USS Trumbull (1799)

The third US Navy ship to bear the name "Trumbull" [ [http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/t/trumbull.htm] History of USS Trumbull] was an 18 gun sloop-of-war constructed by naval agent Joseph Howland between 1799 and 1800. Construction of naval ships and expansion of the US Navy was authorised by Congress in response to large losses of merchant ships in the so-called Quasi-War between the United States and France. Following fitting out, it departed New London, Connecticut in March 1800 under the command of Master Commandant David Jewett. Its first mission was to escort the provisions ship "Charlotte" from New York to the West Indies, replenishing the American Squadron operating against the French.

"Trumbull" joined the American Squadron commanded by Silas Talbot [ [http://www.mysticseaport.org/Library/manuscripts/coll/coll018/coll018.cfm] Silas Talbot Collection (Coll. 18)] in the USS "Constitution". "Trumbull's" main duties in the area were protection of American shipping and the interception of French privateers and merchantmen. In early May, the armed French Schooner "Peggie" was captured, followed by "Vengeance" in August. Included in the crew and passengers captured on the "Vengeance" were key officers of one of the rival factions in the civil war then raging on the island of Hispanola.

Talbot ordered Jewett home with "Vengeance" as a prize, "Trumbull" arriving back at New London in late summer. "Trumbull" then returned to patrol off Santo Domingo, before later transporting Navy Agent Thomas T. Gantt to St. Kitts to relieve Thomas Clarkson. Following the end of hostilities with France as a result of the Treaty of Mortefontaine, "Trumbull" returned to the United States in the spring of 1801, was sold later that year and her crew discharged.

See also

See USS "Trumbull" for other Navy ships of the same name.

References