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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Photo # NH 56679:  U.S. frigate Boston in the Mediterranean, circa 1802.

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Boston (1799-1814)

USS Boston, a 700-ton 28-gun frigate, was built at Boston, Massachusetts, paid for by public subscription during the undeclared war with France. Commissioned in mid-1799, she protected American commerce in the West Indies from July 1799 until June 1800. After spending the summer off the U.S. coast she resumed station in the West Indies in September 1800. On 12 October 1800 Boston captured the French frigate Le Berceau after a bloody engagement and subsequently brought her prize back to the U.S.

Boston transported an American diplomat to France during the winter of 1801. She then became part of the U.S. squadron in the Mediterranean Sea and, on 16 May 1802, engaged several Tripolitan gunboats in an action that forced one of the enemy craft ashore. After returning to Boston in October 1802, Boston was laid up at the Washington Navy Yard, D.C. She remained there for the next dozen years and was determined to be not worth repairing for service in the War of 1812. USS Boston was burned when the British captured the U.S. capital city in August 1814.

This page features our only views of USS Boston (1799-1814).


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

Photo #: NH 56679

USS Boston
(1799-1814)

Contemporary line engraving by Baugean, depicting the ship in the Mediterranean Sea, circa 1802.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 144KB; 740 x 515 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 76555

USS Boston captures the French frigate le Berceau,
12 October 1800

Line engraving after a drawing by J.O. Davidson, published in "A History of the United States Navy" by Edgar S. MacLay, New York, 1901 Edition. It depicts the height of the action, with the French frigate in the foreground.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 124KB; 600 x 765 pixels

 


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


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Page made 18 February 2003