The 1700s were a period in which the armed merchantmen of the age of trade were replaced by genuine warships whose task was to control the sea lanes. The American Revolution was a watershed in that it marked the advent of improved warship designs, new technologies, improved gunpowder and communications, and innovative tactics. In this book, James M. Volo explores the daunting challenges and surprising successes of the fledgling colonial navy-from the firing on the Royal Navy cutter St. John in 1764 to Cornwallis's surrender trapped by the French fleet at Yorktown in 1781.