One of the initial acts of the first session of the first Congress under the new federal Constitution of 1789 was a bill to impose a tariff on imports. There was legislative protection as well. These armed merchant vessels were responsible for three-quarters of the 800 British vessels, valued at $24 million as prizes of war that were captured during the first two years of the conflict. Five years later the Americans had 449 privateers mounting 6,735 guns. In 1776, the colonies had only 31 public ships, and only one of these actually survived the Revolution. sea power in the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. Privateers were a critical element of U.S. In this early period of our history, the American merchant marine was a formidable “auxiliary” that at times outperformed its commissioned Navy counterparts. Attacks by Barbary pirates as well as French and British warships and privateers - armed merchantmen - resulted in a loss of some 600 ships and about $20 million before Congress, finally outraged, in 1800 raised the first U.S. This valuable and growing trade had to be protected. Ten years later, nearly one million tons of shipping sailed under the American flag, bound for ports in every corner of the globe.
By 1800, despite French, British, and Algerian despoliation’s, the aggregate American tonnage was more than 667,100 tons. In 1789, the new United States had 124,000 deadweight tons of shipping in its fleet. The upstart American merchant marine flourished even in the face of competition with the established maritime powers. During the same period “Yankee Mariners” visited Baltic, Mediterranean, and African ports, and traded with West India, Sumatra, and India. Five years later, 15 American vessels called at Canton on a single day. The year after the 1783 Treaty of Paris confirmed the United States’ independence, the New York merchant ship EMPRESS OF CHINA crossed the Atlantic and rounded the Cape of Good Hope, bound for Macao and Canton to open up the fabulously profitable China trade. Although dependent upon a triangular trade with England before the Revolution, trade acts and wars soon focused America’s attention elsewhere. Along the Atlantic seaboard, the ocean and its tributaries quickly became highways of commerce for a fledgling country.
By 1638 the first American shipyard had been established near Portland, Maine, employing 60 men. The Massachusetts Bay colony launched its first sea-going vessel in 1631.
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