page_title: Continental Navy
section_title: French naval collaboration
hierarchical_section_title: Continental Navy / French naval collaboration
caption_attribution_description: English: George Matthews based this image of naval hero John Paul Jones, painted about 1890, on a portrait by Charles Willson Peale. The older painting is part of the large Peale collection at Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia. In the painting, Jones wears the French Order of Military Merit, presented to him by Louis XVI in 1780. Peale is thought to have executed his life study around 1781, following Jones’s triumphal return from France.
context_page_description: The Continental Navy was the navy of the United States during the American Revolutionary War, and was formed in 1775. The fleet cumulatively became relatively substantial through the efforts of the Continental Navy's patron John Adams and vigorous Congressional support in the face of stiff opposition, when considering the limitations imposed upon the Patriot supply pool.
  The main goal of the navy was to intercept shipments of British matériel and generally disrupt British maritime commercial operations. The initial fleet consisted of converted merchantmen because of the lack of funding, manpower, and resources, with exclusively designed warships being built later in the conflict. The vessels that successfully made it to sea met with success only rarely, and the effort contributed little to the overall outcome of the war.
  The fleet did serve to highlight a few examples of Continental resolve, notably launching Captain John Barry into the limelight. It provided needed experience for a generation of officers who went on to command conflicts which involved the early American navy.
context_section_description: Before the Franco-American Alliance, the royalist French government attempted to maintain a state of respectful neutrality during the Revolutionary War.  That being said, the nation maintained neutrality at face value, often openly harboring Continental vessels and supplying their needs.
  With the presence of American diplomats Benjamin Franklin and Silas Deane, the Continental Navy gained a permanent link to French affairs.  Through Franklin and like-minded agents, Continental officers were afforded the ability to receive commissions and to survey and purchase prospective ships for military use.
  Early in the conflict, Captains Lambert Wickes and Gustavus Conyngham operated out of various French ports for the purpose of commerce raiding.  The French did attempt to enforce their neutrality by seizing Dolphin and Surprise of the Continental Navy. However, with the commencement of the official alliance in 1778, ports were officially open to Continental ships.
  The most prominent Continental officer to operate out of France was Captain John Paul Jones.  Jones had been preying upon British commerce aboard the Ranger but only now saw the opportunity for higher command.  The French loaned Jones the merchantman Duc de Duras, which Jones refitted and renamed Bonhomme Richard as a more powerful replacement for the Ranger. In August 1779, Jones was given command of a squadron of vessels of both American and French ownership.  The goal was not only to harass British commerce but also to prospectively land 1,500 French regulars in the lightly guarded western regions of Britain.  Unfortunately for the ambitious Jones, the French pulled out of the agreement pertaining to an invasion force, but the French did manage to uphold the plan regarding his command of the naval squadron.  Sailing in a clockwise fashion around Ireland and down the east coast of Britain, the squadron captured a number of merchantmen.  French commander Landais decided early on in the expedition to retain control of the French ships, thereby often leaving and rejoining the effort when he felt that it was fortuitous.
  On September 23, 1779, Jones' squadron was off Flamborough Head when the British man-of-war HMS Serapis and HM hired armed ship Countess of Scarborough bore down on the Franco-American force.  The lone Continental frigate Bonhomme Richard engaged Serapis.  The rigging of the two ships became entangled during the combat, and several guns of Jones' ship had been taken out of action. The captain of Serapis asked Jones if he had struck his colors, to which Jones has been quoted as replying, "I have not yet begun to fight!" Upon raking the Serapis, the crew of the Bonhomme Richard led by Jones boarded the British ship and captured her. Likewise, the French frigate Pallas captured Countess of Scarborough. Two days later, Bonhomme Richard sank from the overwhelming amount of damage that she had sustained. The action was an embarrassing defeat for the Royal Navy.
  The French also loaned the Continental Navy the use of the corvette Ariel. The one ship of the line built for service in the Continental Navy was the 74-gun America, but it was offered as a gift to France on September 3, 1782, in compensation for the loss of Le Magnifique in service to the American Revolution.
  France officially entered the war on June 17, 1778. Still, the ships that the French sent to the Western Hemisphere spent most of the year in the West Indies and only sailed near the Thirteen Colonies during the Caribbean hurricane season from July until November. The first French fleet attempted landings in New York and Rhode Island, but ultimately failed to engage British forces during 1778. In 1779, a fleet commanded by Vice Admiral Charles Henri, comte d'Estaing assisted American forces attempting to recapture Savannah, Georgia.
  In 1780, a fleet with 6,000 troops commanded by Lieutenant General Jean-Baptiste, comte de Rochambeau landed at Newport, Rhode Island; shortly afterward, the British blockaded the fleet. In early 1781, Washington and de Rochambeau planned an attack against the British in
caption: John Paul Jones, the Continental Navy's first seaman to be appointed the rank of 1st Lieutenant. Oil painting by George Bagby Matthews, c. 1890.
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