History | |
---|---|
United States | |
Name | Fredonia |
Laid down | date unknown |
Launched | 1845, Newbury, Massachusetts [1] |
Acquired | 14 December 1846 |
Commissioned | 5 January 1847 |
Decommissioned | 18 January 1851 |
In service | 1852 |
Out of service | 13 August 1868 |
Stricken | 1868 (est.) |
Fate |
|
General characteristics | |
Tonnage | 799, [1] or 800 |
Length | 160 ft (49 m) |
Beam | 32 ft 11 in (10.03 m) |
Depth of hold | 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) |
Propulsion | sail |
Speed | varied |
Complement | 37 |
Armament | 4 × 24-pounder carronades |
USS Fredonia was an 800-ton bark that served the U.S. Navy as a transport and as a storeship. After several voyages to California by way of Cape Horn, she became the station warehouse in Arica, Chile, where she was destroyed by an earthquake.
Fredonia was built in 1845 at Newbury, Massachusetts. She was registered on 27 May 1845. Her master was George Lunt. Her owners were Micajah Lunt and John Currier of Newbury, and George Lunt and Stephen Frotheringham of Newburypart. [1]
The US Navy purchased her at Boston, Massachusetts on 14 December 1846 for $52,000. The vessel was fitted out as a storeship and on 5 January 1847 was placed in commission under command of Lieutenant C. W. Chauncey.
Assigned to the Home Squadron, Fredonia sailed from Boston 9 January 1847 for the east coast of Mexico. On 16 February she arrived off Anton Lizardo where she remained until October, rendering assistance to vessels in distress and performing duty as guard ship while dispensing provisions, wood, water, ordnance equipment, and ammunition to the squadron of Commodores David Conner and Matthew C. Perry engaged in the bombardment and occupation of Vera Cruz, Tuxpan, and Tabasco, Mexico.
Before sailing for home on 8 October Fredonia embarked invalids from the squadron and men whose enlistments had expired for transportation to New York City, where she arrived 22 November. The storeship made one more trip to the Gulf of Mexico with supplies for the squadron before the end of the Mexican–American War, departing New York 9 January 1848 and arriving off Sacrificios 9 February. She sailed for home in June, via Pensacola, Florida, to land hospital supplies from Salmadina, and on 23 July arrived at Norfolk, Virginia, to disembark a battalion of U.S. Marines and invalids from the Gulf Squadron.
Fredonia proceeded to New York City in October 1848 to take on a cargo destined for the west coast. She sailed from New York 11 December and on 31 July 1849 arrived in San Francisco Bay, after stopping at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Valparaíso, Chile, and Callao, Peru. She remained on the west coast a year, departing San Francisco, California, 4 July 1850, stopping at Valparaíso for urgent repairs and arriving at New York City 7 January 1851. She was decommissioned on the 18th and placed in ordinary at the New York Navy Yard.
In 1852 Fredonia transported troops of the 4th Infantry, with equipment and supplies to California. She sailed from New York on 21 November and arrived at San Francisco 19 June 1853.
She then proceeded to Valparaíso, Chile, arriving 12 September, and was converted to a permanent storeship for the Pacific Squadron. She served in this capacity fifteen years, stationed at Valparaíso until 1862 when she was towed to Callao, Peru, by Wyoming.
In 1868, owing to yellow fever at Callao, Fredonia was moved to Arica, then on the southern coast of Peru and later part of Chile, where on 13 August she was destroyed by a tsunami. The first severe shock of a violent earthquake occurred about 5:05 p.m., followed by successive shocks and a tremendous tsunami. The U.S. Navy gunboat Wateree, also anchored in the harbor of Arica, was washed ashore, while Fredonia was completely broken up with a loss of 27 lives.
Only five of Fredonia's complement survived—three officers, who were on shore, and two enlisted men who were rescued the following morning from a portion of the wreck. The earthquake, reported to be the most devastating and extensive that ever occurred in South America, destroyed not only Arica but a number of other large cities on the west side of the Peruvian Andes Mountains.
The officers and men of the United States Squadron, under command of Rear Admiral T. Turner, immediately rushed assistance to the stricken inhabitants of Arica, providing food, clothing and medicines from the ships' supplies and conveying surgeons, nurses, provisions and other necessities from Callao and Valparaíso.
The first USS Yorktown was a 16-gun sloop-of-war of the United States Navy. Used mostly for patrolling in the Pacific and anti-slave trade duties in African waters, the vessel was wrecked off Maio, Cape Verde in 1850.
USS Monongahela was a barkentine–rigged screw sloop-of-war that served in the Union Navy during the American Civil War. Her task was to participate in the Union blockade of the Confederate States of America. Post-war, she continued serving her country in various roles, such as that of a storeship and schoolship.
The Pacific Squadron was part of the United States Navy squadron stationed in the Pacific Ocean in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Initially with no United States ports in the Pacific, they operated out of storeships which provided naval supplies and purchased food and obtained water from local ports of call in the Hawaiian Islands and towns on the Pacific Coast. Throughout the history of the Pacific Squadron, American ships fought against several enemies. Over one-half of the United States Navy would be sent to join the Pacific Squadron during the Mexican–American War. During the American Civil War, the squadron was reduced in size when its vessels were reassigned to Atlantic duty. When the Civil War was over, the squadron was reinforced again until being disbanded just after the turn of the 20th century.
The first USS Relief was a supply ship in the United States Navy.
USS Erie was a three-masted, wooden-hulled sloop-of-war of the United States Navy in the early 19th century.
USS Decatur was a sloop-of-war in the United States Navy during the mid-19th century. She was commissioned to protect American interests in the South Atlantic Ocean, including the interception of ships involved in the African slave trade. Decatur served in both the Mexican–American War and the American Civil War.
|} The first USS Tuscarora was a Mohican-class sloop of war in the United States Navy during the American Civil War. Tuscarora was laid down on 27 June 1861 at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by Merrick & Sons; launched on 24 August 1861; sponsored by Miss Margaret Lardner; and commissioned on 5 December 1861, Commander Tunis A. M. Craven in command.
The first USS Wateree was a sidewheel gunboat in the United States Navy during the American Civil War.
USS Mohongo, an iron‑hulled, schooner‑rigged gunboat, was laid down at New York City by Zeno Secor & Co., Jersey City, N.J., in 1863; launched on 9 July 1864; and commissioned at New York Navy Yard on 23 May 1865, Capt. J. W. A. Nicholson in command.
BAP Apurímac was the second steam frigate of the Peruvian Navy, built in England in 1855 along with the steam schooners Loa and Tumbes as a part of a major build-up of the Navy during the government of President José Rufino Echenique. A veteran of two wars and many internal conflicts, due to her age she served as training ship in Callao port from 1873 until January 17, 1881, when she was scuttled along with the rest of the Peruvian Navy to prevent capture by Chilean troops who had occupied the port after the defeat of the Peruvian Army in the battles of San Juan and Miraflores.
The 1868 Arica earthquake occurred on 13 August 1868, near Arica, then part of Peru, now part of Chile, at 21:30 UTC. It had an estimated magnitude between 8.5 and 9.3. A tsunami in the Pacific Ocean was produced by the earthquake, which was recorded in Hawaii, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand.
Águila was the first naval vessel of the Chilean Navy. She was later renamed Pueyrredón.
The corvette Abtao was a wooden ship built in Scotland during 1864 of 1.600 tons and 800 IHP. She fought in the War of the Pacific and was in service for the Chilean Navy until 1922.
Esmeralda was a 44-gun frigate built in Port Mahón, Balearic Islands in 1791 for the Spanish Navy. The First Chilean Navy Squadron, under the command of Thomas Cochrane, captured her on the night of 5 November 1820. She was renamed Valdivia in Chilean service. She was beached at Valparaíso in June 1825.
The First Chilean Navy Squadron was the heterogeneous naval force that temporarily terminated Spanish colonial rule in the Pacific and protagonized the most important naval actions of in the Latin American wars of independence. The Chilean revolutionary government organized the squadron in order to carry the war to the Viceroyalty of Perú, then the center of Spanish power in South America, and thus secure the independence of Chile and Argentina.
Aquiles was a brigantine, originally Spanish, that later served in the Chilean Navy. It was driven ashore and wrecked at Callao, Peru on 24 July 1839.
BAP Unión was corvette of the Peruvian Navy, originally ordered by the government of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. Built in France it was bought by the Peruvian Navy and during its service participated in the Chincha Islands War and in the War of the Pacific in which it was scuttled following the Blockade of Callao to prevent it falling into Chilean hands.
The Pilcomayo was originally a Peruvian gunboat involved in several actions during the War of the Pacific. Captured by the Chilean navy on November 18, 1879, it was repaired and participated in the blockade of the Peruvian ports. After the war it was used for hydrographic research, then as a training ship. In service until 1909, it was finally used as a pontoon at Talcahuano.
The Raids of the Huáscar were a series of raids that occurred by the Peruvian ironclad Huáscar under the command of Miguel Grau Seminario during the War of the Pacific. The actions kept the Chilean government in check for nearly five months which ended after the Battle of Angamos.
The Capture of the steamer Rímac or the Hunt and seizure of the Chilean transport Rímac was a part of the Raids of Huáscar during the Naval campaign of the War of the Pacific. During an expedition over the conflicting seas, the Peruvian Navy ships, Huáscar and Unión, apprehend the Chilean war steamer Rímac, which was an artillery transport, taking all its cargo and capturing its crew, including a squad of the Carabineros de Yungay. In Chile, the news of the capture of the Rímac detonated a political and social crisis that led to the resignation of several government officials, including Rear Admiral Juan Williams Rebolledo, Commander General of the Chilean Navy.
This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships .The entry can be found here.