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NavSource Online: "Old Navy" Ship Photo Archive

USS Terrier (I)

Schooner:
  • Built, date and location unknown
  • Launched, date unknown
  • Purchased in 1822 at Baltimore, MD.
  • Outfitted at Norfolk, VA.
  • Put into service with COMO. David Porter's "Mosquito Fleet" in conjunction with the campaign to suppress the West Indian pirates
  • Commissioned USS Terrier sometime early in 1823, LT. Robert M. Rose in command
  • USS Terrier departed Hampton Roads with the other ships of Porter's squadron, 15 February 1823
  • The ships reached St. Thomas, 3 March and, the following day, began patrolling the coast of Puerto Rico
  • For the next two years, Terrier operated out of the depot Porter established at what is now Key West, FL.
  • Her area of concentration was the northern coasts of Cuba and Puerto Rico
  • Because of her shallow draft Terrier was ideally suited to the work of exploring the coastal shallows and shoal waters where the pirates were active
  • That work occupied Terrier throughout her brief Navy career
  • Over the next two years, she remained almost continually on station even during the two outbreaks of yellow fever, in the fall of 1823 and the summer of 1824
  • Undoubtedly, Terrier participated in many of the small expeditions and skirmishes of the squadron, but there is only one documented instance of the schooner's capturing a prize
  • That event occurred early in 1824 when she succeeded in retaking a French ship which had been seized by pirates
  • Unfortunately, the pirate crew escaped ashore to Spanish territory, a refuge into which Americans could not pursue them
  • The schooner operated in the West Indies until 1825, the year in which a slackening in seaborne piracy enabled the Navy to begin disposing of its special purpose ships on the West Indies station
  • Decommissioned, and struck from the Naval Register in 1825
  • Sold, presumably at auction, during 1825
  • Final Disposition, fate unknown.
    Specifications:
    Displacement unknown
    Length unknown
    Beam unknown
    Depth of Hold unknown
    Draft unknown
    Speed unknown
    Complement unknown
    Armament
    three guns
    Propulsion sail
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    Terrier (I)
    Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships
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    Last Updated 14 October 2022