USS Pennsylvania (1837)

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

USS Pennsylvania was a three-decked ship of the line of the United States Navy, rated at 130 guns,^[1] and named for the state of Pennsylvania. She was the largest United States sailing warship ever built, the equivalent of a first-rate of the British Royal Navy. Authorized in 1816 and launched in 1837, her only cruise was a single trip from Delaware Bay through Chesapeake Bay to the Norfolk Navy Yard. The ship became a receiving ship, and during the American Civil War was destroyed.

An 1846 lithography of the USS Pennsylvania by Currier and Ives
History
Name	USS Pennsylvania
Namesake	Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
Ordered	29 April 1816
Builder	Philadelphia Naval Shipyard
Cost	$687,026 (exclusive of armament)[1]
Laid down	September 1821
Launched	18 July 1837
Commissioned	late 1837
Fate	Burned, 20 April 1861, wreck salvaged and scrapped, late 1860s
General characteristics
Tonnage	3,241 tons burden[2]
Length	210 ft (64 m)
Beam	56 ft 9 in (17.30 m)
Depth of hold	24 ft 4 in (7.42 m)
Sail plan	ship rig
Complement	1,100 officers and men
Armament	130 × 32-pounder (15 kg) guns

History

The launch of Pennsylvania at the Philadelphia Navy Yard

Pennsylvania was one of the "nine ships to rate not less than 74 guns each" authorized by the U.S. Congress on 29 April 1816.^[3] She was designed and built by Samuel Humphreys in the Philadelphia Navy Yard. Her keel was laid in September 1821, but tight budgets slowed her construction, preventing her being launched until 18 July 1837. The largest sailing warship ever built for the United States, she had three complete gun decks and a flush spar-deck and her hull was pierced for 136 guns.

Exploding shell guns were replacing solid shot by the time Pennsylvania was fitting out. A Bureau of Ordnance Gun Register for 1846 records her armament as follows:

• Spar deck: two 9-pounder (4 kg) cannons and one small brass swivel.
• Main deck: four 8 inch (203 mm) chambered cannons received from Norfolk in 1842, and thirty-two 32 pounder (15 kg) cannons.
• Middle deck: four 8 inch chambered cannons received from Norfolk in 1842, and thirty 32 pounder cannons.
• Lower deck: four 8 inch chambered cannons and 28 × 32 pounder cannons.

Pennsylvania shifted from her launching site to off Chester, Pennsylvania, on 29 November 1837 and was partially manned there the following day. Only 34 of her guns were noted as having been mounted on 3 December 1837. She stood downriver for New Castle, Delaware, 9 December, to receive gun carriages and other equippage before proceeding to the Norfolk Navy Yard (then called "Gosport") for the coppering of her hull. She departed New Castle on 20 December 1837 and discharged the Delaware pilot on the 25th. That afternoon she sailed for the Virginia Capes. She came off the Norfolk dry dock on 2 January 1838. That day her crew transferred to Columbia.

A few days before 18 September 1838, Pennsylvania was driven ashore at Norfolk.^[4] She remained in ordinary until 1842 when she became a receiving ship for the Norfolk Navy Yard. She remained in the yard until 20 April 1861 when she was burned to the waterline to prevent her falling into Confederate hands.^[5] Her wreck was salvaged and broken up.^[2]

References

1. Lenthall, John (27 May 1843). "On the Launch of the Three-deck Ship, the Pennsylvania, in 1837". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 3: 103–04. Retrieved 6 May 2013.
2. USS Pennsylvania (1837–1861), Online Library of Selected Images, Naval Historical Center
3. 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.
4. "Belfast Ship News". The Belfast News-Letter. No. 10570. Belfast. 23 October 1838.
5. "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.

Bibliography

 This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.

• Claude Berube. "Budget Battles, Interest Groups and Relevancy in a New Era: The Ship-of-the-Line USS Pennsylvania", (U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, January 2008)
• Howard Chapelle, The History of the American Sailing Navy: The Ships and their Development (New York: Norton, 1949)
• Robert Gardiner, The Line of Battle: The Sailing Warship 1650–1850 (London: Conway Maritime Press, 1992)