[383] Journals of Third Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, June 7, June 10, June 11, June 12, June 13, June 16, June 19, and June 20, 1775. All references to the state records of Massachusetts refer to the manuscripts or early printed copies to be found in the State Library or State Archives at Boston.

[384] Journals of Massachusetts House of Representatives, August 21, 1775. O’Brian’s name is found spelled in various ways.

[385] Ibid., September 29, October 2, October 4,. 1775; Records of General Court of Massachusetts, October 4, 1775.

[386] Journals of Massachusetts House of Representatives, September 28, October 6, 9, 14 17, 18, 19, 27, November 1, 1775.

[387] Austin’s Gerry, I, 94-95; Works of John Adams, X, 37.

[388] Amory’s Sullivan, II, 378-79, James Sullivan to Gerry, December 25, 1779.

[389] Records of Massachusetts Council, November 14, December 9, December 12, 1775; Pickering’s Pickering, I, 79-80; Amory’s Sullivan, I, 63.

[390] Records of General Court of Massachusetts, December 29, 1775.

[391] Journals of Massachusetts House of Representatives, January 12, 1776. On January 11 the Council resolved that two ships, one of 36, and the other of 32 guns, should be built. On the same day both House and Council voted to recommit the resolution in order that the committee which prepared it might report on the expense to be incurred in building and fitting the two ships. It does not appear that further action was taken.—Records of Massachusetts Council, January 11, 1776.

[392] Journals of Massachusetts House of Representatives, February 6, 1776; Records of Massachusetts Council, February 7, 1776.

[393] Journals of Massachusetts House of Representatives, February 16, 1776.

[394] Journals of Massachusetts House of Representatives, February 7, 1776; Records of Massachusetts Council, February 8, 1776.

[395] Journals of Massachusetts House of Representatives, April 12, 1776.

[396] Ibid., April 27, 1776.

[397] Journals of Massachusetts House of Representatives, April 29, 1776; Records of Massachusetts Council, April 29, 1776.

[398] Ibid. (Records), July 26, 1776.

[399] Goodell, Laws of Massachusetts, February 14, April 13, May 8, 1776.

[400] Records of Massachusetts Council, October 29, 1776. The naval documents introduced in the narrative on the Massachusetts navy are typical of similar ones in other states.

[401] Resolves of Massachusetts, October 26, 1776.

[402] Winsor’s Memorial History of Boston, II, 543.

[403] Massachusetts Revolutionary Archives, XL, 110-11. The influence on the naming of vessels of the friendly relations existing between the United States and France during the Revolution early manifested itself. On December 27, 1776, the Massachusetts Board of War changed the names of its trading vessels as follows: ships, “Julius Cæsar” to “Bourbon,” “Venus” to “Versailles,” and “Friend” to “Paris;” brigantines, “Charming Sally” to “Penet,” and “Isabella” to “Count D’Estaing.” The brigantine “Penet,” which was named for a French merchant at Nantes, a member of the firm of Pliarne, Penet and Company, agents for the United States, has been sometimes confused with the brigantine “Perch,” which was obtained by Massachusetts in the fall of 1777 for the sole purpose of conveying the news of Burgoyne’s surrender to the American Commissioners at Paris. The letters and dispatches were intrusted with Jonathan Loring Austin, secretary of the Board of War, who after a passage of thirty days reached the Commissioners at Passy on December 4, 1777.—Board of War Minutes, December 27, 1776; Hale’s Franklin in France, I, 155.

[404] Board of War Letters, Massachusetts Revolutionary Archives, May 23, 1777.

[405] Massachusetts Resolves, January 8, January 24, 1777. On December 6, 1776, six naval offices were established, which included a captain’s clerk, prizemaster, and sergeant of marines.

[406] Massachusetts Resolves, March 21, 1777.

[407] Ibid., August 6, 1777; January 17, 1778.

[408] The following is an extract from the enlisting contract of the armed brig “Active,” which was signed by officers, seamen, and marines: “And we hereby bind ourselves to Submit to all orders and regulations of the Navy of the United States of North America and this State and faithfully to observe and obey all such orders, and Commands as we shall receive from time to time from our Superior Officers on board or belonging to the said Brig Active and on board any Such Boats or Vessel or Vessels as foresaid.

“And it is on the part of the State that such persons as by Land or sea shall loose a Limb in any Engagement with the Enemies of these United States of America or be otherwise so disabled as to be rendered incapable of getting a Lively Hood Shall be entitled to the same Provisions as the disabled Persons in the Continental Service.”—Massachusetts Revolutionary Archives, XL, 20.

[409] Massachusetts Resolves, April 21, 1778.

[410] Massachusetts Revolutionary Archives, XLIV, 279.

[411] Massachusetts Resolves, February 8, 1781. Three members of the Board of War and two clerks were continued for a few months to settle the accounts of the Board.

[412] Massachusetts Resolves, October 4, 1782.

[413] Massachusetts Resolves, March 21, 1780; February 19, March 6, April 23, 1781; November 12, 1782; March 26, 1783.

[414] Winsor, Narrative and Critical History, VI, 564; Maclay, History of American Privateering, 52-60.

[415] Massachusetts Revolutionary Archives. The total numbers of privateering commissions always exceed the total numbers of vessels, as the same vessels were often commissioned two or more times.

[416] Boston Gazette for 1779.

[417] Virginia Gazette, June 19, 1779.

[418] Journals of House of Representatives, January 6, 1779.

[419] The vessels in the Massachusetts navy with the approximate periods of their service were as follows: Sloop “Machias Liberty,” 1775-1776; schooner “Diligent,” 1775-1776; brigantine (at first a sloop) “Tyrannicide,” 1776-1779; brigantine “Rising Empire,” 1776-1777; brigantine “Independence,” 1776-1777; sloop “Republic,” 1776-1777; sloop “Freedom,” 1776-1777; brigantine “Massachusetts,” 1776-1778; brigantine “Hazard,” 1777-1779; brigantine “Active,” 1779; frigate “Protector,” 1779-1781; ship “Mars,” 1780-1781; sloop “Defence,” 1781; ship “Tartar,” 1782-1783; sloop “Winthrop,” 1782-1783; and galley “Lincoln,” 1779-1781. Most of these vessels mounted from ten to twenty guns, 4’s and 6’s. The only larger vessel was the “Protector,” 26. Vessels such as the “Tyrannicide,” “Hazard,” and “Winthrop” carried about 125 officers and men. The following captains or commanders were the chief officers in the Massachusetts navy: Jeremiah O’Brian, John Lambert, John Fisk, John Foster Williams, John Clouston, Jonathan Haraden, Daniel Souther, Simeon Samson, Richard Welden, Allen Hallet, James Nevens, John Cathcart and George Little. Massachusetts did not establish the rank of commodore.

[420] These three vessels captured the four prizes mentioned in the following advertisement, which appeared in the Continental Journal and Weekly Advertiser for July 3, 1777, a paper published at Boston. The advertisement is introduced here to illustrate the final disposition of prize vessels:

“To be sold by Public Auction at eleven o’clock on Wednesday the 23rd of July instant at Mr. Tileston’s wharf in Boston the following prizes with their appurtenances.

“The above prizes lay at Tileston’s wharf. They are all good vessels and well found. Inventories to be seen at the sheriff’s office Cornhill, and at the place of sale.

“W. Greenleaf, Sheriff.”

[421] Massachusetts Resolves, April 26, 1777; Massachusetts Revolutionary Archives, XL, 29, 55.

[422] Massachusetts Resolves, March 2, 1781.

[423] Boston Gazette, July 24, 1780.

[424] Massachusetts Revolutionary Archives, XLIV, 408.

[425] Ibid., 268.

[426] Journals of Massachusetts House of Representatives, April 7, 1779.

[427] Amory’s Sullivan, II, 376-78, James Sullivan to John Sullivan, August 30, 1779. James Sullivan says that, on the occupation of Bagaduce by the British, Boston and neighboring seaports were greatly alarmed at the prospect of a scarcity of wood; and that men who had made their fortunes by war, for once and for a moment, felt a public spirit, and freely offered their ships to the government. They were careful to have them appraised and insured by the state, which of course suffered the loss on the failure of the expedition.

[428] Massachusetts Revolutionary Archives, CXLV, 199-203, 350; Weymouth Historical Society Publications, I, chapters VII-X, gives the best account of the Penobscot expedition, also contains the Original Journal of General Solomon Lovell kept on the expedition; Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, 7th, II, 430; Proceedings of Massachusetts Historical Society, 2nd, XII, 201-202; Clowes, Royal Navy, IV, 28-29.

[429] Massachusetts Revolutionary Archives, XXXIX, 45.

[430] Ibid., CLVIII, 274, Message of Governor Hancock to House of Representatives, February 6, 1783.

[431] Massachusetts Resolves, June 4, 1783. Those naval vessels which were not captured, destroyed, or sold, were either returned to their owners, or were thrown out of commission and employed in other services.