John Adams was built for the United States by the people of Charleston, South Carolina, under contract to Paul Pritchard and launched in the latter's shipyard some 3 miles (4.8km) from Charleston 5 June 1799.
Quasi-War
Captain George Cross sailed John Adams on 20 October for Cayenne, French Guiana, to operate against French privateers based at that port.[2] By the time she arrived off South America, the British had captured Surinam, which made the French base in Guiana unsafe for privateers. Captain Cross therefore decided to sail her on to Guadeloupe to join her squadron.
Early in January 1800, she began operations against the French, taking an unidentified lugger off San Juan, Puerto Rico and recapturing brigDolphin. She then retook the brigs Hannibal on 22 March and Atlantic the next day, both prizes of the French privateer President Tout. The French privateer schooner Jason surrendered to her 3 April. In May she retook schooners Dispatch and William.[3] Sometime in the late spring or summer she recaptured the American brig Olive, and on 13 June she took French privateer schooner La Decade.[4] On 7 September she recaptured ship "Seahorse".[5] These victories punctuated and highlighted the day-to-day duty of patrolling the West Indies. She continued to protect American shipping through the late summer and fall.
John Adams left on 22 November escorting a convoy to the United States.[6] She was placed in ordinary in Charleston in mid-January 1801, and then in late June she sailed to Washington, D.C. where she was laid up.
As the Quasi-War with France drew to a close, President Adams could report to Congress:
The present Navy of the United States, called suddenly into existence by a great national emergency, has raised us in our own esteem; and by the protection afforded to our commerce has effected to the extent of our expectations the objects for which it was created.
First Barbary War
Peace with France freed the Navy for operations against Barbary corsairs who had been preying on American shipping in the Mediterranean. A small squadron under Commodore Richard Dale, sent out in 1801 for operations against Tripoli, was followed in 1802 by a much stronger force under Commodore Richard Valentine Morris. In a letter dated 25 August, 1802 Captain John Rodgers was ordered to take command.[7] On 22 October she sailed from Hampton Roads to join Commodore Morris. She arrived at Gibraltar on 10 December.[8] After escorting vessels from Gibraltar to Málaga and Menorca, she finally caught up with Commodore Morris at Malta on 5 January 1803. She then operated with the squadron until 3 May when she received orders to cruise independently off Tripoli. Upon arriving off Tripoli, 8-9 May, 1803, she, still under the command of Rodgers, boldly attacked the forts and the gunboats anchored under their protection. There was an exchange of fire with the gunboats the next day also.[9] On 12 May she captured 28-gun Tripolitan cruiser Meshuda.[10] After USSNew York and USSEnterprise joined her, John Adams engaged a flotilla of enemy gunboats off Tripoli on 22 May sending them scurrying back into the harbor to safety. Five days later—with the added support of USSAdams, a sister frigate also named for President John Adams—the squadron again bested a group of pirate gunboats.
One of the most important victories of the war came on 21 June when John Adams and Enterprise captured a 22-gun vessel belonging to Tripoli, thus weakening that state sufficiently to allow the squadron to turn its attention to Tunis, Algiers, and Morocco, which were threatening U.S. commerce in the Western Mediterranean. Throughout the summer and early fall John Adams operated in that quarter before returning home with New York.
Meanwhile, Commodore Edward Preble, who had led a powerful fleet to the Mediterranean, vigorously pressed the fight. In August and September 1804 he made a series of major attacks on Tripoli. As the second of these blows was being delivered 7 August, John Adams, now under Captain Isaac Chauncey, arrived on the scene deeply laden with stores. Her boats participated in a reconnaissance patrol on the night of 18 August, and 6 days later she slipped in close to the city for an intensive 4-hour bombardment. Two nights later during a similar attack, an enemy shot sank one of John Adams's boats, killing three men and wounding a fourth, as the American Squadron severely punished Tripoli with over 700 well-directed rounds which took effect within the city. After a fifth attack had been successfully completed 3 September, bad weather interrupted operations and John Adams sailed to Syracuse with other ships of the squadron.
Three months later she sailed for New York with Commodore Preble, arriving 26 February 1805. On 6 March 1805 Secretary of the Navy Robert Smith wrote to Captain Isaac Chauncey regarding recruitment of seamen for the frigate's third voyage to the Mediterranean, he emphasized, the Navy wanted,"active men who can fight."
It is my wish to send to the Mediterranean as many men in the John Adams as she can conveniently carry thither. I want to send out 500 Men, of which number at least 200 must be Able Seamen. You will begin to recruit as soon as you conveniently can. Enter the men to serve 2 years (although it is probable they will not be kept in the Mediterranean for 2 years) allow Able Seamen $ 12 per month, Ordinary Seamen $ 8, Boys $ 6. Engage healthy, active men who can fight. Allow 2 to 4 months advance on customary security.[11]
R Smith to Captain Isaac Chauncey, 6 Mar 1805, re recruiting seamen for USS John Adams
After a third Mediterranean cruise from May to November, she was laid up in ordinary. In service she had been considered a poor sailor; between 1807 and 1809 her forecastle and quarterdeck were removed and she was re-rated as (depending on the source) either a corvette or a sloop-of-war.
War of 1812
The outbreak of the War of 1812 found her undergoing repairs at Boston whence she was hurried to New York to have the work completed. There the British blockade and a critical shortage of seamen kept her in a laid-up status until early 1814. She finally sailed under a flag of truce carrying peace commissioners Henry Clay and Jonathan Russell to Europe and arrived Wargo Island, Norway, 14 April. She returned to the United States 5 September bringing dispatches from the American commissioners the Treaty of Ghent that would end the war towards the end of the year.
Second Barbary War
Meanwhile, the Barbary pirates, taking advantage of the American Navy's preoccupation with the British fleet during the War of 1812, had resumed operations against American merchantmen in the Mediterranean. Fortunately the treaty of peace signed on Christmas Eve 1814 freed United States men-of-war for renewed attention to this chronic trouble spot. In the autumn of 1815 John Adams arrived in the Mediterranean to assist frigates USSUnited States and USSConstellation and sloops USSErie and USSOntario in maintaining peace and order in the area after strong squadrons under Commodores Stephen Decatur and William Bainbridge had induced the Barbary princes to honor their treaty commitments. Early in 1816 she returned home with dispatches, and with marble from Naples for refurbishing the Capitol at Washington.[12]
West Indies
Pirates were also active in the West Indies at this time. Taking advantage of the chaos attendant upon the dissolution of Spain's American empire, lawless vessels from many nations preyed on neutral as well as Spanish commerce in the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico, and along the storied Spanish Main. For the next few years John Adams was busy fighting buccaneers. On 22 December 1817 she demanded and received the surrender of Amelia Island, off the east coast of Florida, the base from which corsairs of Commodore Louis-Michel Aury pounced upon merchantmen of all nations.
Venezuela
In the spring of 1819 Secretary of the NavySmith Thompson selected Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry for the mission of establishing friendly relations with the government of newly independent Republic of Venezuela and Provinces United of Rio de La Plata and negotiating with the president Simon Bolivar to obtain restitution for United States schooners Tiger and Liberty that the Venezuelans patriots had illegally taken in the Orinoco river during the revolution. Perry boarded his flagship John Adams at Annapolis and sailed in company with schooner USSNonsuch on 7 June. A month later he reached the mouth of the Orinoco, which he ascended to Angostura in Nonsuch while John Adams sailed on to Trinidad to await his return at Port of Spain. After protracted negotiation, the Vice President of Venezuela Francisco Antonio Zea granted all the demands of the United States on 11 August. However, during the passage down the river, Perry was stricken with yellow fever and died on board the John Adams.
Commodore Charles Morris succeeded Perry in command of the squadron and John Adams accompanied his flagship Constellation on a voyage to the Plata River to continue the negotiations inaugurated by Perry to establish friendly relations with the new Latin American republics and to protect American commerce from South American privateers. After visiting Montevideo and Buenos Aires, both ships returned to the United States, arriving Hampton Roads on 24 April 1820.
1821–1845
In spite of these successes, piracy remained rampant in the West Indies, and John Adams was part of a strong West Indies Squadron created in 1821 to cope with the problem. Nicholas Biddle's ships labored with zeal; but the task, entailing careful searches by small-boat expeditions of innumerable bays, lagoons, and inlets, seemed endless. Yellow fever took a much heavier toll than the enemy necessitating reinforcements which arrived 3 March 1823 when Commodore David Porter's "Mosquito Fleet" anchored off Saint Thomas. Porter, the squadron's new commander, selected John Adams as his flagship. When Porter was recalled, his successor, Commodore Lewis Warrington retained John Adams as his flagship until 1826. From time to time, thereafter, the frigate returned to the West Indies for operations against pirates until 1829 when she was laid up and almost entirely rebuilt at the Navy Yard in Gosport, Virginia.
John Adams joined the Mediterranean Squadron in 1831 as a frigate. One of her first duties was to take her former commander, ex-Commodore Porter, to Constantinople where he became the U.S.'s first chargé d'affaires. The ship was granted the rare privilege of passing through the Dardanelles with guns mounted. Thereafter, she convoyed ships in the Mediterranean and in 1833 visited Liberia.
After extensive repairs in the United States, John Adams sailed from Hampton Roads on 5 May 1838, accompanied by USSColumbia, on a cruise around the world. Particular stress was placed upon showing the flag in the East Indies where the United States enjoyed a prosperous and growing trade. Both ships arrived Rio de Janeiro 10 July but departed separately, John Adams sailing on 25 July. She stopped at Zanzibar en route to Bombay, where she rejoined Columbia before sailing on to Goa and Colombo, Ceylon.
At Colombo the ships learned that natives at Susoh (currently in Southwest Aceh Regency, Aceh, Indonesia) had attacked the American ship Eclipse. The squadron immediately sailed to the scene of the incident and bombarded the forts at Kuala Batee to induce the Rajahs of Sumatra to agree to offer assistance and protection to American vessels. They then landed over 300 marines and sailors to attack the village of Muckie, which they destroyed (Second Sumatran Expedition). Before returning to Rio de Janeiro on 23 April 1840, the squadron called at Singapore, Macau, Honolulu, Valparaíso, and Cape Horn.
Mexican-American and Civil Wars
John Adams finally arrived Boston about the middle of June where she was laid up until 1842. After duty on the Brazil Station, she went into ordinary where she remained until recommissioned at the beginning of the Mexican-U.S. War.
She was anchored off the bar at Santiago 8 May 1846 during the Battle of Palo Alto. She then maintained a blockading station off the east coast of Mexico for the remainder of the war. The prolonged period of time the John Adams spent on station off the Mexican coast in support of American military operations, may account for the increase in flogging as reflected in the surviving disciplinary reports for years, 1846–1847.[13]
Quarterly Returns of Punishment 1 April to 30 June 1846 for USS John Adams
John Adams returned to Boston in September 1848 and received extensive repairs before joining the Royal Navy for action against the slave trade around Africa. Rear Admiral Barrington Reynolds was the British Commander-in-Chief, Cape of Good Hope Station at the time. She returned from this difficult duty in July 1853. Thereafter, with the exception of periods at home for repairs, John Adams operated in the Pacific and the Far East until after the outbreak of the Civil War. She sailed for home from Siam 6 July 1861 and reached New York 11 January 1862, bringing a box containing two letters from the King of Siam to President Lincoln, along with a sword and a pair of ivory tusks.
Late in the summer of 1865 she sailed to Boston where she was decommissioned in September. She was one of the oldest vessels in the US Navy at the time of her decommissioning.
John Adams was sold 5 October 1867 for $1500 to the British government to use as quarters for the Hong Kong police.[16] She was taken to Hong Kong where her hulk was commissioned in 1868 for use as Water Police Headquarters. In February 1884 the hulk John Adams caught fire and was lost. HMSMerlin later torpedoed and sank the burnt-out hulk.[17]
USS Constitution, also known as Old Ironsides, is a three-masted wooden-hulled heavy frigate of the United States Navy. She is the world's oldest commissioned naval warship still afloat. She was launched in 1797, one of six original frigates authorized for construction by the Naval Act of 1794 and the third constructed. The name "Constitution" was among ten names submitted to President George Washington by Secretary of War Timothy Pickering in March of 1795 for the frigates that were to be constructed. Joshua Humphreys designed the frigates to be the young Navy's capital ships, and so Constitution and her sister ships were larger and more heavily armed and built than standard frigates of the period. She was built at Edmund Hartt's shipyard in the North End of Boston, Massachusetts. Her first duties were to provide protection for American merchant shipping during the Quasi-War with France and to defeat the Barbary pirates in the First Barbary War.
USS United States was a wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate of the United States Navy and the first of the six original frigates authorized for construction by the Naval Act of 1794. The name "United States" was among ten names submitted to President George Washington by Secretary of War Timothy Pickering in March of 1795 for the frigates that were to be constructed. Joshua Humphreys designed the frigates to be the young Navy's capital ships, and so United States and her sisters were larger and more heavily armed and built than typical frigates of the period. She was built at Humphrey's shipyard in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and launched on 10 May 1797 and immediately began duties with the newly formed United States Navy protecting American merchant shipping during the Quasi-War with France.
The USS Enterprise was a schooner, built by Henry Spencer at Baltimore, Maryland, in 1799. Her first commander thought that she was too lightly built and that her quarters, in particular, should be bulletproofed. Enterprise was overhauled and rebuilt several times, effectively changing from a twelve-gun schooner to a fourteen-gun topsail schooner and eventually to a brig. Enterprise saw action in the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, and the Caribbean again, capturing numerous prizes. She wrecked in July 1823.
The third USS Boston was a 32-gun wooden-hulled, three-masted frigate of the United States Navy. Boston was built by public subscription in Boston under the Act of 30 June 1798. Boston was active during the Quasi-War with France and the First Barbary War. On 12 October 1800, Bostonengaged and captured the French corvette Berceau. Boston was laid up in 1802, and considered not worth repairing at the outbreak of the War of 1812. She was burned at the Washington Naval Yard on 24 August 1814 to prevent her capture by British forces.
USS Adams was a 28-gun (rated) sailing frigate of the United States Navy. She was laid down in 1797 at New York City by John Jackson and William Sheffield and launched on 8 June 1799. Captain Richard Valentine Morris took command of the ship.
USS Congress was a nominally rated 38-gun wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate of the United States Navy. James Hackett built her at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and she was launched on 15 August 1799. She was one of the original six frigates whose construction the Naval Act of 1794 had authorized. The name "Congress" was among ten names submitted to President George Washington by Secretary of War Timothy Pickering in March 1795 for the frigates that were to be constructed.Joshua Humphreys designed these frigates to be the young Navy's capital ships, and so Congress and her sisters were larger and more heavily armed and built than the standard frigates of the period.
USS Philadelphia, a 1240-ton, 36-gun frigate, was the second vessel of the United States Navy to be named for the city of Philadelphia. Originally named City of Philadelphia, she was built in 1798–1799 for the United States government by residents of that city. Funding for her construction was raised by a drive that collected $100,000 in one week, in June 1798. She was designed by Josiah Fox and built by Samuel Humphreys, Nathaniel Hutton and John Delavue. Her carved work was done by William Rush of Philadelphia. She was laid down about November 14, 1798, launched on November 28, 1799, and commissioned on April 5, 1800, with Captain Stephen Decatur, Sr. in command. She was captured by Barbary pirates in Tripoli with William Bainbridge in command. Stephen Decatur led a raid that burned her down, preventing her use by the pirates.
Commodore Thomas Truxtun was a United States Navy officer and politician. During the American Revolutionary War, he served as a privateer. Truxtun eventually rose to the rank of Commodore in the late eighteenth century and later served in the Quasi-War with France. He was one of the first six commanders appointed to the new U.S. Navy by President George Washington. During his naval career he commanded a number of famous U.S. naval ships, including USS Constellation and USS President. Later in civilian life he became involved with politics and was also elected as a sheriff. Six U.S. Navy warships have been named for Truxtun since 1842.
USS Constellation was a nominally rated 38-gun wooden-hulled, three-masted frigate of the United States Navy.
USS President was a wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate of the United States Navy, nominally rated at 44 guns; she was launched in April 1800 from a shipyard in New York City. President was one of the original six frigates whose construction the Naval Act of 1794 had authorized, and she was the last to be completed. The name "President" was among ten names submitted to President George Washington by Secretary of War Timothy Pickering in March of 1795 for the frigates that were to be constructed. Joshua Humphreys designed these frigates to be the young Navy's capital ships, and so President and her sisters were larger and more heavily armed and built than standard frigates of the period. Forman Cheeseman, and later Christian Bergh were in charge of her construction. Her first duties with the newly formed United States Navy were to provide protection for American merchant shipping during the Quasi War with France and to engage in a punitive expedition against the Barbary pirates in the First Barbary War.
The first USS Essex of the United States Navy was a 36-gun or 32-gun sailing frigate that participated in the Quasi-War with France, the First Barbary War, and in the War of 1812. The British captured her in 1814 and she then served as HMS Essex until sold at public auction on 6 June 1837.
Edward Preble was a United States naval officer who served with great distinction during the 1st Barbary War, leading American attacks on the city of Tripoli and forming the officer corps that would later lead the U.S. Navy in the War of 1812.
Chesapeake was a 38-gun wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate of the United States Navy. She was one of the original six frigates whose construction was authorized by the Naval Act of 1794. Joshua Humphreys designed these frigates to be the young navy's capital ships. Chesapeake was originally designed as a 44-gun frigate, but construction delays, material shortages and budget problems caused builder Josiah Fox to alter his design to 38 guns. Launched at the Gosport Navy Yard on 2 December 1799, Chesapeake began her career during the Quasi-War with France and later saw service in the First Barbary War.
USS New York was a three-masted, wooden-hulled sailing frigate in the United States Navy that saw service during the Quasi-War with France.
USS Retaliation was the French privateer Croyable, built in Maryland, that then operated out of Santo Domingo. Delaware captured her on 7 July 1798 off New Jersey. She then served in the United States Navy during Quasi-War with France. Two French frigates recaptured her on 20 November 1798. The French Navy took her into service as Magicienne. However, Merrimack captured her on 28 June 1799. She served in the US Navy in the Caribbean briefly, before arriving in Philadelphia in August. She was paid off (decommissioned) there and sold on 29 November.
USS Pickering was a brig, the 1st brig built for the UCRC Service, in the United States Revenue Cutter Service and then the United States Navy during the Quasi-War with France. She was named for Timothy Pickering, then the Secretary of State.
The first USS George Washington was a frigate in the United States Navy. She was named after United States Founding Father and President George Washington.
Commodore Jacob Nicholas Jones was an officer in the United States Navy during the Quasi-War with France, the First Barbary War, the Second Barbary War, and the War of 1812.
The second USS General Greene was a frigate in the United States Navy during the Quasi-War with France.
The Mediterranean Squadron, also known as the Mediterranean Station, was part of the United States Navy in the 19th century that operated in the Mediterranean Sea. It was formed in response to the First and Second Barbary Wars. Between 1801 and 1818, the squadron was composed of a series of rotating squadrons. Later, squadrons were sent in the 1820s to the 1860s to suppress piracy, primarily in Greece and to engage in gunboat diplomacy. In 1865 the force was renamed the European Squadron.
↑ Robert Smith to Issac Chauncey, 6 March 1806, Letters, Navy Department, 1805, p.10, Roll 0207, Miscellaneous Records of the Navy Department, RG 45, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington DC.
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