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USS San Jacinto (1850)

The first USS San Jacinto was an early screw frigate in the
United States Navy during the mid-19th century. She was
named for the San Jacinto River, site of the Battle of San
Jacinto during the Texas Revolution. She is perhaps best
known for her role in the Trent Affair of 1861.

San Jacinto was laid down by the New York Navy Yard in
August 1847, and launched on 16 April 1850. She was
sponsored by Commander Charles H. Bell, Executive Officer of
the New York Navy Yard.

Contents
European service, 1852–1854
Home Squadron and West Indies Squadron, 1855
East Indian Squadron, 1855–1859
African Squadron, 1859–1861
American Civil War, 1861–1865
1861
1862
1863
1864 The San Jacinto (right) stops the RMS Trent
1865
History
Prizes
See also
References Name: USS San Jacinto
Builder: New York Navy Yard
Laid down: August 1847
European service, 1852–1854
Launched: 16 April 1850
No record of San Jacinto's commissioning ceremony has been
Commissioned: late 1851/early 1852
found, but her first commanding officer, Captain Thomas
Crabbe, reported aboard on 18 November 1851. The earliest Fate: Ran aground, 1 January 1865
page of the ship's log which has survived is dated 26 February General characteristics
1852, but San Jacinto's service began earlier. Some evidence
Type: Screw frigate[1]
suggests that the frigate got under way for test runs late in 1851.
Tonnage: 1567
Built as an experimental ship to test new propulsion concepts,
Length: 234 ft (71 m)
the screw frigate was plagued by balky engines and unreliable
Beam: 37 ft 9 in (11.51 m)
machinery throughout her career. Yet, San Jacinto crowded
Draft: 16 ft 6 in (5.03 m)

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her record with interesting and valuable service. Depth of hold: 23 ft 3 in (7.09 m)

The steamer sailed from New York on New Year's Day, 1852, Propulsion: Steam engine, screw propeller
and headed for Norfolk, Virginia on a trial voyage to test her Speed: 8 knots (15 km/h; 9.2 mph)
seaworthiness and machinery before heading across the Complement: 235 officers and enlisted[1]
Atlantic for service in the Mediterranean. She encountered
Armament: 6 × 8 in (200 mm) Smoothbore
heavy weather during the passage to Hampton Roads, and one
guns[1]
of her engines was disabled. After repairs at the Norfolk Navy
Yard, the frigate finally passed between the Virginia Capes on 3 General characteristics 1862
March and headed for Cadiz, Spain. However, chronic engine Armament: 1 × 11 in (280 mm)
problems hampered the ship during her operations in Smoothbore gun
European waters; and she returned to Philadelphia,
10 × 9 in (230 mm)
Pennsylvania on 5 July 1853. She was decommissioned there on
Smoothbore guns
the 13th for installation of new machinery.
1 × 12 pdr Rifle[1]
Four days after recommissioning on 5 August 1854, San
General characteristics Dec 1863
Jacinto sailed eastward to try her new engines. Following
repairs at Southampton, England, she resumed her cruise in Armament: 1 × 100 pdr Rifle
European waters. • 10 × 9 in (230 mm)
Smoothbore guns

Home Squadron and West 1 × 20 pdr Rifle[1]

Indies Squadron, 1855

In the spring of 1855, San Jacinto was briefly attached to the Home Squadron and served in the West Indies Squadron
as flagship for Commodore Charles S. McCauley to bolster American naval strength in the Caribbean after Spanish
frigate, Ferrolana, had fired upon United States mail steamer, El Dorado, off the coast of Cuba. When no further cause
of friction between the two countries developed, San Jacinto returned home and decommissioned at New York on 21
June 1855 for repairs.

East Indian Squadron, 1855–1859

Recommissioned on 4 October 1855, the screw frigate, now commanded by Captain Henry H. Bell, departed New York
on the 25th and headed for the Far East as flagship of Commodore James Armstrong. After proceeding via Madeira,
the Cape of Good Hope, Mauritius, and Ceylon, the ship arrived at Penang in the Straits of Malacca on 22 March 1856.

There, Townsend Harris, the recently appointed Consul General to Japan, embarked on 2 April; and the ship got
underway that morning for Siam. After a four-day stop at Singapore, where Commodore Armstrong relieved
Commodore Joel Abbot in command of the East India Squadron, the frigate reached the bar off the mouth of the Me
Nam (later the Chao Phraya) River on the 13th. A few days later, Harris ascended the Me Nam to Bangkok where he
negotiated a treaty establishing diplomatic and commercial relations between the United States and Siam. The King of
Siam at the time was Mongkut, who was later the subject of the musical comedy, The King and I.

After succeeding in this delicate diplomatic mission, Harris returned on the morning of 1 June to San Jacinto, which
awaited him at the mouth of the Me Nam; and the frigate departed Siam to carry Harris to his new post in Japan.

However, after only half an hour of steaming, engine trouble reappeared and plagued the ship throughout her painfully

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slow passage to Hong Kong, which she finally reached on the 13th. There, major repairs interrupted the voyage for
almost two months.

San Jacinto finally got underway again on 12 August. While proceeding by the Pescadores toward Formosa, she
assisted several junks recently disabled by a violent typhoon which had devastated much of the coast of China. The
ship at long last reached Shimoda, Japan, on 21 August and remained there while Harris was negotiating with
Japanese officials concerning the establishment of his consulate—the first official foreign diplomatic office to be
permitted on Japanese soil. During his subsequent service as Consul General, Harris persuaded the Japanese
government to sign a commercial treaty which opened the country to American trade and hastened the westernization
and industrial development of Japan.

On 4 September 1856, after a party from the ship had erected a flagpole in front of the new consulate and had helped
Harris to raise the Stars and Stripes there for the first time, San Jacinto weighed anchor and headed for Shanghai.

Early in October 1856, mounting hostility toward foreigners in China erupted into the Second Opium War. Later that
month, word of the fighting between British and Chinese forces at Canton reached Commodore Armstrong at
Shanghai, and he proceeded in San Jacinto to the scene of the conflict. When he reached the Pearl River, he learned
that Comdr. Andrew H. Foote, in response to a request for help from the United States consul at Canton, had landed a
force of 150 men at Whampoa to protect American lives and property.

Armstrong approved of Foote's action and reinforced the shore party with a detachment from San Jacinto. A few days
later, after receiving assurances from Chinese officials, the Commodore decided to withdraw the American force.

However, on 15 November, while Foote was passing the barrier forts in a small boat during preparations for
reembarkation, Chinese guns fired upon him four or five times. The next day, Portsmouth closed the nearest fort and
opened fire, beginning a vigorous engagement which continued until the Chinese batteries were silenced some two
hours later. Meanwhile, efforts were begun to settle the matter by diplomatic means. Nevertheless, four days later,
after receiving a report that the Chinese were strengthening their works, Armstrong again ordered his ships to open
fire. They bombarded the two nearest forts until the enemy fire slackened. Then Foote led about 300 men ashore, took
the first fort, and used the 53 guns captured there to silence hostile batteries in the next fort. The bluejackets and
marines ashore subsequently beat off an attack by 3,000 Chinese soldiers from Canton. In the following two days, they
first silenced and then took the three remaining forts. In all, they seized and spiked 176 cannon. Before the American
ships departed Canton, their men had destroyed these riverside strongholds. During the fighting, negotiations with
Chinese officials continued and resulted in the recognition of the rights of the United States as a neutral power.

Thereafter, San Jacinto served in Chinese ports for more than a year, principally at Hong Kong and Shanghai. After
protecting American interests in the troubled waters of the Far East into 1858, the veteran steam frigate returned home
on 4 August and decommissioned two days later.

African Squadron, 1859–1861

Over ten months in ordinary followed before San Jacinto was recommissioned on 6 July 1859, for service in the Africa
Squadron to help suppress the slave trade. The following spring, 1860, she proceeded to Cadiz, Spain, for repairs. After
returning to the west coast of Africa, she captured the brig, Storm King, on 8 August 1860, off the mouth of the Congo
River. A prize crew from the steam frigate sailed the captured slaver to Monrovia and turned 616 freed people over to
the United States agent there before proceeding to Norfolk with the prize.

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American Civil War, 1861–1865

1861
On 27 August 1861, shortly before San Jacinto sailed for home, Capt. Charles Wilkes assumed command of the ship.
En route back to the United States for service in the Union Navy during the American Civil War, the warship searched
for the Confederate cruiser, Sumter, which, under Capt. Raphael Semmes, CSN, was then preying upon Union shipping
in the Atlantic. She visited the Windward Passage, Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and Boca Grande, Florida while seeking
the Southern commerce raider. When the ship touched at Cienfuegos, Cuba, for coal, Wilkes learned that James M.
Mason and John Slidell, former United States senators and new Confederate envoys to Britain and France, had
escaped from Charleston, South Carolina, on 12 October in the speedy coastal packet, Theodora, and were at Havana
awaiting transportation to Europe.

Wilkes raced around the island to Havana, bent on intercepting Theodora on the blockade runner's return trip but
arrived on the last day of the month, one day after his quarry had departed.

However, he learned that the Southern diplomats were still at Havana and intended to sail for St. Thomas a week later
in the British mail packet, Trent. They planned to board a British liner there to complete their journey to London.

Wilkes proceeded in San Jacinto to a narrow part of the Old Bahama Channel, some 230 miles east of Havana, and
waited there to waylay Trent. On 8 November, two shots across the mail packet's bow persuaded her master to heave
to. A boarding party from San Jacinto seized the Confederate diplomats and their secretaries and then permitted the
packet to resume her voyage. A week later, when San Jacinto reached Norfolk with the prisoners, the exultant North
hailed the news as a great Union triumph. The incident strained United States relations with Britain almost to the
breaking point and came to be known as the Trent Affair.

Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles ordered Wilkes to take the prisoners to Boston, Massachusetts in San Jacinto.
They were held at Fort Warren until quietly released on New Year's Day, 1862, and taken to Provincetown,
Massachusetts, to board HMS Rinaldo for passage to London. The diplomatic crisis then subsided.

1862
San Jacinto was decommissioned on 30 November 1861 for overhaul at the Boston Navy Yard and was prepared for
service as flagship of the Gulf Blockading Squadron. Recommissioned on 1 March 1862,commanded by William
Ronckendorff, the steamer departed Boston for Hampton Roads on the 9th, the day of the epic battle between
USS Monitor and CSS Virginia, the former Merrimack. San Jacinto reached the Virginia Capes on the 15th and
remained in the area temporarily assigned to the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron to bolster Union naval forces in
Hampton Roads lest Virginia return to that strategic waterway and threaten General George McClellan's army which
was then pushing up the peninsula between the James and York rivers toward Richmond, Virginia.

On 11 April 1862, Virginia rounded Sewell's Point and entered Hampton Roads. Under the ironclad's protection, CSS
Jamestown and CSS Raleigh approached the Hampton shore and captured three small Union Army transports.
However, no major engagement developed; and the Confederate ships retired upstream late in the afternoon.

On 5 May, President Abraham Lincoln arrived in Hampton Roads on board the steamer, Miami, to take personal
charge of the stalled Peninsula Campaign; and, for the next five days, acted as Commander in Chief in the field. At his

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orders three days later, San Jacinto joined other Union warships in bombarding Sewell's Point.

Events moved fast thereafter. Confederate troops withdrew from Norfolk and Suffolk, Virginia and set fire to the Navy
Yard at Portsmouth, Virginia. San Jacinto helped to provide naval support as U.S. troops occupied the evacuated area.
In the early hours of 11 May, Virginia's crew set the dreaded Southern ironclad ablaze and she blew up before dawn.

With the end of the principal Confederate naval threat to Union forces on the peninsula and its surrounding water, San
Jacinto was free to resume her voyage south. She departed Hampton Roads on the 23rd, carrying Flag Officer James L.
Lardner, and reached Key West, Florida, on 1 June. Three days later, Lardner relieved Flag Officer William McKean in
command of the East Gulf Blockading Squadron; and San Jacinto became the squadron flagship.

However, the ship's tour of duty as flagship was cut short. On 1 August, Lardner reported that yellow fever had broken
out on the ship; and, the next day, she sailed north. She arrived at the quarantine area off Deer Island, near Boston, on
the 9th.

The health of her crew restored, San Jacinto was assigned to the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, departed Boston
on 15 October and, four days later, joined the blockade off Wilmington, North Carolina. However, as she was taking
station in the blockade, orders left Washington for the ship to proceed immediately to Hampton Roads, fill her bunkers
with coal, and steam at top speed to the coast of Nova Scotia in search of the Confederate cruiser, Alabama, with which
the elusive Raphael Semmes had struck a series of rapid blows against American shipping and fishing and caused
Northern merchants to clamor for protection.

San Jacinto got under way on the 22nd and reached Hampton Roads on the morning of the 24th. While she was
preparing for sea, reports reached Washington indicating that Alabama might have altered her course. Accordingly,
when San Jacinto sailed on the morning of the 26th, she headed via Bermuda to the West Indies. In the weeks that
followed, the frigate and Alabama played hide-and-seek in the Caribbean. On the morning of 19 November, the
Federal warship finally caught up with Semmes when she reached Fort Royal, Martinique. Alabama had anchored
there the previous morning and was enjoying sanctuary in the neutral port. San Jacinto waited at the entrance to the
harbor just outside the three-mile limit required by international law, but Alabama slipped by her to comparative
safety at sea during the ensuing dark and rainy night. As neither ship saw the other during the escape, San Jacinto
remained at Fort Royal until certain that Alabama was not hiding in some secluded spot within the bay, but had
indeed escaped. On the 21st, San Jacinto got under way and searched for her slippery adversary until arriving at Key
West on 15 January 1863.

1863
There she was attached to the East Gulf Blockading Squadron as flagship. However, soon after she began this duty,
word reached Key West that CSS Florida had escaped through the blockade from Mobile and was at Havana. On 22
January, Rear Admiral Theodorus Bailey ordered San Jacinto to sail for Cuba and blockade the Confederate cruiser if
she were in port or to chase and capture or destroy her if the commerce raider had departed. The Union frigate quickly
put to sea but found little trace of Florida. She broke her shaft on 30 January; sailed north on 4 February; and reached
the New York Navy Yard on the 16th for repairs.

Again ready for action, San Jacinto departed New York on 24 June and returned to Key West on 1 July. She celebrated
Independence Day by becoming Rear Admiral Bailey's flagship, and she performed that duty until relieved by
USS Dale on 5 September.

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The ship then took up blockade duty off Mobile, Alabama. On the afternoon of the 11th, her masthead lookout reported
"black smoke bearing about south", and San Jacinto set out in pursuit of the steamer. During the chase, the lookout
spotted the blockade runner Fox, aground and burning. About dusk, San Jacinto changed course for Mobile, hoping to
intercept the fleeing vessel if she attempted to dash into that port. This strategy proved sound for, early the next
morning, the Union steam frigate found that her quarry was again within sight; and the chase began again. Near the
Chandeleur Islands, San Jacinto anchored in shoal water and sent her first cutter after the steamer. That evening
shortly before twilight, the blockade runner—which happened to bear the name of the frigate's old adversary,
Alabama—ran ashore and was abandoned. Before San Jacinto's cutter could reach the prize, the Union blockader
Eugenie arrived upon the scene and took possession of the blockade runner.

On the 16th, San Jacinto captured the steamer Lizzie Davis after a two-hour chase. This blockade runner had departed
from Havana laden with lead and was endeavoring to dash into Mobile. On 6 October, San Jacinto was within signal
distance when the schooner USS Beauregard took possession of Last Trial, after heavy weather had forced that
Southern sloop to seek shelter near Key West. On 16 December, USS Ariel, a tender to San Jacinto, captured the
Confederate sloop Magnolia; and, on the 24th, the schooner USS Fox, another of San Jacinto's tenders, took the
British schooner Edward, which was trying to carry salt and lead from Havana to the Suwannee River,
notwithstanding Britain's de jure neutrality.

1864
On the morning of 7 January 1864, San Jacinto overtook the schooner Roebuck after a two-hour chase, and deprived
the Confederacy of a general cargo including much clothing and lead. In another two-hour chase on 11 March, San
Jacinto ran an unnamed schooner (formerly called Lealtad) aground. She then took possession of this prize which was
laden with cotton and turpentine for export.

Yellow fever again struck the veteran warship the following summer; and San Jacinto—carrying Rear Admiral Bailey,
now dangerously ill with the disease—departed Key West on 7 August and sailed north hoping for a quick restoration of
the crew to good health. She reached the quarantine area at New York Harbor on the 13th; but, the next day was
ordered to fill up with coal and set out in pursuit of the Confederate cruiser Tallahassee. The ship sailed on the 19th
and raced as far north as Halifax, Nova Scotia, without finding the Southern commerce raider.

After the ship put in at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, she received long-overdue repairs. She returned to Key West on 3
December and resumed her role as squadron flagship a week later. Toward the end of the month, she was relieved of
this duty and sailed for the Bahamas.

1865
On New Year's Day, 1865, the ship struck a reef near Great Abaco Island and filled with water. Her guns, along with
some equipment and provisions, were saved; but efforts to salvage the ship were unsuccessful. The ship's hulk was sold
at Nassau, New Providence, on 17 May 1871.

Prizes

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Sent to 4th Vessels

Prize Gross Costs and Amount for Where
Date[1] Auditor for Entitled to
Name[1] Proceeds Expenses Distribution Adjudicated
Distribution Share

7 Aug San
Buckshot $1,918[2] $295[2] $1,623[2] Key West[2] 29 Mar 1864[2]
1863 Jacinto[2]

16
Lizzie New San
Sept $18,351[3] $2441[3] $15,910[3] 7 Jun 1864[3]
Davis Orleans[3] Jacinto[3]
1863

7 Jan San
Roebuck $9,071[4] $975[4] $8,096[4] Key West[4] 1 May 1865[4]
1864 Jacinto[4]

11 Mar Lealtad or San

$43,261[3] $4,381[3] $38,881[3] Key West[3] 22 Mar 1865[3]
1864 Leartad[3] Jacinto[3]

See also
Confederate States Navy
Union Navy
List of United States Navy ships

References
Citations

1. Silverstone, p 26
2. Porter, p 834
3. Porter, p 839
4. Porter, p 841

Bibliography

Porter, David D. (1984). The Naval History of the Civil War. Secaucus, New Jersey: Castle. ISBN 0-89009-575-2.
Silverstone, Paul H. (1989). Warships of the Civil War Navies. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press.
ISBN 0-87021-783-6.
This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can
be found here (http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/s4/san_jacinto-i.htm).
Daniel, R.P. (1938). "A Medical Journal" (http://digital.lib.usf.edu/?s62.15) (pdf). "A Medical Journal" is a diary kept
by R. P. Daniel, Assistant Surgeon. U.S.N., of the voyage of the USS San Jacinto to Japan, 1855–1858. University
of South Florida Tampa Library: Florida Works Progress Administration. p. 84.

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