In 1797, the frigate USS United States was the first American warship to be launched under the naval provisions of the fledgling nation’s new Constitution. Built in time to participate in the Quasi-War with France, she captured a number of French privateers and recaptured several American ships that had been taken by the French earlier. But it was in the War of 1812, under the command of Stephen Decatur, that she reached the pinnacle of her glory by capturing the British frigate HMS Macedonian and bringing her back to New York to ultimately serve in the U.S. Navy as the USS Macedonian. The capture of a Royal Navy warship caused a huge sensation, raising American spirits at a time when the war was not going well on other fronts.
Such a celebrated beginning seemed to promise a glorious career for the ship bearing the name of her country. But in the ensuing years, the United States would go in and out of service, periodically deploying to various parts of the world, but never accomplishing anything like she had in her early days.
In 1843, Herman Melville—the renowned author of Moby Dick and other classic nautical novels—shipped as an “ordinary seaman” in the United States and later chronicled the experience in his fictionalized memoir White-Jacket, a classic that remains an excellent glimpse into the life of a sailor during the Age of Sail. Invoking literary license for reasons known only to him, Melville chose to call his ship the “USS Neversink.”
From 1849 until 1861, the United States rotted away in Norfolk, Virginia, until the outbreak of the Civil War gave her a new lease on life. On 20 April 1861, as Confederate forces advanced on the Navy yard there, Union sailors set fire to the ships that were unable to get underway. Because the United States was in such a decayed condition, they assumed she was of no value and spared her the torch. But the Confederacy was desperate for ships, and after some makeshift repairs, she was commissioned as the frigate CSS United States. “Confederate States Ship United States” seemed a bit odd to many, so she was often referred to as CSS Confederate States.
Beyond her seaworthy days, the CSS United States was fitted out with a deck battery of 19 guns for harbor defense and served as a receiving ship for new sailors of the Rebel navy until the ebb and flow of the war forced the Confederacy to abandon the Navy yard in May 1862. Before departing, the Confederates decided to sink the aged ship in the middle of the Elizabeth River, hoping to obstruct the passage of oncoming Union vessels.
Recalling Melville’s sobriquet of Neversink, the ancient timbers of the frigate were found to be so strong and well preserved that would-be scuttlers reportedly ruined a whole box of axes in the attempt. Ultimately boring through her hull from the inside, the Confederates were finally able to send her to the muddy bottom of the river.
Once Norfolk was again under Federal control, the United States—now restored to “USS”—was raised and towed to the Navy yard. There she remained until December 1865 when she was at last broken up and her still-resilient wood sold at auction.
In the conclusion to White-Jacket, written many years before the ship’s demise, Melville penned this apposite epitaph:
Shall I tell how the Neversink was at last stripped of spars, shrouds, and sails . . . till not one vestige of a fighting thing was left in her, from furthest stem to uttermost stern? No! . . . Let us leave the ship on the sea—still with land out of sight—still with brooding darkness on the face of the deep. . . .
Lieutenant Commander Cutler is the author of several Naval Institute Press books, including A Sailor’s History of the U.S. Navy and The Battle of Leyte Gulf.