Tag: USS John Adams

Wikipedia says: The first John Adams was originally built in 1799 as a frigate for the United States Navy, converted to a corvette in 1809, and later converted back to a frigate in 1830. Named for American Founding Father and president John Adams, she fought in the Quasi-War, the First and Second Barbary Wars, the War of 1812, the Mexican–American War and the American Civil War. At the end of her career, she participated in the Union blockade of South Carolina’s ports.

Origin

John Adams was built for the United States by the people of Charleston, South Carolina, under contract to Paul Pritchard and launched in the latter’s shipyard some 3 miles (4.8 km) from Charleston 5 June 1799…

Mexican-American and Civil Wars

John Adams finally arrived Boston about the middle of June where she was laid up until 1842. After duty on the Brazil Station, she went into ordinary where she remained until recommissioned at the beginning of the Mexican-U.S. War.

She was anchored off the bar at Santiago 8 May 1846 during the Battle of Palo Alto. She then maintained a blockading station off the east coast of Mexico for the remainder of the war. The prolonged period of time the John Adams spent on station off the Mexican coast in support of American military operations, may account for the increase in flogging as reflected in the surviving disciplinary reports for years, 1846–1847.

John Adams returned to Boston in September 1848 and received extensive repairs before joining the Royal Navy for action against the slave trade around Africa. Rear Admiral Barrington Reynolds was the British Commander-in-Chief, Cape of Good Hope Station at the time. She returned from this difficult duty in July 1853. Thereafter, with the exception of periods at home for repairs, John Adams operated in the Pacific and the Far East until after the outbreak of the Civil War. She sailed for home from Siam 6 July 1861 and reached New York 11 January 1862, bringing a box containing two letters from the King of Siam to President Lincoln, along with a sword and a pair of ivory tusks.

John Adams was sent to Newport, Rhode Island, the wartime location of the Naval Academy, to act as training ship for midshipmen. In the summer of 1863 she joined the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron and took station off Morris Island inside Charleston Bar. There she served as flagship of the inner blockade until she sailed into the harbor after the evacuation of Charleston in February 1865.

One of her crew, Coxswain Oliver O’Brien, received the Medal of Honor for his actions during the 1864 capture of a blockade runner. Another member of her crew, Acting Ensign Pierre d’Orléans, was a member of the Orleansist branch of the French royal family.

Fate

Late in the summer of 1865 she sailed to Boston where she was decommissioned in September. She was one of the oldest vessels in the US Navy at the time of her decommissioning.

John Adams was sold 5 October 1867 for $1500 to the British government to use as quarters for the Hong Kong police. She was taken to Hong Kong where her hulk was commissioned in 1868 for use as Water Police Headquarters. In February 1884 the hulk John Adams caught fire and was lost. HMS Merlin later torpedoed and sank the burnt-out hulk.