Defending The Shores

Connecticut’s impact on America’s maritime naval tradition goes back to the very beginning of the country. In the American Revolution, Connecticut’s government protected the seacoast and the commerce of the state with a small state navy of about 13 vessels.  In the American Revolution and the War of 1812, Connecticut, like other states, also licensed privateers, which were commercial vessels converted to military use in order to disrupt British shipping.  Captured cargoes would be divided among the privateer crew and the government.

In the time of the American Revolution New London was the home to the greatest concentration of privateers who went out and helped win the revolution.  Historians think that’s why Benedict Arnold came here and burned the place down.

The Battle of Stonington

It was during the War of 1812 that the British made several major raids along the Connecticut shore, including a raid on the river port of Essex that led to the destruction of several dozen vessels.

In 1814, the British attacked Stonington, bombarding the town. On August 9^th, 1814, the war was going badly for America. The Royal Navy under the command of Thomas Hardy, a famous British Royal Navy Officer, was sent in. He didn’t want to hurt the people in the town of Stonington, he just wanted to destroy the town and he sent in a note to that effect.

The town populace was outraged by this and the people rose up. They decided that they were going to fight back. This was an extraordinarily brave and foolhardy thing to do because they only had two cannons and the Royal Navy had at least 120 cannons on the five ships that they brought in.

Commodore Hardy decided that he didn’t want to be known as someone who killed a lot of innocent Yankees because they were brave enough to try to protect their homes. He tried to attack in ways that wouldn’t hurt too many people, which didn’t work. He then tried to send in marines to the town’s shore, in boats, with one cannon. Once they had the cannon on land they started firing at the towns boats. This went on for three or four days. After sinking a couple of the boats, and realizing that the town would not surrender, Hardy pulled his men and boats back and headed back to Britain. 

The Battle of Stonington was a tiny little military operation but a remarkably important piece of propaganda for America at a time when America was desperately in need of a win. America was absolutely losing the war and the Battle of Stonington gave great heart to people at a time when they desperately needed it.

The Coast Guard

In addition to privateering, there was also a lot of smuggling done here which helped win the revolution. After the Revolution was won, Alexander Hamilton founded the Coast Guard to help the custom service collect shipping revenues and cut down on the smuggling. Smuggling had been a time honored practice.

As soon as the war was won it then became necessary to rebuild the economy and so the Coast Guard got its start as a maritime force to enforce the customs laws of the day. It was the only source of revenue that the nation had at the time taking in tariffs and tonnage duties. 

The Coast Guard Academy was founded in 1876-77 to provide a well-trained professional officer corps really in response to a problem of corruption in the old collecting service. The Coast Guard Academy started on a schooner. It was called the Dobbin. Initially out of Baltimore. Later it sailed out of New Bedford.  The skipper of the first school ship wanted the home port to be New London but the Coast Guard Academy didn’t come here until about 1910. And initially the academy ran at Fort Trumbull

The Coast Guard Academy again began to outgrow the old revolutionary era fort site at Fort Trumbull in the 1920’s which was the result of the fact that the service expanded during its fighting the rum war at sea to enforce prohibition. In 1932 the present Coast Guard Academy, built on land donated by New London, was occupied by cadets for the first time.

Adapted From Connecticut and The Sea - by Kenneth A. Simon