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NavSource Online: "Old Navy" Ship Photo Archive

USS President (I)


Frigate:
  • Built by Christian Bergh, East River, New York
  • Launched 10 April 1800
  • USS President sailed from New York, 5 August 1800, CDR. Thomas Truxtun ,in command
  • Assigned as flagship of Commodore Richard Dale in the Mediterranean in 1801 and 1802
  • Cruised in the Mediterranean in 1804 and 1805. participating in the actions against Tripoli
  • Cruised off the eastern coast of the United States from 1809 to 1812
  • Sailing from Annapolis, MD., 12 May 1811, President and met and fired on sloop HMS Little Belt
  • President sailed from New York, 21 June 1812, with USS United States, USS Congress, USS Hornet, and USS Argus on a cruise in the North Atlantic
  • 23 June, 1812. President fell in with frigate HMS Belvidera, and after a running fight of 8 hours Belvidera, escaped
  • Putting into Boston, she sailed again 3 October 1812 for the North Atlantic returning to Boston 31 December
  • President sailed from Boston, 30 April 1813, on a cruise off the coast of Europe
  • 23 September 1813, President captured schooner HMS Highflyer, off New York and arrived Newport, R.I., 27 September 1813
  • President sailed from Providence 4 December on a cruise to the West Indies, returning to New York IS February 1814 and was blockaded there for almost a year by a British squadron.
  • President sailed from New York 14 January 1815 under CAPT. Stephen Decatur, and the next day was captured by HMS ships Endymion, Majestic, Pomone, and Tenedos
  • Final Disposition, taken into the Royal Navy and was broken up at Portsmouth, England, in 1817
    Specifications:
    Displacement 1,576 t.
    Length 175'
    Beam 44' 4"
    Draft 13' 11"
    Speed unknown
    Complement unknown
    Armament
    thirty-two 24-pdrs
    twenty-two 42-pdr carronades
    one long 18-pdr
    Propulsion sail

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    Size Image Description Contributed
    By
    President 52k Water color on paper by the Canadian artist Edward John Russell (1832-1906) of USS President riding at anchor in a heavy swell. Painting created I January 1904. Currently located at the N.R. Omell Gallery, 6 Duke Street St. James's, London, SW1Y 6BN. Robert Hurst
    President 63k USS President fires on and disables the British sloop HMS Little Belt, 16 May 1811. Oil on canvas painting by the artist William Elmes Robert Hurst
    President 339k USS President and the British sloop HMS Little Belt.
    To the Right Honorable Charles Philip Yorke, First Lord of the Admiralty, This Print elucidating the extreme disproportion of Force between the American Frigate President… and His Majesty’s Sloop the Little Belt… London, Dec. 1, 1811. Drawn by Joseph Cartwright / Engraved by John Hassell.
    Robert Hurst
    President 118k Sailing from Annapolis, MD., 12 May 1811, USS President, Commodore Rogers, met and fired on the 20-gun post ship Sloop-of-War HMS Little Belt, Captain. Bingham RN, 15 May 1811.
    Painting by William Elmes (1797-1815). Engraved and published by Edward Orme, London, 25 October 1811.
    Robert Hurst
    President 118k Pen and ink drawing of a cannon exploding in USS President during the pursuit of the 36-gun frigate HMS Belvidera.
    Creator unknown. Image from "The Naval History of the United States by Willis J. Abbot", Pub. by Peter Fenelon Collier, New York, 1 January 1896.
    Robert Hurst
    President 42k Photo of an engraving by De Anger of the battle between HMS Belvidera and USS President, 23 June 1812.
    Image can be found at the National Maritime Museum, Park Row, Greenwich, London, SE10 9NF.
    Robert Hurst
    President
    098652211
    143k Photo of an oil painting by William John Huggins (1781 – 19 May 1845), depicting the escape of HMS Belvidera, 23 June 1812. On the left of the picture Belvidera runs on a very broad reach. She has shot holes in her sails and can be seen firing her stern guns. Astern of her USS President can be seen repeatedly firing her starboard broadside. To the right of her, and in pursuit, are USS Congress, USS United States, USS Hornet and USS Argus.
    National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London. BHC0598.
    Robert Hurst
    President 59k "USS President v. HMS Endymion". Creator unknown.
    Image from "The Naval History of the United States" by Willis J. Abbot, Pub. by Peter Fenelon Collier, New York, 1 January 1896.
    Robert Hurst
    President 80k A Thomas Butterworth painting depicting HMS Endymion (right) exchanges broadsides with USS President (left) at around 7:00 pm on the night of January 15th, 1815 when the ships turn to the south and brailed up their spankers in order to exchange broadsides. Circa 1815.
    Image courtesy of the New York Historical Society Museum and Library
    Robert Hurst
    President 40k A print of an engraving of a Thomas Butterworth painting depicting USS President (left foreground) having surrendered, HMS Endymion (right foreground) is shown without her fore topmast, due to damage she sustained during her duel with President. The painting is entitled "To Captain H Hope... of His Majesty's Frigate Endymion... the Morning after the Action with the American United States Frigate President, January 16th 1814.."; Jeakes, Joseph (engraver); Barr, J, & Bailisar, G (publishers, uncertain). Robert Hurst
    President
    098652210
    112k "CHASE OF THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT. OFF NEW YORK, NIGHT OF 15 JANUARY 1815"
    Limited edition of 250 icicle prints, signed by the artist Joseph Reindler Maritime Artist and numbered. Image size: 16 x 11.2"; overall paper size: 22 x 17.2" (includes 3" cropping) (From an original oil on linen, 27.5 x 40 inches (1000 x 700mm)
    "Scene depicting fierce action between the US heavy frigate USS President (nearest), Commodore Stephen Decatur, and the British frigate HMS Endymion (left), Captain Henry Hope; the British frigate van of a pursuing squadron also comprising the razee ship-of-the-line HMS Majestic, flag of Commodore John Hayes, and the two other frigates HMS Pomone and HMS Tenedos, Captains John Lumley and Hyde Parker respectively. Commodore Decatur flies his broad pennant, marked “ P R E S I D E N T ”, which is added after detail illustrated in period paintings of the event by British maritime painter, also sailor of the Napoleonic Wars, Thomas Buttersworth.
    In the winter moonlight the sails of both ships, heavily iced, shined as bucketmen doused water, which promptly froze, to close the pores of the canvas to better hold the air; the endeavour evident on President’s topsails & yardarms. A Northwesterly gale had brought snow to sea-level the day before and although the storm had by now broken, the ships were still heavily-weighted with solid-white freezing spray. As standard practice in the US Navy at the time: the same storm was intended to provide cover for President to slip out to sea for a commerce-destroying cruise, past the amassed blockading squadrons of the Royal Navy which held the balance of power throughout the war. Realizing his terrible odds at sighting the enemy squadron, Commodore Decatur had lightened ship attempting to avoid capture; cutting away his anchors, along with the boats, and had tipped heavy provisions for a long war cruise over the side.
    Able to benefit from a running engagement, yet inferior to President in both size and force, Endymion betrays scars of the exchange: the last of her own boats having been smashed to pieces at the quarter davits, her mainbrace cut (and hastily re-spliced), and a 30-foot section of canvas torn from her foresail by a barred shot from the American. By another stroke of luck for the smaller British frigate, President had run afoul of a sandbar as she got out of New York, losing her false keel and being delayed there long enough for Commodore Hayes’ squadron, having earlier been blown out to leeward, to resume its station. Thereby already damaged to an extent not fully known to her crew; and by duress of the chase having had lightened ship in haste, probably to the detriment of her trim and therefore sailing quality, President laboured vulnerably even despite the vastly larger enemy force she faced. President may also have had wet powder, which would have significantly impaired her hitting power, as was observed in first-hand accounts. The sail at right horizon is the HMS Pomone, included to further acknowledge this was not a fair fight. By this stage of the engagement however the ponderous Majestic would have lagged too far behind, and Tenedos been too far to the South for either to be shown. Pomone would have come into the action earlier, if not for having been dispatched the preceding morning to investigate a sail to Eastward, which turned out to be HMS Tenedos as she joined the squadron. This composition represents the culminating moments of the first phase of the action, just before about 8:00PM and immediately prior to Endymion retiring from the fray to make repairs and bend new sail; this allowed both Pomone and >b?>i/Tenedos to overhaul Endymion and draw within range of the President, so beginning the second and final phase of the action.
    President would be captured, a lawful prize notwithstanding that the Treaty of Ghent had been signed but three weeks prior, ending the War of 1812. The British blockade of American ports and commerce still stood until the treaty unseated war-orders on the North American Station. Commodore Decatur, among the wounded in the action, would be honourably acquitted for the loss of President, having been taken by an enemy squadron of superior force. The captured President was closely studied by the British, being the only ship ever captured of the three ships in her class, which had achieved such notoriety through their series of humiliating defeats over British frigates throughout the War of 1812. Commodore Decatur, a rightfully esteemed figure in the US Navy, had in fact commanded the ‘Wagon of the US Navy’, the heavy frigate USS United States of this same class, during her victory over the British frigate HMS Macedonian three years prior. The chivalry of then-Captain Decatur cannot be overstated, considering his protest for the forfeiture of that prize, owing to the gross imbalance of fighting force between the two ships.
    This piece intends not to understate the gallantry of either side, the odds against Commodore Decatur or the risks taken by Captain Hope engaging a gravely superior ship in a close duel. As American Naval Historian James Fenimore Cooper later wrote: President would fairly easily have carried Endymion in a boarding action, but was ultimately denied the power of motion necessary of such an occasion. British losses numbered 11 killed and 14 wounded; figures on American losses vary, up to as many as 35 killed and 70 wounded. In the days immediately after the action Endymion, still mauled, with the President as prize, would both be dismasted en-route to the West Indies. President would later arrive in England for a brief period of service with the Royal Navy. This class of heavy frigate having so-impressed its captors, the captured President’s lines were later copied and applied to a British iteration of the same draught. The original designer Joshua Humphreys could take a bow."
    Joseph Reindler Maritime Artist
    Tommy Trampp

    USS President
    Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (DANFS)
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    Last Updated 19 November 2021