.jpg) 19th-century painting (based on a sketch by Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, USN), depicting USSVincennes in Disappointment Bay,Antarctica, circa January–February 1840. | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Name | USSVincennes |
| Namesake | Vincennes, Indiana |
| Builder | Brooklyn Navy Yard |
| Laid down | 1825 |
| Launched | 27 April 1826 |
| Commissioned | 27 August 1826 |
| Decommissioned | 28 August 1865 |
| Stricken | 1867 (est.) |
| Fate | Sold, 5 October 1867 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | Boston-classsloop-of-war |
| Displacement | 700long tons (711 t) |
| Length | 127 ft (39 m)p/p |
| Beam | 33 ft 9 in (10.29 m) |
| Draft | 16 ft 6 in (5.03 m) |
| Propulsion | Sail |
| Speed | 18.5 knots (rated)[1] |
| Complement | 80 |
| Armament | 18 guns |
USSVincennes was a 703-ton Boston-classsloop of war in theUnited States Navy from 1826 to 1865. During her service,Vincennes patrolled thePacific, explored theAntarctic, and blockaded the ConfederateGulf coast in theCivil War. Named for thesiege of Fort Vincennes of theAmerican Revolutionary War, she was the first U.S. warship tocircumnavigate the globe.
Vincennes—the first American ship to be so named—was one of ten sloops of war whose construction was authorized byCongress on 3 March 1825. She was laid down atNew York in 1825, launched on 27 April 1826, and commissioned on 27 August 1826, withMaster CommandantWilliam Compton Bolton in command.
The ship set sail for the first time on 3 September 1826, from New York bound for thePacific by way ofCape Horn. She cruised extensively in that ocean, visiting theHawaiian Islands in 1829 and made her way toMacau by 1830, underCommanderWilliam B. Finch.[2]: pp.208–9 Her return voyage was made by way ofChina, thePhilippines, theIndian Ocean, and theCape of Good Hope. Ship chaplain Charles Samuel Stewart published a book about the voyage.[3] After nearly four years,Vincennes arrived back in New York on 8 June 1830, becoming the first U.S. Navy ship tocircumnavigate theEarth. Two days later the ship was decommissioned.
Following repairs and recommissioned,Vincennes then operated in theWest Indies and theGulf of Mexico as part of theWest Indies Squadron in 1831–32. After a long bout ofyellow fever, she was decommissioned again for a time in 1833 before sailing once more. She departed for a second Pacific deployment in 1833, becoming the first American warship to call atGuam. She again sailed around the globe to return to theU.S. East Coast in June 1836.
Decommissioned once again in 1836, while she underwent remodeling, she was refitted with a light spar deck and declared theflagship of theSouth Sea Surveying and Exploring Expedition to theAntarctic region. Commanded by LieutenantCharles Wilkes, the expedition sailed fromHampton Roads in August 1838, and made surveys along theSouth American coast before making a brief survey ofAntarctica in early 1839. Entering into the South Pacific in August and September 1839, her cartographers drafted charts of that area that are still used today.
Following survey operations and other scientific work along the west coast ofSouth America and in the South Pacific during the rest of the year, in late 1839Vincennes arrived atSydney, Australia, her base for a pioneering cruise toAntarctica. She unintentionally exposed the lack of defences and security at Sydney Harbour when she slipped unnoticed into Sydney Harbour on 30 November 1839 under the cover of darkness.[4] Between mid-January and mid-February 1840, she operated along the icy coast of the southernmost continent. The coast along which the ship sailed is today known asWilkes Land, a name given on maps as early as 1841.
The remainder of her deployment included visits to the islands of the South Pacific,Hawaii, theColumbia River area,Puget Sound,California,Wake Island, thePhilippines andSouth Africa.[5] This third voyage around the world ended at New York in June 1842.
Vincennes was next assigned to theHome Squadron and placed under the command of CommanderFranklin Buchanan, a distinguished officer destined to become the first Superintendent of theUnited States Naval Academy. She sailed to theWest Indies and cruised off theMexican coast until the summer of 1844. Though this duty proved relatively uneventful,Vincennes did rescue two grounded Englishbrigs off the coast ofTexas and received the thanks of the British government for this service. Buchanan was also ordered to prevent any attempted invasion by Mexico of the newRepublic of Texas. This eventuality never materialized; andVincennes returned toHampton Roads on 15 August to enter dry dock.
On 4 June 1845,Vincennes sailed for theFar East under command of CaptainHiram Paulding. She was accompanied by the ship-of-the-lineColumbus, under the command of CaptainThomas Wyman; and the two vessels formed a little squadron under the command of CommodoreJames Biddle, who carried a letter fromSecretary of StateJohn C. Calhoun toCaleb Cushing, American commissioner inChina, authorizing Cushing to make the first official contact with theJapanese Government.
The squadron sailed forMacau by way ofRio de Janeiro and theCape of Good Hope. Commodore Biddle arrived safely in Macau only to find that Cushing had already left for home and that his successor,Alexander H. Everett, was too ill to make the trip. Therefore, Biddle determined to conduct the negotiations himself.
Accordingly,Vincennes andColumbus sailed forJapan on 7 July 1846 and anchored offUraga on 19 July. The Japanese surrounded the vessels and allowed no one to land. Otherwise the visitors were treated with courtesy. However, Commodore Biddle's attempts to force the opening of feudal Japan to multinational trade were politely rebuffed, and the vessels weighed anchor on 29 July.[6]Columbus returned to the United States by way ofCape Horn, butVincennes remained on theChina Station for another year before returning to New York on 1 April 1847. Here, she was decommissioned on the 9th, dry-docked, and laid up.
Vincennes remained in ordinary until 1849. Recommissioned on 12 November 1849, she sailed from New York exactly one month later, bound forCape Horn and the west coast ofSouth America. On 2 July 1850, while lying offGuayaquil, Ecuador, she harbored the Ecuadoran revolutionary GeneralElizalde for three days during one of that country's frequent civil disturbances. Sailing on toSan Francisco, California, the vessel lost 36 members of her crew to thegold fever sweepingCalifornia at the time. Turning south,Vincennes cruised off South America until late 1851, closely monitoring the activities of revolutionaries ashore.
She made a courtesy call to theHawaiian Islands at the end of the year and proceeded thence toPuget Sound where she arrived on 2 February 1852. She anchored briefly there and returned via San Francisco and the Horn to New York where she arrived on 21 September and was decommissioned on the 24th.
Following repairs and a period in ordinary,Vincennes was recommissioned on 21 March 1853 and sailed intoNorfolk, Virginia on 13 May to join hersecond exploratory expedition, serving as flagship to CommanderCadwalader Ringgold's survey of theChina Sea, the North Pacific, and theBering Strait. Comdr. Ringgold was a veteran of the Wilkes expedition. The squadron stood out of Norfolk on 11 June 1853, rounded theCape of Good Hope, and charted numerous islands and shoals in theIndian Ocean before arriving in China in March 1854. Here CommodoreMatthew Calbraith Perry relieved Ringgold for medical reasons and gave command of the expedition to Lt.John Rodgers.
Vincennes sailed on to survey theBonin andLadrone Islands and returned toHong Kong in February 1855. The expedition sailed again in March and surveyed the islands between theRyūkyū chain and Japan, and then theKurils.Vincennes left the squadron atPetropavlovsk, Russia, and entered the Bering Strait, sailing through to the northwest towardsWrangel Island. Ice barriers prevented the vessel from reaching this destination, but she came closer than any other previous ship.Vincennes returned to San Francisco in early October and later sailed for the Horn and New York, where she arrived on 13 July 1856 to complete yet another circumnavigation of the globe.
Vincennes operated with theAfrican Squadron in 1857–1860.
After the outbreak of theAmerican Civil War in April 1861,Vincennes was recommissioned on 29 June and assigned to duty in theGulf Blockading Squadron. She arrived offFort Pickens, Florida, on 3 September, and was ordered to assist in the occupation ofHead of Passes,Mississippi River, and remain there on blockade duty. Though the Federal warships did successfully deploy, on 12 October 1861 the Confederate metal-sheathed ramManassas and armedsteamersIvy andJames L. Day drove the Union blockaders from Head of Passes in theBattle of the Head of Passes, forcing theScrewsloop-of-warRichmond andVincennes aground.Vincennes was ordered abandoned and destroyed to prevent her capture, and her engineer set a slow match to the vessel'smagazine while her men took refuge on other ships. However, her engineer cut the burning fuse and threw it overboard before the magazine could explode and, after the Confederate vessels withdrew early in the afternoon,Vincennes was refloated.
After the Confederate attack, the Union sloop-of-war continued on blockade duty off the Passes of the Mississippi, capturing the blockade-running BritishbarkEmpress, aground atNorth East Pass with a large cargo of coffee on 27 November. On 4 March 1862, she was ordered to proceed toPensacola, Florida, to relieveMississippi and spent the next six months shuttling between Pensacola andMobile, Alabama, performing routine patrol and reconnaissance duty. On 4 October, she was ordered to assume command of the blockade offShip Island, Mississippi, and to guard the pass out of Mississippi Sound. While so deployed, boat crews from the vessel andClifton captured the bargeH. McGuin inBay St. Louis, Mississippi, on 18 July 1863.Vincennes also reported the capture of two boats laden with food on 24 December.
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Vincennes remained offShip Island for the remainder of the war and was laid up in ordinary at theBoston Navy Yard on 28 August 1865. She wasdecommissioned in August 1865 and sold atpublic auction at Boston on 5 October 1867 for approximately $5,000.00.
This article incorporates text from thepublic domainDictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be foundhere.