John Downes, USN-- Part 3: Cruising with the Essex and the Second Barbary War

Among the prizes taken by the USS Essex was the whaler Atlantic.  Captain Porter fitted it out as a cruiser and classified it as a sloop-of-war with twenty guns and named her Essex Junior.  The ship was placed  under the command of Lieutenant Downes.  The Essex and Essex Junior were both captured at the same time on 28 March 1814.

Downes was promoted to master commandant in 1813 and two years later commanded  the brig Epervier in the squadron under the command of  Stephen Decatur against Algiers.  On June 17, 1815, he assisted in the capture of the Algerian frigate Mashouda.  Two days later, the Eperviere and three smaller vessels captured the Algerian brig Estedio off Cape Palos.  

After the conclusion of peace with Algiers, Decatur transferred Downes to his ship, the USS Guerriere.

Downes also served on the Ontario and Independence before becoming a captain in 1817.

--Brock-Perry

Captain Thomas Gamble in the War of 1812

From the same source as the previous post.

GAMBLE, THOMAS (For previous record see War with Tripoli)--  Midshipman; on Frigate "Essex," 1806; transferred to merchant service. August 25,  1806, and again transferred to the same service, April 20, 1807;

Ordered to duty at New York, N.Y., August 5, 1807; ordered to duty under command of Lieutenant Melancthon T. Woolsey for service on the lakes, July 5, 1808; ordered to duty  at New York, N.Y., April 27, 1809;n  transferred to merchant service, July 10,  1809; ordered to duty under Captain John Rodgers, August 16, 1809;

Lieutenant, April 27, 1810; on Frigate "President," Captain John Rodgers, North Atlantic Squadron, May 1811; ordered to Baltimore, Md. September 3, 1814; on Frigate "Guerriere," November 13, 1814; ordered to New York, N.Y., to join West  India Squadron, Captain David Porter, November 28, 1814.  

(For subsequent service and continued record, see War with Algiers.)

--Brock-Perry

Jacob Nicholas Jones

From Together We Served site.  List of and dates of U.S. Navy Service.

1799-1801   USS United States
1801-1803   USS Philadelphia
1801-1805   Prisoner of War, Algeria

1805-1810   U.S. Navy
1810-1812   USS Wasp
1813-1814   USS Macedonian

1815   USS Macedonian
1816-1818   USS Guerriere
1818-1821   U.S. Navy

1821-1823   Mediterranean Squadron
1823-1826   U.S. Navy Board of Commissioners
1826-1827   Pacific Squadron

1829-1847   U.S. Navy
1847-1850  U.S. Naval Asylum

Not sure about the last place he was.  Did he command it or was he in it?

--Brock-Perry

The Armament of the USS Constitution Had Four Chambers Swivel Guns-- Part 3

On August 10, 1814, Captain Charles Stewart of the USS Constitution became aware of the experiments with the Chambers swivel guns and requested three or four of them.  It is not known if they were delivered.

But later, twenty of Chambers' guns were sent to the newly completed frigate USS Guerriere.  I could find no mention of these guns on this ship.  Wikipedia lists its armament at thirty-two 24-pdrs and twenty 42-pdr. carronades.

It is believed that 114 Chambers swivel guns were made by 1814.  Only two are known to exist today.

--Brock-Perry

Stephen Decatur and the Second Barbary War-- Part 2: Decatur's Fleet

From Wikipedia.

Wikipedia did not list the USS Saranac as being in Decatur's fleet.    Either a mistake on its part, or, it was with Bainbridge's fleet or maybe it didn't go at all.

Decatur's fleet was interesting as it consisted of two previously captured British ships.and the flagship was named for one the USS Constitution had sunk.

FRIGATES

USS Guerriere, 44 guns.   Flagship.  Named after the HMS Guerriere.  Capt. William Lewis
USS Constellation, 36 guns,  Capt. Charles Gordon
USS  Macedonian, 38 guns.  Captured from British.  Capt. Jacob Jones

SLOOPS

USS Epervier.  Captured bu USS Peacock.  Captain John Downes.  This ship disappeared carrying dispatches regarding the surrender of the Dey of Algiers after the war was over.
USS Ontario, 16 guns.  Capt. Jesse D. Elliott

BRIGS

USS Firefly, 14 guns.  Lt. George W. Rodgers
USS Spark, 14 guns.  Lt. Thomas Gamble
USS Flambeau, 14 guns.  John B. Nicholson

SCHOONERS

USS  Torch, 12 guns.  Lt. Walcott Chauncey
USS  Spitfire, 12 guns.  Lt. Alexander J. Dallas

But No Saranac.  --Brock-Perry

Thomas Macdonough After the Battle of Lake Champlain-- Part 2

Macdonough's next assignment was to relieve Isaac Hull at the Portsmouth Navy Yard 1815-1818 and after that he was appointed commander of the 44-gun frigate USS Guerriere (the former HMS Guerriere captured by Hull and the USS Constitution in 1812).

From 1818 to 1823, he was captain of the ship-of-the-line USS Ohio.

In 1824, he became commander of the USS Constitution, but by then his health had begun to fail and he died while overseas and his body was returned to the United States and buried at Middletown, Connecticut.

--Brock-Perry

HMS Guerriere: Captured By a Captured Ship

Wikipedia.

38-gun, 5th rate frigate, originally in French Navy. Launched 1803 and, at time of capture, was attacking British and Russian whalers in the Arctic Ocean off the coast of Greenland.

On July 19, 1806, forced to surrender to HMS Blanche and commissioned by the British as the HMS Guerriere and served in the West Indies and off the American coast. Captured by the Constitution August 19, 1812.

Had the ship not been so damaged in the battle and sunk, it might have also served in the U.S. Navy, making twice she was captured and three navies she served.

Of interest, the HMS Blanche, was formerly the 5th rate frigate Amfitrite in the Spanish Navy which had been captured by the 74-gun ship-of-the-line HMS Donegal off Spain 25 November 1804.

Also of interest, the United States laynched its own USS Guerriere, named after the British/French one in 1815, the first frigate built by the country since 1801.

The Story of Some Ships. --Brock-Perry

Commodore Jacob Nicholas Jones, USN

From Wikipedia.

(March 1768-August 3, 1850.  An American officer in the Quasi-War with France, the Barbary Wars and War of 1812.  Born in Kent County, Delaware.

He was definitely involved with some of the ships I wrote about last month on their 200th anniversaries.

Strangely, however, he didn't join the Navy as a midshipman until he was 31, that when some midshipmen were as young as 10.  Some think the death of his wife prompted him to do it.  During the Quasi War, he served on the USS United States under Commodore John Barry and was promoted to 2nd Lt. in 1801.

On Oct. 31, 1803, during the Barbary War, he was taken prisoner on the USS Philadelphia in the Bay of Tripoli, but freed in 1805.

In 1810, he was given command of the USS Wasp and during the War of 1812, on Oct. 18, 1812, captured the HMS Frolic and that same day he was again captured, this time by the HMS Poictiers.

He was widely acclaimed after his prisoner exchange despite losing his ship.  He then was given command of the USS Macedonian, a captured British ship before getting bottled up with the USS United States in New London, CT. in 1814.  He was then transferred to Lake Ontario and given command of the USS Mohawk during the last year of the war..

During the Second Barbary War, he again commanded the USS Macedonian and later captained the USS Guerriere, another captured British ship.  From 1821-1823, he commanded the Mediterranean Squadron, then the Pacific Squadron 1826-1829 and then was Navy Commissioner in Washington, DC. 

He commanded the Philadelphia Navy Yard from 1847 until his death.

So here was a guy captured twice and then who commanded two captured ships.

Must Have Been In His Blood.  --Brock-Perry