USS Macedonian (1836)

The second USS "Macedonian", a 36-gun frigate, was rebuilt from the keel of the first "Macedonian" at Gosport (later Norfolk) Navy Yard, Portsmouth, Virginia, beginning in 1832; and was launched and placed in service in 1836, Capt. Thomas ap C. Jones in command.

"Macedonian" was assigned to the West Indies Squadron to cruise in the West Indies and along the west coast of Africa from 1839 to 1847 as a continuing deterrent to Caribbean pirates.

By a joint resolution of Congress 3 March 1847 "Macedonian" and sloop-of-war "Jamestown" were placed in civilian hands to carry food to Ireland during the Great Famine of the late 1840s. With a volunteer crew, "Macedonian", Capt. George C. De Kay in command, departed New York 15 June with 12,000 barrels of provisions for Ireland donated by private citizens of the United States, returning to Brooklyn Navy Yard some months later to resume Navy service.

In 1852 "Macedonian" docked at the Brooklyn Navy Yard to be razeed and converted to a sloop-of-war for the expedition to Japan, 1852 to 1854. Assigned to the East India Squadron under Commodore Matthew Perry, she, Capt. Joel Abbot in command, was one of the six American ships arrayed off Uraga, Japan, 13 February 1854 during Perry's second visit to negotiate the opening of Japan to foreign trade. The treaty signed at Yokohama 31 March 1854 was a distinct naval feat in the diplomatic field. Commodore Perry had created such a show of force on his initial visit at Kurihama 14 July 1853 that the Japanese began their turn to the West.

"Macedonian" remained on patrol in the North Pacific for the next 3 years. Then, from 1857 to 1861 she served with the Home Squadron in the Mediterranean and the Caribbean.

With the crisis of the American Civil War looming just ahead, the frigate departed Portsmouth, New Hampshire, for Pensacola, Florida, 12 January 1861 to join "Brooklyn" in preventing a possible Confederate attack on the harbor. On 11 February "Macedonian" sailed for Veracruz, Mexico, arriving the 24th. She then began patrol operations along the gulf coast and the coast of South America, with stops at Aspinwall (later Colón, Panama) and Portobelo, Panama; Martinique; and St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. On 3 December she got underway with "Dacotah" from St. Thomas for the east coast, arriving Boston Navy Yard 16 January 1862. "Macedonian" spent most of the next 2 years with the West Indies Squadron. In July 1863 she cruised along the coast of Portugal with sloop-of-war "Kearsarge" hunting Confederate States Ship "Southerner". It was around then that Alfred Thayer Mahan served aboard for a brief time.

From the end of that year through 1870, "Macedonian" served as school and practice ship for midshipmen at the United States Naval Academy, first at Newport, Rhode Island, then after the Civil War at Annapolis, Maryland. In 1871 she was laid up in ordinary at the Norfolk Navy Yard, where she was sold to Wiggin and Robinson for merchant service.

There is no record of "Macedonian" having actually sailed as a merchant ship, and the next reference to the ship, in 1900, mentions her as having been converted into the Macedonian Hotel on City Island in the Bronx. The hotel was sold in 1912 and renamed the City Island Casino, but burned down 9 June 1922. The naval origin of the Macedonian Hotel was mentioned in a Ripley's Believe It or Not item in 1983.

References

*DANFS|http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/m1/macedonian-ii.htm
* James T. de Kay, "Chronicles of the Frigate Macedonian" (W.W. Norton, New York, 1995)