Benjamin Stoddert Benjamin Stoddert ( 1751 – December 13 , 1813 ) was the first United States Secretary of the Navy from May 1 , 1798 to March 31 , 1801 . Early life . Stoddert was born in Charles County , Maryland , in 1751 , the son of Captain Thomas Stoddert . He was educated at the University of Pennsylvania , and then worked as a merchant . He served as a captain in the Pennsylvania cavalry and later as secretary to the Continental Board of War during the American Revolutionary War . During the war , he was severely injured in the Battle of Brandywine and was subsequently released from active military service . In 1781 , he married Rebecca Lowndes , daughter of Christopher Lowndes , a Maryland merchant , and they had eight children . They resided at the home of his father - in - law , Bostwick , located at Bladensburg , Maryland . In 1783 , Stoddert established a tobacco export business in Georgetown , with business partners Uriah Forrest and John Murdock . After George Washington was elected President , he asked Stoddert to purchase key parcels of land in the area that would become the nation ' s capital , before the formal decision to establish the federal city on the banks of the Potomac drove up prices there . Stoddert then transferred the parcels to the government . During the 1790s , he also helped found the Bank of Columbia to handle purchases of land in the District of Columbia for the federal government . Secretary of the Navy . In May 1798 , President John Adams appointed Stoddert , a loyal Federalist , to oversee the newly established Department of the Navy . As the first Secretary of the Navy , Stoddert soon found himself dealing with an undeclared naval war with France , which would come to be known as the Quasi - War . Stoddert realized that the infant Navy possessed too few warships to protect a far - flung merchant marine by using convoys or by patrolling the North American coast . Rather , he concluded that the best way to defeat the French campaign against American shipping was by offensive operations in the Caribbean , where most of the French cruisers were based . Thus at the very outset of the conflict , the Department of the Navy adopted a policy of going to the source of the enemy ' s strength . American successes during the conflict resulted from a combination of Stoddert ' s administrative skill in deploying his limited forces and the initiative of his seagoing officers . Under Stoddert ' s leadership , the reestablished United States Navy acquitted itself well and achieved its goal of stopping the depredations of French ships against American commerce . Stoddert concerned himself not only with the Navy ' s daily administration and operations , but also with the service ' s future strength . He established the first six navy yards and advocated building twelve 74 gun ships of the line . Congress initially approved construction of these ships in 1799 , a design was prepared by Joshua Humphrey who had prepared the initial designs for the 44 gun frigates of 1797 and lumber collected at the new Navy Yards . Following the peace accord with France , the Navy ' s personnel strength and the number of active ships were reduced . The Jefferson Administration reduced active naval stength to three frigates ( twelve were built between 1797 and 1800 ) and sold off or used the collected supplies in the Navy Yards for gunboat construction . This policy left the US unprepared to respond to the later threats of the North African " pirates " and failed to prevent war with England in 1812 . Stoddert left a legacy of able administration and successful war fighting . Despite subsequent shifting political sentiments , the American people would ever after depend on the Navy to defend their commerce and assert their rights on the high seas . Stoddert established the Navy Department Library as a result of instructions received from President Adams in a letter dated 31 March 1800 . Post - Navy life . He left office in March 1801 to return to commercial life . Following his term as Secretary of the Navy , Stoddert ' s final years witnessed a decline in his fortunes : as Stoddert lost heavily in land speculation , Georgetown declined as a commercial center , and the Embargo and the War of 1812 brought American overseas trade to a halt . During this period he lived at Halcyon House , on the corner at 3400 Prospect Street NW . Benjamin Stoddert died on December 13 , 1813 , and is buried in the graveyard at Addison Chapel , Seat Pleasant , Maryland . Things named for Benjamin Stoddert . In the Georgetown section of Washington , DC , there was a Stoddert Street named after Benjamin Stoddert . . In the Georgetown street renaming of 1895 the name was changed to Q Street NW . An apartment building that today stands at 2900 Q Street NW is named " The Stoddert " .