Friday, 13 October 1775. The British North American colonies, from Maine to Georgia, were in open rebellion. In colonial capitals, Royal governments had been thrust out and revolutionary governments put in their places. A British army occupied Boston, besieged by an American army under George Washington. Another American army, under Richard Montgomery, was besieging Fort St. John's on its way to attempt to capture Quebec and Montreal, while Benedict Arnold led a force through the wilderness farther east against the same targets.

Friday, 13 October 1775, meeting in Philadelphia, the Continental Congress adopted the original legislation out of which the Continental Navy grew: "Resolved, That a swift sailing vessel, to carry ten carriage guns, and a proportionate number of swivels, with eighty men, be fitted, with all possible dispatch for a cruise of three months, and that the commander be instructed to cruize eastward, for intercepting such transports as may be laden with warlike stores and other supplies for our enemies, and for such other purposes as the Congress shall direct.... Resolved, that another vessel be fitted out for the same purposes...." This prosaic language constitutes the Navy's birth certificate.

Within a few days of that vote, Congress established a Naval Committee, which directed the purchasing, outfitting, manning, and operations of the first ships of the new navy, drafted naval legislation, and prepared rules and regulations to govern the navy's conduct and internal administration.
From that beginning, the Continental Navy grew to a force that at its peak numbered forty armed vessels of various types. During the war, the navy's squadron's and cruisers seized enemy supplies and carried correspondence and diplomats to Europe, returning with needed munitions. They took nearly two hundred British vessels as prizes, some off the British Isles themselves, contributing to the demoralization of the enemy and forcing the British to divert warships to protect convoys and trade routes. And the navy provoked diplomatic crises that helped bring France into the war against Great Britain.

"Success has a thousand fathers, but failure is an orphan." There are several candidates for the title "father of the Navy," and half a dozen places claim the sobriquet "birthplace of the Navy." Machias, Maine, points to the seizing of the Royal Navy schooner Margaretta by a small sloop armed with woodsmen on 12 June 1775. Whitehall, New York, proudly affirms the army's fleet on Lake Champlain under Benedict Arnold as our first navy. Beverly and Marblehead, Massachusetts, base their claim on their role in fitting out and manning the small fleet of schooners employed by George Washington in the autumn and winter of 1775 to prey on enemy transports. Providence, Rhode Island, asserts its title as the site of the first call for the establishment of a navy.

While these and other towns contributed to the commencement of naval operations in the American Revolution, perhaps the best claim for birthplace of the Navy belongs to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in a logical corollary to recognizing October 13, 1775, as its birth date. It was in Philadelphia that the Continental Congress passed the first national naval legislation, and Philadelphia was the port where the purchase and outfitting of the first four vessels of the Continental Navy took place.

Candidates for the title "father of the Navy" include George Washington, Continental Navy officers Esek Hopkins, John Barry, and John Paul Jones, as well as civilians John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Morris, Joseph Hewes, and Silas Deane. Many men in numerous locations played prominent roles in the founding of our national navy. And so, the Navy recognizes no one individual as "father," to the exclusion of others.