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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060
Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --
USS Princeton (1843-1849)
USS Princeton, a 1046-ton screw steamer built at the
Philadelphia Navy Yard, was commissioned in September 1843. Her
designers, John Ericsson, Captain Robert F. Stockton and John
Lenthall, fitted her with the Navy's first screw machinery and
two very heavy shell guns. On 28 February 1844, while demonstrating
one of these guns for distinguished visitors during a cruise near
Washington, D.C., the cannon exploded, killing Secretary of State
Abel P. Upshur, Secretary of the Navy Thomas Gilmer and several
others.
Following this accident, Princeton operated off Mexico
and along the Atlantic seaboard until 1847, when she went to the
Mediterranean for two years. Upon her return in mid-1849, her
timbers were found to be rotten, and she was broken up. Her engines
were used in constructing a new USS Princeton
a few years later.
This page features our only views related to USS Princeton
(1843-1849).
Click on the small photograph to prompt
a larger view of the same image.
Photo #: NH 42371
USS Princeton (1843-1849)
Lithograph by N. Currier, New York, 1844.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 98KB; 750 x 595 pixels |
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Photo #: LC-USZ62-8342
"The American Steamer 'Princeton'"
Line engraving from the "Illustrated London News",
issue of 25 May 1844, depicting USS Princeton (1843-1849).
Collections of the Library of Congress.
Online Image: 200KB; 740 x 600 pixels
Note: The Naval Historical Center's original print
is an electrostatic copy. That in the Library of Congress is
presumably an original engraving. |
 |
Photo #: NH 58906-KN (Color)
"Awful Explosion of the 'Peace-Maker' on board the U.S.
Steam Frigate Princeton, on Wednesday, 28th Feby. 1844"
Colored lithograph, published by N. Currier, New York, 1844.
It depicts the explosion of a heavy gun on board USS Princeton,
in the Potomac River, which killed or mortally wounded seven
and injured about twenty people. Some of those present are identified
below the image, including (from left): Mr. Wilkins; Mr. Perrine;
Lieutenant Hunt; Representative Virgil Maxcy, of Maryland; Secretary
of State Abel P. Upshur; Captain Beverly Kennon, Chief of the
Bureau of Construction, Equipment and Repair; Thomas Gilmer,
Secretary of the Navy; Captain Robert F. Stockton; Sailors; Senator
Phelps and Senator Thomas Hart Benton. Maxcy, Upshur, Kennon
and Gilmer were among those killed. Stockton and Benton were
among the injured.
Courtesy of the U.S. Navy Art Collection, Washington, D.C.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 122KB; 740 x 545 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 2082-A
Bell of USS Princeton (1843-1849)
On exhibit at the Jamestown Exposition, Hampton Roads, Virginia,
1907.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 99KB; 600 x 765 pixels |
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Page made 20 May 2000
Link added 27 June 2001