The United States Navy traces its origins to the
Continental Navy, which the Continental Congress established on 13 October
1775, by authorizing the procurement and dispatch of two armed vessels to
cruise in search of munitions ships supplying the British Army in America. The
legislation also established a Naval Committee to supervise the work. All
together, the Continental Navy numbered some fifty ships over the course of the
American War for Independence, with approximately twenty warships active at its
maximum strength.
After the war, Congress sold the surviving ships
of the Continental Navy and released the seamen and officers. The Constitution
of the United States, ratified in 1789, empowered Congress "to provide and
maintain a navy." Under President George Washington threats to American
merchant shipping by pirates in the Mediterranean led to the Naval Act of 1794,
which created a permanent standing U.S. Navy. Six frigates were authorized as
part of the Act.
Over the next 20 years, the Navy fought the
French Navy in the Quasi-War (1798–99), Barbary states in the First and Second
Barbary Wars, and the British in the War of 1812. After the War of 1812, the
U.S. Navy was at peace until the Mexican-American war in 1846, and served to
combat piracy in the Mediterranean and Caribbean seas, as well fighting the
slave trade.
In 1845, the Naval Academy was founded. In 1861, the American Civil War began and the U.S. Navy fought the small Confederate Navy with both sailing ships and ironclad ships while forming a blockade that shut down the Confederacy's civilian shipping. After the Civil war, most of the ships were laid up in reserve, and by 1878, the Navy was just 6,000 men.
In 1882, the U.S. Navy consisted of many outdated
ship designs. Over the next decade, Congress approved building multiple modern
armored cruisers and battleships, and by around the start of the 20th century
had moved from twelfth place in 1870 to fifth place in terms of numbers of
ships.
After winning two major battles during the 1898
Spanish-American War, the Navy continued to build more ships, and by the end of
World War I had more men and women in uniform than the Royal Navy. The
Washington Naval Conference recognized the Navy as equal in capital ship size to
the Royal Navy, and during the 1920s and 1930s, the Navy built several aircraft
carriers and battleships.
The Navy was drawn into World War II after the
Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, and over the next four
years fought many historic battles including the Battle of the Coral Sea, the
Battle of Midway, multiple naval battles during the Guadalcanal Campaign, and
the largest naval battle in history, the Battle of Leyte Gulf.
Much of the Navy's activity concerned the support of
landings, not only with the "island-hopping" campaign in the Pacific,
but also with the European landings. When the Japanese surrendered, a large
flotilla entered Tokyo Bay to witness the formal ceremony conducted on the
battleship Missouri, on which officials from the Japanese government signed the
Japanese Instrument of Surrender. By the end of the war, the Navy had over
1,600 warships.
After World War II ended, the U.S. Navy entered the
Cold War and participated in the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Persian Gulf
War, and the Iraq War. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Soviet
Navy fell apart, which made the United States the world's undisputed naval
superpower.
.jpg)
Nuclear power and ballistic missile technology led to
new ship propulsion and weapon systems, which were used in the Nimitz-class
aircraft carriers and Ohio-class submarines. By 1978, the number of ships had
dwindled to less than 400, many of which were from World War II, which prompted
Ronald Reagan to institute a program for a modern, 600-ship Navy. Today, the
United States is the world's undisputed naval superpower, with the ability to
engage and project power in two simultaneous limited wars along separate
fronts.
Not to be confused with the Navy Birthday or the
founding of the Navy Department, is Navy Day. The Navy League sponsored the
first national observance of Navy Day in 1922 designed to give recognition to
the naval service. The Navy League of New York proposed that the official
observance be on 27 October in honor of President Theodore Roosevelt, who had
been born on that day.
( Maritime-Executive.Com,
October 12, 2014 )
