USS Java (1815)

USS Java was a wooden-hulled, sailing frigate in the United States Navy, bearing 44 guns. She was named for the American victory over HMS Java off the coast of Brazil on 29 December 1812, captured by the Constitution under the command of Captain William Bainbridge. HMS Java had suffered severe damage during the engagement and being far from home port was ordered burned.[2][3]

History
United States
NameUSS Java
BuilderFlannigan & Parsons, Baltimore, Maryland
Laid down1814
Launched1 August 1814
FateBroken up, 1842
General characteristics
TypeFirst class frigate[1]
Tonnage1511
Length175 ft (53 m)
Beam44 ft 6 in (13.56 m)
Draft13 ft 8 in (4.17 m)
PropulsionSail
Complement400 officers and enlisted
Armament
  • 33 × long 32-pounder guns
  • 20 × 42-pounder carronades

Java was built at Baltimore, Maryland in 1814 and 1815 by Flannigan & Parsons. Not completed until after the end of the War of 1812, she was launched on 1 August 1814.[4] Java, Captain Oliver Hazard Perry in command, got underway from Baltimore 5 August 1815, picked up spare rigging at Hampton Roads and New York, and sailed to Newport, Rhode Island, to fill out her crew. Ordered to the Mediterranean to serve in the Second Barbary War, the new frigate departed from Newport 22 January 1816 in the face of a bitter gale. At sea one of her masts snapped with ten men upon the yards, killing five.

Java was off Algiers in April where Perry went ashore under a flag of truce and persuaded the Dey of Algiers to honor the treaty which he had signed the previous summer but had been ignoring. Next she sailed for Tripoli with Constellation, Ontario, and Erie to show the strength and resolve of the United States. Then, after a cruise in the Mediterranean stopping at Syracuse, Messina, Palermo, Tunis, Gibraltar and Naples, the frigate returned to Newport early in 1817 and was laid up at Boston, Massachusetts.

Java returned to active service in 1827 under Captain William M. Crane for a second deployment in the Mediterranean. There she protected American citizens and commerce and performed diplomatic duties. Toward the end of the cruise she served as flagship of Commodore James Biddle.

After returning to the United States in 1831, Java became receiving ship at Norfolk, where she was broken up in 1842.

References
  1. "Printed by order of the Secretary of the Navy, conformably to a resolution of the honorable Senate of the United States" (1825). Register of the Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the Navy of the United States, including Officers of the Marine Corps, &c. for the Year 1825. Way & Gideon.
  2. Harris, 1837 pp.149–150
  3. U.S.Navy, DANFS, Java prgh.1
  4. "American Papers". The Times. No. 9322. London. 22 September 1914. col B-D, p. 2.

Bibliography
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