"The Continental Navy grew into an important force. Over the course of the War of Independence, the Continental Navy sent to sea more than fifty armed vessels of various types. The navy's squadrons and cruisers seized enemy supplies and carried correspondence and diplomats to Europe, returning with needed munitions. They took nearly 200 British vessels as prizes, some off the British Isles themselves, contributing to the demoralization of the enemy and forcing the British to divert warships to protect convoys and trade routes. In addition, the navy provoked diplomatic crises that helped bring France into the war against Great Britain."
from http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ship/sail1.htm


early September 1779: British in West Florida learn of the Spanish declaration of war.

September 10, 1779: A British sloop is captured on Lake Ponchartrain and is commissioned the U.S.S. West Florida. British citizens living on the lake gave oaths of allegiance to "THE UNITED INDEPENDENT STATES OF NORTH AMERICA."

January 20, 1780: Oliver Pollack, agent of the Continental Congress in New Orleans, appointed Navy Captain William Pickles to command the sloop WEST FLORIDA belonging to the United States. The WEST FLORIDA mounted four 6 pounders and twelve swivel guns. It was provisioned for 60 days and had a crew of 58. Pickles was to assist Galvez in the campaigns against Mobile and Pensacola for a period of 20 days, or longer if necessary. 

April 28, 1781: Over 100 Royalist men, women and slaves flee Natchez on a 149 day journey east through the wilderness.
LETTER TO P.R. GUY FOR NAVY WEEK
http://www.lagniappemobile.com/mobile-selected-2017-navy-week/
November 2, 1782: Crew of the U.S.S. West Florida wrote Pollack and said Pickles owed them money. One year later Pickles was stabbed to death in Philadelphia.

1780 size of CONTINENTAL NAVY https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_Navy#End_of_the_Continental_Navy

Willing chronology anomalies 

October 1778: Willing took a sloop from New Orleans bound for Philadelphia but was captured.

December 1778: Willing escaped the British in New York(?) but is recaptured and stays in captivity until being exchanged in the spring of 1781. http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-18-02-0523

August 18, 1779: Storm sank U.S.S. Morris in the Mississippi River near Baton Rouge and 11 of the crew drowned. A second U.S.S. Morris was outfitted by Galvez.

early September 1779: British in West Florida learn of the Spanish declaration of war.

September 10, 1779: A British sloop is captured on Lake Ponchartrain and is commissioned the U.S.S. West Florida. British citizens living on the lake gave oaths of allegiance to "THE UNITED INDEPENDENT STATES OF NORTH AMERICA."

Close of 1779???: Willing was in chains in Fort Charlotte of Mobile for distributing the DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE(see DUNLAP BROADSIDE).

Willing’s party proceeded down the Ohio River to the Mississippi, reaching Natchez, Miss., on 19 Feb., raiding the surrounding countryside, and carrying a substantial amount of plunder into Spanish-controlled New Orleans. Willing’s presence in that city embarrassed the Spanish governor and enraged and alarmed Loyalists all the way to Florida, spurring the British to reinforce West Florida and send a flotilla to blockade New Orleans and the Mississippi. Willing was unable to leave New Orleans until October 1778, when he boarded a sloop for Philadelphia and was captured as described here by Costigin. The British, perhaps unsurprisingly, did not treat Willing well; and it was not until the spring of 1781, after being “peculiarly severely treated by the enemy,” that he was exchanged (GW to Board of War, 1 May 1781). For more on Willing’s expedition, see Caughey, “Willing’s Expedition”; and Naval Documents, 10:769, 780).