plain from Canada. As early as September 1774, Arnold and some friends took a reconnoitering trip to the lake, visiting Whitehall (then called Skenesborough), Forts Ticonderoga and Crown Point, and then on to Fort Saint John at the northern end of the lake. Arnold took note of a nearby battery of cannons at Skenesborough, as well as the 65-foot ketch Katharine. When he finally reached Fort Saint John, he saw that the British were already building warships to gain control of the lake. Arnold returned home to Connecticut and founded a regiment of the Governor’s Foot Guard. When he learned about the skirmish at Lexington and Concord, he ordered his regiment to ride north: twothirds went to Cambridge, Massachusetts, to secure a commission and confer on strategy with General/Dr. Joseph Warren, while the other third went to Skenesborough with orders to seize the ketch, arm her with the cannons from the battery, and prepare to attack Ticonderoga when the rest of his men could join them. The ketch, renamed Liberty, was officially dedicated for Continental Service and was ready for action by 30 April 1775, only eleven days after Concord! Arnold was augmented by men from all over New England and New York, promptly captured Ticonderoga and Crown Point, and ordered that their cannons be sent to form a ring around Boston to force the British out of the city. From there he sailed up to Fort Saint John, captured the garrison and seized the recently built 65foot twelve-gun sloop George, renaming her Enterprise. The sloop was dedicated for Continental Service on 18 May 1775, the first purpose-built warship in the American Navy. None of the other locations can claim dates that even came close to these. As for the official founding of the Continental Navy, that occurred on 13 October 1775, when Congress passed a Rhode Island bill to establish a navy. In 1974–1976 I built a full-size copy of the Navy’s first ship, the 12-gun sloop Providence, currently homeported in Alexandria, Virginia. I am now engaged in building full-size copies of both Liberty and Enterprise as part of a sail-training program. John Fitzhugh Millar Colonial Navy, Inc., Williamsburg, Virginia SEA HISTORY 179, SUMMER 2022
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