USS Brandywine (1825)

USS "Brandywine" (1825) (formerly named "Susquehanna") was an impressive 44-gun frigate which had the initial task of conveying the Marquis de Lafayette back to France. She was later recommissioned a number of times for service in various theatres, such as in the Mediterranean, in China and in the South Atlantic Ocean,

During several instances she served as a role player in American gunboat diplomacy, a role she was well suited for with her large long range 32-pounder guns and her devastating short-range carronades which produced severe fragmentation and fire damage to the ship fired upon, as well as widespread splinter and shrapnel injury to its crew.

1825: Conveying Marquis de Lafayette to France

"Susquehanna", a 44-gun frigate, was laid down on 20 September 1821 at the Washington Navy Yard. Shortly before she was to be launched, in the spring of 1825, President John Quincy Adams decided to have an American warship carry the Marquis de Lafayette back to Europe, in the wake of his triumphal visit to the land he had fought to free almost a half-century before.

The general had expressed his intention of sailing for home sometime in the late summer or early autumn of 1825. Adams selected "Susquehanna" for this honor, and accordingly, as a gesture of the nation’s affection for Lafayette, the frigate was renamed "Brandywine" to commemorate the battle in which the gallant Frenchman had shed his blood for American freedom. Launched on 16 June 1825 and christened by Sailing Master Marmaduke Dove, "Brandywine" was commissioned on 25 August 1825, Capt. Charles Morris in command.

After fitting out at the navy yard, the frigate stood down the Potomac River to await her distinguished passenger at St. Mary’s, Maryland, not far from the river’s mouth. Lafayette enjoyed a last state dinner to celebrate his 68th birthday on the evening of 6 September and then embarked in the steamboat "Mount Vernon" on the 7th for the trip downriver to join "Brandywine". On the 8th, the frigate stood out of the Potomac River and sailed down Chesapeake Bay toward the open ocean.

After a stormy three weeks at sea, the warship arrived off Le Havre, France, early in October; and, following some initial trepidation about the government’s attitude toward Lafayette’s return to a France now ruled by the ultra reactionary King Charles X, "Brandywine's" honored passenger and her captain disembarked, the former to return home and the latter to tour the country for six months to study shipyards, ship design and other naval matters.

1825: European operations

"Brandywine" left Le Havre that same day to join the United States Mediterranean Squadron. En route, she stopped at Cowes on the Isle of Wight in England to re-caulk seams that had opened rather badly during the Atlantic crossing.

Then, after being rendered more seaworthy, she resumed her voyage to Gibraltar on 22 October, reaching the famed British bastion guarding the Mediterranean Sea’s Atlantic entrance on 2 November. At the end of a fortnight in port, "Brandywine" sailed for the Balearic Islands in company with the ship of the line "North Carolina" and sloop of war "Erie". Following an 11-day passage, the trio reached Port Mahon, Minorca; and "Brandywine" spent the next three months refitting.

In February 1826, the schooner "Porpoise" arrived in Port Mahon with orders recalling "Brandywine" to the United States, and the frigate set sail for home late in the month. She stopped at Gibraltar early in March and finally entered New York City in mid-April.

1826: Pacific Ocean operations

After passing the rest of spring and much of the summer in repairs and outfitting for duty in the Pacific Ocean, "Brandywine" departed New York City on 3 September 1826 as the flagship of Commodore Jacob Jones who was sailing around Cape Horn for the Pacific coast of South America to take over command of the American squadron in the region from Commodore Isaac Hull. She also carried a relief crew for the schooner "Dolphin" that had been slated to remain on the Pacific Station.

Fortunately, by the time the frigate joined the squadron, Spain had abandoned her efforts to re-conquer her empire in the Western Hemisphere, so "Brandywine's" tour of duty in the Pacific proved far less troubled than that of her predecessor. She directed her efforts to protecting American citizens, especially merchant seamen who were being impressed into service by the Peruvian Navy.

Her own relief, the frigate "Guerriere", arrived in the summer of 1829 bringing Commodore Charles C. B. Thompson, the squadron's new commander, along with another crew for "Dolphin"; and "Brandywine" set sail for home. She reached New York City on 8 October and was decommissioned soon thereafter.

1830: Gunboat diplomacy in Europe

Placed back in commission on 10 January 1830, Capt. Henry E. Ballard in command, the warship set out for the Gulf of Mexico two months later to gather information concerning conditions in that area. She returned to the east coast at Norfolk, Virginia, on 7 July and began preparations for another European deployment.

"Brandywine" departed Hampton Roads, Virginia, on 22 October 1830 and headed for Gibraltar. At first, this deployment was devoted almost exclusively to sailing from one peaceful port to the next, showing the flag to maintain and enhance American prestige. However, President Andrew Jackson -- determined to collect indemnities owed to the United States for merchant ships that had been confiscated by several European nations while under Napoleon Bonaparte's puppet governments during the Napoleonic Wars -- decided to begin with the Kingdom of Naples.

While Napoleon's brother, Joseph Bonaparte, sat on the throne there, Naples had seized several American merchantmen; and the most recent successor to the throne, King Ferdinand II, had repudiated the debts. Jackson sent former Maryland congressman John Nelson to Naples as United States minister to negotiate the payment of these debts.

He also dispatched Commodore Daniel T. Patterson to the Mediterranean with reinforcements for the squadron already there and with orders to take overall command of American forces in that ancient sea from Commodore James Biddle. The frigate gave a physical dimension to Nelson's legal arguments.

1832: Demonstrating American firepower

When Nelson first raised the issue of the debts, King Ferdinand refused even to consider the question. This prompted the American minister to write to Commodore Patterson asking for naval support.

The commodore divided his squadron into two groups. The first contingent, headed by "Brandywine" and including "Constellation", reached Naples on 23 July 1832 and anchored near Ferdinand’s palace. This group remained in port until late in August when it returned to Port Mahon. Beginning with "Concord", that arrived on 17 September, however, the ships of the second contingent began standing into the harbor at Naples singly. Soon, the frigate "United States" arrived, followed in rapid succession by "John Adams" and "Boston".

Not a shot was fired and no explicit reference to the squadron was made during the negotiations; nevertheless, the unspoken message of power helped the king to see the justice of the American claims and prompted him to sign a treaty promising to pay 2,100,000 ducats to the United States over the next nine years. Her remaining months in the Mediterranean proved less dramatic; and "Brandywine" sailed for the United States late in the spring of 1833, returning to New York on 9 July and going out of commission two days later.

1834: Pacific Ocean operations

Reactivated in the spring of 1834, the frigate hoisted her commissioning pennant on 4 April, Capt. David Deacon in command, and set sail on 2 June to replace Vincennes as flagship of the Pacific Squadron. She reached Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 22 July and stayed until 14 August when she resumed her journey down the coast and around Cape Horn.

"Brandywine" arrived at Valparaiso on 3 October after a stormy passage of the cape, and Commodore Alexander S. Wadsworth broke his flag in her on 1 November. For the next three years, the warship plied the waters along South America’s west coast protecting United States citizens and commerce.

Finally, expiring enlistments signaled the time for "Brandywine" to sail for home, and she departed Callao in January 1837, bringing Commodore Wadsworth back home at the conclusion of his own tour of duty. After a relatively quiet 94-day passage, she reached Norfolk, Virginia, on 22 April 1837 and was placed in ordinary on 9 May 1837.

1839: The Caroline incident

After being laid up for more than two years, the frigate was recommissioned on 2 August 1839, Capt. William C. Bolton in command; and, once outfitted, sailed for the Mediterranean on 22 October.

This cruise was enlivened by tension with Great Britain over the Caroline incident. In 1837, when many people in the United States had sympathized with Canadian rebels, some Canadian loyalists had captured the steamboat "Caroline" from the United States' side of the Niagara River. In November 1840, a Canadian had been arrested and charged with murder in Lewistown, New York, after drunkenly boasting that he had taken part in the cutting out of "Caroline" and had killed an American.

Feelings on both sides of the Atlantic deepened during the spring of 1841, and the American minister to the Court of St. James wrote to Commodore Isaac Hull urging him to leave the Mediterranean lest war break out and his squadron be trapped there.

1841: Avoiding war with Britain

Upon receiving this warning, Hull ordered his ships to get underway and head for Gibraltar. Not knowing what faced them when they reached the strait, "Brandywine" and her consorts were prepared for the worst. Fortunately, steady pilots manned the helms on both sides, and peace persisted unbroken when the warship passed the strait and entered the Atlantic Ocean.

The frigate continued on westward and entered New York harbor on 12 May 1841. Later that summer, the crisis with Great Britain abated somewhat, and "Brandywine" headed back to the Mediterranean on 29 June. She completed her originally scheduled tour there under the command of Capt. David Greisinger and then returned to New York on 12 July 1842 to be decommissioned on 30 July 1842.

1843: China operations

"Brandywine" went back into commission on 16 February 1843, Lt. Charles W. Chauncey in command, and set sail for the East Indies on 24 May. After rounding the Cape of Good Hope, she reached Bombay, India, on 24 October to pick up the special envoy to China, Caleb Cushing, and took him to Macau where he went ashore and began negotiations for a treaty.

While Cushing was working to develop contacts with the Chinese government, "Brandywine" visited Manila, Hong Kong and Whampoa. On 16 June, the high commissioner appointed by the Chinese emperor to deal with Cushing, Ch'i-ying, arrived at Macau; and negotiations opened on the 21st.

Following 12 days of discussions, the Treaty of Wang Hsia was signed on 3 July 1844 providing for the establishment of five American treaty ports in China. It also granted protection to American sailors shipwrecked on Chinese shores and guaranteed that both civil and criminal law cases involving Americans would be adjudicated in consular courts. In effect, the treaty extended to the United States the privileges that Great Britain had extracted from China in the Treaty of Nanking that ended the Opium War, though with one important exception. The American treaty expressly forbade the opium traffic, but the British treaty did not.

(N.B.: Treaty of Whampoa)

Cushing set sail in the brig "Perry" on 29 August 1844 to return to the United States with the new treaty. "Brandywine", on the other hand, remained in the Orient until departing Macau for Honolulu, Hawaii, on 2 December 1844, carrying word of the Chinese privy council's approval of the treaty.

From Hawaii, she sailed to the west coast of South America where she made calls at several ports before setting out to double Cape Horn on her way home. At the end of a long and successful cruise, "Brandywine" stood into Norfolk, Virginia, on 17 September 1845 and was decommissioned there eight days later.

1847: Brazil Station operations

After nearly two years in ordinary, the frigate was recommissioned once more on 30 August 1847, Capt. Thomas Crabbe in command. On 13 September, "Brandywine" set sail for the Brazil Station where she cruised for more than three years protecting United States interests in the region. The warship then returned to the United States at New York City on 4 December 1850 and was decommissioned 10 days later.

1861: American Civil War operations

Laid up in ordinary for more than a decade, "Brandywine" finally resumed active service as a result of the American Civil War. She was recommissioned at the New York Navy Yard on 27 October 1861, Comdr. Benjamin J. Totten in command; and set sail immediately for Hampton Roads, Virginia, where she arrived on the 29th.

Housed over and converted to a storeship, the former warship supported the operations of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron for almost three years. She spent much of that time anchored near Fort Monroe, her most conspicuous absence coming in the wake of CSS "Virginia's" attempt to break the Union blockade early in the spring of 1862.

Towed to Baltimore, Maryland, by "Mount Vernon", "Brandywine" remained there until early June 1862, by which time the danger posed by the Confederate ironclad had waned considerably. Later moved to Norfolk, she also assumed the role of receiving ship for the squadron.

1864: "Brandywine" sinks at her moorings

She remained so employed until a fire broke out in her paint locker on 3 September 1864 and destroyed her. She sank at her moorings at Norfolk but was later raised and sold to Maltby & Co., of Norfolk, on 26 March 1867.

Note

"Brandywine" is notable as the final evolution of the 44-gun frigate design that began by "Constitution" and her sisters a quarter-century earlier; while ships such as "Raritan" were launched in the 1840s and differed in details, their basic design was identical to "Brandywine".

References

See also

* United States Navy
* Frigate
* Gunboat diplomacy
* China
* American Civil War