USS Delaware (1820)

For other ships with the same name, see USS Delaware.

The third USS Delaware of the United States Navy was a 74-gun ship of the line, named for the state of Delaware.

Model of USS Delaware
History
United States
Name	USS Delaware
Builder	Norfolk Navy Yard
Laid down	August 1817
Launched	21 October 1820
Commissioned	before 10 February 1828
Decommissioned	before 22 March 1844
Fate	Burned 20 April 1861
General characteristics
Type	Ship of the line
Tonnage	2633
Length	196 ft 2 in (59.79 m)
Beam	53 ft (16 m)
Draft	26 ft 2 in (7.98 m)
Propulsion	Sail
Complement	820 officers and men
Armament	30 × long 32-pounder guns 32 × medium 32-pounder guns 2 × 32-pounder carronades

She was laid down at Norfolk Navy Yard in August 1817 and launched on 21 October 1820.^[1] She was roofed over and kept at the yard in ordinary until on 27 March 1827, when she was ordered repaired and fitted for sea.

Delaware put to sea on 10 February 1828 under the command of Captain J. Downs to become the flagship of Commodore W. M. Crane in the Mediterranean. Arriving at Algeciras Bay, Spain on 23 March, she served in the interests of American commerce and diplomacy in that area until returning to Norfolk on 2 January 1830. According to Ned Myers, who shipped on her maiden voyage, "...it required some little time to get her trim and sailing. She turned out, however, to be a good vessel; sailing fairly, steering well, and proving to be an excellent sea-boat."^[2]

Delaware was decommissioned on 10 February, and lay in ordinary at Norfolk until 1833. Recommissioned on 15 July 1833, she received President Andrew Jackson aboard on 29 July, firing a 24-gun salute at both his arrival and departure. The following day she set sail for the Mediterranean where she served as flagship for Commodore D. T. Patterson and cruised on goodwill visits and for the protection of the rights and property of American citizens until her return to Hampton Roads on 16 February 1836.^[3] She was placed in ordinary from 10 March 1836 until recommissioned on 7 May 1841 for local operations from Norfolk.

Delaware sailed on 1 November for a tour of duty on the Brazil Station as flagship for Commodore Charles Morris. She patrolled the coasts of Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina to represent American interests during political unrest in those countries. On 19 February 1843, she sailed from Rio de Janeiro for another cruise in the Mediterranean. Delaware returned to Hampton Roads on 4 March 1844 and was decommissioned at Norfolk Navy Yard on the 22nd. Still in ordinary there in 1861, she was burned on 20 April along with other ships and the yard facilities to prevent their falling into Confederate hands.^[4]

Notes

1. Gordon, John Steele (February 1993). "USS Boondoggle: The Business of America". American Heritage. 44 (1). Retrieved 1 August 2022. Consider the Navy's ship-of-the-line program that followed the War of 1812… Congress, on April 29, 1816, 'authorized to cause to be built, nine ships to rate not less than 74 guns each'. All nine were eventually laid down, in shipyards from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to Norfolk, Virginia, and four of them were completed in a timely manner by the end of 1820. None of these ships ever saw action, of course, for the world had entered an extended era of peace.
2. Fenimore Cooper, James (1843). Ned Myers, Or, A Life Before the Mast. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Lea and Blanchard. pp. 172.
3. Sharp, John G.M., The USS Delaware in Letters & Documents http://www.usgwarchives.net/va/portsmouth/shipyard/sharptoc/dd1-delaware.html Retrieved 14 September 2021
4. "BURNING OF GOSPORT NAVY-YARD; Eleven Vessels Scuttled and Burned, The Steam Tug Yankee Tows the Cumberland to Sea, Norfolk Not on Fire". The New York Times. New York City. 24 April 1861. Retrieved 2 August 2022. The Government vessels had been scuttled in the afternoon before the Pawnee arrived, to prevent their being seized by the Secessionists … The following are the names of the vessels which were destroyed: Pennsylvania, 74 gun-ship; steam-frigate Merrimac, 44 guns; sloop-of-war Germantown, 22 guns; sloop Plymouth, 22 guns; frigate Raritan, 45 guns; frigate Columbia, 44 guns; Delaware, 74 gun-ship; Columbus, 74 gun-ship; United States, in ordinary; brig Dolphin, 8 guns; and the powder-boat … [plus] line-of-battle ship New-York, on the stocks … Large quantities of provisions, cordage and machinery were also destroyed — besides buildings of great value — but it is not positively known that the [dry] dock was blown up.

External links

• Howard Chapelle, The History of the American Sailing Navy: the Ships and their Development (New York: Norton, 1949)
• Remarks and Occurrences on Board the U.S. Ship of the Line Delaware, 1835-1836, MS 16 held by Special Collections & Archives, Nimitz Library at the United States Naval Academy
•  This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.