| The fifth Washington -- a revenue cutter completed at New
York in 1833 -- initially operated out of Mobile, Alabama. She shifted to
Key West, Florida, as her base of operations and spent a brief period of
time at Charleston, South Carolina, undergoing repairs, before returning
to Key West on 20 May 1835 and remaining based there for the remainder of
the year. |
| Around Christmas of 1835, two companies of regular Army troops
under the command of Major Francis L. Dade, USA, were massacred by Seminole
Indians. One badly wounded survivor managed to make a difficult 60-mile trek
to the head of Tampa Bay, where he reported the disaster to the garrison
commander at Fort Brooke, Florida, Capt. Francis S. Belton, USA. Fearing
for the safety of his post, Belton immediately dispatched a request for
reinforcements via the sloop Motto. |
| Belton's message reached Key West early in January. Meanwhile
in the Federal capital, Levi Woodbury, the Secretary of the Treasury -- who
had also heard of Dade's disaster -- directed Capt. Ezekiel Jones, commanding
Washington, to place his ship under Navy control "until otherwise
directed." Interestingly enough, Jones did not receive this order -- issued
on 6 January 1836 -- until he had already begun operations in cooperation
with the Army and Navy. |
| Word of the massacre reached Jones on or about 11 January.
Washington soon got underway and proceeded via Tampa Bay to Charlotte
Harbor and arrived at Fort Broke on 25 January. AT 1700 that afternoon, the
revenue cutter landed a pair of 12-pounder guns -- with sufficient powder
and shot for 35 rounds -- along with 10 seamen under the command of Lt. L.
B. Childs and a Lieutenant Clark, to cooperate with the Army garrison troops.
Belton, expecting an imminent attack by the Seminoles, took the precaution
of ordering noncombatants -- mostly women and children -- to take refuge
on board the merchant ships in the harbor. Washington, meanwhile,
lay to with springs to her anchors and her decks cleared for battle. At that
juncture, the sloop-of-war Vandalia, Master Commandant Thomas T. Webb,
USN, in command, sailed form Pensacola escorting a small merchantman carrying
a detachment of 57 marines under 1st Lt. Nathaniel L. Waldron, USMC.
Vandalia and her mercantile consort reached Fort Brooke on 28
January. |
| With the arrival of Vandalia and Waldron's marines,
Washington withdrew her landing force from the beach on 1 February.
Three days later, the revenue cutter received orders to reconnoiter Charlotte
Harbor, south of Tampa Bay; got underway on the 5th, and arrived at her assigned
destination on the 8th. |
| Under the command of Lt. Childs, a party of 13 men in two boats
landed at 0800 on the island of Sanibel in search of Seminole dependents
reported there. Finding none, however, they withdrew but sighted three canoes
and 10 men on the opposite shore at 1500 that day. Going ashore again on
the 10th, Washington's landing force ascertained that the 10 men and
three canoes had been in the employ of a local friendly Spaniard that lived
in the vicinity. |
| After the men returned to the ship, Washington shifted
back to her previous anchorage near Fort Brooke, reaching there on 13 February.
At 1230, men in the revenue cutter heard the reports of heavy guns to the
southeast side of the bay and spotted two canoes full of Indiana "who appeared
to be retreating form the scene of action." Washington made sail and
gave chase, firing a 12-pounder loaded with round shot. Anchoring at 1230,
Washington dispatched all of her boats, with crews, to overtake the
Indians, who eventually hove to under the threats of superior force. They
turned out to be friendly, though, and were allowed to go on their way. |
| Capt. Jones brought Washington back to Key West on 19 February
to repair his ship. Such were the only then received Secretary Woodbury's
instructions of 6 January. The following day, Jones reported to the Secretary,
"I have been cooperating since January 11th, having half my battery and crew
on shore at Fort Brooke a part of the time and have rendered such service
as the emergency of the case required. I shall sail again for Tampa as soon
as I can effect some necessary repairs." |
| On 16 March, Master Commandant Webb, the local senior officer
present, afloat, directed Washington to reconnoiter a reported Indian
encampment in the neighborhood of the Manatee River. Late in the afternoon
of that same day, 16 March, Jones landed a force of 25 men under the command
of Lt. William Smith, USN, of Vandalia. By nightfall, the men had
located the site of an encampment but found neither Indians nor cattle. Returning
on board that evening, Washington again put the landing force on the
beach on the morning of the 17th. With competent Indian guides, the party
followed a fresh Indiana and cattle trail 10 miles into the interior before
they returned to the ship, again empty-handed. |
| Almost simultaneously, Seminole forces were reported to be in
retreat in boats down the Pease River. Webb ordered Washington to
Charlotte Harbor to blockade the river "so as to cut off most effectually
all retreat to or communication with the glades of the south." |
| Sailing to that locale, Washington examined St. Joseph's
Bay, Costa Island, Mullet Key, and sundry other place in and about Tampa
Bay. She also examined Charlotte Harbor and Charlotte Bay, together with
the neighboring keys and inlets. On 28 and 29 March, a boat expedition in
the charge of Lt. Smith saw an Indian encampment some 30 miles from the mouth
of Tampa Bay. Hoping to learn the whereabouts of "hostile," Smith and his
two friendly Indian guides landed and invited a parley. Smith and his guides
returned to the ship safely with no information as to any local Seminole
strongholds in the area. |
| Washington, her sister revenue cutters Dallas and
Dexter, and the sloop-of-war Vandalia continued to perform
valuable services in cooperation with Army units against the Seminoles, on
patrol duties into the spring of 1836. Washington subsequently sailed
for Sarasota, Florida, and arrived there on 11 May, anchoring at the mouth
of the bay. She dispatched a cutter -- in charge of Lt. Childs -- and brought
out two Spaniards and about 20 women and children, all fleeing form hostile
Seminoles in that area. |
| Washington and Dallas subsequently cruised off the
coast of Florida in the Gulf of Mexico during most of June. Washington
later carried dispatches from Governor Call to Master Commandant M. P. Mix
in Concord -- the ship that had relieved Vandalia -- in early
July, before she transported a company of Army volunteers from Pensacola
to St. Marks. She also surveyed the rivers, inlets, and bars along that stretch
of the Florida seaboard. |
| After operating in Pensacola Bay and Tampa Bay during most of
August and September, Washington accompanied Vandalia from
Pensacola to Key West, departing on 2 October 1836 for Cape Florida and New
River. Their mission was to surprise and, if possible, to capture some 200
Seminoles -- braves, women and children. |
| Embarked in Washington -- now commanded by Capt. Rober
Day, United States Revenue Marine -- were 50 seamen under the command of
Lt. Smith and four midshipmen, as well as 95 marines under the command of
Lt. Waldron and 2d Lt. McNeill. To carry this expeditionary force, six boats
and two schooners were employed with Washington and Vandalia
to carry the force. Sent to Tampa Bay on 4 November after the expedition
had gotten underway, Washington delivered provisions form Tampa Bay
to Cape Sable on 15 November. The revenue cutter subsequently sailed for
Key West, arriving on 8 December. |
| A party of men from Washington, under the command of the
indefatigable Lt. Levin M. Powell, USN -- the man who conceived of vigorous
riverine warfare concepts -- surveyed the coast around New River from Cape
Sable to Charlotte Harbor and, while he penetrated 15 miles into the trackless
everglades, found no Indian during their trip. Commodore Alexander Dallas,
in overall command of the naval forces operating in the Seminole War, highly
commended Powell and his men, citing their "perseverance and exertions under
circumstance of privation and exposure . . . in open boats." |
| Eventually, by the spring of 1837, the pace of operations began
to tell upon Washington, and she was released by Commodore Dallas
to receive extensive repairs at Key West Florida. Although ordered to Norfolk
and, later, to Baltimore, on 22 May 1837, Washington apparently remained
in southern waters, eventually returning to her original duty station, Mobile,
Alabama, where she was sold on 26 June 1837. |
Armament, four 12-pdrs. |
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