Galley

In July of 1776, the Continental Congress authorized building several galleys, four of them for Georgia for coastal defense.  To carry a heavy load of deck armament, the galleys were designed with broad hulls and deep flattish bottoms.  The galley, propelled by sail and oars, could operate most effectively in the Inland Passages.  She had two masts with lanteen-rigged triangular sails and the heaviest cannon, a carriage-mounted gun that fired 18-pound cannon balls, was in the bow where it could fire to either side.  The Georgia galleys were between fifty and seventy feet in length. Twenty double-manned oars on each side required a crew of at least eighty oarsmen, who stood upright to row.  Service on the galleys was laborious and slaves from loyalists’ forfeited estates were commandeered to act as some of the oarsmen. Troops from the Continental Army were drafted as “Marines” on the Florida Expeditions.

Ship's Boat
 

(Mr. Austin & Mr. Cantey; patroons- ship's commander)

Another American vessel used at the engagement was referred to as “Cantey’s boat,” a boat  and a large flat upon which the artillery was loaded.  The galleys could not get up the shallow Altamaha River to Fort Howe, so Austin and Cantey, along with the hired negroes, worked the boat and flat up the River. Captain George Young and the First Company of Artillery, a light artillery company of about 50 men, along with two field pieces were put on board Cantey’s boat and flat.