New York’s fleet captured some eight or ten prizes. It cruised chiefly in the waters surrounding Long Island. The “Montgomery” had best success. On April 19, 1776, the Marine Committee reported to the Committee of Safety a draft of instructions for Captain Rodgers. He was ordered to cruise between Sandy Hook and Cape May, or from Sandy Hook to the east end of Long Island, and he was cautioned to always keep “some inlet under your lee, so that you may secure a retreat from a superior force.”[656] Prizes were to be sent to some place of safety in the United Colonies. The “Montgomery” cruised in this general region until June, 1777; in July she was sold for £3,550. She captured several merchantmen, which were libeled in the admiralty courts of Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Maryland. In the condemning and selling of these prizes, New York’s interests were attended to by agents appointed for the purpose. The “Montgomery’s” most valuable prize was the schooner “Hannah,” libeled in Baltimore, which, with her cargo of clothing, cloths, and provisions, sold for £11,281. Another prize, the “Minerva,” with a cargo of salt, was tried by the court at the same time with the “Hannah,” and was freed; whereupon, Francis Lewis, a delegate of New York to the Continental Congress, which was then in session in Baltimore, appealed the case of the “Minerva” to Congress.[657] In August, 1776, the Secret Committee, which was assisting in the defence of the Hudson, was fitting out two small armed sloops, the “Camden” and “Hudson.”[658] As late as January, 1777, the Committee of Safety was planning for a naval armament; orders were then given for cutting the timbers for a 74-gun ship.[659] The permanent occupation of New York city by the British stopped New York’s naval enterprises on state account. She continued, however, to grant a few privateering commissions, until the end of the war. In passing, one should mention that in 1776 New York contributed officers, seamen, and naval supplies to Arnold’s campaign on lakes Champlain and George. By the terms of New York’s Constitution of 1777 the Governor was “commander-in-chief of all the militia and admiral of the navy of this state.” The Constitution implied that there was to be a Court of Admiralty, although it did not make definite provision for such court.[660]