An exhibition of figures showing the difference in size between one of the largest of the frigates built by the Marine Committee in 1776 and a typical 100-gun ship of the line of the Royal Navy is interesting not only by way of comparison, but also as giving a notion of the size of Revolutionary naval craft. The figures in feet for the American 32-gun frigate, “Hancock,” and for the British 100-gun ship, “Victory,” respectively, were as follows: Length of gun deck, 137 and 186; length of keel, 116 and 151; width of beam, 34 and 52; depth, 12 and 22. The tonnage of the “Hancock’s” companion frigate, the “Boston,” was 515 tons; of the “Alfred,” the first ship fitted out by Congress, 200 tons.[203] Continental naval craft, such as the “Cabot,” “Wasp,” and “Fly,” were smaller still than the “Alfred.” The number of seamen and marines in the Continental navy is believed not to have exceeded at any time three thousand men. The exact number of commissioned officers in the Continental navy and marine corps may not as yet have been ascertained. Owing to the diffusion of the power of appointment, the Naval Department of the Revolution seems to have prepared no perfect list of its officers. The best list of commissioned officers, and one that in all probability needs few corrections was compiled in 1794 in the Auditor’s Office, Department of the Treasury.[204] This gives the names of 1 commander-in-chief, 45 captains, and 132 lieutenants, or 178 commissioned officers in all, in the navy proper; and 1 major, 31 captains, and 91 lieutenants, or 123 commissioned officers, in the marine corps. With the exception of the years 1776 and 1777, when the total number of officers in actual service was about one-half of the above figures, the number of officers at sea or attached to vessels in ports was much less than one-half. In 1902 the American navy consisted of 899 commissioned officers of the line, arranged in eight grades. In 1775 the British navy contained 18,000 seamen and marines, and when the war closed in 1783 this number had risen to 110,000. The total “extra” and “ordinary” expenses of the Royal Navy from 1775 to 1783, as voted by Parliament, amounted to £8,386,000.[205] Both Continental and state naval services suffered from the lack of _esprit de corps_, naval traditions, and a proper subordination and concert of action between officers and crews. Bravery is often a poor substitute for organization and naval experience and skill. Navies can be grown, but not created. The quality of the Continental naval officers, diluted it is true by the presence of a few “political skippers,” was upon the whole as high as the circumstances of their choice and the naval experience of the country admitted. Many of them were drawn from the merchant service, and a few had had some months’ experience in state navies. Six captains appointed by Washington entered the service of the Marine Committee.