HMS Boxer-- Part 5: Later Career

Initially the Boxer was used to defend  Portland harbor.  After the war, she became a merchant ship for several years.  The HMS Boxer evidently did not become the USS Boxer as a commissioned U.S. ship.  There was another USS Boxer, a 14-gun brig constructed by C, and D. Churchill of Middleton, Connecticut and commissioned in 185 under Lt. John Porter.)

Her first voyage as one was in April 1815, under Captain William McLellan, Jr.  (1776-1844).  She sailed to Havana, New York, Cadiz, Gibraltar, Marseilles and back to New York before returning to Portland in early  1816.

Subsequent  shorter cruises under McLellan, Hall or William Merrill took her along the coast or to the West Indies.

Around 1818, William Merrill sold her to a Portuguese  firm that used her as a mail packet between Portuguese  Cape Verde and Lisbon.

Merrill reported in 1825, that  he passed the Boxer leaving Praia at dusk as he entered the harbor as he entered the harbor on his vessel, the John, .

It is thought that the Boxer was eventually lost off the coast of  Brazil.

--Brock-Perry

An American Spy (for the British) in the War of 1812-- Part 1

From the September 27, 2021,  Press-Republican " 'In plain sight':  New museum exhibit reveals American spy in War of 1812" by Fernando Alba.

Keith Herkalo, president of the War of 1812 Museum in Plattsburgh, New York, was looking over some documents  from the University of Michigan when he saw something of great interest.  It was from an American merchant to a British merchant in Montreal after the Battle of Plattsburgh in 1814.

The merchant wanted to move his goods north into the St. Lawrence River and then on to Halifax in Canada.  The letter was sent just three months after a British invasion had been turned  back at the Battle of Plattsburgh.

Only, that letter was treason since the U.S. had an embargo on.  The merchant was in New York City and wanted to "go around" the embargo and make some money.

But, he would need  support from someone in the British government for safe passage.

So. Who Was This War of 1812 American Spy and What Info Did he Give the British?  --Brock-Perry

How the British Invasion of Maine During the War of 1812 Led to Statehood-- Part 1

From the March 9, 2020, TV 13 CBS News by Bill Trotter.

The War of 1812 came to Maine in 1814 in a big way.  That's when the powerful British Navy descended upon the towns of Eastport, Machias and Castine.  What is today Maine, was at the time a part of Massachusetts.

The British controlled much of the Maine coast between Penobscot and Cobscook bays for most of a year, raiding towns along the Penobscot River and attacking Hampden and Bangor before returning to Castine.

The war had been going on for two years already, but divided support in the United States as well as the British being more involved with Napoleon had kept the fighting away from Maine.  That is, other than a sea battle between the USS Enterprise and the HMS Boxer which the American ship won.

Initial support for the war was weakest in New England, where the Federalist Party favored strong ties with England and merchants conducted significant trade with the British colony of Canada.  The New Englanders went so far as to almost have secession, something they opposed when the Southern states did so some fifty years later.

--Brock-Perry

USS Congress (1799)-- Part 2: Action in First and Second Barbary Wars, War of 1812 and Against West Indies Pirates

Her first duties with the U.S. Navy were to provide protection for American merchant shipping during the Quasi War with France and to defeat Barbary pirates during the First Barbary War.

During the War of 1812, she made several extended cruises in company with her sister ship, the USS President.  During those, the Congress captured or assisted in the capture of twenty British merchant ships.

At then end of 1813, because of lack of materials for repairs, the Congress was placed in ordinary for the remainder of the war.

In 1815, she returned to duty for service in the second Barbary War and made patrols through 1816.  In the 1820s, she helped suppress piracy in the West Indies and made several voyages to South America.

The Congress was also the first American ship to visit China.

The last ten years of her service were as a receiving ship until ordered broken up in 1834.

The next USS Congress, (1841) was a 52-gun frigate destroyed by the CSS Virginia in 1862.

--Brock-Perry

Memorial Day 2017: Norman Kirby Hatch

This day to thank our veterans, I will post in every one of my blogs about them.  I will do World War I and World War II veterans.

Norman Kirby Hatch served in the Merchant Marine during World War I.

He was my grandfather.

Mr. Jefferson's Gunboat Navy-- Part 1

Source: Mariner's Museum, Virginia.

Since I have been writing about United States War of 1812 gunboats, I though this article I found from last year was appropriate.  It also provides some background information on events leading up to the war.

By 1805, tension between the U.S. and Britain continued to mount.  America was angered by the blockade of France, impressment of American sailors and confiscation of our ships.  And, after the defeat of te French fleet at the October 1805 Battle of Trafalgar Britain held complete domination of the sea.

From 1800 to 1805 fifty-nine American merchant ships were taken by the British Navy.

From 1805 to 1807 about half of U.S. merchant ships, 469, were taken.

In the year 1807, there was the Chesapeake-Leopard Affair and the further impressment of 6,000 sailors from American ships.

Clearly, the countries were approaching the brink of war.

War Clouds On the Horizon.  --Brock-Perry

The State of the War February 19, 1813-- Part 1

From the Andrew Jackson War of 1812 Blog.

From the Feb. 19, 1913, Raleigh (NC) Register "Notes from Washington City, February 13, 1812.

There was a bill for the exclusion of foreign seamen from serving on Navy vessels and merchant service which had passed a third reading in the House of Representatives,  "Many gentlemen from the federal side of the House voted for the bill and some against it."

Federalists would be primarily from New England.  North Carolina would be more of a Democrat-Republican state.  I'm not sure exactly why there would be a split in Federalist voting.

Brock-Perry

HMS Poictiers

From Wikipedia.

This was the ship that arrived on the scene after the USS Wasp had defeated the HMS Frolic and then recaptured the British ship and captured the USS Wasp on Oct. 18, 2012, 200 years ago.

It was a 74-gun ship of the line launched in 1809, and most of its war record involved capturing some 20 merchant ships of the U.S. coast  It also captured three U.S. armed privateers: Herald, 10 guns; Highflyer, 5 guns and Yorktown, 20 guns.

On March 16, 1813, the ship's commander demanded that the town of Lewes, Delaware give him 20 live bulls, vegetables and hay, to which he would pay a fair price.  If not, he would destroy the town.  The town refused and on April 6th and 7th, the town was shelled with the killing of a chicken and wounding of a pig.

There is a cannonball fired from the Poictiers lodged in the stone foundation of the Lewes Marine Museum.

In 1857, the Poictiers was sold and broken up.

Brock-Perry