USS Jamestown (1844)
 | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (October 2011) |
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| History | |
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 United States | |
| Name | USS Jamestown |
| Namesake | Jamestown, Virginia |
| Launched | 1844 |
| Commissioned | 12 December 1844 |
| Decommissioned | 11 May 1854 |
| Fate | Became a Marine Hospital, destroyed in a fire on 3 January 1913 |
| Recommissioned | 22 February 1855 |
| Decommissioned | 2 June 1857 |
| Recommissioned | 16 December 1857 |
| Decommissioned | 14 February 1860 |
| Recommissioned | 5 June 1861 |
| Decommissioned | 17 September 1865 |
| Recommissioned | 3 September 1866 |
| Decommissioned | 13 August 1868 |
| Recommissioned | 25 January 1869 |
| Decommissioned | 7 October 1871 |
| Recommissioned | 16 March 1876 |
| Decommissioned | 3 March 1879 |
| Recommissioned | 8 May 1879 |
| Decommissioned | 21 September 1881 |
| Recommissioned | 14 February 1882 |
| Decommissioned | 31 August 1888 |
| Recommissioned | 13 April 1889 |
| Decommissioned | 6 September 1892 |
| Fate |
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| General characteristics | |
| Type | Sloop |
| Displacement | 1,150 long tons (1,168 t) |
| Length | 163 ft 6 in (49.83 m) |
| Beam | 32 ft 2 in (9.80 m) |
| Depth | 17 ft 3 in (5.26 m) |
| Complement | 186 officers and sailors |
| Armament |
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The first USS Jamestown was a sloop-of-war in the United States Navy during the Mexican–American War and the American Civil War.
Jamestown was launched in 1844 by the Gosport Navy Yard, Virginia; and commissioned there on 12 December, with Commander Robert B. Cunningham in command.
Service history
Africa, Ireland, 1845–1850
She departed Hampton Roads on 25 June 1845 as flagship of Commodore Charles W. Skinner in command of United States naval vessels operating off the western coast of Africa to suppress the slave trade. At the end of her first deployment the sloop arrived at Boston, Massachusetts on 6 August 1846.
While she was moored at the Boston Navy Yard word reached the United States that for the second consecutive year blight had ruined the potato crop of Ireland, depriving the people of that country of their chief means of subsistence. A joint resolution of Congress approved 3 March 1847 authorized the Secretary of the Navy to place Jamestown and Macedonian at the disposal of Captains Robert Bennet Forbes and George Coleman De Kay to carry food to the starving poor of Ireland. Jamestown sailed from Boston on 28 March and arrived at Cork, Ireland on 12 April. After unloading her life-saving cargo, the sloop returned to Boston on 17 May.
As flagship of Commodore William Compton Bolton, Jamestown again stood out of Boston on 22 July to operate on the west coast of Africa. A year later she was transferred to the Mediterranean Squadron to assist in protecting American citizens and interests during the epidemic of revolutions which convulsed Europe in 1848. After political conditions became more stable, Jamestown returned to Norfolk, Virginia on 4 May 1850.
South America, Africa, West Indies, 1851–1860
After a year at home, she was assigned to the
Recommissioning on 22 February 1855, Jamestown sailed as flagship of the
Civil War, 1861–1865
Jamestown departed for the Pacific on 12 October to protect American commerce from Confederate privateers; and she remained on that duty until after the end of the war, decommissioning at Mare Island on 17 September 1865.
Pacific, 1866–1881
Having been converted to a transport and store ship, she recommissioned on 3 September 1866 to serve at
Jamestown arrived at Mare Island on 23 July 1868; decommissioned there on 13 August; and recommissioned on 25 January 1869, following repairs. For almost three years, Jamestown cruised the Pacific on the west coasts of North and South America, and as far west as Tahiti and the Fiji and Hawaiian Islands.
Decommissioning on 7 October 1871, Jamestown was placed in ordinary at Mare Island until 16 March 1876 when she recommissioned for use as a State Public Marine School. She was used as training ship in San Francisco from 1876 to 1879. Youth of age from the San Francisco Industrial School were trained in navigation and seamanship. Outcry of the public forced the closure of the training ship. She operated at the Hawaiian Islands in this capacity until she was returned to the Navy Department and decommissioned on 3 March 1879.
She was recommissioned on 8 May and sailed for Sitka, Alaska, where she surveyed the harbor and protected American interests. In 1881, she sailed the Pacific until decommissioning at San Francisco on 21 September.
Training and hospital ship, 1882–1913
Having been fitted out as an apprentice training ship, Jamestown recommissioned on 14 February 1882 and proceeded to the Atlantic coast via Cape Horn. In her new capacity, she sailed the Atlantic Ocean, voyaging to the West Indies, Spain, and as far north as the State of Maine. While at the Brooklyn Navy Yard on 20 December 1883, Landsman J. W. Norris and Ordinary Seaman Robert Augustus Sweeney jumped overboard and rescued a man from drowning, for which they were each awarded the Medal of Honor.[1] On 31 August 1888, Jamestown decommissioned at Norfolk.
Recommissioning 13 April 1889, Jamestown cruised to France and to the West Indies with apprentices, and decommissioned again on 6 September 1892 at Norfolk.
On 9 September she was transferred to the
References
- ^ "Medal of Honor Recipients – Interim Awards, 1871–1898". Medal of Honor Citations. United States Army Center of Military History. 5 August 2010. Retrieved 10 September 2010.
- This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in 1913 | |
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