The USS Princeton--the most advance warship in the world in 1843, |
The
USS
Princeton was supposed to be the future of the United States Navy. Fairly
bursting with new technology it was likely the most advanced warship of its
class in the world, surpassing even anything floated the British Royal Navy, then the undisputed master of the oceans of the
globe.
She
was the vision of Captain Robert F.
Stockton, a politically well-connected former Senator from New Jersey
and the beau ideal of a dashing officer.
After resuming a naval career interrupted by years in business and
politics, he turned down an offer by President
John Tyler to become Secretary of
the Navy, preferring an active command, preferably on the new class of war
ship he envisioned.
It
was Stockton’s passion—and political clout—that convinced the Navy and a
notoriously tight fisted Congress to
authorize the construction of a steam powered corvette armed by two heavy guns capable of throwing shot or shell
a distance of up to five miles. Her
speed, punch and long range would make her a threat to even the heaviest ship of the line.
She was designed
leading naval architect and inventor of the era, Swedish born John Ericsson,
who would later win fame as the designer
of the Civil War ironclad USS
Monitor. The sleek 969 ton ship had
three masts with square rigging under sail.
But her breakthrough was her engines and propulsion. Ericksson designed two vibrating lever steam
engines built by Merrick & Towne,
of Philadelphia. The advanced engines
burned Pennsylvania hard coal rather
than bulky and inefficient wood. They
were installed totally below the ship’s water line turned a six-bladed screw
propeller 14 feet in diameter mounted aft.
She would be the first warship in the world to abandon side or stern paddle wheels and be propelled by a
screw. Another innovation the smoke
funnel could fold down when she was running under sail to get out of the way of
the spars.
The
keel to the new ship, named for Captain Stockton’s home town was laid at the Philadelphia Navy Yard on October 20,
1842. Ericsson personally supervised the
construction under the watchful and probably meddlesome eye of Stockton
himself.
She
was launched and commissioned in September 1843 with Stockton in command. Following a test run on the Delaware River, the Princeton was taken out for sea trial in
October. After running up the coast to New York City, Stockton matched her in
a race against the famed British steam packet SS Great Western which in
those years perpetually held the speed records for transatlantic crossing. It
was a sprint rather than a long race, but the Princeton won handily making newspaper headlines and establishing
her as a legitimate threat against the lumbering armadas of the world.
In
January of 1843 she was ready for regular service and Stockton took her to New
York to be fitted with her two massive guns.
Both were smooth bore muzzle loading 12” wrought iron cannons capable of
firing a 225 pound shot 5 miles with 50 pound charge. The guns were so impressive that each was
given a name.
Despite
their similarities, however, there was a critical difference. The Orator,
soon renamed the Oregon as a taunt to the British over the disputed boundary of
that territory, was designed by Ericsson and cast at the Mersey Iron Works in England
in 1841 and shipped to the states awaiting the ship who could handle it. Critically, in a dramatic innovation the
breech was re-enforced with a built-up construction application red-hot iron hoops
which pre-tensioned the gun and greatly increased the charge the breech could
withstand.
Unfortunately,
the Navy did not have enough money to have two guns manufactured in
England. Instead Stockton sought to
duplicate the capabilities of the gun by supervising the creation of the Peacemaker at Hogg and Delamater in New York City. Stockton never consulted Erickson and did not
appreciate the critical importance of the re-enforcing rings. Instead he attempted to achieve the same
results by simply by making the breech thicker.
He did not realize that given the innate brittle nature of wrought iron,
the new breech could not withstand the huge sudden build-up of pressure when
being fired. Sooner or later it would
fail catastrophically.
Both
guns benefited from another Ericson innovation, a re-coil absorption system
that would keep the ship from being rolled by the power of its gun blasts.
After
they were fitted Stockton on test fired the guns a few times before sailing to Washington to show off and to lobby for
funds to build a whole flotilla of Princeton
class corvettes. After arriving in
January of 1844, Stockton showed her off on several short cruised on the Potomac in February caring Navy brass
and civilians as passengers. On each
occasion she fired her guns at least once.
But
the big day was February 28. On that day
she picked up President Tyler, his cabinet, assorted politicians, and even
iconic former First Lady Dolly Madison at
Alexandria, Virginia. The cruise was a gay affair as visitors
crowded the deck to witness a firing of the two great guns. After a break for an elegant lunch below
decks most of the visitors returned to the deck for one more thrilling test
fire. President Tyler, who could not
abide the noise, remained below.
On
the second firing of the Peacemaker the breech exploded. Killed instantly were Secretary of State Abel P. Upshur, Secretary of the Navy Thomas Gilmer, Chief of the Bureau of Construction Equipment and Repairs Capt. Beverly
Kennon, Virgil Maxcy former ChargĂ© d’Affaires to Belgium, Colonel David Gardiner of New York, the President‘s slave and valet Armistead, and two sailors.
Several others, including Stockton, were injured by shrapnel.
The
President and the lovely Miss Julia
Gardner who had been sharing private time below, rushed to the deck to find
a scene of horror and carnage. When Miss
Gardner discovered her father among the dead, she collapsed into the
President’s arms. The two were later
married.
There
was an understandable public outrage at the accident that had nearly
obliterated the whole administration.
Both Congress and the Navy launched investigations. It would have meant the end of a career to
any other officer, but Stockton was well protected politically. A Court
of Inquiry investigating the cause of the explosion exonerated Stockton
blaming the explosion on Ericsson who had nothing to do with the design or
construction of the Peacemaker. This
understandably embittered Ericsson who refused to work again for the Navy until
the emergency of the Civil War.
Julia Gardner saw her father dead on the deck. |
Stockton
was promoted to Commodore and won
fame in the Mexican War as the
commander of the Navy squadron that helped seize California. He was
subsequently named first military
governor and had a town named after him.
He later served as a Democratic Senator
from New Jersey and attempted to mediate a peaceful solution to southern
secession. He was named commander of the
New Jersey Militia when fears of a
Southern invasion were at their height.
He died full of honors in 1866.
The
once proud Princeton fared
worse. She served in the Home Squadron until 1847 and was then
assigned duty in the Mediterranean
which caused her to miss action in the Mexican war. Upon return to the United States in 1849 her
timbers were found rotting from poor maintenance. She was decommissioned and broken up for
scrap at the Boston Navy Yard on
June 17, 1849 after less than six years active service.
Congress
never approved plans for a flotilla of Princeton
class ships, which would have been invaluable in maintaining the blockade
of the South during the Civil War.
Two
years later her innovative twin engines were used in a new Princeton, the first of five successors bearing that name including
a
famous World War II aircraft carrier lost
at the Battle of Leyte Gulf in 1944 and a guided missile cruiser
commissioned in 1989, currently in active service.
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