Until October, 1776, the Massachusetts navy was administered by the General Court, committees of its members, the Council, and naval agents. The General Court for the period of its recess in May, 1776, placed the armed vessels in the charge of “the committee for fortifying the harbor of Boston.” By the fall of that year it realized that “secrecy, dispatch, and economy in conducting the war” demanded a special executive department. Accordingly, on October 26 it established a Board of War consisting of nine members, any five of whom constituted a quorum. The Board of War was “empowered to Order and Direct the Operations of the Forces in the Pay of this State, both by sea and land, by giving the Commanders of the Troops, Garrisons, and Vessels of War, such Orders for their Conduct and Cruizes from time to time as they shall think proper.”[401] It organized by electing a president and secretary; and it rented permanent quarters near the State House in Boston. In December, 1776, James Warren, later Commissioner for the Continental Navy Board at Boston, was president of the Board of War. Philip Henry Savage was for a long time its president. Savage presided at the meeting in 1773 at Old South Church which decided that the tea should not be landed.[402] The Board of War entered upon its work with vigor in November, 1776. It was yearly renewed, until it was dissolved in February, 1781. The principal business of the Board of War was the administration of the naval, commercial, and military affairs of the state. Its naval and commercial duties were quite engrossing. The Board kept fairly distinct the activities of its “armed” and “trading” vessels. It is true that the armed vessels were now and then sent on commercial errands, or combined in a single voyage naval and trading duties. The sloop “Republic,” used for a short time as a naval vessel, was taken into the commercial service. The Massachusetts Archives contain a list of thirty-two trading vessels owned or chartered by the Board of War.[403] These vessels visited Nantes, Bilbao, Martinique, Guadaloupe, St. Eustatius, Cape Francois, Baltimore, and the ports of North and South Carolina. They carried as staple exports, fish, lumber, and New England rum.