- USS Fenimore Cooper (1853)
USS "Fenimore Cooper" (1853) was a
schooner assigned as aship’s tender to accompany a surveying expedition. After departing fromHampton Roads, Virginia , and navigating theCape of Good Hope , the expedition traveled throughout thePacific Ocean accumulatinghydrographic information from theChina Sea to theBering Strait in theArctic andAlaska .Subsequently, "Fenimore Cooper" performed supply operations based out of
San Francisco, California , before once again returning to herPacific Ocean survey work, which continued until she was destroyed in atyphoon offYokohama ,Japan .Commissioned in 1853
"Fenimore Cooper" was a
US Navy schooner named forJames Fenimore Cooper . She was the New Yorkpilot boat "Skiddy" until purchased by the Navy in January1853 . She was commissioned21 March 1853 , Master H. K. Stevens in command.Pacific Ocean survey operations
"Fenimore Cooper" was acquired for use as a
ship's tender for the Surveying Expedition to theBering Strait , North Pacific, andChina Sea s commanded by Commander C. Ringgold, and later, Lieutenant J. Rodgers.The expedition of five ships, led by USS "Vincennes", sailed from
Hampton Roads, Virginia 11 June 1853 for theCape of Good Hope and the Orient. "Fenimore Cooper" and two other ships chartedarchipelago s and passages betweenBatavia andSingapore and fromJava northward to theSouth China Sea until June1854 , when she rejoined theflagship atHong Kong . Through that summer, the expedition cruised the coast ofChina , joining theEast India Squadron in protecting American interests.Searching for survivors
Returning to its surveys in September
1854 , the squadron sailed northward toPetropavlovsk , where the ships separated. "Vincennes" penetrated theArctic , while "Fenimore Cooper" searched theAleutians unsuccessfully for information concerning the fate of the men of the whaler "Monongahela", missing since1853 .Returning to the
United States , "Fenimore Cooper" called atSitka, Alaska , then Russian territory, in what hercommanding officer believed to be the first visit ever paid by an American naval ship to that port.San Francisco supply operations
"Fenimore Cooper" arrived in
San Francisco, California 11 October 1855 , and through the next three years, carried supplies betweenMare Island Navy Yard and San Francisco.Reassigned to survey duty
Once more assigned to survey duty, she sailed from San Francisco
26 September 1858 to chart the shipping lanes between theU.S. West Coast and China. She made a thorough examination of numerous small islands and reefs in the vicinity of theHawaiian Islands , and finding a deposit of good qualityguano onFrench Frigate Shoals , took possession of them for the United States4 January 1859 .The schooner sailed on to take soundings and make observations in the
Marianas and the islands south of Japan.Lost in a typhoon
On
13 August she arrived inKanagawa Bay offYokohama , where on the 23d she was grounded during a severetyphoon . All her men and most of the stores, instruments, charts and records of survey were saved, but the ship was found not worthy of repair, and abandoned. Her commanding officer and many of her crew returned to the United States in the Japanese naval ship "Candin Maru".References
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