There had been multiple changes to her design from what Sec. Stoddert had first suggested; input from Overton (of course) his subcontractors, Capt. Tryon’s wishes, and further suggestions by local ship builders consulted for insight all resulted in a different vessel than what most historical accounts state, all of which refer to the original Stoddert plans.\u00a0 Three-masted, ship-rigged, she was to be a sloop of war – that is to say, from the Amercian point of view, one deck of guns fewer than 28 in number – essentially a small frigate.\u00a0 She was named Connecticut<\/a><\/em> by Sec. Stoddert, and she was rated for 24 guns although, as was common in those days, she was pierced for some extra… In this case, the vessel carried 26 guns.\u00a0 And although historians state that she had all 12 pounders, the ship’s logs make a comment early on that leave me to think that only a few were of that size, and it is likely that the battery was mostly 9-pounders… although this is merely an educated guess.\u00a0 The ship ultimately had two decks (independant of an orlop), a length of 125 feet, a breadth of 32′ 2″, and a dept of 16′ 1″.\u00a0 She was actually rated 548 – 36\/95 tons, not the 492 tons originally planned for and almost always quoted as being her size.\u00a0 The crew – seamen, boys, Marines, officers numbered around 180, but this fluctuated given prize crews, a couple of deaths, a couple of people removed from duty, &c.<\/p>\n Keep in mind that this is a generic image of a smaller ship (in contrast to full sized frigates such as the Constitution) utilized by British craftsmen for pottery transfers and other materials made to order for American customers. While this image closely resembles the written description of the Connecticut, it is in fact not a direct image. But it’s the closest we have for now.<\/p><\/div>\n She sailed down the Connecticut River and found herself blocked at the mouth in Saybrook on account of the substantial sand bar chronic for that location.\u00a0 It was considered too much to dredge usefully and larger vessels would need to be towed through a drifting gap in bar if one was there at any given point, or more likely, to wait for a tide sufficiently high to take advantage of the moment to sail over the bar.\u00a0 In time, she made it over and arrived at her home port of New London in August 1799, there to take on her guns, powder, complete recruitment, receive orders.\u00a0 On Tuesday, 15 October, with pleasant weather and winds WNW, the USS Connecticut<\/em> sailed for the Windward Islands in the Caribbean with three vessels in convoy.<\/p>\n The USS Connecticut<\/em> was attached to the convoy headed by Thomas Truxtun in the USS Constellation<\/em>, but by the time Connecticut<\/em> had arrived, Truxtun had sailed his ship back home for repairs, leaving Capt. Richard V. Morris in the USS Adams, <\/em>22 guns, in charge.\u00a0 The Connecticut<\/em> was to cruise largely between Puerto Rico and Guadaloupe, with usual naval charge to “sink, take, or destroy” the enemy.\u00a0 During her one year tour (enlistments for the Navy were for one year at first), she captured four enemy vessels (the most famous being the privateer brig L’Italie Conquise<\/em>), recaptured six American vessels in the hands of the enemy, and caused the destruction of two more enemy vessels by running them aground in chase, setting fire to one to prevent her from being used again while the other was so badly damaged that it would never sail again.<\/p>\n The Connecticut Gazette, New London. 26 Feb 1800.<\/p><\/div>\n The Connecticut<\/em> was arguably the fastest large vessel in the Navy at this time, drooled over, it seems, by other captains for just that reason.\u00a0 The port of operations during this tour was Basseterre in St-Kitts, where the prizes (captured enemy vessels) were brought.\u00a0 By later in 1800, Capt. Truxtun had returned to take command of his squadron, and in September he ordered Capt. Tryon to sail for home, convoying a group of American merchantmen along the way for their safety.<\/p>\n Upon arriving back in New London, Capt. Tryon took a leave of absence and Capt. Richard Derby of Salem, Massachusetts took command, refitting and recruiting for another cruise.\u00a0 In March 1801, the undeclared war had come to an end and plans to use the Connecticut<\/em> to cruise off Batavia in company with the USS Ganges<\/em> to protect American shipping interests there came to a halt when Congress decided to downsize the Navy, selling off roughly 1\/3 of the vessels in auctions in NYC.\u00a0 Capt. Derby sailed the ship into NYC in company with the USS Trumbull<\/em> to put them up for sale, placing his crew aboard the USS Essex<\/em> then in harbour.<\/p>\n The Connecticut<\/em> was sold for 19,300$ to private hands and into the merchant service, exchanging hands periodically and home ports, until her being declared in 1808 as unseaworthy and subsequently broken up in NYC.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the plan to increase the useable size of the new US Navy, beyond the six initial frigates and a number of vessels converted for combat use, Secretary of the Navy Benjamin Stoddert sent letter around to recruit agents to … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ussconnecticut1799.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/US-sloop-of-war-CONNECTICUT-image.bmp\")
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