The British were roundly beaten at sea
The belief that the Americans had little success in the war at sea other than the stirring victories of John Paul Jones is erroneous. Although the American Navy had few ships, and fewer still victories over British warships, the Americans managed to deal the proud British Navy a stinging defeat in the war at sea. One of the primary roles of a Navy during wartime is to protect its own nation’s merchant marine. In this role the British Navy failed miserably.
In the eighteenth century it was a common practice for nations’ to license privately owned ships to attack and capture ships of aggressor nations. The licensees were known as privateers. The ships and cargoes they captured became their property, to be sold by maritime court. The profit potential for successful privateers was enormous. America’s ports soon swarmed with privateers, as did ports in France.
Over 1,600 privateers sailed under license – known as a letter of marque – issued by the Continental Congress or by the individual states. They captured over 2,200 British ships, mostly merchantmen, whalers carrying valuable oil, or fishing vessels off of the Grand Banks. Their depredations wreaked havoc on the British economy, and after the entry of the French fleet into the war the British lacked the warships necessary to hunt them.
The privateers helped build private fortunes in the United States as cargoes meant for British markets or British trade partners found new customers in French or Spanish ports, with some entering American ports under the nose of the British blockade. The damage to the British economy, which hit British merchants and manufacturers the hardest, was in excess of $300 million dollars measured in today’s currency.
Despite no major naval victory until the French fleet defeated the British off the Virginia Capes in 1781, the British lost the Revolutionary War at sea to a nation which had no navy when the war began. By 1780, pressure from British merchants who were forced to pay skyrocketing insurance rates on ships and cargoes added to the clamor for Parliament to end the war. It should be noted that had the British secured the sea lanes, French aid would never have been able to reach the Americans.