USS Columbus
History
United States
NameUSS Columbus
BuilderWashington Navy Yard
Launched1 March 1819
Commissioned7 September 1819
DecommissionedMarch 1848
FateScuttled, 20 April 1861
General characteristics
Tonnage2480
Length191 ft 9 in (58.45 m)
Beam53 ft 5 in (16.28 m)
Draft25 ft (7.6 m)
Complement780 officers and men
Armament68 × 32-pounder (15 kg) guns, 24 × 42-pounder (19 kg) carronades

USS Columbus was a 92-gun ship of the line in the United States Navy. Although construction of the warship was authorized by Congress on 2 January 1813, plunder of the Washington Navy Yard by British troops in 1814 during the burning of Washington,[1] combined with efforts to keep US military stores out of British hands,[2] led to the destruction of any initial framing. Days after Congress re-authorized the vessel on 29 April 1816,[3][4] a keel was laid and construction resumed.[1]

Columbus was launched on 1 March 1819 into the Anacostia River at the Washington Navy Yard; her dimensions were "191 feet 10 inches, between perpendiculars; breadth of beam from outside to outside, 53 feet 6 inches".[1] The warship was commissioned on 29 November 1819, Master Commandant John H. Elton, commanding.[1] Her original armament comprised "92 guns: 68 long 32-pounders and twenty-four 42-pounder carronades";[1] this was greater than the Naval artillery equipping most of the nine ships-of-the-line authorized by Congress in the 1816 legislation, which specified that these warships "rate not less than seventy-four guns each".[1][3]

Enslaved laborer and diarist, Michael Shiner, documented the launching thus, "The United States Ship Columbus 74, constructed and built by Colonel William Doughty and launch on 4 March 1819 on Monday at Washington Navy Yard the United States Ship Columbus 74."[5]

History

Clearing Norfolk, Virginia, on 28 April 1820, Columbus served as flagship for Commodore William Bainbridge in the Mediterranean until returning to Boston on 23 July 1821.In 1824 enslaved seaman James Hutton through his attorney Francis Scott Key brought a freedom suit against Lt. William J. Belt, USN. Judge William Cranch of the District of Columbia Court, in his verdict, found that Lt. Belt by his action in enrolling James Hutton as an Ordinary Seaman aboard USS Columbus, and USS Spark (1813) was sufficient evidence of "implied manumission" and subsequently accorded Hutton his freedom. in reaching a decision, the court relied on muster rolls of both vessels and the letter of Commodore William Bainbridge dated 6 June 1825, see thumbnail.[6]

Commodore William Bainbridge letter re enslaved seaman James Hutton 6 June 1825 and his service on board USS Columbus and USS Spark

Serving as a receiving ship after 1833, she remained at Boston in ordinary until sailing to the Mediterranean on 29 August 1842, as flagship for Commodore Charles W. Morgan. On 24 February 1843, she sailed from Genoa, Italy, and reached Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 29 July to become flagship of the Brazil Squadron, Commodore Daniel Turner. She returned to New York City on 27 May 1844 for repairs.

After embarking Commodore James Biddle, Commander, East India Squadron, she sailed on 4 June 1845 for Canton, China, where on 31 December Commodore Biddle exchanged ratified copies of the first American commercial treaty with China. Columbus remained there until April 1846, when she sailed for Japan to attempt opening that country to American commerce. She raised Uraga Channel on 19 July in company with Vincennes, but achieved no success.[7] Recalled at the outbreak of the Mexican–American War Columbus reached Valparaíso, Chile, in December and arrived off Monterey, California, 2 March 1847. Too large to be useful in the California operations, the ship sailed from San Francisco on 25 July for Norfolk, arriving on 3 March 1848.

In 1845 the writer, Charles Nordhoff joined the ship as a boy (aged 15), and served for 3 years. He would write later of his adventure in his book. Man-of-War Life: a Boy's Experience in the U. S. Navy, largely autobiographical (Cincinnati, 1855).[8]

At Norfolk Navy Yard, Columbus lay in ordinary until 20 April 1861, when she was sunk by withdrawing Union forces to prevent her falling into Confederate hands.[9]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "American Ships-of-the-Line – Columbus". DANFS Online. Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Washington D.C.: Naval Historical Center. 1959–1991. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  2. ↑ Roosevelt, Theodore (1902). The Naval War of 1812, or the History of the United States Navy during the Last War with Great Britain, Part II. New York, NY: G.P. Putnam’s Sons. pp. 45–47. Retrieved 2 August 2022. On August 20th, Major-General Ross and Rear-Admiral Cockburn, with about 5,000 soldiers and marines, moved on Washington by land… Ross took Washington and burned the public buildings; and the panic-struck Americans foolishly burned the Columbia, 44 [NB: different from the future Columbus, 74], and Argus, 18, which were nearly ready for service.
  3. 1 2 Sharswood, George, ed. (1839) [1816]. "Chap. 138. An act for the gradual increase of the navy of the United States.". The Public and General Statutes Passed by the Congress of the United States of America: From 1789 to 1836 Inclusive (2nd ed.). Princeton University, via Google Books: T. and J.W. Johnson. p. 1598. Sect. 2. That the president of the United States be, and he is hereby, authorized to cause to be built nine ships, to rate not less than seventy-four guns each, and twelve ships, to rate not less than forty-four guns each, including one seventy-four [i.e., Columbus] and three forty-four gun ships, authorized to be built by an act, bearing date on the second day of January, one thousand eight hundred and thirteen, entitled, "An act to increase the navy of the United States.
  4. ↑ Gordon, John Steele (February 1993). "USS Boondoggle: The Business of America". American Heritage. 44 (1).
  5. ↑ The Diary of Michael Shiner Relating to the History of the Washington Navy Yard 1813-1869 transcribed and edited by John G. Sharp, 2007, 2015,,Naval History and Heritage Command, Washington, D.C. https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/d/diary-of-michael-shiner/1813-1829.html#17
  6. ↑ Hutton V Belt 1825, https://earlywashingtondc.org/doc/oscys.case.0063.007
  7. ↑ Van Zandt, Howard (1984). Pioneer American Merchants in Japan. Tuttle Publishing. p. 13. ISBN 9994648144.
  8. ↑ Hattendorf, John B. "Nordhoff, Charles the elder". sites.williams.edu. Williams-Mystic. Retrieved 20 June 2018.
  9. ↑ "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.
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