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Photo # NH 85565-KN:  USS Trenton at Villefranche, 1878.  Painting by Tomaso DeSimone

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

USS Trenton (1877-1889)

USS Trenton, a 3900 ton steam frigate, was built at the New York Navy Yard and commissioned in February 1877. The largest warship begun for the Navy in the years between the Civil War and the beginning of "New Navy" steel ship construction in 1883, Trenton served extensively as a flagship, primarily on overseas stations. She deployed across the Atlantic soon after commissioning to become flagship on the European Station, where she primarily operated in the Mediterranean Sea but made annual cruises to visit Atlantic, North Sea and Baltic ports.

Trenton returned to the United States in October 1881 and was refitted at the New York Navy Yard over the next two years. Recommissioned in September 1883, she made the long passage to the Far East, by way of the Suez Canal, arriving in May 1884 to take up her duties as flagship on the Asiatic Station. This service ended in May 1886, and the ship retraced her previous outbound route back through Suez to the U.S. After brief operations off the east coast, Trenton was overhauled at the Norfolk Navy Yard, Virginia, between September 1886 and May 1887. From July to November 1887 she cruised to the West Indies and South America.

Late in January 1888, Trenton left the east coast for the last time, bound around Cape Horn to become flagship on the Pacific Station. In a period of rising tensions with Germany over that Nation's actions in Samoa, she arrived at Apia, Samoa, in March 1889. On the 15th and 16th of that month a violent hurricane hurricane assaulted the exposed anchorage there, wrecking Trenton and USS Vandalia, as well as two German gunboats. Determined to be beyond economic recovery, USS Trenton was broken up where she rested.

This page features and provides links to all the views we have related to USS Trenton (1877-1889).

For additional pictures related to this ship, see:

  • USS Trenton (1877-1889) -- Views on Board;
  • USS Trenton (1877-1889) -- In the Apia Hurricane of March 1889; and
  • USS Trenton (1877-1889) -- Construction and Miscellaneous Views.


    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 299

    USS Trenton
    (1877-1889)

    In port, during the later 1870s or the 1880s.

    Donation of Rear Admiral Ammen C. Farenholt, USN(MC), 1931.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 101KB; 740 x 515 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 85816

    USS Trenton
    (1877-1889)
    and
    USS Alliance (1877-1911)

    At Smyrna, Turkey, in 1878.
    Photographed by Rubellin, Smyrna.

    Donation of The Reverend Bradford Johnson, 1966.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 75KB; 740 x 465 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 97928

    USS Trenton
    (1877-1889)

    Photographed by F.C. Gould, Gravesend, England, in 1880.

    Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 87KB; 740 x 475 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 97931

    USS Trenton
    (1877-1889)

    In Chinese waters, 1884.

    Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 59KB; 740 x 555 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 63406

    USS Trenton
    (1877-1889)

    In a Far Eastern port, circa 1883-1886.
    The original print is a letterpress reproduction of a photograph, published circa the 1880s by the Photo-Gravure Company, New York. It bears the name of the noted marine photographer E.H. Hart, 1162 Broadway, New York City.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 101KB; 740 x 570 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 63407

    USS Trenton
    (1877-1889)

    Reefing top sails, probably while in New York Harbor in the mid-1880s.
    The original print is a letterpress reproduction of a photograph by E.H. Hart, 1162 Broadway, New York City, published circa the 1880s by the Photo-Gravure Company, New York..

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 101KB; 740 x 640 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 2909

    USS Trenton
    (1877-1889)

    Making Sail, probably while in New York Harbor in the mid-1880s.
    The original print is a letterpress reproduction of a photograph by E.H. Hart, 1162 Broadway, New York City, published circa the 1880s by the Photo-Gravure Company, New York.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 103KB; 740 x 570 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 85565-KN (color)

    USS Trenton (1877-1889)

    Painting by Tomaso DeSimone, depicting the ship at Villefranche, France, in 1878, while she was flagship of the European Squadron.
    A French warship is in the right background.

    Courtesy of the Navy Art Collection, Washington, D.C.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 57KB; 740 x 505 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 619

    USS Trenton
    (1877-1889)

    Photograph of a painting presented to the City of Trenton, New Jersey, by the ship's petty officers and crew, 1879. It depicts Trenton off Naples, Italy.

    The original photograph was donated by Rear Admiral Joseph K. Taussig, USN, 1934.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 96KB; 740 x 545 pixels

     

    For additional pictures related to this ship, see:

  • USS Trenton (1877-1889) -- Views on Board;
  • USS Trenton (1877-1889) -- In the Apia Hurricane of March 1889; and
  • USS Trenton (1877-1889) -- Construction and Miscellaneous Views.


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


    Return to Naval Historical Center home page.

    Page made 2 April 2002