The fighting ships during the Revolutionary War were private ships (”Privateers”). With cannon and a fighting crew. No different than a B-52 today in many regards. I suppose one might be able to make a case against WMD’s, but not sure how.
The role of the 2nd Amendment was for self defense - both personal, community, and national. So today, to defend ourselves from a tyrannical government that would be willing and able to deploy WMD against the citizens, then I think if that’s what it would take to fight back would be okay. I have to admit though, I don’t like the idea of the next-door neighbor having a shed full of Sarin gas or something. I guess that might be where the states’ National Guard comes in?
#1 - Letters of Marques and Reprisals, spelled out in the CONUS, makes it clear what the intent was.
“The fighting ships during the Revolutionary War were private ships (Privateers). With cannon and a fighting crew. No different than a B-52 today in many regards. ...”
The Continental navy was not strictly privateers.
They were armed vessels outfitted and manned at the expense of private individuals to pursue and capture cargo vessels (”merchantmen” in the parlance of the 1770s), with the goal of hampering enemy transport and commerce, officially authorized in writing (those “Letters of Marque and Reprisal” mentioned by Carlucci and Simon Green).
Promising booty and riches, privateering captains had better success in recruiting crews than captains of warships. But their vessels were less heavily armed and they avoided engagements with warships. Historical opinion is divided on their effectiveness: some considered them little better than pirates.
The fledgling United States did build and launch real men-of-war during the American War of Independence, but the expense of equipping and manning limited their numbers. Notable exploits did happen, and John Paul Jones (later turned into a celebrity figure by the US Navy) did not do all of it.
see _John Barry: an American Hero in the age of Sail_ by Tim McGrath. Also _George Washington’s Secret Navy_, __Benedict Arnold’s Navy_, and _George Washington’s Great Gamble_, all by James L. Nelson. All are highly readable recent accounts of the many roles sea power played in the nation’s war for independence.
John Barry has been eclipsed by the dash and daring of John
Paul Jones, but was in reality no less a hero of those times. A merchant captain before the war, he became “the fastest man of the 18th century” for a record-breaking run of over 200 nautical miles in 24 hours, during one voyage. And he commanded the first US ship to force an enemy to strike its colors in action.