The USS Delaware: A storied tale of seven American Warships
USS Delaware (1776)
USS Delaware was a 24-gun sailing frigate of the United States Navy that had a short career in the American Revolutionary War as the British Royal Navy captured her in 1777.
She was built under the 13 December 1775 order of the Continental Congress in the yard of Warwick Coates of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, under the direction of the Marine Committee. Upon her launching in July 1776, Captain C. Alexander took command.
Delaware served in the Delaware River, joining with Commodore John Hazelwood’s Pennsylvania state ships in operations that delayed the British Fleet in approaching Philadelphia and supplying the British Army. When the British took possession of Philadelphia 26 September 1777, Delaware, now under the command of John Barry, in company with several smaller ships, advanced upon the enemy fortifications which were being erected and opened a destructive fire while anchored some 500 yards from shore.
On 27 September she went aground on the ebb tide and came under the concentrated fire of the British artillery. After a brave defense against overwhelming odds, Captain Alexander was compelled to strike his colors. Delaware was taken into the Royal Navy.
The Royal Navy took her in as an “armed ship”, and later classed her a sixth rate. As an armed ship her captain was Commander James Watt. In April 1778 Commander Christopher Mason commissioned her.
On 1 December 1779 Delaware escorted a convoy of supply ships to Bermuda and brought some 100 officers and men of the Royal Garrison Battalion of Veterans to defend Bermuda. She and the troops arrived in time to forestall an American attack. When four American naval vessels arrived later that day, they saw Delaware in place and British troops patrolling, and so left quickly.
On 6 June 1779 HMS Daphne captured the American privateer Oliver Cromwell. Delaware and the privateer Union were in company and so shared in the prize money.
The Royal Navy sold Delaware on 14 April 1783 for £300 to Mary Hayley, who renamed her United States. She sailed from Falmouth to Boston in April 1784. Hayley had the boat fitted out as a whaler and seal hunting vessel, shipping to the Falkland Islands in late 1784.
The ship returned in 1785 with a cargo of whale oil, which was seized by customs agents. After a trial, the Crown lost its case against Hayley for duty, as she was a British citizen, and was ordered to pay her £4,000 for her losses.
In the fall of 1786, Francis Rotch reported that Hayley had sold the United States to the firm, Brothers DeBauque, and that he had advised them to send the ship to the Falklands rather than Greenland.
United States may have operated under both that name, and under “Dauphin” for some years.
In May 1794 Dauphin arrived at Charleston, South Carolina. She was sold at auction on 23 June to Jean Bouteille who wished to convert her to a privateer. Despite efforts by Benjamin Moodie, the British Vice-consul in Charleston to block her conversion, in March 1795 she was ready and sailed for Port-de-Paix. Her ultimate fate is unknown.
USS Delaware (1798)
The second USS Delaware was a ship that served in the United States Navy during Quasi-War with France.
The USS Delaware was designed by naval architect William Doughty and built in the Philadelphia Naval Yard in 1794 as the merchant ship Hamburgh Packet. The Navy purchased her on May 5, 1798. Captain Stephen Decatur, Sr., was appointed to command and outfit her for sea.
During the Quasi-War with France, Delaware cruised to protect American merchant shipping from French privateers. She guarded convoys during their approach to Philadelphia and New York, patrolled the West Indies, and escorted convoys into Havana.
Her first prize, the privateer La Croyable, was taken off Great Egg Harbor July 7, 1798. Lloyd’s List (LL) reported on 17 August that the American sloop-of-war Delaware had captured a French privateer of the American coast. The privateer had captured the merchantman Liberty, Vredenburg, master, which had been sailing from Philadelphia to Liverpool. Liberty had since been recaptured.
From 14 July to 23 September, she cruised in the West Indies, often in company with the frigate United States, and together the ships took two privateers prize. During her second cruise in the West Indies, between December 15, 1798 and May 20, 1799, she took another prize, and won the thanks of the merchants of Havana for the protection she had given merchantmen sailing to that port.
Delaware’s return to the West Indies from July 1799 to July 1800 found her joining the Revenue Cutter Eagle in taking a privateer sloop. She took a brig on October 29, after a 7-hour chase, rescuing 30 Americans held prisoner in the privateer. She made a final cruise off Cuba in the late fall and winter of 1800–1801, then returned to Baltimore, where she was sold early in June 1801.
USS Delaware (1820)
The third USS Delaware of the United States Navy was a 74-gun ship of the line, named for the state of Delaware. She was laid down at Norfolk Navy Yard in August 1817 and launched on 21 October 1820. She was roofed over and kept at the yard in ordinary until on 27 March 1827, when she was ordered repaired and fitted for sea.
Delaware put to sea on 10 February 1828 under the command of Captain J. Downs to become the flagship of Commodore W. M. Crane in the Mediterranean. Arriving at Algeciras Bay, Spain on 23 March, she served in the interests of American commerce and diplomacy in that area until returning to Norfolk on 2 January 1830. According to Ned Myers, who shipped on her maiden voyage, “…it required some little time to get her trim and sailing. She turned out, however, to be a good vessel; sailing fairly, steering well, and proving to be an excellent sea-boat.”
Delaware was decommissioned on 10 February and lay in ordinary at Norfolk until 1833. Recommissioned on 15 July 1833, she received President Andrew Jackson aboard on 29 July, firing a 24-gun salute at both his arrival and departure. The following day she set sail for the Mediterranean where she served as flagship for Commodore D. T. Patterson and cruised on goodwill visits and for the protection of the rights and property of American citizens until her return to Hampton Roads on 16 February 1836. She was placed in ordinary from 10 March 1836 until recommissioned on 7 May 1841 for local operations from Norfolk.
Delaware sailed on 1 November for a tour of duty on the Brazil Station as flagship for Commodore Charles Morris. She patrolled the coasts of Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina to represent American interests during political unrest in those countries. On 19 February 1843, she sailed from Rio de Janeiro for another cruise in the Mediterranean. Delaware returned to Hampton Roads on 4 March 1844 and was decommissioned at Norfolk Navy Yard on the 22nd. Still in ordinary there in 1861, she was burned on 20 April along with other ships and the yard facilities to prevent their falling into Confederate hands.
USS Delaware (1861)
USS Delaware was a steamer acquired by the Union Navy for use during the American Civil War. She had a very active naval career as a gunboat for over three years, and after the war served as a revenue cutter for over 37 years. The steamer was sold to the private sector in 1909, and disappeared from shipping registers in 1919.
The Delaware — a sidewheel steamer — was the fourth ship to be named Delaware by the Navy. She was built in 1861 at the Harlan & Hollingsworth Iron Shipbuilding Company of Wilmington, Delaware. The steamboat, initially called the Edenton, was ordered in 1860 by the Albemarle Steam Packet Company. This company was made up of 24 businessmen from northeastern North Carolina who wanted to operate a steamboat in the Albemarle Sound area of North Carolina. According to the agreement, the steamboat would be built using “timbers of bar iron, attached to the hull plating via keepers.” The Packet Company’s president, Edward Wood of Edenton, North Carolina, grew concerned over the deteriorating situation between the North and the South. Wood ultimately stopped payments over fear that the steamboat, now called the Virginia Dare would be detained. (Hayes Collection, SHC) Later the Virginia Dare was purchased by the Union Navy on 14 October 1861, and renamed USS Delaware. Lieutenant S. P. Quackenbush was placed in command.
Delaware’s task — during the course of her patrols — was to sink or capture Confederate ships, and to bombard forts and other military installations. Assigned to the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, Delaware sailed from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on 12 December 1861 and stood up the James River on 26 December 1861 on patrol. On 12 January 1862, she sailed for Hatteras Inlet, North Carolina as part of General Burnside’s expedition against Confederate forces in the North Carolina sounds. Delaware took part in the capture of Roanoke Island from 7 to 8 February 1862; and on 10 February 1862 she took part in the attack on Elizabeth City, North Carolina, where she shared in the capture or destruction of five Confederate gunboats and two schooners.
On 19 February 1862, Delaware and seven other gunboats made a reconnaissance up the Chowan River. The purpose of this voyage was to destroy two railroad bridges above the town of Winton, North Carolina. It was during this foray that she was nearly ambushed at the town wharf by a force of Confederate soldiers and artillery hiding among the brush near the dock. Union commander Rush Hawkins, who was in the yardarm of the foremast, spotted the Confederates and warned the helmsman in time to sheer off. Delaware’s superstructure was severely shot up by rifle fire, but fortunately the artillery overshot its mark. After pulling away from the dock Delaware returned fire and dispersed the Confederate militia. The next day Delaware and the other gunboats returned to Winton. Finding it deserted, the town was burned, partly in retaliation for the ambush. (Barrett 1963)
From 13 to 14 March 1862, Delaware participated in the capture of New Bern, North Carolina, and captured four vessels.
Delaware arrived in Hampton Roads on 2 June 1862 for service in Virginia waters until 30 October 1862. She had several encounters with enemy batteries and captured a number of small craft which she sent in as prizes. She returned to operations in the rivers and sounds of North Carolina from October 1862 through February 1863, when she sailed with Valley City in tow, arriving at Hampton Roads on the 11 February 1863.
Until 5 April 1863, Delaware cruised in the James and York Rivers and Chesapeake Bay, then on the North Carolina coast until 27 November 1863, when she sailed to Baltimore, Maryland, for repairs. On 27 March 1864, she returned to the waters of Virginia, to patrol and perform picket duty, transport men and ordnance stores, and clear the rivers of torpedoes (mines) until the end of the war.
Delaware arrived at Washington Navy Yard on 27 July 1865 and was decommissioned from U.S. Navy service on 5 August 1865, after serving over three years. On 31 August 1865, she was sold to The Department of the Treasury for $40,000 (less 10-percent) and commissioned USRC Delaware on 12 September 1865. After being fitted out as a revenue cutter in Baltimore, Maryland, she was first assigned to Galveston, Texas in 1865. She was repaired in Baltimore, Maryland in 1867 at a cost of $14,100 and was then reassigned to Mobile, Alabama in 1868.
In 1872 she was ordered to relieve the USRC Wilderness in New Orleans, Louisiana with orders to cruise to Mobile, Alabama “occasionally”. She was extensively modified in 1873 for a cost of $11,500 and was renamed Louis McLane in June 1873 honoring the tenth Secretary of the Treasury Louis McLane. She was then ordered to Pensacola, Florida for duty where her cruising area was from Cedar Key, Florida to Biloxi, Mississippi. Louis McLane was assigned to a patrol that enforced neutrality laws in 1897. While operating near Indian Key, Florida on 20 June 1897, she seized the tug Dauntless bound for Cuba that was carrying 175 rifles, 300,000 rounds of ammunition, medical supplies and 27 men on board in violation of U.S. neutrality laws. Secretary of the Treasury Lyman J. Gage singled out Louis McLane in his 1897 report to congress for her enforcement action.
During the Spanish–American War, Louis McLane was stationed at Key West, Florida and commanded by First Lieutenant William E. Reynolds, assigned to the North Atlantic Squadron commanded by Rear Admiral William T. Sampson, USN. Louis McLane patrolled the submarine cable from Key West, Florida to Sanibel Island from 1898 to 1899.
She operated in the Gulf of Mexico for the rest of her career, mostly out of Key West, Florida from 1877 until she was decommissioned on 27 December 1902.
After over 37 years of revenue service, she was sold to J. A. Carney for $4,195 on 23 October 1903. She was re-documented as Louis Dolive on 31 March 1904.
USS Delaware (1866)
The USS Piscataqua, a screw steamer, was launched 11 June 1866 by Portsmouth Navy Yard; and commissioned 21 October 1867 with Captain Daniel Ammen in command.
On 16 December 1867, she sailed for the East Indies via the Cape of Good Hope, arriving Singapore 18 April 1868. Serving as flagship for the Asiatic Station, she visited ports in China, Japan, and the Philippines. From 1868 to 1869, a civil war raged in Japan; during the course of this war, Piscataqua protected the lives of United States citizens and American interests.
On 15 May 1869, her name was changed to Delaware, and on 23 August 1870, she departed Singapore for the United States. She arrived New York 19 November. Decommissioned 5 December 1870, she remained in the New York Navy Yard until sinking in 1876. She was sold for scrapping in February 1877.
USS Delaware/BB-28 (1910)
USS Delaware (BB-28) was a dreadnought battleship of the United States Navy, the lead ship of her class. She was laid down at Newport News Shipbuilding in November 1907, launched in January 1909, and completed in April 1910. The sixth ship to be named for the First State, Delaware was armed with a main battery of ten 12-inch (305 mm) guns all on the centerline, making her the most powerful battleship in the world at the time of her construction. She was also the first battleship of the US Navy to be capable of steaming at full speed for 24 continuous hours without suffering a breakdown.
Delaware served in the Atlantic Fleet throughout her career. During World War I, she sailed to Great Britain to reinforce the British Grand Fleet, in the 6th Battle Squadron. She saw no action during the war, however, as both the British and Germans had abandoned direct confrontation with each other. After the end of the war, she returned to her peacetime duties of fleet maneuvers, midshipmen cruises, and good-will visits to foreign ports. Under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty, Delaware was retained until the new battleship USS Colorado was completed in 1924, at which point she was broken up for scrap in accordance with the treaty.
The two Delaware-class battleships were ordered in response to the British battleship HMS Dreadnought, the first all-big-gun battleship to enter service. The previous American dreadnoughts, the South Carolina class, had been designed before the particulars of HMS Dreadnought were known. The Navy decided that another pair of battleships should be built to counter the perceived superiority of Dreadnought over South Carolina, and so Rear Admiral Washington L. Capps prepared a design for a ship with an additional main battery gun turret to match Dreadnought’s ten guns. But unlike Dreadnought, all ten of Delaware’s guns could fire on the broadside. At the time of her construction, Delaware was the largest and most powerful battleship then building in the world.
Delaware was 518 ft 9 in (158 m) long overall and had a beam of 85 ft 3 in (26 m) and a draft of 27 ft 3 in (8 m). She displaced 20,380 long tons (20,707 t) as designed and up to 22,400 long tons (22,759 t) at full load. Her bow had an early example of bulbous forefoot. She had a crew of 933 officers and men.
The ship was powered by two-shaft vertical triple-expansion engines rated at 25,000 shp (18,642 kW) and fourteen coal-fired Babcock & Wilcox boilers, generating a top speed of 21 kn (24 mph; 39 km/h). The ship had a cruising range of 6,000 nmi (11,000 km; 6,900 mi) at a speed of 10 kn (12 mph; 19 km/h). Also, because Delaware’s engine bearings were equipped with forced lubrication instead of a gravity-fed system, she was the first American battleship capable of steaming at full speed for 24 hours without any need for engine repair.
The ship was armed with a main battery of ten 12-inch/45 caliber Mark 5 guns in five twin Mark 7 gun turrets on the centerline, two of which were placed in a superfiring pair forward. The other three turrets were placed aft of the superstructure. The secondary battery consisted of 14 5-inch (127 mm)/50 caliber Mark 6 guns mounted on Mark 9 and Mark 12 pedestal mounts in casemates along the side of the hull. As was standard for capital ships of the period, she carried a pair of 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes, submerged in her hull on the broadside.
Delaware’s main armored belt was 11 in (279 mm) thick, while the armored deck was 2 in (51 mm) thick. The gun turrets had 12 in (305 mm) thick faces and the conning tower had 11.5 in (292 mm) thick sides.
Delaware was built by Newport News Shipbuilding; she was laid down on 11 November 1907 and was launched on 6 January 1909. After completion of the fitting-out work, the ship was commissioned into the United States Navy on 4 April 1910. On 3 October, she steamed to Wilmington, Delaware, where she received a set of silver service from her namesake state. The battleship then returned to Hampton Roads on the 9th, and remained there until she left to join the First Division of the Atlantic Fleet, on 1 November. She and the rest of the division visited England and France, and then conducted maneuvers off Cuba in January 1911.
On 17 January, a boiler explosion aboard Delaware killed eight men and badly scalded another. On 31 January, the ship carried the remains of Don Anibal Cruz, the Chilean ambassador to the United States, back to Chile. She steamed by way of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, around the tip of South America, to Punta Arenas, Chile. She returned to New York City on 5 May, and then left for Portsmouth on 4 June to participate in the coronation fleet review for King George V.
Throughout the next five years, Delaware participated in the normal peacetime routine of fleet and squadron maneuvers, gunnery drills, and torpedo practice in the Atlantic Fleet. During the summer months, she conducted training cruises for midshipmen from the Naval Academy. She was present in the Naval Review of 14 October 1912, attended by President William Howard Taft and the Secretary of the Navy George von Lengerke Meyer. In 1913, she conducted a good-will visit to Villefranche, France, along with the battleships Wyoming and Utah. She participated in the intervention in Mexico at Veracruz during the Mexican Revolution, to protect American citizens in the area.
Following the American entrance into World War I on 6 April 1917, Delaware had recently returned to Hampton Roads from fleet maneuvers in the Caribbean Sea. There, she trained new armed guard crews and engine room personnel as the Atlantic Fleet prepared to go to war. On 25 November 1917, she sailed with the rest of Battleship Division 9, bound for Britain to reinforce the Grand Fleet in the North Sea. Once in Scapa Flow, the division joined the Grand Fleet as the 6th Battle Squadron. The 6th Battle Squadron was tasked with serving as the “fast wing” of the Grand Fleet. On 14 December, Delaware participated in joint Anglo-American maneuvers to practice coordination of the Allied fleet.
Starting in late 1917, the Germans had begun to use surface raiders to attack the British convoys to Scandinavia; this forced the British to send squadrons from the Grand Fleet to escort the convoys. On 6 February 1918, the 6th Battle Squadron and eight British destroyers escorted a convoy of merchant ships to Norway. While steaming off Stavanger on the 8th, Delaware was attacked twice by a German U-boat, though evasive maneuvers allowed Delaware to escape undamaged. The squadron was back in Scapa Flow on 10 February; Delaware escorted two more such convoys in March and April. On 22–24 April, the German High Seas Fleet sortied to intercept one of the convoys in the hope of cutting off and destroying the escorting battleship squadron. Delaware and the rest of the Grand Fleet left Scapa Flow on 24 April in an attempt to intercept the Germans, but the High Seas Fleet had already broken off the operation and returned to port.
Starting on 30 June, the 6th Battle Squadron and a division of British destroyers covered a group of American minelayers as they laid the North Sea mine barrage; the work lasted until 2 July. King George V inspected the Grand Fleet, including Delaware, at Rosyth. Thereafter, Delaware was relieved by the battleship Arkansas; Delaware then sailed across the Atlantic, arriving in Hampton Roads on 12 August.
Delaware remained at York River until 12 November 1918, the day after the Armistice with Germany was signed, effectively ending World War I. She then sailed to Boston Navy Yard for an overhaul. Delaware rejoined the fleet on 11 March 1919 for training maneuvers off Cuba. She returned to New York with her division on 14 April, where additional divisional, squadron, and fleet exercises were conducted. She was present for another Naval Review on 28 April 1921 in Hampton Roads. From 5 June to 31 August 1922, Delaware conducted a training cruise for midshipmen to various ports in the Caribbean along with to Halifax, Nova Scotia. She went on another cruise to Europe from 9 July to 29 August 1923, and visited Copenhagen, Greenock, Cádiz, and Gibraltar.
In the years immediately following the end of the war, the United States, Britain, and Japan all launched huge naval construction programs. All three countries decided that a new naval arms race would be ill-advised, and so convened the Washington Naval Conference to discuss arms limitations, which produced the Washington Naval Treaty, signed in February 1922. Under the terms of Article II of the treaty, Delaware and her sister North Dakota were to be scrapped as soon as the new battleships Colorado and West Virginia, then under construction, were ready to join the fleet. On 30 August 1923, Delaware accordingly entered dry dock in the Norfolk Navy Yard; her crew was transferred to the recently commissioned Colorado, and the process of disposal began. Delaware was transferred to the Boston Navy Yard, decommissioned on 10 November, and disarmed. She was then sold on 5 February 1924 and subsequently broken up for scrap.
USS Delaware/SSN-791 (2020)
USS Delaware (SSN-791) is a Virginia-class attack submarine built for the United States Navy. The contract to build her was awarded to Huntington Ingalls Industries in partnership with the Electric Boat division of General Dynamics in Newport News, Virginia on 22 December 2008. This boat is the eighth and final of the Block III submarines that feature a revised bow, including some technology from Ohio-class SSGNs. Construction on Delaware began in September 2013. She was christened on 20 October 2018. She was commissioned administratively after the standard commissioning ceremony was cancelled due to public health concerns over the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. Delaware was the first ever US ship commissioned while underwater.
USS Delaware is 377 feet (115 m) long, 33 feet (10 m) wide, has a maximum draft of 32 feet (9.8 m) and displaces 7,800 tonnes (7,700 long tons; 8,600 short tons). She is propelled by nuclear power, has a single semi-pump jet style propulsor unit and a complement of 15 officers and 117 enlisted crew members.
