Millions for Defense: The Subscription Warships of 1798The title of this book comes from a toast popular with Americans in the late 1790s - "millions for defense, not a cent for tribute." Americans were incensed by demands for bribes from French diplomats and by France's galling seizures of U.S. merchant ships, and as they teetered toward open war, were disturbed by their country's lack of warships. Provoked to action, private U.S. citizens decided to help build a navy. Merchants from Newburyport, Massachusetts, took the lead by opening a subscription to fund a 20-gun warship to be built in ninety days, and they persuaded Congress to pass a statute that gave them government "stock" bearing 6 percent interest in exchange for their money. Their example set off a chain reaction down the coast. More than a thousand subscribers in the port towns pledged money and began to build nine warships with little government oversight. Among the subscription ships were the Philadelphia, later lost on the rocks at Tripoli; Essex, the first American warship to round the Cape of Good Hope; and Boston, which captured the French corvette Le Berceau. This book is the first to explore in depth the subject of subscribing for warships. Frederick Leiner explains how the idea materialized, who the subscribers and shipbuilders were, how the ships were built, and what contributions these ships made to the Quasi-War against France. Along the way, he also offers significant insights into the politics of what is arguably the most critical period in American history. |
Contents
On the Verge of War | 5 |
A Navy Spring Up Like the Gourd of Jonah | 20 |
The Newburyport Example | 28 |
Copyright | |
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aboard April Baltimore Daily Advertiser Barron Berceau Boston brig British building cannon Capt Captain Little captured Charleston command committee Commodore Congress convoy court crew cruise Curaçao Decatur Edward Preble Federal Gazette Federalist FitzSimons Flying Fish France French privateers frigate Gazette & Baltimore Geddes George Little guns Historical Society History ibid Indies Island James Jefferson John Adams John Rodgers Joshua Humphreys Josiah Fox July June Kitts Knox letter lieutenant Marine Maritime Maryland Massachusetts masts merchant ships merchant vessels Merrimack Merrimack Journal Moses Brown Myers National Archives Naval Documents Naval Institute Press navy agent Newburyport Norfolk officers orig Patapsco Philadelphia port Preble President Adams prize Quasi-War Record Group Richmond rigging Robert Haswell Salem Samuel Samuel Barron schooner Secretary Stoddert Sept Shipmaster Silas Talbot sloop squadron subscribers subscription warships Thomas Tingey trade Truxtun U.S. Naval U.S. Navy United William wrote York