want of enterprise may have been due in part to the attitude of the Whig party in England, to which he was attached, and which was opposed in general to the use of force against America. In any case, his qualities were such that they went a long way toward the establishment of American independence. In addition to Howe’s fleet there were, under Commodore Sir Peter Parker, two 50-gun ships, four of 28, two of 20, and three of 8 guns. These were to be employed against Charleston, South Carolina. On Lake Champlain the British were to have during 1776 a ship of eighteen 12-pounders, a schooner of fourteen 6-pounders; another of 12; three “Radeaux” (flat-bottomed craft), one carrying six 24-pounders, one six 12-pounders, and one two howitzers. There were also a gondola (with oars) carrying seven 9-pounders, and twenty gunboats, each with a brass field piece of from 24 to 9 pounds. The naval force here mentioned was at times reinforced by accessions of line-of-battle ships, as many as twenty-one being at times available. The British, however, with an unwise conception of the true strategy of the situation, were constantly diverting these to the West Indies, which, during our Revolution, after war was declared by France and Spain, was the great field of naval action. It is within bounds to say that they lost the United States for the sake of the West India Islands. CHAPTER IV