USS Relief (1836)

History
Name:	USS Relief
Builder:	Philadelphia Navy Yard
Laid down:	1835
Launched:	14 September 1836
Decommissioned:	1878
Fate:	Sold, 27 September 1883
General characteristics
Type:	Supply ship
Displacement:	468 long tons (476 t)
Length:	109 ft (33 m)
Beam:	30 ft (9.1 m)
Depth of hold:	12 ft (3.7 m)
Propulsion:	Sail
Armament:	4 to 6 × 18-pounder guns; 2 × 12-pounder guns;

Last updated April 01, 2019

The first USS Relief was a supply ship in the United States Navy.

An auxiliary ship is a naval ship designed to operate in support of combatant ships and other naval operations. Auxiliaries are not primary combatants, although they may have some limited combat capacity, usually of a self-defence nature.

The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most capable navy in the world and it has been estimated that in terms of tonnage of its active battle fleet alone, it is larger than the next 13 navies combined, which includes 11 U.S. allies or partner nations. with the highest combined battle fleet tonnage and the world's largest aircraft carrier fleet, with eleven in service, and two new carriers under construction. With 319,421 personnel on active duty and 99,616 in the Ready Reserve, the Navy is the third largest of the service branches. It has 282 deployable combat vessels and more than 3,700 operational aircraft as of March 2018, making it the second-largest air force in the world, after the United States Air Force.

Relief was laid down in 1835 at the Philadelphia Navy Yard and launched on 14 September 1836. Designed by Samuel Humphreys, she was built along merchant vessel lines and included trysail mast and gaffsail on all three masts to enable her to work to windward in strong winds. Her hull was pierced for 16 small guns, but she usually carried only four to six 18-pounder and two 12-pounders.

Samuel Humphreys was a noted American naval architect and shipbuilder in the early 19th century. He served the United States Navy as the Chief Constructor for the Navy from 1826 to 1846.

Service history

United States exploring expedition

In early December 1836, Relief, commanded by Lieutenant Thomas A. Dornin, left Philadelphia for Norfolk, Virginia to join the ships assigned to the United States South Sea Surveying and Exploring Expedition. However, that expedition, held up by lack of money, ships, equipment, and trained personnel—and by administrative feuding since its first authorization in 1828—continued to be delayed until the summer of 1838. During her 19-month wait, Relief remained at Norfolk or engaged in runs along the east coast.

Philadelphia Largest city in Pennsylvania, United States

Philadelphia, sometimes known colloquially as Philly, is the largest city in the U.S. state and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the sixth-most populous U.S. city, with a 2017 census-estimated population of 1,580,863. Since 1854, the city has been coterminous with Philadelphia County, the most populous county in Pennsylvania and the urban core of the eighth-largest U.S. metropolitan statistical area, with over 6 million residents as of 2017. Philadelphia is also the economic and cultural anchor of the greater Delaware Valley, located along the lower Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers, within the Northeast megalopolis. The Delaware Valley's population of 7.2 million ranks it as the eighth-largest combined statistical area in the United States.

Norfolk, Virginia Independent city in Virginia, United States

Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. At the 2010 census, the population was 242,803; in 2017, the population was estimated to be 244,703 making it the second-most populous city in Virginia after neighboring Virginia Beach.

The United States Exploring Expedition of 1838–1842 was an exploring and surveying expedition of the Pacific Ocean and surrounding lands conducted by the United States. The original appointed commanding officer was Commodore Thomas ap Catesby Jones. Funding for the original expedition was requested by President John Quincy Adams in 1828, however, Congress would not implement funding until eight years later. In May 1836, the oceanic exploration voyage was finally authorized by Congress and created by President Andrew Jackson.

On 19 August 1838, the squadron, commanded by Lt. Charles Wilkes, cleared Hampton Roads and set a course for Rio de Janeiro. Sailing with the prevailing winds—westerlies and northeast trades—their planned course took them across the Atlantic to Madeira; then straight to Brazil. However, Relief, under Lt. A. K. Long, proved to be a slow sailer. She soon fell behind and was detached with orders to rejoin the other five vessels in the Cape Verde Islands. The rendezvous was accomplished in early October and the squadron sailed for Brazil. Relief, the last to arrive, reached Rio on 26 November.

Charles Wilkes naval officer and explorer from the United States

Charles Wilkes was an American naval officer, ship's captain, and explorer. He led the United States Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842 and commanded the ship in the Trent Affair during the American Civil War (1861–1865), where he attacked a Royal Mail Ship, almost leading to war between the US and the UK. His behavior led to two convictions by court-martial, one stemming from the massacre of almost 80 Fijians on Malolo in 1840.

Hampton Roads is the name of both a body of water that serves as a wide channel for the James, Nansemond and Elizabeth rivers between Old Point Comfort and Sewell's Point where the Chesapeake Bay flows into the Atlantic Ocean and the surrounding metropolitan region located in the Southeastern Virginia and Northeastern North Carolina portions of the Tidewater region.

Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is anchor to the Rio de Janeiro metropolitan area and the second-most populous municipality in Brazil and the sixth-most populous in the Americas. Rio de Janeiro is the capital of the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil's third-most populous state. Part of the city has been designated as a World Heritage Site, named "Rio de Janeiro: Carioca Landscapes between the Mountain and the Sea", by UNESCO on 1 July 2012 as a Cultural Landscape.

On 6 January 1839, the squadron sailed for the Río Negro and Cape Horn. Relief, bypassing the former where surveys were conducted, rounded the Cape and reached Orange Harbor, on the Hardy Peninsula, Hoste Island, on the 30th. There for almost three weeks, her crew kept hourly registers of the tides, placed navigation lights, and cut wood. On 18 February, the others arrived and toward the end of the month they were dispersed on various missions. Two followed James Weddell's course to Antarctica; others traced James Cook's path. Relief was ordered north to the Straits of Magellan, via the Cockburn Channel, to survey harbors in the straits. Caught in storms, however, she was unable to penetrate the channel and, in mid-March, was almost wrecked off Noir Island. The loss of her anchor during her battle with the sea off Noir, prohibited further attempts to enter the channel and she headed for Valparaíso.

Río Negro is the most important river of the Argentine province of Río Negro, and Patagonia in relation to its flow rate. Its name comes from the literal translation of the Mapuche term Curu Leuvu, although the water is more green than black. Formerly, it was also known as "river of the willows" because of the big number of weeping willows that grow along the bank. It's 635 km in length.

Cape Horn Headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago located in Chile

Cape Horn is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island. Although not the most southerly point of South America, Cape Horn marks the northern boundary of the Drake Passage and marks where the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans meet.

Peninsula Hardy is a peninsula at one of the most southerly extremes of South America. It is the southern landform which extends into the Drake Passage to make the Bahia Nassau. It is part of a large island called Hoste, next to Isla Navarino and Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego. It is located in the Commune of Cabo de Hornos, belonging to the Antártica Chilena Province of the Magallanes y Antártica Chilena Region, Chile. False Cape Horn is located at the southern tip of this peninsula.

On 15 April she entered the anchorage to make repairs and await the remainder of the squadron which by mid-May was reunited. In June, they moved on to Callao, where the ships were refitted and replenished. When Relief was unloaded and smoked, her dead rats filled three barrels.

El Callao is a seaside city on the Pacific Ocean in the Lima metropolitan area. Callao is Peru's chief seaport and home to its main airport, Jorge Chávez International Airport. Callao municipality consists of the whole Callao Region, which is also coterminous with the Province of Callao. Founded in 1537 by the Spanish, the city has a long naval history as one of the main ports in Latin America and the Pacific, as it was one of vital Spanish towns during the colonial era. Central Callao is about 15 km (9.3 mi) west of the Historic Centre of Lima.

Because of her slowness, Relief was ordered to proceed from Callao to Sydney, then sail home—carrying the sick and malcontents with her. Sailing in mid-July, she spent two weeks in the Sandwich Islands (Hawaiian Islands) and three months after leaving Peru, put into Sydney. She discharged her remaining cargo, took on water, wood, and rock ballast and headed east. En route home, she again doubled Cape Horn and on 28 March 1840 she reached New York.

Further service

At the end of the year, Relief, repaired and overhauled, sailed again for the Pacific, where she remained for five years operating primarily off the west coast of South America. She returned to New York in April 1846. In May, war with Mexico broke out; and, in July, Relief joined the Home Squadron. From then until June 1848, she cruised in the Gulf of Mexico, attempting to maintain a steady supply line to the ships engaged in the blockade of the Mexican coast despite the distance to supply bases and the scarcity of ships of her type.

In July 1848, Relief returned to New York and in the fall sailed from Norfolk for the Brazil Station. The following spring, she was back at Norfolk, but, with the autumn, she headed east. She operated in the Mediterranean Sea until she returned to the United States in July 1850, and engaged in resupply runs to Brazil until placed out of commission for overhaul 20 November 1855. She recommissioned 19 February 1856 and resumed her runs to the Brazil Station and continued them through 1857.

In late 1858 she rejoined the Home Squadron and cruised in the Gulf of Mexico. In 1861, she crossed the Atlantic again, resupplied the African Squadron and, with the outbreak of the American Civil War, returned to the United States to resupply the ships of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron. In July 1862, she returned to the Gulf of Mexico and, until the fall of 1863, served primarily as station store ship at Ship Island in Mississippi Sound.

Then ordered to Boston, Massachusetts for overhaul, she was decommissioned 5 December 1863. Recommissioned 29 April 1864, she was ordered back to the Pacific. In July she delivered supplies at Rio de Janeiro, whence she continued on to China, arriving at the Portuguese colony of Macau in December. After service on the Asiatic Station, she returned to New York in late 1866 and was placed in ordinary. In 1871 she was ordered to Washington, D.C., where she served as receiving ship until 1877. The following year she was laid up, at Washington, and on 27 September 1883 she was sold to J. B. Agnew.

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References

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

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