On the evacuation of Boston by the British in March, 1776, Washington soon removed his headquarters to New York. He left his fleet in charge of General Artemas Ward, who reported its movements to him. In February, 1777, the Marine Committee of Congress ordered the Continental agent at Boston to pay off and discharge the fleet.[65] In March the Marine Committee appointed three commissioners to settle the accounts of Washington’s prize agents.[66] These commissioners had not completed their task in April, 1778.[67] In April, 1776, immediately upon Washington’s arrival in New York, he began to equip a fleet similar to the one at Boston. He requested from the New York Committee of Safety the loan of their state vessels, which he wished to use in suppressing illicit trade with the enemy. Some disagreement arose as to the terms of the loan. Washington insisted that if he manned the “General Schuyler,” he would expect to appoint her officers. In the end, the “General Schuyler” was turned over to Washington, and the captain of the “General Putnam” was directed to obey his orders.[68] Washington now obtained from other sources the sloop “General Mifflin.” These vessels, which cruised during the summer of 1776 chiefly in the neighborhood of Long Island, and usually with the New York state sloop “Montgomery,” captured several British vessels.[69] In the summer of 1776 Washington was constructing some “gondolas,” row-galleys, and fire-ships, for the defence of the Hudson. The galley “Lady Washington,” which was manned and completed by the summer of 1776, was still in service on the Hudson in June, 1777.[70] In the significance of their results the operations of no other naval armament of the Americans during the Revolution compare with those of Arnold’s fleet on Lake Champlain in the fall of 1776. On May 31, 1775, the Continental Congress desired the New York Provincial Congress “to take effectual care that a sufficient number of batteaus be immediately provided for the lakes.”[71] Major-General Schuyler commanded the Continental forces in this region, including the naval armaments upon the Lakes. These last, in September, consisted of a sloop, a schooner, two row-galleys, and ten “batteaus.”[72] About the first of August the New York Provincial Congress sent James Smith to Schuyler to take command of the sloop “Enterprise.”[73] Smith either received or gave to himself the title of “Commodore on the Lakes.” He did not long hold this title; for in March, 1776, the Continental Congress appointed Major William Douglass of New York, “Commodore on the Lakes,” a place for which General Schuyler had recommended Captain Jacobus Wynkoop, of the same state.[74] In April Wynkoop was enlisting seamen in New York City.[75] In May, since Douglass did not enter upon his appointment, Schuyler, acting under the orders of Congress, put the armed vessels under the command of Wynkoop.[76]