American Naval History, 1607-1865: Overcoming the Colonial Legacy

5 Trade Protection and War with Mexico,1815–1861

i The United States attempted with only limited success to expand its navy during the War of 1812. Between 1813 and the end of 1815 it launched the 74-gun ships of the line Independence , Washington, and Franklin, the 44-gun frigates Guerriere and Java (a sister ship, the Essex, was destroyed before launching when the British captured Washington), and the 18-gun sloops Erie, Ontario, Frolic, Peacock, and Wasp (while a sixth sloop also was destroyed at Washington).1 Of these ships only the Frolic, Peacock, and Wasp were able to sail before war’s end. Shortly thereafter, however, some of the new ships were given an opportunity to prove their worth. During 1814 and 1815 the Barbary States, seeing that their commercial opportunities in the Mediterranean were declining due to the end of the Napoleonic War, reverted to armed attacks on neutral shipping. On 23 February 1815 the United States declared war on Algiers, the most powerful and aggressive of the Barbary States. It fitted out a fleet including the ship of the line Independence and five frigates and assigned Commodore William Bainbridge as its commander. Trade Protection and War with Mexico, 1815–1861 five 66 trade protection and war with mexico As preparing so large a fleet was time-consuming, Stephen Decatur was sent ahead with an advanced squadron consisting of the frigates Guerriere, Macedonian, and Constellation, as well as seven smaller vessels. Decatur’s squadron captured an Algerian frigate, forced the Algerians to make peace, and reestablished relations with Tunis and Tripoli before the rest of the fleet reached the Mediterranean.2 The threat from the Barbary States did not end, however. A squadron was left in the Mediterranean to protect U.S. trade. Although a large British fleet bombarded Algiers in 1816, suffering heavy casualties in the process, the menace was not brought completely under control until the French occupied Algiers in 1830.3 With the United States now at peace, Congress moved to prevent an eventual repetition of the 1812–14 war during which the navy had been too small to protect shipping or even the east coast from the British. On 19 April 1816 Congress approved spending $8 million over the next eight years in order to build nine more ships of the line of 74 or more guns and twelve frigates of at least 44 guns (including a 74 and three 44’s authorized in 1813). By the end of 1826 the navy had completed or at least begun work on nine ships of the line, ten 44gun frigates, and half a dozen 18-gun sloops. This building program, the largest before the Civil War, proved far too ambitious . There were not enough funds to finish all the ships or enough sailors to man them. The Columbus, 74, North Carolina , 74, Delaware, 74, and Ohio, 74, were launched in 1819–20 and the Pennsylvania, 120, in 1837, but work was suspended on four other 74’s pending a need for them; all of the frigates eventually were completed, but only four of them were launched by 1830. The navy could not even use all the ships that were launched. 67 trade protection and war with mexico Although the ships of the line impressed the British with the size of their cannon, they were unsatisfactory in other ways. Only the Ohio had a good reputation for her sailing qualities, and the three ships of the line launched by 1815 were unable to make much use of their full armament because their lower gun ports were too close to the waterline; the Washington and Franklin were quickly taken out of service, and the Independence eventually was converted to a 54-gun frigate. Each year from 1816 to 1851 there were between one and three ships of the line in service, but only the Ohio and Delaware were used for more than ten years. The massive Pennsylvania, one of the largest ships of the line in the world, was obsolete by the time it finally was launched. It sailed from Philadelphia to Norfolk and was promptly taken out of service.4 Abel Upshur, arguably the best secretary of the navy during the period, argued that the navy needed to be half as strong as the British in order to act as a deterrent. It never came close. Between 1815 and 1850 the British never had fewer than fifty ships of the line in...