aptured by the
British. At Dartmouth a party of soldiers captured a British armed
brig. In addition to these exploits, the success of the American
privateers, which had got to sea in great numbers, added greatly to
the credit of the American cause.

The first order looking toward the establishment of a national navy
was given by Gen. Washington in the latter part of 1775. The
sagacious general, knowing that the British forces in Boston were
supplied with provisions and munitions of war by sea, conceived the
idea of fitting out some swift-sailing cruisers to intercept the
enemy's cruisers, and cut off their supplies. Accordingly, on his own
authority, he sent out Capt. Broughton with two armed schooners
belonging to the colony of Massachusetts. Broughton was ordered to
intercept two brigs bound for Quebec with military stores. This he
failed to do, but brought in ten other vessels. Congress, however,
directed the release of the captured ships, as it was then intended
only to take such vessels as were actually employed in the king's
service.

By this time Congress had become convinced that some naval force was
absolutely essential to the success of the American cause. In October,
1775, it therefore fitted out, and ordered to sea, a number of small
vessels. Of these the first to sail was the "Lee," under command of
Capt. John Manly, whose honorable name, won in the opening years of
the Revolution, fairly entitles him to the station of the father of
the American navy.

With his swift cruiser, Manly patrolled the New England coast, and was
marvellously successful in capturing British storeships. Washington
wrote to Congress, "I am in very great want of powder, lead, mortars,
and, indeed, most sorts of military stores." Hardly had the letter
been forwarded, when Manly appeared in port with a prize heavy laden
with just the goods for which the commander-in-chief had applied. A
queer coincidence is on record regarding these captured stores. Samuel
Tucker, an able Yankee seaman, later an officer in the American navy,
was on the docks at Liverpool as a transport was loading for America.
As he saw the great cases of guns and barrels of powder marked
"Boston" being lowered into the hold of the vessel, he said to a
friend who stood with him, "I would walk barefoot one hundred miles,
if by that means these arms could only take the direction of
Cambridge." Three months later Tucker was in Washington's camp at
Cambridge, and there