Give Me a Fast Ship: The Continental Navy and America’s Revolution at Sea

McGrath (John Barry: An American Hero in the Age of Sail) enhances his position among American Revolution naval war historians with this comprehensive, fast-paced account of the collection of armed merchantmen (non-naval vessel) manned by amateurs that took on the world’s greatest naval power. America’s Continental Navy was seriously overmatched by the British, yet in the spring of 1776 a Yankee squadron took two British forts in the Bahamas, returned home laden with military stores, and supported the U.S. Marine Corps in its first amphibious landing. By 1777 “the naval war was being taken to George III’s backyard,” as a Continental squadron “sent the mighty British Empire into fits of temper and hand-wringing.” As the war progressed, small ships had better survival odds than the more glamorous frigates that drew British attention they could not match. McGrath’s vivid treatment of the Continental Navy’s teething troubles highlights the contributions of such lesser-known captains as Gustavus Conyngham, Jack Barry, and Joshua Barney, usually overshadowed by the spectacular achievements of John Paul Jones. He also addresses financial troubles, desertions, and mutinies of those early years. McGrath demonstrates that, despite the crises that threatened to marginalize the Continental Navy, its fighting spirit and outrageous optimism began a tradition that endures. Maps. (July)