The US Navy drove all significant British forces off Lake Erie and Lake Champlain and prevented them from coming under British control. Three years later the first three entered service: the USS United States, USS Constellation and USS Constitution.Īfter a brief conflict with France, the US Navy saw its first substantial action in the War of 1812, where it was victorious in eleven single-ship duels with the Royal Navy. Although USRCS Cutters conducted operations against these pirates, the depredations far outstripped the capabilities of the USRCS and on 27 March 1794 Congress ordered the construction and manning of six frigates. The sole armed maritime presence between 1790 and the launching of the US Navy’s first warships in 1797 was the US Revenue Cutter Service (USRCS), the primary predecessor of the US Coast Guard.

This exposed its merchant ships to a series of attacks by Barbary pirates. The United States was without a navy for nearly a decade after the achievement of independence.

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