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Rebels Under Sail: The American Navy during the Revolution
A book about the American Navy during the Revolution by William M. Fowler, Jr. "Fowler's naval history of the War for Independence ...is the only really useful one volume book on the subject. And it is well written too." (Marshall Smelser, University of Notre Dame)
320 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1976
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About the author
William M. Fowler Jr.
22 books14 followersWilliam Morgan Fowler Jr. is a professor of history at Northeastern University, Boston and an author. He served as Director of the Massachusetts Historical Society from 1998 through 2005. He earned his BA from the University of Indiana in 1967 and his MA and Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 18, 2012
In my semi-retirement (read dotage), I have re-taken up wooden ship modeling, and with it comes reading source materials and other research. So one of my friends, Vince Murphy, and I are putting together a scratch-built British gunboat from the War of 1812. Vince loaned me this book for some background and reference(a 50-page chapter on "The Gunboat Navy" from Howard Chapelle's "History of the American Sailing Navy" was also most helpful). I found this work, scholarly as it was, to be a fascinating account of not only of the shipbuilding techniques (especially getting the timbers for masts and spars from Northwestern forests to the shipyards), to the inevitable politics and petty squabbles of our Founding Fathers (John Adams was a champion of the Navy and did a lot of diplomacy, both in this country and with France). Here's a pithy quote about this:
"Over the next three years (from 1776), the Marine Committee learned a great deal, and not least important of the lessons was that that a navy's success depends as much upon clerks and bureaucrats behind desks as upon in the forecastle and on the quarterdeck."
This book describes virtually every major ship from the revolution, as well as their commanders (notably John Paul Jones), many of whom had gigantic egos and a sense of entitlement and political connections, unfortunately combined with poor seamanship and thus little respect from the ordinary sailors.
And speaking of sailors, the Revolution had its share of problems getting sailors to volunteer for service, and indeed a good number of soldiers were former merchantmen sailors. Thus, "...In the spring of 1776 John Paul Jones, lamenting the prospect that American ships would 'rot in the harbors for want of hands,' advocated drafting seamen out of the army where he estimated four to five thousand were enrolled. Even after allowing for a certain amount of hyperbole in Jones's statement, it remains true that along the New England coast many states raised regiments that were more than slightly tinged with salt. Colonel, later General, John Glover's 'Webfoot Regiment' from Marblehead is the most famous, but there were others, and every unit raised within a whiff of sea air was bound to have sailors marching with it."
Mr. Fowler's conclusion was that, all in all, the navy's contribution to the War of Independence was relatively minor, but it still make for some exciting events. I found this a fun read, albeit somewhat more scholarly than the popular press. I would recommend it for anyone interested in looking at a period in our nation's early history from the point of view of the seqworthy rather than land-bound fighting men.
"Over the next three years (from 1776), the Marine Committee learned a great deal, and not least important of the lessons was that that a navy's success depends as much upon clerks and bureaucrats behind desks as upon in the forecastle and on the quarterdeck."
This book describes virtually every major ship from the revolution, as well as their commanders (notably John Paul Jones), many of whom had gigantic egos and a sense of entitlement and political connections, unfortunately combined with poor seamanship and thus little respect from the ordinary sailors.
And speaking of sailors, the Revolution had its share of problems getting sailors to volunteer for service, and indeed a good number of soldiers were former merchantmen sailors. Thus, "...In the spring of 1776 John Paul Jones, lamenting the prospect that American ships would 'rot in the harbors for want of hands,' advocated drafting seamen out of the army where he estimated four to five thousand were enrolled. Even after allowing for a certain amount of hyperbole in Jones's statement, it remains true that along the New England coast many states raised regiments that were more than slightly tinged with salt. Colonel, later General, John Glover's 'Webfoot Regiment' from Marblehead is the most famous, but there were others, and every unit raised within a whiff of sea air was bound to have sailors marching with it."
Mr. Fowler's conclusion was that, all in all, the navy's contribution to the War of Independence was relatively minor, but it still make for some exciting events. I found this a fun read, albeit somewhat more scholarly than the popular press. I would recommend it for anyone interested in looking at a period in our nation's early history from the point of view of the seqworthy rather than land-bound fighting men.
July 14, 2010
Rebels Under Sail is an excellent one volume edition of the naval war for the Colonists during the Revolutionary War. Dr. Fowler (I must admit I'm a huge fan of Dr. Fowler's works) has masterfully crafted this book into three complementing sections, of the politics behind the Continental fleet, the actions of the Continental fleet and the ships and men of the Continental fleet. Dr. Fowler is able to convey the difficulties faced by Congress, builders and the men serving in the fleet (both officer and enlisted) in a way so the reader can determine what the difficulties were and how each group approached the difficulties created more difficulties later on. At the end of the book not only was I amazed by the confluence of the force of personalities, the egos, the monetary difficulties that the Continental fleet was able to do as much as it did. It seemed by Dr. Fowler's description and narrative that the modest success the Continental fleet was not because of its inception, manning and use of the fleet but rather in spite of many different factors. It is an excellent read of the Revolutionary War and possible insight to the thoughts of the time.
June 14, 2013
Fowler's book is well-written and well-researched. However, it is slow-moving and lacks some details which I find compelling - armaments/rating of the ships, etc. He also glosses over a lot of the deep-water expeditions which is unfortunate. It is comprehensive - almost every action is at least mentioned and he does give insights into the inner working (failings?) of the Continental Navy administration.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews