The Pennsylvania navy
The Phoenix and the Rose engaged by the enemy’s fire ships and galleys on the 16 Augst. 1776 / engrav’d from the original picture by S. Serres from a sketch of Sir James Wallace’s. https://www.loc.gov/item/2004670008/ This picture, while of a battle on the Hudson and not of the Pennsylvania fire ships, gives a sense of how they were used.[1]
Philadelphia was a river port, from which ships sailed around the world, and its leading citizens had a sense of what might be useful in blocking access to the city by river. Philadelphia put together a navy early in the war.[2] Initially, it seems to have been made up of fire ships and fire rafts.[3] Because ships were all wood at that time, fire was a great hazard, and in a narrow river channel it could be difficult to avoid becoming entangled with a fire ship or raft, which could destroy even the greatest warship.
The navy soon expanded to include vessels carrying cannon, including floating batteries (essentially rafts carrying cannon), and “river galleys,” which were rowed boats containing, in many cases, a single cannon. These galleys would have a relatively shallow draft and could maneuver in waters where British men-of-war could not go. Still, they had one gun against the very large numbers that could be brought to bear by British men-of-war (the Augusta, for example, mounted 64 cannon) and it must have taken incredible courage to man these river fighting boats. (In fact, the navy had to deal with a significant number of desertions by sailors who thought the risk beyond bearing.[4]) Both row galleys and fire ships, together with other armed river ships, featured in the defense of Fort Mercer (see Fort Mercer Timeline) and in direct combat with the British warships attacking Fort Mercer and Mifflin.
https://www.revolutionarywarjournal.com/battle-for-the-delaware-river-in-the-american-revolution-courageous-determination/ This image, from an excellent description of the river battle, shows river galleys engaging the warship Augusta as it was destroyed in the battle for the river (see Fort Mercer Timeline).
The navy put down the chevaux-de-frise or stackadoes that blocked the river (see Chevaux-de-frise) and then, working with Fort Mifflin and Fort Billingsport, helped keep the British from clearing them, effectively blocking off the river. The men defending Fort Mifflin complained that they were not getting support that they needed, and Commodore Hazelwood’s response was essentially that the navy was doing the best that it could do,[5] leaving General Washington to urge all parties to stop the blame game and maintain a united front between the land and naval forces.[6]
Ultimately the navy fought heroically in the last days of the battle for Fort Mifflin, with Commodore Hazelwood reporting his losses as follows: “we had on that Day 38 men Kill’d & Wounded & all the Galleys Except one much Shater’d with Shot.”[7]
After Fort Mifflin fell the navy made its way upstream past Philadelphia. A large number of ships and galleys are reported to have successfully escaped,[8] though they apparently ultimately had to be stripped of their guns and destroyed by the Americans.[9]
For the stories of the Forts that the navy protected, see Fort Mifflin Timeline, Fort Mercer Timeline.
[1] The British ships Phoenix and Rose escaped the attack in the Hudosn River but did withdraw from their advanced position. It is interesting to note that John Hazelwood, who would become commodore of the Pennsylvania navy, was one of three experts from Philadelphia who travelled to Poughkeepsie on the Hudson in July of 1776 to advise on river defense and is said to have fitted out a fire ship at that time. Leach, J. G., “Commodore John Hazlewood, Commander of the Pennsylvania Navy in the Revolution,” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, pg. 2, Vol. 26, No. 1 (1902), https://www.jstor.org/stable/20086007?seq=2#metadata_info_tab_contents
It is not clear whether that was the fire ship that attacked the British warships on the Hudson in the scene depicted here.
[2] See generally Jackson, J.W., The Pennsylvania Navy, 1775-1781: The defense of the Delaware (1974).
[3] Leach, J. G., “Commodore John Hazlewood, Commander of the Pennsylvania Navy in the Revolution,”
The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, pg. 2, Vol. 26, No. 1 (1902), https://www.jstor.org/stable/20086007?seq=2#metadata_info_tab_contents It is not clear why this text features a different spelling of the Commodore’s name than the one seen elsewhere, including in the Commodore’s own letters to General Washington.
[4] See, e.g., “To George Washington from Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Smith, 12 October 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-11-02-0503 .
[5] See, e.g., “To George Washington from Commodore John Hazelwood, 26 October 1777”: “The Fleet is now so poorly Mann’d, & the constant cry from Fort Mifflin is to guard that Post, that I know not how to act without more assistance,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-12-02-0010 .
[6]“From George Washington to Commodore John Hazelwood, 21 October 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-11-02-0582 .
[7] “To George Washington from Commodore John Hazelwood, 15 November 1777,” n. 2, Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-12-02-0253 .
[8] Leach, J. G., “Commodore John Hazlewood, Commander of the Pennsylvania Navy in the Revolution,” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, pg. 5, Vol. 26, No. 1 (1902), https://www.jstor.org/stable/20086007?seq=2#metadata_info_tab_contents
[9] Schenawolf, H., “Battle for the Delaware river in the American Revolution: Courageous Determination,” Revolutionary War Journal (October 14, 2020), https://www.revolutionarywarjournal.com/battle-for-the-delaware-river-in-the-american-revolution-courageous-determination/