Excellent thing. But the question here is not whether Washington should have commandeered the boats, but whether (after all was said and done) the boat owners might have deserved compensation for any boat that was lost.
Apparently, the Founding Fathers agreed so strongly that they even put it into the Constitution.
Considering the millions that we now know were wasted on cash cards for booze and strippers, luxury hotel rooms, empty trailers, etc., couldn't $12,000 be found to compensate this owner for use of his boat in rescue operations?