![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Whether the new country needed a navy at all was a matter of hot debate among rival political parties, even as America’s merchant fleet became an important presence in the Mediterranean and Caribbean markets. After the Revolution, writes Toll, “what little remained of the Continental Navy was taken entirely out of service,” the ships auctioned off and the men dismissed. At the time of the Revolution, America’s navy amounted to a ragtag collection of privateers and merchantmen even John Paul Jones’s celebrated raid along the English coast was a freelance operation. That gross oversimplification points to a historical accident that debut author and historian Toll capably works. ![]()
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