The vessels of the Continental navy were procured and managed under several Continental auspices. The Marine Committee, with its predecessor and its successors in naval administration was the chief naval administrative organ of the Revolutionary government. We have already seen, however, that Washington fitted out one fleet in New England and another in New York; and that Arnold fought with still another fleet, one of the most important naval engagements of the Revolution. In a succeeding chapter we shall find that the American representatives in France, who were responsible to the Foreign Office of Congress, and the Continental agent at New Orleans, who worked chiefly under the Committee of Commerce, fitted out fleets, and were vested with important naval duties. At one and the same time three committees of Congress, the Marine Committee, the Committee of Foreign Affairs, and the Committee of Commerce, were fitting out armed vessels. FOOTNOTES: [185] Journals of Continental Congress, April 17, 1776. [186] Ibid., March 29, 1777. [187] Rhode Island Colonial Records, VIII, 53. [188] Journals of Continental Congress, July 11, 1780. [189] Ibid., August 5, 1776. [190] In July, 1778, when a joint American and French attack on Newport was planned, the Navy Board at Boston inserted a notice in the Providence Gazette, requiring sailors who were enlisted to repair to their vessels, and calling for recruits. This call was in the following language: “All seamen now in America, who regard the Liberty of Mankind, or the Honor of the United States of America, as well as their own advantage, are now earnestly entreated to enter immediately on board some of the Continental Vessels, in order to afford all possible Aid and Assistance to His Most Christian Majesty’s Fleet, under the Command of the Count de Estaing, the Vice-Admiral of France, now in the American Seas, for the Purpose of assisting these American States in vanquishing a haughty and cruel Enemy, too long triumphant on these Seas. Now is the Time to secure to yourselves Safety in your future Voyages, and to avoid the cruelties which all those experience who have the Misfortune to be captured by the Britons; and now is the time to make your Fortunes.”—Providence Gazette, July 25, 1778. See also advertisement in Connecticut Gazette, March 7, 1777. [191] A facsimile of a most interesting and rare broadside will be found in C. K. Bolton’s Private Soldier under Washington, page 46. This broadside was designed to attract recruits to the ship “Ranger,” Captain John Paul Jones, fitting out in the summer of 1777 at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to sail for France. [192] Collections of New York Historical Society, Deane Papers, V, 466. [193] For additional information and appropriate references concerning privateers, see Part II, State Navies.