Корабль «Бруклин»: История американской шхуны-фрегата

Sloops of war of the United States Navy

USS Brooklyn was a sloop of war authorized by the U. S. Congress and commissioned in 1859. Brooklyn was active in Caribbean operations until the start of the American Civil War at which time she became an active participant in the Union blockade of the Confederate States of America. With her one 10 inch gun and twenty 9 inch guns, Brooklyn was a formidable fighting ship that could deliver damaging broadsides, and served on the Atlantic Ocean coast as well as the Gulf Coast of the United States in intercepting blockade runners. Brooklyn also served gallantly attacking Confederate forts and other installations on the Mississippi River. Post war, Brooklyn remained active, serving for some years in the European theatre, as well as circumnavigating the globe. She was retired in 1889 and sold in 1890 after having well served her country for over three decades.

Brooklyn – the first ship so named by the U. S. Navy – was the first of five screw sloops of war authorized by the U. S. Congress on March 3, 1857; laid down later that year by the firm of Jacob A. Westervelt and Son; launched in 1858; and commissioned on January 26, 1859, Capt. David G. Farragut in command. On February 5, Brooklyn got underway for a trial run to Beaufort, South Carolina, where she arrived on the 11th. Following a week's visit to that port, she headed for the West Indies to investigate conditions in Haiti where liberal forces had ousted Emperor Soulouque and installed Fabre Geffrard as President. Farragut found that the people of Haiti were delighted to be free of the oppressive rule of the former monarch and with the end of a racial war that had bled their nation. Upon the recommendation of the American consul, Farragut sailed for the Isthmus of Panama. After visiting Aspinwall, Brooklyn set a course for the Mexican coast and reached Veracruz early in April. The legal president of Mexico, Benito Juárez – who had been driven from Mexico City by forces of General Miguel Miramón of the Clerical Party—was making that seaport his temporary capital. The United States, which recognized the Juarez government, had sent former Maryland Congressman Robert Milligan McLane to Veracruz as the American minister and ordered Farragut to make Brooklyn available to McLane so that he might keep abreast of developments in the ongoing civil war and assist American consuls who were striving to protect U. S. citizens and property. During part of the time the screw sloop of war lay off Veracruz, McLane resided on board. In July Brooklyn proceeded to Pensacola, Florida, for coal, provisions, and water, and she reached that port on the 15th. As soon as she finished replenishing, the ship returned to Veracruz, but she was back at Pensacola again by September 7. From there, she sailed for New York and reached the New York Navy Yard on the 26th of that month. With McLane—who had returned to the United States for consultations with the U. S. Secretary of State and the U. S. President—on board, Brooklyn departed New York Harbor on November 8 and headed back toward the Gulf of Mexico. She arrived at Veracruz on the 21st and remained in port while McLane negotiated an agreement with the Juárez Government. After the treaty was signed on December 12, she got underway again and proceeded to New Orleans, Louisiana, where she arrived on the 18th. With her bunkers full once more, she headed down the Mississippi River on Christmas Eve and crossed the gulf to Veracruz. However, in mid January she reembarked McLane and took him to New Orleans so that he might catch a train for Washington, D. C., where he was needed to explain the treaty he had negotiated with Juárez to doubtful senators. From New Orleans, Brooklyn proceeded to Pensacola to prepare for a return to Mexican waters. However, before McLane could get back to the Gulf Coast from Washington, orders reached Pensacola sending her north. She stood out to sea on February 19, 1860 and reached New York City on the 27th. Underway again on March 11, she arrived at Norfolk, Virginia, the following afternoon and there awaited McLane whom she embarked and delivered back to Veracruz on the 28th. The steamer operated along the Mexican coast through the spring and into the summer carrying McLane to various ports where he conferred with the American consuls. Late in July she left the Mexican coast and returned to Norfolk early in August. There, she received orders to prepare for a voyage carrying members of a scientific expedition to the Gulf of Mexico to find a route across the isthmus of Chiriqui. She sailed on the 13th and reached Chiriqui, Boca del Toro, Panama, on the 24th. But for a run to Aspinwall from September 12 to 17, she remained off the expedition base at Chiriqui until mid October when she returned to Aspinwall. There on October 20, Capt. William S. Walker relieved Farragut in command.

Shortly thereafter, Brooklyn returned to Hampton Roads, Virginia, and she remained in the Norfolk area through the end of 1860 while enthusiasm for secession swept through the deep South in the wake of Abraham Lincoln's election to the presidency. Early in January 1861, Capt. Walker received orders sending Brooklyn to Charleston, South Carolina, with messages for the steamer Star of the West which had sailed south to relieve beleaguered Fort Sumter. However, when she reached Charleston Harbor, she found the channel leading into port obstructed and learned that the resupply effort had failed. Consequently, she returned to Hampton Roads. The following month, she received orders for a similar mission which she carried out with great success, relieving Fort Pickens, at Pensacola, Florida. After helping to thwart Confederate attempts to wrest that highly valuable Federal toehold on strategic Florida territory from Union hands, Brooklyn sailed west along the Gulf of Mexico coast to establish the blockade of the Mississippi Passes. She, Powhatan, and two gunboats made a number of captures off Pass a l'Outre and Southwest Pass, but so many ships were getting by them that Comdr. Charles Henry Poor – who relieved Capt. Walker as Brooklyn's commander in April 1861—tried to go upriver to the Head of Passes where traffic might better be throttled. Low water, however, caused her to run aground twice before she abandoned the effort. On June 30, 1861, the Confederate warship CSS Sumter raced out of Pass a l'Outre while Brooklyn had left her station in pursuit of another ship. Upon seeing the fleet Southern cruiser, Brooklyn forsook her first chase and used full sail and maximum steam in an attempt to overtake Sumter but to no avail, for her quarry soon escaped over the horizon and out of sight. Badly in need of repairs, Brooklyn sailed north late in the autumn and was decommissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. Recommissioned on December 19, 1861, the screw sloop—commanded by Capt. Thomas T. Craven—dropped down the Delaware River on the 27th and stood out to sea, bound for the gulf. After stopping at Key West, Florida, she reached Ship Island, Mississippi, on January 22, 1862. On February 2 she sailed for Pass a l'Outre where, on the 19th, she captured the steamer Magnolia which was attempting to slip out to sea with 1,200 bales of cotton. Meanwhile, the Navy Department had divided its forces in the gulf into two organizations: the East Gulf Blockading Squadron, commanded by Flag Officer William W. McKean, and the West Gulf Blockading Squadron, commanded by Flag Officer David G. Farragut who arrived at Ship Island in March. Besides carrying out the blockade, Farragut had been instructed to lead a fleet of warships up the Mississippi River to capture New Orleans, Louisiana. After spending the latter part of March and the first part of April getting his deep draft ocean going vessels over the bar and into the river, Farragut moved his fleet up the Mississippi to a position just out of range of the guns that guarded the river at Confederate Forts Jackson and St. Philip.

Attached to Farragut's force was a flotilla of small sailing vessels each of which carried a 13 inch mortar. In mid April these little warships—mostly schooners—began a bombardment of the Southern forts and continued the attack until the early hours of April 24 when they increased the tempo of their firing to their maximum rate while Farragut's deep draft men of war got underway for a dash past the Southern guns. Brooklyn was

struck several times before she could bring her guns to bear. As soon as that could be accomplished we opened fire upon Fort Jackson and also upon Fort St. Philip, fighting both batteries at intervals. We were fouled by one of our gunboats, but received no damage. The ram Manassas attempted to sink us by running into us, but did us little injury. A fire raft came down the river upon us, but we succeeded in crossing it without injury. We came near getting foul of some hulks and rafts of logs, which kept us under fire longer than we otherwise should have been. Eight men from Brooklyn were killed in the action and 21 wounded before she reached comparative safety beyond the range of the Rebel artillery. Later that day, after making needed repairs, Farragut's warships resumed their movement upriver and reached New Orleans on April 25. When that city had surrendered, Brooklyn—which had been damaged more seriously by her collision with the ram Manassas than Craven had at first realized—received a patch of heavy planking some 24 feet long over a long tear in her hull. One of Brooklyn's sailors, Quartermaster James Buck, was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in the battle. consisting of the seven smaller wooden ships lashed to the port side of the larger wooden screw steamers, as in the passage of Fort Hudson. Shortly before 7 o'clock, Tecumseh opened fire on Fort Morgan, and the action quickly became general. As the 4 ship Confederate squadron engaged the attackers, a terrific explosion rocked the Union monitor Tecumseh. She careened violently and went down in seconds, the victim of one of the much feared torpedoes (Naval mine) laid by the Confederates for harbor defense. ! ! Prize Name