Continental Navy Week - Commodore John Paul Jones, c.1779

"John Paul Jones, commodore au service des Etats-Unis de l'Amérique," engraved by Carl Gutenberg from a drawing by C.J. Notté, c.1779, Wikimedia Commons retouched detail from Library of Congress original.

I started this week with Jones in a dashing (non-regulation) dress uniform following the Battle of Flamborough Head. Notté chose to show Jones in the thick of the fight. His face is cool and determined while he calmly reaches for a pistol, all while the Bonhomme Richard disintegrates around him. Not even the rattle of his marines' musketry a feet away startles Jones.

Jones hair is loose and short, hanging in curls that barely reach his neck. His hat is untrimmed and wide, worn in the French style. A large silk cockade is affixed to the left side, just as the point of his hat is over the left eye. A white cravat is carefully tied around his neck.

Jones' jacket is single breasted with lapel flaps open at the top. His jacket has simple mariners' cuffs, and lacks any of the trappings of Jones' fancier uniforms. At his waist is a row of pistols tucked into the waistband of his slops/petticoat trousers.

Without the epaulets or gold lace he was so fond of, Jones would be ready to rumble in a set of slop clothes like these!

Thank you for joining me in my journey through the uniforms of the Continental Navy. There are more images out there. Charles Willson Peale painted portraits of captains Nicholas Biddle and Joshua Barney in their Continental Navy uniforms, for example. I encourage you to make this a study yourself, and dig up what you can on this fascinating and short lived organization.

Continental Navy Week - Captain Gustavus Conyngham, date unknown

Captain Gustavus Conyngham miniature, artist unknown, date unknown, US Naval Historical Center.

The Dunkirk Pirate returns! Conyngham was featured on this blog some time ago. That French depiction of Conyngham may have been colored by his checkered resume. After a wildly successful cruise against the British merchant fleet (and a few neutral vessels), Conyngham was chastised by Congress for his flagrant disregard for orders forbidding taking neutral vessels carrying British cargoes.

This portrait, taken from a miniature of Conyngham, is scant in details. He wears no hat, and appears to sport a bob wig and queue. Conyngham's short white shirt collar is folded over his white cravat. His coat is without collar, and has a white lapel lined with gold lace. Dark metallic buttons are sewn in as well.

Continental Navy Week - Captain Matthew Parke, date unknown

Continental Marine Captain Matthew Parke, artist unknown, date unknown, FourScore.

Continental Navy portraits are difficult to come across. Continental Marine portraits are almost nonexistant. That is what makes this miniature so valuable. The miniature portrait above is part of a matched set depicting Captain Matthew Parke and his wife.

As one of the very first marine officers, Parke served alongside Jones aboard the ship Ranger during its highly successful cruise in British home waters, as well as witnessing the Battle of Flamborough Head from aboard the frigate Alliance. He was later rebuked for insubordination, but is still remembered today by Marines for his courage and place among the founders of the Corps.

 The same day that the Continental Navy's uniform was detailed by the Marine Committee, the Continental Marines received their uniforms. Green coats with white facings were accompanied by a set of white small clothes and tall leather collar to protect the neck from edged weapons.

Parke wears a uniform in line with those regulations. his white collar is buttoned town onto his lapels with large silver buttons, which are spaced evenly. He wears a tall white cravat that peeks out of his single breasted white waistcoat, with its smaller silver buttons. On his visible right shoulder is a silver epaulet.

Continental Navy Week - Commodore Abraham Whipple, date unknown

Commodore Abraham Whipple, Edward Savage, date unknown, US Naval Academy Museum.

Whipple led naval attacks on the British before there was ever an American navy, much less even a ware. It was he that led the attack on the Gaspee in 1772, in which a Royal Navy officer was shot and the Gaspee burned to the waterline. Whipple's dedication to fighting the British at sea lasted throughout the Revolutionary War. Among his exploits was the phenomenal capture of eleven ships of a British convoy, valued at over one million dollars.

Befitting his success and rank, Whipple wears an impressive uniform.

A large untrimmed cocked hat turned over his right eye is black and bears a large black cockade. His jacket has a short standing collar with a small square of red at the front, over which sits a medium sized brass button. Along his untrimmed red lapels are large brass buttons as well, though he is missing one on the lower left. Scalloped mariners' cuffs, as we've seen on numerous uniforms this week, rest over red cuffs. Unlike those worn by other Continental Navy officers, his mariners' cuffs have only two large buttons, with one offset on the red cuff.There are matching buttons at the pockets hanging low on his coat, which is lined in pink silk.

His waistcoat is something to behold. Bright red and single breasted, it is piped in a fine, wide gold trim, doubly so around the flap pockets at his waist. All along the waistcoat and pockets are small brass or gold buttons. His blue breeches match the color of his coat, and have a long line of gold or brass buttons running up from the gold lace beneath his knee. White stockings, giving the sheen of silk, run to black shoes with silver rectangular buckles. Peeking beneath the hem of his waistcoat is a watch fob, joined by a ceremonial sword on his left hip and a glass in his hand to accessorize the stunning uniform.

Of all the officers featured on Continental Navy Week, Hopkins may take the prize for best dressed!

Continental Navy Week - Captain James Josiah, 1787

Captain James Josiah, Charles Wilson Peale, 1787, Antiques and Fine Art Magazine.

The Continental Navy was quickly overshadowed by the resounding success of privateers during the American Revolutionary War. James Josiah partook in that success with his sloop Washington, after a time as a lieutenant and later captain in the Continental Navy. During his service, Josiah was captured by the British and horribly mistreated aboard the frigate Cerberus, giving him a thirst for revenge that motivated both his naval and privateering careers.

This painting was done well after Josiah's service in the war. He is bound away for China in 1787, and poses in the cabin of his merchant brig St. Croix Packet. Still, he chose to be portrayed in his Continental Navy uniform, a sign of his pride in the service.

Josiah's coat has a short standing collar lined with gold, and fitted with a small button on a red field. This matches the hue of his gold piped waistcoat, as well as the facings of his coat. The wide buttons on his plain lapels are evenly spaced and without lace. At his neck is a white cravat which appears to match the delicate material that makes up his frilled shirt cuffs. A final touch befitting any captain are the scalloped mariner's cuffs that reach over the red cuffs of his coat sleeves.

Continental Navy Week - Commodore Esek Hopkins, 1781, 1776

"Commodore Hopkins, Commandeur en Chef der Amri. Flotte.," Thomas Hart, 1781, Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection.

Esek Hopkins is an interesting figure. A successful merchant captain before the war, Hopkins was also an adept privateer during the French and Indian War. Given his past experience, it is not surprising that Congress granted him command of the first American naval squadron. He led the successful invasion of Nassau, but was humiliated when the 20 gun Glasgow outmaneuvered his seven warships, disabling two Continental Navy vessels. The fight was so disorganized that the Continentals hit each other in the fray.

Hopkins was later censured by Congress for his failure to follow orders, which may not have been all that realistic anyway. The rest of his naval career was spent blockaded by a British squadron, and he was removed from command in 1778.

Thomas Hart printed two renditions of Commodore Hopkins, one was a colorized bust in an oval frame, the other this piece. Both are based off of a portrait done by Wilkinson. The 1781 version has a less crowded background and is closer to a full body image. You can see the earlier colorized version (which incorrectly identifies its subject as "admiral") here.

Hopkins wears a cocked hat turned over his left eye, lined with silk tape and bearing a large cockade. His shirt collar is folded just above the black cravat at his neck, which peeks out of the plain single breasted waistcoat with its domed buttons. His coat is without collar and fitted with evenly spaced plain domed buttons down his lapels.

The lapel on his right side is buttoned to the coat, but his left is unbuttoned. His waistcoat has flap pockets at the waist. Plain dark breeches of the same hue as his jacket finish off his uniform, if it may be so called.

Hopkins' pose and uniform match that of the 1776 piece by Wilkinson.

We can probably apply the color of the uniform from this piece to the print: a dark blue jacket with light red lapels and brass buttons that match those on his pale red waistcoat. His hat is lined in gold tape, and the bow appears to be silk.

Continental Navy Week - Captain John Paul Jones, 1780

"Capt. John Paul Jones, Commander of a Squadron of Ships in the Service of France and America," printed by Sayer and Bennett, 1780, Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.

Easily the most famous of all Continental Navy officers in the American Revolutionary War, John Paul Jones is the subject of many books (both fictional and true) and one surprisingly boring movie. His exploits are the stuff of legend, but the most famous of his victories is that of his Bonhomme Richard over the British 44 gun Serapis. With his ship almost literally sinking beneath him, Jones pounded the Serapis into submission. The famous Battle of Flamborough Head (along with the possibly mythical line "I have no yet begun to fight") have resounded through the centuries. It is presumably this battle that is depicted in the background of Jones' portrait.

Interestingly, this print was made during the war with America, and printed by Sayer and Bennett: two very successful printers in London. One has to wonder what their audience thought of the dashing figure that had confounded their Royal Navy in home waters.

Aside from Jones' skills as a mariner and courage as a fighter, it can be also said that he was a clothes horse. This uniform does not conform to Continental Navy regulations. On September 5, 1776, the Marine Committee declared that officers should wear blue breeches, a blue coat with red facings, with a red waistcoat.

In February of the following year, Jones and other captains offered an alternative uniform of white small clothes and a blue coat with white facings. This recommendation was adopted by committee, but not by Congress.

Jones went on wearing his own uniform anyway, among several other styles.

In this portrait (supposedly taken from an original painted in Amsterdam), Jones wears a black cocked hat with a large cockade bound in gold and held by a gold button. His large epaulets are also gold, matching the lace around doubled gold buttons that run down his white lapels. The buttons are each engraved with an anchor. A large white cravat peeks from between his lapels, contrasting the small black bow around his queue. 

Jones' short lapels end just above the natural waist, but the buttons and lace continue below there. A long, blue scalloped cuff runs from just below the elbow to the frilled cuffs of his shirtsleeves, running over the white cuffs of his coat. Along the scalloped cuff are four buttons with lace. His small clothes appear to be white silk (judging by the shading), and are fit with smaller gold buttons which appear to be plain domed.