The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 63, July 1959 - April, 1960 Page: 572

oates and Documcets
History of the Zexas Nay
Edited by GEORGE F. HAUGH
OR THE PURPOSE of carrying out the ordinance establishing
a Navy, Messrs. McKinney and Williams, merchants of
Quintana, opposite Velasco, at the mouth of the Brazos,
purchased and equipped the schooners Invincible and Liberty
(late William Robbins). The former, a clipper of 125 tons
burthen, built in Baltimore, originally intended for the African
slave trade; a very fast sailer, slight in her construction, and illy
calculated to sustain a battery; drawing about i 2 feet water deep,
she carried two medium 18's on pivots in midships, two 9's and
four six-pounders in the waist, her crew numbering some 6o or
7o, all told.
The Liberty, though less in size, being of some 6o tons burthen,
yet the stouter construction, carrying four guns of small caliber,
an ordinary sailer. The Brutus of 125 or 13o tons, a dull sailer,
carrying eight guns, The Independence of near the same size and
metal, medium sailer; both purchased about the same time as the
others, but by whom or from whom I do not know.
The first employment in which the vessels of war were engaged
was acting as transports and convoy of troops to Copano.
For the purposes of facilitating the supply and control of the
vessels, the Government commissioned Thomas F. McKinney, a
Captain in the Navy,2 with authority similar to that vested in a
Secretary of the Navy; he then resided at the mouth of the Brazos
de Dios, the usual naval rendezvous, and most frequented port
iThe original article was published anonymously in the Texas Almanac for i86o
(Galveston, 186o), 162-166. Miss Pearle Burr, librarian of the Tyrrell Public Library
of Beaumont, kindly allowed the article to be photostated. The library has a good
collection of Almanacs of this period.
2McKinney was appointed captain of the Invincible but did not serve as he was
busy with his duties as agent for the government.-William C. Binkley (ed.),
Official Correspondence of the Texas Revolution (2 vols.; New York, 1936), I, 341.