| Delaware was one of "nine ships to rate not less than 74
guns each" authorized by Congress 29 April 1816. She was built to the design
of William Doughty by naval constructor Francis Grice in the Norfolk Navy
Yard and was nearly identical to sister ships of the "North Carolina
class":
Alabama (renamed
New
Hampshire);
Ohio,
New York,
North
Carolina,
Vermont, and
Virginia.
Her keel was laid August 1817 and she launched 21 October 1820. |
| Delaware's siation bills for 1834 show her armed with 90
guns: lower deck: thirty-two 42-pounders; Main deck: thirty-two 32-pounders;
Spar deck: twenty-four 42-pounders and two 32-pounders. A bureau of Ordnance
gun register of 1846 records: Lower deck: four 8-inch chambered cannon, reamed
up from 42-pounder cannon in 1841 and twenty-eight 42-pounders; Main deck:
four 8-inch chambered cannon of 63 hundredweight and twenty-eight 32-pounders;
Spar deck: two 32-pounders and twenty-two 42-pounder carronades. |
| Delaware remained in ordinary until 27 March 1827, then
fitted out under Capt. John Downs. The Governor and Maryland Legislators
visited her at Annapolis 18 January 1828. After transporting passengers and
cargo to Leghorn, she returned to Port Mahon to become flagship of Commodore
William M. Crane, 22 April. She continued cruising with the Mediterranean
Squadron until she passed Gibraltar 20 November 1829 en route to Norfolk,
arriving 2 January 1830. |
| Delaware entered the Norfolk NavyYard 16 January and
decommissioned 10 February 1830. The norfolk Navy Yard drydock first went
into operation with her docking 17 June 1833, its pumping machinery being
operated by steam. All American Navy were fitted with heaving down warves
but only the Norfolk yard had a drydock at that time. |
| Delaware recommissioned 15 July 1833, Capt. Henry E. Ballard,
commanding. President Andrew Jackson received a 24-gun salute at both his
arrival and departure upon the occasion of a visit to the ship on the 29th
and she departed Norfolk the next day for New York. She sailed 14 August,
calling at Cherbourg and Gibraltar en route to Port Mahon, where 5 November
1833 Captain Ballard turned over command to Capt. John B. Nicholson. She
ranged from Port Mahon to such seaports as Toulon, Marseilles, Naplex,
Alexandria, Beriut, Tripoli, and Malta. Sailing form Gibraltar 13 December
1835, she touched the Danish West Indies before return to Norfolk 16 Februiary
1836. She decommissioned 10 March 1836. |
| Delaware again commissioned at Norfolk 7 May 1841, Capt.
C. T. McCauley, commanding. She departed 1 November and arrived in Rio de
Janeiro 21 December 1841. Flagship of Commodore Charles Morris, she crused
the coasts of Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina during the political unrest
in those countries until 19 February 1843. She then departed Rio de Janeiro
for Port Mahon, arriving 19 April to again serve in the Mediteranean. She
returned to Norfolk 4 March 1844 and decommissioned the 22nd. |
| Delaware lay at Norfolk until burned to the waterline 20
April 1861 to prevent capture by Confederates. Alias "Powhatan" and "Tecumseh,"
her figurehead of the celebrated chirf of the Delaware Indianas, "Tamanend"
is revered by U.S. Naval Academy midshipmen as the god of their passing
examination mark. |
Tonnage, 2,633; Length, 197'1 1/2"; Beam 63'; Depth
of hold, 22'; Complement, 820; Armament, seventy-four guns |
|
Bibliography
 |
James L. Mooney, Dictionary of American Naval Fighting
Ships, (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1977),
Vol.2: C-F, p. 255 |
|
|
James L. Mooney, Dictionary of American Naval
Fighting Ships, (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office,
1969), Vol.4: L-M, p. 590-592 |
|
|
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