On this day 250 years ago in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Captain Joshua Davis reported to General Washington that

Pursuant to your Excellency’s Orders I herein Render an Account of such necessarys as will be wanting to Compleat One hundred Whale Boats for the Service—As Also for keeping Said Boats in good repair.

Davis recommended that Washington’s Whale Boat Fleet needed a force of 601 men, commanded by 20 officers and 125 sergeants outfitted with 20 swivel guns and a long list of naval stores. Captain Davis would go on to command Massachusetts naval vessels and privateers for the remainder of the War. He would be captured by the British and imprisoned in England in 1781.

Source: “To George Washington from Captain Joshua Davis, 22 July 1775,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-01-02-0092. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 1, 16 June 1775 – 15 September 1775, ed. Philander D. Chase. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1985, pp. 156–157.]