As part of the Topsfield Library's Rev 250 programming marking 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and with tall ships visiting Boston for Sail Boston 2026 , we are excited to host author James L. Nelson to discuss his book George Washington's Secret Navy.

When George Washington arrived in Massachusetts in the spring of 1775 to take command of the Continental Army, he encountered the challenges of bringing order to the chaos he found. And he encountered another challenge as well, something new to him in the military line — the sea. Having done most of his fighting in the forests of the frontier, Washington had little experience with naval concerns. Happily, some of the New Englanders he met had considerable sea-going experience, and under their influence Washington soon launched an active — and secret — program to take the Revolution to sea.

ABOUT THE BOOK: In 1775, General George Washington secretly armed a handful of small ships and sent them to sea against the world's mightiest navy. This is the story of how America's first commander-in-chief--whose previous military experience had been entirely on land--nursed the fledgling American Revolution through a season of stalemate by sending troops to sea. Mining previously overlooked sources, James L. Nelson's swiftly moving narrative shows that George Washington deliberately withheld knowledge of his tiny navy from the Continental Congress for more than two critical months, and that he did so precisely because he knew Congress would not approve.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: James L. Nelson was born and raised in Lewiston, Maine and graduated from UCLA with a degree in motion picture/television production. Finding that despite being in Southern California, it was a damp, drizzly November in his soul, Jim took the cure Melville recommended and decided to sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. For six years he worked on board traditional sailing ships, but on turning thirty he realizing it would be easier to write about sailing rather than actually doing it. His career as a writer began in 1994 and he has since written more than twenty-five works of maritime fiction and history. He is the winner or the American Library Association/William Young Boyd Award and the Naval Order’s Samuel Eliot Morison Award. Nelson has lectured all over the country and appeared on the Discovery Channel, History Channel, National Geographic and BookTV. He currently lives, writes and sails in Harpswell, Maine, with his former shipmate, now wife Lisa and two of their four children.