The Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, appointed a Naval Committee—comprised of Silas Deane, Christopher Gadsden, and John Langdon—to prepare an estimate of expense and to contract the fitting out of two sailing vessels as fighting ships. These ships would be used to intercept British vessels transporting munitions and supplies to redcoats fighting on shore. The official date of 13 October 1775 was authorized by Chief of Naval Operations ADM Elmo R. Zumwalt Jr. ’42, USN, in 1972 as the birthday of the U.S. Navy.