Each board had a secretary, treasurer, and paymaster; but one person sometimes served in two, or even the three, capacities. Each board had one, and sometimes two clerks. A clerkship was at times joined with one of the other offices. The boards as a rule selected their own employees. Any two members of the Navy Board at Boston were empowered by Congress on October 23, 1777, to form a quorum.[123] With the exception of the resignation of Deshon in May, 1781, the Navy Board at Boston did not change in personnel. Its headquarters remained continually at Boston. On the other hand, the membership of the Navy Board at Philadelphia made several changes. On May 9, 1778, William Smith of Baltimore was elected in the place of John Nixon, who had resigned.[124] On August 19, Hopkinson and Smith having resigned, Captain Nathaniel Falconer and James Searle, both of Pennsylvania, were appointed.[125] Falconer declined the appointment; Searle accepted, but resigned on September 26.[126] Meanwhile, Wharton had resigned, and the three commissionerships were vacant. On November 4, 1778, the vacancies were filled by the reappointment of Wharton, and the selection of James Read of Delaware, the clerk and paymaster of the Board, and William Winder,[127] a captain in the military forces of Maryland and a judge of the court of appeals of Somerset county in that state. When in December, 1776, Philadelphia seemed to be in danger from the enemy, Congress and the Board retreated to Baltimore, where they spent the winter of 1776-1777. The fortunes of war compelled the Board in the fall of 1777 to retreat to Bordentown, New Jersey; and after the American fleet in the Delaware was destroyed, the Marine Committee early in 1778 ordered it to Baltimore,[128] where it was situated for a few months. In the summer of 1778 it returned permanently to Philadelphia. The salary of a commissioner of the navy was first fixed at $1,500 a year. On October 31, 1778, “in consideration of the extensive business of their departments,” this salary was raised to $3,000, and on November 12, 1779, on the depreciation of the currency, to $12,000. It was reduced on September 25, 1780, to $1,500, and was now paid quarterly in specie or its equivalent. The salaries of the employees of the Navy Boards underwent like variations. Beginning with $500, they advanced in some instances as high as $2,000 a year. On August 4, 1778, the clerk of the Navy Board at Boston was made a special allowance of $500, “in consideration of the great and constant business,” in which he had been engaged.[129] To recapitulate, the chief agents of the Marine Committee were these: the Navy-Boards, the prize agents, the Continental agents, and the agents for building vessels. After the creation of the Navy Boards, the latter three classes served in part as their sub-agents; but by no means entirely so, for the Marine Committee gave many orders over the heads of the Boards.