- USS Pennsylvania (1837)
:"See USS "Pennsylvania" for other Navy ships of the same name."
The first USS "Pennsylvania" was a three-decked 120 gun
ship of the line of theUnited States Navy . She was the largest sailing warship ever built for the Navy, and the equivalent of afirst-rate of the BritishRoyal Navy , but her only cruise was a single trip fromDelaware Bay toChesapeake Bay ."Pennsylvania" was one of the "nine ships to rate not less than 74 guns each" authorized by the US Congress
29 April 1816 . She was designed and built bySamuel Humphreys in thePhiladelphia Navy Yard . Her keel was laid in September1821 , but tight budgets slowed her construction, preventing her being launched until18 July 1837 . She had three complete gun decks and a flush spar-deck and her hull was pierced for 136 guns.Exploding
shell gun s were replacing solid shot by the time "Pennsylvania" was fitting out. ABureau of Ordnance Gun Register for1846 records her armament as follows:Spar deck : two 9 pounder (4 kg) cannons and one small brass swivel.Main deck : four 8 inch (203 mm) chambered cannons received from Norfolk in 1842, and thirty-two 32 pounder (15 kg) cannons.Middle deck : four 8 inch (203 mm) chambered cannons received from Norfolk in 1842, and thirty 32 pounder (15 kg) cannons.Lower deck : four 8 inch (203 mm) chambered cannons and 28 x 32 pounder (15 kg) cannons."Pennsylvania" shifted from her launching site to off
Chester, Pennsylvania ,29 November 1837 and was partially manned there the following day. Only 34 of her guns were noted as having been mounted3 December 1837. She stood downriver for New Castle,Delaware ,9 December , to receive gun carriages and other equippage before proceeding to theNorfolk Navy Yard for coppering her hull. She departed Newcastle20 December 1837 and discharged the Delaware pilot on the 25th. That afternoon she sailed for theVirginia Capes . She came off the Norfolk dry dock2 January 1838 . That day her crew transferred to "Columbia"."Pennsylvania" remained in ordinary until 1842 when she became a
receiving ship for the Norfolk Navy Yard. She remained in the yard until20 April 1861 when she was burned to the waterline to prevent her falling into Confederate hands.References
*
Howard Chapelle , "The History of the American Sailing Navy: the Ships and their Development" (New York: Norton, 1949)
*Robert Gardiner , "The Line of Battle: The Sailing Warship 1650-1850" (London: Conway Maritime Press, 1992)External links
* [http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-p/penna.htm Images of "Pennsylvania"]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.