The Frigate TRUMBULL
250th ANNIVERSARY
5 SEPTEMBER 1776
THE FRIGATE TRUMBULL
With the sentiment of independence from Britain growing, the 1st Continental Congress in 1775 addressed the issue of seapower. Were we to declare independence (July the following year) we would need a naval force to counter the vaunted Royal Navy. Initially, on 13 October 1775, Congress voted to purchase several existing merchant ships and re-fit them for wartime cruising. The next naval appropriation came two months later, on 13 December 1775, this time an authorization for keel-up construction of dedicated warships. Thirteen frigates were to be built in shipyards throughout the colonies; Connecticut was to construct a 28-gun frigate to be named TRUMBULL. Jonathan Ttumbull was the Colonial Governor of Connecticut at the time, and unlike most colonial governors, his sympathies lay with the patriots. More importantly, he had been using his successful business connections to help finance our soon-to-be-declared nation.
Work on TRUMBULL progressed quickly after her keel was laid in early Spring 1776 at Chatham on the Connecticut River. At 700 tons she was holed for twenty-four 12-pounders and six 6-pounders. TRUMBULL slid off the ways this day, but to the surprise of all, her draft proved too great to clear the bar at the mouth of the Connecticut River! Temporarily stymied, her builders tied her to the wharf while our independence was declared and the Revolutionary War began.
Events conspired further against the frigate. In April 1777 the commander of British forces in North America, GEN William Howe, ordered New York’s colonial governor MGEN William Tryon, to conduct a raid into the Connecticut countryside, from which support for the patriots was known to be coming. TRUMBULL’s builders feared the defenseless frigate would have to be destroyed to prevent her capture. Indeed, Tryon’s force landed at Fairfield and marched inland to burn a patriot arsenal in Danbury, Connecticut. A small band of minutemen harassed the British, but instead of turning in the direction of Chatham, Tryon’s men marched back to their ships. Pure luck left TRUMBULL undisturbed in her berth.
Vexed still with getting the frigate over the bar, TRUMBULL sat in Chatham for two more years. Then in 1779 Continental Navy CAPT Elisha Hinman came up with a novel suggestion. Casks of water were lashed to the frigate’s hull yoked by stout ropes stretching beam to beam under her keel. The casks were then pumped dry and the resulting buoyancy lifted the frigate just enough to clear the bar at high tide. In September 1779 Congress appointed CAPT James Nicholson as her skipper, and finally, by May 1780 she put to sea for her first cruise.
Watch for more “Today in Naval History” 9 SEP 26
CAPT James Bloom, Ret.
Connecticut Courant, 2 September 1776. IN: Morgan, William James. Naval Documents of the American Revolution, Vol 6. Washington, DC: GPO, 1972, p. 654.
Department of the Navy, Naval History Division. Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 7 “T-V”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1981, p. 309.
Ward, Christopher. The War of the Revolution, Vol 2. New York, NY: MacMillan Co., 1952, pp. 492-503.
ADDITIONAL NOTES: TRUMBULL would fight two notable engagements, the first a victory over the British privateer Watt, and the second her defeat and capture by HMS IRIS, 32. This was the second of three ships to be named for Jonathan TRUMBULL, the third being an 18-gun sloop commissioned during the Quasi-War with France.
