You're listening to an Airwave Media Podcast. Hello and thank you for joining the American Revolution.

Today episode 94, War at Sea, the Battle of Turtle Gut Inlet.

When we last left the Continental Navy back in episode 84,

Commander Isick Hopkins had completed the fleet's raid on the Bahamas.

After returning, it found itself bottled up in Narragansid Bay in Rhode Island.

The British Navy kept the fleet from leaving.

Meanwhile, Hopkins had to deal with a host of criticism.

He could not afford to pay his crew.

Congress was upset because he ignored orders, going to the Bahamas instead of

destroying the British fleet off the Virginia and Carolina coasts. He also

ignored instructions to go destroy the British fleet at Nova Scotia. The fact that those

orders were insanely unrealistic, even with a Navy twice its size, did not seem to

enter into the debate.

Most of Hopkins crew abandoned him to go work on privateers.

That was where the action was, and where a soldier could make far higher pay

and get a larger percentage of any prizes.

By the summer of 1776, Hopkins had ships that he could not man,

and criticisms that he could not answer to anyone's satisfaction.

As a result, he did almost nothing.

In truth, privateers were the real naval force for the Continental's

for the duration of the war.

On a privateer, a crew divided up the full value of any captured ship and cargo.

...