Happy Birthday to the US Navy! This should not be confused, however, with Navy Day, or the day that US Navy was founded by an Act of Congress. If success has many fathers, it might be said that the Navy has several birthdays. A revised repost.

The date being celebrated today as the Navy’s birthday is October 13, 1775, when the Continental Congress voted to fit out two armed sailing vessels to cruise the coast to attempt to seize arms and stores from Royal Navy transports. This was the beginning of the Continental Navy, which would peak at about 31 ships in 1777. At war’s end, the Continental Navy was disbanded and all surviving ships sold.

The United States Navy was created by Congress on April 30, 1798. 

So why celebrate the founding of the Continental Navy in 1775 rather than the establishment of the US Navy in 1798?  The October 13, 1775 date not only predates the founding of the United States Navy, but it also pre-dates the founding of the United States of America itself. To be fair, even though the Navy claims today as its birthday, the language that the US Navy “traces its origins to the Continental Navy” often pops up to cover the incongruity.  

And what of Navy Day, celebrated since 1922 on October 27? As explained on the Department of Defense page, “History of Navy Day“: “October 27 was suggested by the Navy League to recognize Theodore Roosevelt’s birthday. Roosevelt had been an Assistant Secretary of the Navy and supported a strong Navy as well as the idea of Navy Day. In addition, October 27 was the anniversary of a 1775 report issued by a special committee of the Continental Congress favoring the purchase of merchant ships as the foundation of an American Navy.”

But, to return to the original question? Why October 13? The date was chosen fairly recently. In 1972, Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt authorized the celebration on October 13 and so it has remained. 

This still doesn’t answer the question, of why the birthday would be tied to the founding of the relatively short-lived Continental Navy rather than the US Navy itself?  My guess is that you can blame it on the Marines.

The Marine Corps was authorized by Congress on July 11, 1799, and for many years celebrated its birthday, or Marine Corps Day, on that anniversary. In 1921, however, the Marine Corps decided to change their celebrated birth date to the founding of the Continental Marines on November 10, 1775, which notionally would make the Corps older than Navy.  By celebrating the Navy’s birthday on the anniversary, October 13, 1775, the Navy retains its bragging rights as being the older branch of the military.