Commodore Esek Hopkins was a Continental Navy officer and privateer. He served as the only commander-in-chief of the Continental navy during the American Revolutionary War, when the Continental Congress appointed him to the position in December 1775. Hopkins was appointed a brigadier general to command all military forces of Rhode Island on October 4, 1775. He immediately began to strengthen Rhode Island's defenses with the help of his deputy, William West. A few months later, December 22, 1775, Hopkins was appointed Commander in Chief of the Continental Navy authorized by the Continental Congress to protect American commerce. Hopkins took command of eight small merchant ships that had been altered as men-of-war at Philadelphia. After much deliberation about taking on the overwhelming British forces listed in his orders, Hopkins utilized the last portion of his orders. The Raid of Nassau, an assault on the British colony there March 3, 1776 was also the first U.S. amphibious landing. Hopkins' decision to go to Nassau rather than pursue another part of his orders concerning Chesapeake Bay of Virginia and North and South Carolina, upset southern members of the Continental Congress, which added to the political, social, economic, religious, and philosophical differences already occurring between members of the Congress.

Even after the Congress built and outfitted several more ships for Commodore Hopkins to use, he could not find adequate personnel to man the ships. Hopkins' little fleet was mostly blockaded in Narragansett Bay by the superior British sea power for the rest of Hopkins' tenure as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Navy, partly due to the fact that he had inadequate manpower to confront the enemy. Even with the impassioned defense of John Adams, the Continental Congress voted on 2 January 1778 to relieve Hopkins of his command permanently. Hopkins's commission was terminated by the Congress on January 2, 1778, for a variety of reasons, perhaps including for his part in the arrest of Richard Marven and Samuel Shaw, a pair of early whistle-blowers, due to their having reported his torture of British prisoners of war. Hopkins adopted, and helped to popularize, the "Gadsden flag" that depicts a Timber rattlesnake with 13 rattles representing the 13 Colonies with the phrase "Don't Tread on Me" on a Yellow background.s