When the American Revolutionary War broke out in early 1775, the colony of Pennsylvania's Committee of Safety decided that the colony's capital and seat of the Second Continental Congress, Philadelphia, would need to be protected against the incursions of British naval vessels on the Delaware River. On July 6, 1775 it authorized the purchase and outfitting of ships for that purpose. Two days later it placed its first order for an armed galley. By October thirteen such boats had been built at a cost of £550 each, and outfitted with a single cannon in the bow, and Thomas Read was appointed commodore of the fleet.