The US Navy was disbanded after independence and revived to fight pirates
In August 1785 Congress sold off Alliance, the Continental Navy's last ship, because it could not afford to keep her. For nearly a decade the United States had no navy at all, until attacks by Barbary pirates forced lawmakers to order six frigates, including the still-famous USS Constitution.
The service traces its birthday to 13 October 1775, when the Continental Congress voted to buy two armed vessels to raid British merchant shipping. Critics had called it foolish to challenge the Royal Navy, and the record was mixed: the little fleet took many prizes but lost twenty-four ships and at one point had only two in commission. Once the war ended, money ran out and the last vessel was sold. Admiral Elmo Zumwalt made the October date the official birthday in 1972.
Without warships, American merchantmen were easy prey in the Mediterranean, and the Revenue-Marine, forerunner of the Coast Guard, could not cope. The Naval Act of 1794 created a permanent navy, and by October 1797 the frigates United States, Constellation and Constitution were in service. John Adams pushed so hard for a standing fleet that he is often called its father. The new navy fought an undeclared war with France and then the First Barbary War from 1801 to 1805.
Later chapters include victory on Lake Erie in 1812, an Africa Squadron that seized 36 slave ships, and the landing of 12,000 troops in a single day at Veracruz during the Mexican War, the country's first large amphibious operation. In 1862 USS Monitor fought CSS Virginia at Hampton Roads, the first clash between ironclads. After decades of neglect, a steel fleet emerged in the 1880s, and in 1907 Theodore Roosevelt sent the Great White Fleet on a 14-month voyage around the world.
Today the navy counts 290 combat vessels, second in number only to China's fleet but far ahead on tonnage, and it flies the largest naval air force, with 4,012 operational aircraft. Its eleven aircraft carriers make up the world's biggest carrier fleet.
Source: United States Navy
