11/25/1835: First Texas Navy created

[Craig Tx]

On this day in 1835, the first Texas Navy was established when the General Council authorized the purchase of four schooners and granted letters of marque and reprisal to privateers until the ships were armed.

Established to protect the supply line to New Orleans, the navy included the 60-ton Liberty, the 125-ton Independence, the 125-ton Brutus, and the 125-ton Invincible. All four ships were lost by mid-1837, and the Texas Navy virtually ceased to exist until March 1839, when the first ship of the second navy was commissioned. A cruise ending in July 1843 marked the end of the operative career of the Texas Navy, as a truce with Mexico came that summer and the United States undertook to protect Texas until annexation. In June 1846 the ships of the Texas Navy were transferred to the United States Navy. The officers of the Texas Navy desired to be included in the transfer, but seniority-minded United States naval officers opposed the proposal. In 1857 the claims of the surviving Texas Navy officers were settled, and the Texas Navy was no more.