USS Pickering (1798)

USS "Pickering" was a topsail schooner in the United States Navy during the Quasi-War with France. She was named for Timothy Pickering, then the Secretary of State.

"USRC Pickering" was built at Newburyport, Massachusetts in 1798 for the Revenue Cutter Service, Captain Jonathan Chapman, USRCS in command. Taken into the Navy in July at the outbreak of the Quasi-War, she departed Boston on her first cruise 22 August.

In 1799 and the early part of 1800, she was with Commodore Barry’s squadron in the West Indies. Lieutenant Edward Preble commanded "Pickering" from January through June 1799, when he was promoted to captain and left to command the frigate U.S.S. Essex.

"Pickering" was permanently transferred to the Navy 20 May and redesignated as "USS Pickering". Master Commandant Benjamin Hillar, USN, assumed command in June. It was under Hillar's command that "Pickering" fought a notable engagement with the French privateer "L’Egypte Conquise" on October 8, 1799. The Frenchman was well fitted out and manned to capture "Pickering". Against her 14 9-pounders, 4 6-pounders, and crew of 250, the cutter had only 14 4-pounders and seventy men. But after a nine-hour battle, the larger ship surrendered. "Pickering" continued to cruise in the West Indies, and before her return to the United States she captured four French privateers, including the "Voltigeuse," "Atalanta," "L'Active" and "Fly" and recaptured the American ship "Portland."

She departed Boston 10 June 1800. Ordered to join the squadron of Commodore Thomas Truxton on the Guadeloupe Station, West Indies, she sailed from Newcastle, Delaware 20 August, but was never heard from again. She is supposed to have been lost with all hands in a gale that September although this is not proven. The exact cause of her disappearance remains a mystery.