Maritime History of the Revolution

Connecticut's Revolutionary maritime history is treated exhaustively in Louis F. Middlebrook's two-volume History of Maritime Connecticut During the American Revolution, 1775-1783 (Salem, Mass.: the Essex Institute, 1925). Middlebrook lists hundreds of ships, masters, and sailors and traces their wartime naval and privateering activities. An older work that devotes space to Connecticut naval operations in Charles O. Paullin, Navy of the American Revolution (Chicago: Burroughs Brothers Co., 1906) , from which his article, "The Connecticut Navy of the American Revolution," in New England Magazine 35 (February, 1907) is taken. In New England, Connecticut ranked second only to Massachusetts, and "In every form of naval service known to the Revolution Connecticut men were to be found," he says. Well, at least we did better than Rhode Island and New Hampshire. Ernest E. Rogers' compilation of documents, Connecticut's Naval Office at New London During the War of the American Revolution (New London: New London County Historical Society, 1933) focuses on Nathaniel Shaw, Jr., the Continental naval officer at New London in charge of the customs office. It is a vast compendium of undigested material, though three short introductory chapters help establish some configuration. The New London Historical Society also published, as volume I (1890) of their Records and Papers, "Revolutionary Naval Officers from Connecticut," edited by Sherman W. Adams. Volume II (1893) of that series is "The Revolutionary Privateers of Connecticut," edited by Thomas Collier. James L. Howard's Seth Harding, Mariner: A Naval Picture of the Revolution (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1930) is a work that Yale would not publish today, even with a grand subsidy. It includes a great deal of information, undigested and written without sophistication, about naval affairs in and around Connecticut during the War. There are several appendices listing crews of Connecticut naval ships and the complete private journal of Captain Joseph Hardy of the Marine contingent aboard the Confederacy, 1779-1781, which occupies sixty-four pages. Historians will find it somewhat useful; general readers will find it more than somewhat boring.

CHS Bulletin 47 (April, 1982) 2:33-61 published "A French Sea Captain in Revolutionary Connecticut: Extract from the Memoirs of J. F. Landolphe," translated and edited by Marvin R. Cox and Diane Cox. Landolphe was captain of one of three French ships that had to winter in New London in 1779-80. The Memoir was written many years later. Another CHS Bulletin piece is "'We Dare Oppose Them': The Connecticut State Navy in the American Revolution, 1775-1780" by Sheldon S. Cohen. 47 (July, 1982) 3:74-96. This is a sound narrative by a professional scholar who knows the Connecticut scene well.

A recent work by Elsie N. Danenberg, A Naval History of Fairfield County Men in the Revolution (Fairfield: Fairfield Historical Society, 1977) is useful for scraps of local narrative and biography. See also Sheldon S. Cohen, "Captain Robert Niles, Connecticut State Navy," in American Neptune 39 (July, 1979).

Local histories and biographies of relevant places and characters will also yield considerable information. Check the "Biographies" section of this bibliography under Isaac Hull and Seth Warner.