The Committee of Safety was assisted and directed in its naval work by committees of its own members, of which the principal ones are as follows: “ship committee,” “armed boat committee,” “committee for fitting out two of the armed boats,” “committee for building two galleys for the Bay Service,” and “committee for fitting out four guard boats to cruise at Cape May.” The Committee of Safety was composed of twenty-five members, any seven of whom formed a quorum. Benjamin Franklin was its first president. Robert Morris was for a time its vice-president. In the absence of Franklin, Morris or John Nixon often presided. On July 23, 1776, the Pennsylvania Convention appointed a Council of Safety to succeed the Committee of Safety, a succession which involved merely a change of personnel and of name. From July 24, 1776, until March 4, 1777, when the Supreme Executive Council, the executive under the first state constitution, assumed control, the administration of the Pennsylvania navy was vested in the Council of Safety. Much difficulty was experienced by the several Pennsylvania executives in finding suitable commodores for the fleet. The office on October 23, 1775, first fell to Thomas Read. On January 13, 1776, Thomas Caldwell was made commodore; and on March 6, 1776, Read was formally placed second in command. Failing in health, Caldwell, on May 25, resigned, and on June 15 the Committee of Safety appointed Samuel Davidson. This succession met with serious and continued opposition on the part of the officers of the navy. They declared that the appointment of Davidson violated the rule of promotion according to seniority in service; and they made vigorous remonstrances, which received countenance and support from men of influence in Philadelphia. So serious was the clamor and insubordination, that the Committee of Safety was compelled to yield to the demands of a resolution of the Provincial Conference of Committees, and remove Davidson from the command of all the vessels except the ship “Montgomery” and the “Arnold” floating battery. The Committee, however, in an “Address to the Inhabitants of Pennsylvania,” upheld the propriety and justice of their appointment; and it declared that by the support which the dissatisfied officers had received “mutiny was justified and abetted and disobedience triumphed over Authority.”[477]