U.S.S. Wasp
Rear Admiral A. Farenholt (M.C.), U. S. Navy (Retired).—Few names have been borne by our naval vessels with more honor and accomplishment than that of Wasp, and the new carrier of that name had predecessors whose accomplishments it may be interesting to recall.
The first Wasp was one of the fourteen original vessels of the Continental Navy to be placed in commission in the year 1775. Cooper states: “The first regular cruisers that ever got to sea under the new Government were the Hornet, 10, and the Wasp, 8, a sloop and a schooner that had been equipped at Baltimore, ex-Scorpion, by the Marine Committee.” She was in the first squadron to sail on a hostile mission and participated in the attack and capture of the British island of New Providence in the West Indies in February, 1776. “Near a hundred cannon and a large quantity of naval stores fell into the hands of the Americans” which were of the greatest value to General Washington when they were delivered to him at Boston. On the return voyage she participated in the capture of the tender of H.M.S. Glasgow in April, and in May captured the British brig Betsey in Delaware Bay. In October she captured a ship laden with rum and sugar and in December a schooner with a cargo of corn. She engaged the squadron under Sir William Howe in November, 1777, and was destroyed below the city of Philadelphia to prevent her capture after that city had been occupied by the enemy.
The second Wasp was built for the service at Washington in 1806. She was ship-rigged, carried 18 guns and a complement of 140 men and was rated at 450 tons. On October 18, 1812, she captured H.M.S. Frolic and, while repairing damages, was captured the same day by H.M.S. Poictiers, a 74, and carried into Bermuda. This Wasp captured several large prizes, one a large British merchant vessel off Boston.
The third Wasp was a ship of 18 guns, carried a crew of 140 men and was of 509 tons displacement. She was built at Newburyport, Massachusetts, in 1813. She captured H.M.S. Reindeer on June 28, 1814, in the Atlantic near the English Channel and, on September 1, H.M.S. Avon in the same locality. After taking thirteen prizes in the eastern Atlantic she was last heard from on October 9 off the Cape Verde Islands making “all sail in the direction for the line,” and probably for the Spanish Main. Her fate is one of the unsolved mysteries of the sea; “the probability is that the Wasp foundered either in a gale or squall, though she may have been lost by any of the other accidents of the ocean” (Cooper).
The fourth Wasp was a captured English blockade-runner, the Emma Henry, taken at sea off Charleston, South Carolina, in December, 1863, by the U.S.S. Cherokee and was purchased for the Navy from a prize court. She was an iron side-wheel steamer, very fast, “long and graceful,” and was retained in service as a dispatch and special service vessel. She served in the West Indies and in the South Atlantic Squadron from 1865 to 1876 when she was surveyed, condemned for service, and sold at Montevideo in November, 1876.
The fifth Wasp was a yacht of 630 tons purchased as the Columbia, March 26, 1898, and rated as a gunboat. She captured the Spanish cruiser Don Jorge Juan at Nipe Bay, July 21, 1898. After serving as station ship at Port Royal, as district craft, and with the Naval Militia, she was sold November 3, 1921.
The sixth Wasp was a motor patrol vessel during World War I and was later returned to her former owner.
The seventh Wasp was the aircraft carrier CV-7, built by the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Company at Quincy, Massachusetts, and recently lost.
The eighth Wasp is the present carrier, CV-18, also built at Quincy as the Oriskany, the name being reassigned before launching.
These seven ancestors have had but 47 years of service; few in comparison to those of the Constitution or of the Constellation, single vessels encompassing a span of almost 150 years each, but while short, active, and spectacular they include a record of one of the first two ships of our Navy to get to sea; of participating in the first capture of enemy territory and the first capture of a man-of-war; of being the victor in three hard fought and equal engagements and of taking many armed merchant vessels, and, lastly, of brilliant service against Japan.
Note.—A brig named Wasp formed a part of the “state” Navy of South Carolina during the Revolutionary period.
U.S.S. Boston
Rear Admiral A. Farenholt (M.C.) U. S. Navy (Retired).—The first naval vessel to bear this name was one of the thirteen original ships authorized to be built by the Continental Congress December 13, 1775. She was ship-rigged, carried 24 guns, rated at 515 tons, and was “put on the stocks” at Salisbury, Massachusetts, and completed at Newburyport in 1776. She carried John Adams to France in 1778 after his appointment as one of the three American Commissioners to that country. On the voyage over the vessel was struck by lightning and was “near being blown up.” In 1779 she captured five armed merchant vessels. On May 12, 1780, she was sunk in Charleston Harbor after removal of stores and personnel, to prevent capture by a British squadron. This action reflected no discredit to the ship as it was done, after protest, by the Committee of Defense of that city. Later she was raised and taken into the British Navy.
The second Boston was a gondola of 3 guns and 45 men, built by General Arnold at Skenesborough, New York, on Lake Champlain, for the fleet, or flotilla, under his command. She was severely damaged in action off Valcour Island on October 11, 1776 and was sunk by her own people on the 12th near Schuyler’s Island.
The third Boston was a ship of 28 guns, 710 tons, carried a crew of 250 men and was built at Boston in 1799. She was burnt at the Washington Navy Yard by order of the Secretary of the Navy to prevent her falling into the hands of the enemy when the British under General Ross were advancing on Washington from Bladensburg in August 1814. She was listed in 1805 as a “sheer hulk in the Eastern Branch D. C.” and had been reported as “unworthy of repairs” in 1812. In 1800 she cruised in the West Indies during the quasi-war with France and captured the French corvette Le Berccau in a hard fought engagement, also 5 armed French vessels and sank and dispersed 9 “picaroon,” pirate, vessels. In 1802 she carried the U. S. Minister to France, and then joined and served in the Mediterranean Squadron during a portion of the War with Tripoli. On this service she was under the command of the eccentric Captain Daniel M’Niell who shanghaied “a band of musicians belonging to one of the regiments quartered at Messina which had been sent on board to play for the ship and carried them to America.” On another occasion he is said to have sailed from Toulon leaving three of his own officers on shore and carrying off three French officers who had been dining on board, “with a view to keep up his complement.”
The fourth Boston was an 18-gun ship- rigged vessel of 700 tons, a crew of 200 men, and was built in Boston in 1825. She was lost November 15,1846, on Eleuthera Island, one of the Bahama group, during a night squall and within a few miles of the landing place of Columbus. All hands were saved. She had been in the “Brazils” squadron from 1826 to 1829; in the Mediterranean from 1830 to 1832; in the West Indies from 1836 to 1839; in the East Indies from 1841 to 1843, and in Brazil from 1843 to 1846.
The fifth Boston was one of the four vessels forming the beginning of the new U. S. Navy. At the close of the Civil War in 1865 the Navy had been allowed Ho slowly disintegrate in both personnel and material until of 701 vessels on the list March 10, 1865, the most powerful navy the world had ever seen, there remained on January 1, 1882, only 140 of which but 17, including tugs and small auxiliaries, had been commissioned since the Civil War. This situation was as pitiful and dangerous as that faced after the Revolution, from 1785 to 1797, when we had no navy and relied solely on a few Revenue Cutters, although at the time we were having trouble with France, with the Barbary pirates, and with Britain. Reluctantly and after much opposition, Congress passed the Act of August 5, 1882, for rebuilding the navy which provided that no more funds should be spent upon old wooden vessels and allowed the construction of two “steel cruisers.” This provision was modified by the Act of March 3, 1883, which resulted in the construction of the Chicago, Atlanta, Boston, and the dispatch boat Dolphin; the A, B, C, D of the new navy of which the Boston and her sister Atlanta were original vessels. The Boston was full brig-rigged and carried a battery of two 8-inch and six 6-inch breech loading rifles. She was commissioned in 1887 as the third vessel of the new navy. In 1890 she formed a part of the “Squadron of Evolution” in Europe where she was sent, as if on exhibition. Popularly it was called the “White Squadron,” the former navy being painted black. In 1891 she reported for duty in the Pacific, and in 1893 under command of Captain G. C. Willse landed her men at Honolulu during the revolution which upset the Hawaiian monarchy and established the republic. At Manila Bay, her crowning accomplishment, the Boston was Commodore Dewey’s third vessel in fire power and his fourth in size. She also served in North China during the Boxer uprising. From 1900 to 1910 she was in the Pacific and from 1912 to 1916 with the naval militia of Oregon. In 1917 she was surveyed for sale but withdrawn and shortly after was sent to the Naval Training Station at Yerba Buena, California, as a receiving and station ship where she has remained to this date. Her name was changed in August, 1940 to U.S.S. Despatch (the eighth of that name) and she is now a naval training school for the Twelfth Naval District. She has served over 56 years and is now the only original vessel of our new Navy remaining.
The sixth Boston is the present cruiser, CA 69.