USS President (1800)
USS President was a wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate of the United States Navy, nominally rated at 44 guns. She was one of the original six frigates whose construction the Naval Act of 1794 had authorized, and she was the last to be completed. Her first duties with the newly formed U.S. Navy were to provide protection for American merchant shipping during the Quasi War with France.
About USS President (1800) in brief
USS President was a wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate of the United States Navy, nominally rated at 44 guns. She was one of the original six frigates whose construction the Naval Act of 1794 had authorized, and she was the last to be completed. Her first duties with the newly formed U.S. Navy were to provide protection for American merchant shipping during the Quasi War with France and to engage in a punitive expedition against the Barbary pirates in the First Barbary War. On 16 May 1811, President was at the center of the Little Belt affair; her crew mistakenly identified HMS Little Belt as HMS Guerriere, which had impressed an American seaman. In January 1815, after having been blockaded in New York for a year by the Royal Navy, President attempted to run the blockade, and was chased by a blockading squadron. The British squadron captured President soon after, and theRoyal Navy took her into service as HMS President until she was broken up in 1818. During her service in the War of 1812, she was armed with a battery of thirty-two 24-pounder cannon: twenty-two cannon, twenty-four carronades, and one 18- pounder carronade. In 1829, President’s design was copied and used to build the next HMS President in 1829. The design incorporated a diagonal scantling scheme to limit hogging ; the ships were given extremely heavy planking. This gave the hull greater strength than those of more lightly built frigates, and so President and her sisters were larger and more heavily armed and built than standard frigates of the period.
Her original naval constructor was Forman Cheeseman and the superintendent was Captain Silas Talbot. Based on experience Humphreys gained during construction of President’s sister ships, Constitution and United States, he instructed Cheesman to make alterations to the frigate’s design. Although construction begun in 1796, her work was discontinued in 1798, under Christian Bergh and William Doughty. Although she was initially rated at 50 guns, she usually carried over 50 guns, although at this stage she was usually over 60 guns. The name President was among ten names submitted to President George Washington by Secretary of War Timothy Pickering in March of 1795 for the frigates that were to be constructed. The Act provided funds for the construction of six frates; however, it included a clause stating that construction of the ships would cease if the U. S. agreed to peace terms with Algiers. In March 1795, before President’s keel could be laid down, a peace accord was announced between the United states and Algier. At the onset of the quasi-War with France in 17 98, funds were approved to complete her construction, and her keel was laid at a shipyard in New New York City. President was built to a length of 175 ft and a beam of 44 4 ft.
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This page is based on the article USS President (1800) published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 06, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
