9. The British sent the wrong ships to North America
In 1776 the largest fleet yet assembled in North America sailed from Halifax to New York, where it was joined by the ships of the aborted Charleston attack. The British Army, under command of William Howe, landed its troops (including German mercenaries) to engage Washington’s Continental in the New York campaign. The Royal Navy played a role in the campaign, ferrying British troops around the maze of waters between Long Island, Manhattan, and New Jersey. Though the British had sent a large fleet of warships to support the operations, they were the wrong sort of ships. The British sent a fleet to fight, but there was no one to fight them.
That they were the wrong types of ships was evident in the results of the campaign. Defeated on land on Long Island, Washington’s army escaped in one night, via water, in the face of the British fleet. It later escaped again, to New Jersey, the fleet powerless to stop them. Small, handy warships were what was needed; the British had dispatched powerful ships of the line and supporting frigates, in part to overawe the rebellious Americans. Even the British commander of the Royal Navy ships on the North American station recognized that he had too few smaller ships to effectively carry out his mission.
