Two ships and a vote
A Friday in Philadelphia
On Friday, 13 October 1775, the Continental Congress sat in Philadelphia and took up a committee report on a narrow, practical problem. British transports were carrying arms and stores to the army in America. Could Congress stop them?
After some debate, the delegates voted yes. The journal for that day records a resolution that "a swift sailing vessel, to carry ten carriage guns" and a matching set of swivel guns, with a crew of 80, be fitted out for a three-month cruise eastward to intercept transports carrying munitions and supplies. A second vessel was approved for the same purpose. A small committee of three, Silas Deane, John Langdon and Christopher Gadsden, was chosen to work out the cost.
That was all. Two ships, a crew estimate and a committee. The Naval History and Heritage Command calls this resolution the original legislation out of which the Continental Navy grew.
A navy that came and went
The Continental Navy fought through the Revolution. When the war ended, the new nation had little money and no appetite for a standing fleet. The remaining ships were sold off. The last, the frigate Alliance, was sold in 1785.
For almost a decade the United States had no navy at all. Then, in March 1794, Congress passed an act to provide a naval armament: six frigates, four of 44 guns and two of 36, to deal with the corsairs operating from Algiers. Four years later, on 30 April 1798, President John Adams signed the act that created a separate Department of the Navy. Benjamin Stoddert, a Maryland merchant, became the first Secretary of the Navy.
So which date is the beginning? The 1775 vote, the 1794 frigates, or the 1798 department? For a long time the Navy itself did not settle the question.
Navy Day: 27 October
In 1922 the Navy League of the United States chose a day to draw public attention to the Navy. It picked 27 October, the birthday of Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt had served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy and, as President, had sent the battle fleet around the world. NHHC records that Navy Day was formally observed from 1922 until 1949, with port visits by warships among the later celebrations.
The largest of those observances came on 27 October 1945, the first Navy Day after the Second World War. Warships anchored in the Hudson River, with the New York skyline behind them, for a presidential review.
Navy Day was a public celebration, aimed at the people who paid for and crewed the fleet. It was not the Navy's birthday.
1972: a birthday is recognized
That changed in 1972. The Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, authorized recognition of 13 October as the Navy's birthday. Every CNO since has encouraged the observance. NHHC describes it as mainly an internal occasion: for the active forces and reserves, retirees, and their families.
The Navy claims the date but not a single birthplace. Philadelphia would be the obvious choice. NHHC notes that the Navy also honors the many other towns that played naval roles in the Revolution, and does not recognize any one of them as its sole place of origin.
Two hundred and fifty-one
On 13 October 2026, the Navy marks its 251st birthday. It is worth remembering how small the start was. There was no fleet and no department, only two ships on paper and a crew of 80 apiece.
Everything that followed was built by the people who signed on, one ship and one crew at a time. That includes the frigates and the carriers, and the sailors who stood their watches in peace as well as war.
Our Fleet Icons are a good place to start if you want something to mark the day.
Harborborne is an independent brand and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the U.S. Navy or Department of Defense.
