Going all the way back to the ancient Athenians, flags were hoisted on ships as signals to other vessels to take various actions. The signals were basically one way messages, but over the years they grew in complexity. By 1738, the French used a numerical flag code, allow three sets of flags that could signal 1000 different combinations. In 1800, the British Royal Navy developed the first alphabetic flag signal system, and by 1813 had developed the Popham code system which contained 6,000 set phrases and over 60,000 words. And, here in America, Commodore David Porter issued a signal book that went even a step beyond the British Popham system by including the capability to signal individual words letter-by-letter. Porter's book followed a significant American book on maritime signaling by Commodore Thomas Thruxtun entitled, Instructions, Signals and Explanations Ordered for the United States Fleet. Signaling was one area where America was able to go toe-to-toe with the British during the War of 1812. It also served as a great example to show the value of a strong Navy towards the defense of our Country. As Madison wrote in his 1815 State of the Union address, "The signal services which have been rendered by our Navy and the capacities it has developed for successful cooperation in the national defense will give to that portion of the public force its full value in the eyes of Congress". Now that Congress understood the value of the Navy to our nation's defense, Madison asked Congress was to pass legislation to preserve the ships we have now and complete those that have been planned. Here are the words of James Madison in 1815.
"The signal services which have been rendered by our Navy and the capacities it has developed for successful cooperation in the national defense will give to that portion of the public force its full value in the eyes of Congress, at an epoch which calls for the constant vigilance of all governments. To preserve the ships now in a sound state, to complete those already contemplated, to provide amply the imperishable materials for prompt augmentations, and to improve the existing arrangements into more advantageous establishments for the construction, the repairs, and the security of vessels of war is dictated by the soundest policy."
Congress followed through, and on April 29th 1816 they passed "An act for the gradual increase of the navy of the United States". The law appropriated $1 million annually for 8 years and authorized nine new ships with no less than 74 guns each and 12 ships with no less than 44 guns each. After some time, the amount was reduced to only $0.5 million for 6 years. Progress was slow, and by 1826 the funding had ended, President John Quincy Adams shared that the Navy then had "12 line-of-battle ships, 20 frigates, and sloops of war in proportion" which with just a few more months of preparation would be ready to protect the coasts from any invader. Unfortunately, the funding appropriated by the 1816 act was only for 8 years, and additional funds had to be appropriated. President Adams, was now asking Congress o appropriate an additional $0.5 million each year going forward to complete the project that was begun in 1816. Here are the words of John Quincy Adams on the matter in 1826.
"In like manner the estimate of appropriations for the Navy Department will present an aggregate sum of upward of $3,000,000M. About half of these, however, covers the current expenditures of the Navy in actual service, and half constitutes a fund of national property, the pledge of our future glory and defense. It was scarcely one short year after the close of the late war, and when the burden of its expenses and charges was weighing heaviest upon the country, that Congress, by the act of 1816-04-29, appropriated $1,000,000 annually for 8 years to the *gradual increase of the Navy*. At a subsequent period this annual appropriation was reduced to $0,500,000 for 6 years, of which the present year is the last. A yet more recent appropriation the last two years, for building 10 sloops of war, has nearly restored the original appropriation of 1816 of $1,000,000 for every year.
The result is before United States all. We have 12 line-of-battle ships, 20 frigates, and sloops of war in proportion, which, with a few months preparation, may present a line of floating fortifications along the whole range of our coast ready to meet any invader who might attempt to set foot upon our shores. Combining with a system of fortifications upon the shores themselves, commenced about the same time under the auspices of my immediate predecessor, and hitherto systematically pursued, it has placed in our possession the most effective sinews of war and has left us at once an example and a lesson from which our own duties may be inferred.
The gradual increase of the Navy was the principle of which the act of 1816-04-29, was the first development. It was the introduction of a system to act upon the character and history of our country for an indefinite series of ages. It was a declaration of that Congress to their constituents and to posterity that it was the destiny and the duty of these confederated States to become in regular process of time and by no petty advances a great naval power. That which they proposed to accomplish in 8 years is rather to be considered as the measure of their means that the limitation of their design. They looked forward for a term of years sufficient for the accomplishment of a definite portion of their purpose, and they left to their successors to fill up the canvas of which they had traced the large and prophetic outline. The ships of the line and frigates which they had in contemplation will be shortly completed. The time which they had allotted for the accomplishment of the work has more than elapsed. It remains for your consideration how their successors may contribute their portion of toil and of treasure for the benefit of the succeeding age in the gradual increase of our Navy.
There is perhaps no part of the exercise of the constitutional powers of the Federal Government which has given more general satisfaction to the people of the Union than this. The system has not been thus vigorously introduced and hitherto sustained to be now departed from or abandoned. In continuing to provide for the gradual increase of the Navy it may not be necessary or expedient to add for the present any more to the number of our ships; but should you deem it advisable to continue the yearly appropriation of $0.5M to the same objects, it may be profitably expended in a providing a supply of timber to be seasoned and other materials for future use in the construction of docks or in laying the foundations of a school for naval education, as to the wisdom of Congress either of those measures may appear to claim the preference."One of the sips authorized by Congress was the Ship of the Line USS Pennsylvania (shown in picture). The USS Pennsylvania was the largest sailing warship ever built for the United states. She was a four-decked 140-gun ship named for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The ship was designed and built by Samuel Humphreys in the Philadelphia Navy Yard. Because of tight budgets which slowed her construction, she was not launched until June of 1837. The Navy intended the USS Pennsylvania to be the ultimate blockade buster if ever another European war occurred. The ship was very expensive to build with the hull alone costing over $800,000 or about 20% of the entire Navy budget in 1830. The ship was so large, that if she had ever been sent into battle, it would have taken 3,00 sailors to man all of her weapons and sails. After making one voyage from Philadelphia to the Gosport Navy Yard in Portsmouth Virginia, she was relegated to be a receiving ship for the Norfolk Navy Yard from 1842 to 1860. In 1861, the Navy burned her to prevent capture by the Confederacy during the evacuation of Gosport.
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29457
http://www.seaflags.us/signals/Signals.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Pennsylvania_(1837)
http://hamptonroadsnavalmuseum.blogspot.com/2013/05/museum-model-of-ship-of-line-uss.html
http://www.sailsatsea.com/getattachment/Gallery/Ship-of-the-Line-USS-Pennsylvania/DSC_0096.JPG.aspx
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