1820 ship of the line
For other ships with the same name, see
USS Ohio
.
USS
Ohio
|
History
|
United States
|
Name
| USS
Ohio
|
Namesake
| Ohio
|
Builder
| Henry Eckford
(
naval architect
)
|
Laid down
| 1817
|
Launched
| 30 May 1820
|
Commissioned
| before 16 October 1838
|
Recommissioned
| 7 December 1846, needed for the
Mexican?American War
|
Decommissioned
| 1875
|
Fate
| Sold 1883, burned 1884
|
General characteristics
|
Type
| Ship of the line
|
Displacement
| 2724
|
Length
| 197 ft (60 m)
|
Beam
| 53 ft (16 m)
|
Draft
| 22.2 ft (6.8 m)
|
Propulsion
| Sail
|
Speed
| 12 kn (14 mph; 22 km/h)
|
Complement
| 840 officers and men
|
Armament
|
- 34 × 42lb on lower deck
- 34 × 32lb on gun deck
- 34 × 42lb carronades on spar deck
- 2 × 32lb long gun on forecastle
- 104 guns total
|
The second
USS
Ohio
was a
ship of the line
of the
United States Navy
, rated at 74 guns, although her total number of guns was 104.
[1]
She was designed by
Henry Eckford
, laid down at
Brooklyn Navy Yard
in 1817, and launched on 30 May 1820. She went into
ordinary
and in the ensuing years decayed badly. Refitted for service in 1838,
Ohio
sailed on 16 October 1838 to join the
Mediterranean Squadron
under
Commodore
Isaac Hull
. Acting as
flagship
for two years, she protected commerce and suppressed the
slave trade
off the
African
coast.
Ohio
proved to have excellent performance under sail, repeatedly making more than 12
kn
(14 mph; 22 km/h). One of her officers stated, "I never supposed such a ship could be built?a ship possessing in so great a degree all the qualifications of a perfect vessel." In 1840,
Ohio
returned to
Boston
, where she again went into ordinary. From 1841 to 1846,
Ohio
served as
receiving ship
.
To meet the needs of the
Mexican?American War
,
Ohio
was recommissioned on 7 December 1846, and sailed on 4 January 1847 for the
Gulf of Mexico
, arriving off
Veracruz
on 22 March.
Ohio
landed 10 guns on 27 March to help in the siege of Veracruz; the city soon surrendered.
Ohio
drew too much water for coastal operations in the gulf. However, 336 of her crew participated in the
Tuxpan River Expedition
. In 1847, the entire distance from the mouth of the river to the town was covered with thick
jungle
growth. The enemy had constructed three well-positioned forts on bluffs overlooking bends in the river. On 18 April, Commodore
Matthew Perry
arrived off the mouth of the river with 15 vessels. At 22:00, light-
draft
steamers
Scourge
,
Spitfire
, and
Vixen
, each towing a
schooner
, moved up stream.
Bombships
Etna
,
Hecla
, and
Vesuvius
followed closely while 30 surf boats containing 1,500 men brought up the rear. Approaching the town, the squadron came under hot fire from
Fort LaPena
. Cmdre. Perry ordered
Commander
Franklin Buchanan
to disembark the surf boats and storm the fort. As the landing party swept ashore, the Mexicans abandoned their position. The other two forts fell in a like manner, with only light casualties sustained by the squadron. Men from
Ohio
retrieved the guns of
brig
Truxtun
, which had foundered in a storm near Tuxpan on 16 September 1846. The town was occupied and all military stores destroyed.
Following Tuxpan,
Ohio
sailed from Veracruz and arrived in New York on 9 May. On 26 June, she sailed to bolster the
Pacific Squadron
, first carrying the U.S. minister to
Brazil
and operating off the east coast of
South America
until December. In
Valparaiso
on 21 January 1848, Cmdre.
Thomas ap Catesby Jones
took her as the
flagship
of the
Pacific Squadron
, intending to blockade the western Mexico ports.
Ohio
arrived at
Mazatlan
on 6 May, shortly after the
Mexican?American War
ended. Jones used the fleet to help transport to
Monterey, California
, those that had aided the United States in the war, arriving there on 9 October.
Ohio
then sailed to
Sausalito
, in
San Francisco Bay
.
Ohio
spent the next two years in the Pacific protecting commerce and policing the newly acquired
California Territory
during the chaotic early months of the
gold rush
.
Scurvy
struck the crew in the spring of 1849 in
San Francisco Bay
, so Jones sent
Ohio
to the
Sandwich Islands
for fresh food.
In 1850, she returned to
Boston
, where she again went into ordinary. In 1851,
Ohio
became a receiving ship and continued this duty until again placed in ordinary in 1875.
Ohio
was sold at Boston to
J. L. Snow
of
Rockland, Maine
on 27 September 1883. She was burned in the following year, in
Greenport Harbor
,
New York
; the remains are still accessible to
scuba
divers. The wreck is off Fanning Point, in about 20 ft (6.1 m) of water.
See also
[
edit
]
- Samuel P. Carter
? first American officer to be awarded both the rank of rear admiral and major general
References
[
edit
]
This article incorporates text from the
public domain
Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships
. The entry can be found
here
.
- ^
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.
- ^
The Ward Melville Heritage Organization: Hercules Pavilion
. Retrieved 29 June 2008.
- Howard Chapelle
,
The History of the American Sailing Navy: the Ships and their Development
(New York: Norton, 1949)
- Log book of the USS
Ohio
(National Archives)
- Gene A. Smith,
Thomas ap Catesby Jones, Commodore of Manifest Destiny
(Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2000)
ISBN
1-55750-848-8
External links
[
edit
]
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