The Cape May Navy

The Delaware Bay during the Revolutionary War was vital for trade and home to a host of armed conflicts between British vessels and American privateers. Cape May County captains in their light, fast vessels captured dozens of British merchant ships off the Atlantic coast. At the Battle of Delaware Bay, Lieutenant Joshua Barney aboard the Hyder Ally overcame massive odds and defeated the British warship General Monk. Colonel Elijah Hand, local hero of the skirmish at Quinton's Bridge, took his military talents to the seas, where he dueled with Tory privateers. Still in his twenties, Yelverton Taylor captured the Triton with hundreds of Hessian soldiers on board. Authors James P. Hand and Daniel P. Stites chart the exciting history of the Cape May Navy in the War for Independence.

J.P. Hand is a native and lifelong resident of Cape May County, New Jersey. A decoy maker by trade, he has been crafting traditional South Jersey waterfowl carvings for over forty-four years. His passion for the history and culture of Cape May and South Jersey is expressed in the many articles he has written on those subjects. He is a past president and trustee emeritus of the Cape May County Historical & Genealogical Society and has edited their annual journal of history, commonly known as "The Blue Book" since 2008. He resides with his wife and best friend, Gwen Raring, and their son, Fritz, at "Goshen Farm," in the heart of Cape May County.

Daniel P. Stites grew up in Margate, New Jersey. Dan attended Haverford College in Pennsylvania and earned a BA in German. He then went to Stanford Medical School, graduated in 1965 and trained in internal medicine at the University of North Carolina and the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. His career was spent as a medical school professor, researcher, clinician and teacher in the field of clinical immunology at the University of California in San Francisco. His medical career includes the publication of over one hundred journal articles and a number of books on the subject of immunology. He has written several articles about Cape May history for the Cape May County Magazine of History and Genealogy. He lives with his wife, Janice, in Sonoma, California.