USS Pennsylvania (1837)

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Pennsylvania-ship-of-the-line-Currier-Ives.jpeg USS Pennsylvania , lithograph from 1846

history Flag of the United States (1837–1845) .svg
Keel laying: September 1821
Launch: July 18, 1837
Commissioning: Late 1837
Whereabouts: Burned April 20, 1861
General properties
Displacement : 3,105 t
Length: 210 ft (64 m)
Width: 56 ft, 9 in (17.30 m)
Draft: 24 ft, 4 in (7.42 m)
Crew: 1100 officers and men
Armament: 16 × 8-inch (203-mm) bomb cannons ,
104 × 32-pounder (15-kg) cannons

The first USS Pennsylvania was a 120-gun three - decker ship of the line with a continuous weather deck (" four-decker ") of the United States Navy . It was named after the US state of Pennsylvania . She was the largest sailing warship ever built for the Navy and the equivalent of the British Royal Navy's 1st class ships of the line . Their only trip was from Delaware Bay to Chesapeake Bay .

The Pennsylvania was one of the "nine ships with no fewer than 74 guns" authorized by the US Congress on April 29, 1816 . She was designed and built by Samuel Humphreys in the Philadelphia Navy Yard . Its keel was laid in September 1821, but the tight budget prevented it from being completed before July 18, 1837. It had 136 gun ports .

After commissioning, some guns were replaced by bomb cannons . A cannon register of the Navy Weapons Office from 1846 names the following armament:

  • Weather deck: Two 9 pounder (4 kg) cannons and a small brass rotating gun
  • Main Deck: Four 8 inch (203 mm) bomb cannons received in Norfolk in 1842 and thirty-two 32 pounder (15 kg) cannons
  • Middle deck: Four 8-inch bomb cannons and thirty 32 pounder cannons
  • Lower deck: four 8-inch bomb cannons and twenty-eight 32 pounder cannons

The Pennsylvania was moved from its construction site to Chester, Pennsylvania on November 29, 1837 and partially manned the next day.

USS Pennsylvania along with a naval association

On December 3, 1837, only 34 of their cannons were on board. She drove downstream to New Castle, Delaware , where she received cannon mounts and other equipment, and then got her copper fittings at the Norfolk Navy Yard . She left Norfolk on December 20th, released the Delaware pilot on the 25th, and set course for the Virginia Capes . On January 2, 1838, she was at dry dock in Norfolk, on the same day the crew was transferred to Columbia .

The Pennsylvania remained until 1842 in active service until it into a barge in the Norfolk Navy Yard was converted. It stayed here until April 20, 1861, when it was burned down to prevent it from falling into Confederate hands .

literature

  • Howard Chapelle: The History of the American Sailing Navy: the Ships and their Development. Norton, New York 1949.
  • Robert Gardiner: The Line of Battle: The Sailing Warship 1650-1850. Conway Maritime Press, London 1992.

Web links