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The naval operations of the American Revolutionary War (also, mostly in British usage, ''American War of Independence''), were divided into two periods. The first was from 1771 through the winter of 1779, when the Royal Navy fought with troops employed against the American revolutionaries, on the coasts, rivers and lakes of North America, or in endeavouring to protect British commerce against the enterprise of American privateers. During the second period, the successive interventions of France, Spain, and the Netherlands extended the naval war until it ranged from the West Indies to the Bay of Bengal. This second period lasted from the summer of 1778 to the middle of 1783, and it included operations already been in progress in America or for the protection of commerce, and naval campaigns on a great scale carried out by the fleets of the maritime powers. ==American war, 1775–1778== When the war began, the British had 131 ships of the line, but the Royal Navy was in neglect〔Mark M. Boatner, ''Encyclopedia of the American Revolution'', p. 769.〕 from rapid and poor quality ship construction during the Seven Years' War. They made the mistake of using a North American oak (Quercus alba) that resembled English oak (Quercus robur), not realizing that it was a different species, and that they were harvesting it green. When the ships constructed from the American oak became about 20 years old, they would break apart in a moderate storm. 〔''The New Cambridge Modern History'', Vol. VIII, Edited by A. Goodwin, Cambridge, 1968〕 〔''Quercus alba'' is the White oak of the Northeastern US, and ''quercus robur'' is the English oak. They are both genus ''Quercus'', but different species.〕 It was estimated that only 39 ships of the line could be battle ready in the first year of a conflict. The administration of Lord Sandwich, the First Lord of the Admiralty, had ambitious plans to upgrade the fleet, but this had not been completed when the war began.〔N.A.M. Rodger, "The Insatiable Earl", p. 96-97.〕 The naval force at the disposal of the American admirals commanding on the North American station was insufficient to patrol mid atlantic. During the first three years of the war, therefore, the Royal Navy was primarily used in support of operations on land, aiding General Thomas Gage and General Sir William Howe during the siege of Boston by seeking stores for the army and in supplying naval brigades. In one of these operations, the first naval engagement of the war, colonists in Machias, then part of Massachusetts (now in eastern Maine), seized a British schooner in the Battle of Machias on June 12, 1775. At other points on the coast, the British navy was employed in punitive expeditions against coastal towns—such as the burning of Falmouth (now Portland, Maine) in October 1775—which served to exasperate rather than to weaken the enemy, or the unsuccessful attack on Charleston, South Carolina, in June 1776. It was wholly unequal to the task of blockading the many towns from which privateers could operate. British commerce and the movement of military supplies therefore suffered severely, even as far off as the Irish coasts, where it was necessary to supply convoys to protect the Belfast linen trade. In June 1776 the largest expeditionary force ever launched to date began to arrive in New York Harbor under Britain's Admiral Richard Howe. Eyewitnesses reported that it appeared "all of London was afloat" and the masts of so many ships appeared as a "forest."〔McCullough, David. ''1776''. Simon & Schuster. New York. May 24, 2005. ISBN 978-0-7432-2671-4〕 The fleet set sail from Halifax carrying approximately 23,000 British soldiers and 9,000 German auxiliaries—32,000 troops in all—which engaged the Continental Army in the largest battle of the war, the Battle of Long Island that August. Howe failed to secure the East River at the Continental Army's rear, which Washington exploited after his defeat to perform a tactical retreat to Manhattan over the course of a single night, with all of his remaining troops and supplies intact."〔Schecter, Barnet. ''The Battle for New York: The City at the Heart of the American Revolution''. Walker & Company. New York. October 2002. ISBN 0-8027-1374-2〕 In contrast to the British, the American colonists had no navy whatsoever. The lack of armed vessels to dispute British naval activities in coastal waters and to facilitate the seizure of commercial and military prizes prompted individual colonies to commission armed vessels, and eventually led the Continental Congress to authorize the creation of a small Continental Navy on October 13, 1775. The Continental Navy never launched any ships of the line, so the small vessels were primarily used for commerce raiding. On December 22, 1775, Esek Hopkins was appointed the naval commander-in-chief. With his small fleet, Hopkins led the first major naval action of the Continental Navy, in early March 1776, against Nassau, Bahamas, where stores of much-needed gunpowder were seized for the use of the Continental Army. On April 6, 1776, the squadron unsuccessfully encountered the 20-gun HMS ''Glasgow'' in the first major sea battle of the Continental Navy. The Americans also relied heavily on pirateering to harass British shipping, with some colonial assemblies taking the lead pirate in authorizing such activity. On March 23, 1776, several months before the Declaration of Independence, Congress authorized the issuance of letters of marque and reprisal. American privateers took about 600 British vessels during the war. These privateers were not always working directly for the American cause, since prizes were often sold to the highest bidder, and the British sometimes bought back their own captured cargoes.〔Boatner, p. 897.〕 On the other hand, although the British did not recognize the legality of American letters of marque they could not make good on threats to execute captured privateers for piracy without inviting reprisals against British prisoners of war. Captain John Paul Jones soon emerged as the first well-known American naval hero, capturing the HMS ''Drake'' on April 24, 1778, the first victory for any American military vessel in British waters. He also captured the HMS ''Serapis'' on September 23, 1779, while in command of the USS ''Bonhomme Richard''. In 1778, an American naval squadron led by Jones raided the Cumbrian port of Whitehaven. The landing was a surprise attack, taken as an action of revenge by Jones, and was never intended as an invasion. Nevertheless, it caused hysteria in England, with the attack showing a weakness that could be exploited by more powerful states such as France or Spain. One consequence of the raid was an intense period of fortification in British ports. In America, the British navy covered the retreat of the British Army from Boston to Halifax in March 1776, and then conveyed it to New York City in June. It assisted in the expedition to Philadelphia in July 1777. On the St Lawrence and the Great Lakes, it was able to play a more aggressive part. The relief of Quebec by British Captain Charles Douglas in May 1776 forced the Continental Army to retreat. The destruction of Benedict Arnold's squadron on Lake Champlain in the October Battle of Valcour Island secured the frontier of Quebec and supplied a basis for the advance of British General John Burgoyne in 1777, which ended, however, in his surrender at Saratoga. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Naval operations in the American Revolutionary War」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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