The expedition to New Providence was the sole naval enterprise made by the Continental vessels, while they were under the direction of the Naval Committee. Early in 1776 this Committee, reduced in membership, yielded its control of marine affairs to a new committee with a fuller complement of members. It scarcely needs to be said that the Naval Committee’s claim to distinction rests not upon its military achievements, but upon its work of a civil character, whereby it laid the foundations of the Revolutionary navy. It acquired the first American fleet, selected its officers, and fitted it for sea. It drafted the first civil and penal code of the navy, and prepared not a little fundamental naval legislation. FOOTNOTES: [1] Manuscript Letters of John Adams, lodged with the Massachusetts Historical Society by Mr. Charles Francis Adams, who kindly permitted the writer to see them. [2] See Chapter III, The Organization of the Marine Committee. [3] See Chapter II, The Fleets of Washington and Arnold. After a thorough investigation and study of the sources of the early history of the Continental navy, I am compelled to reject many of the statements and conclusions found in Chapter II, Volume I, of Augustus C. Buell’s book, Paul Jones, Founder of the American Navy. [4] See Chapter III, The Organization of the Marine Committee. [5] Journals of Continental Congress, October 5, 1775. Waite, H. E., Origin of American Navy, 1-5, containing letters of John Adams, Elbridge Gerry, and John Langdon, written in 1813. [6] Works of John Adams, III, 7, 8. I have accepted the account of this debate as found in John Adams’s autobiography, although it is possible that writing many years after its occurrence Adams may have confused it with the debate of October 7 on the Rhode Island resolutions.—Works of John Adams, I, 187. [7] Journals of Continental Congress, October 6, 1775. [8] Journals of Continental Congress, October 13, 1775. The armament of the second vessel was not determined until October 30, 1775. [9] Ibid., October 17, 1775. [10] Ibid., October 30, 1775. John Adams, in his Notes on Debates for October 30, 1775, reports George Ross of Pennsylvania as saying: “We can’t get seamen to man four vessels. We could not get seamen to man our boats, our galleys.” Adams also tells us that three of the Virginia members, Wythe, Nelson, and Lee, were “for fitting out four ships.”—Works of John Adams, II, 484. [11] Works of John Adams, III, 9, 12. [12] Appleton’s Cyclopedia of American Biography, III, 259. [13] Journals of Continental Congress, September 19, 1776.