USS Porpoise
Career
Name:	USS Porpoise
Ordered:	30 June 1834
Laid down:	1835
Launched:	31 May 1836
Commissioned:	1836
Decommissioned:	ca. July 1847
Recommissioned:	1 January 1848
Decommissioned:	3 August 1852
Recommissioned:	May 1853
Fate:	Disappeared September 1854
General characteristics
Type:	Brig
Displacement:	224 long tons (228 t)
Length:	88 ft (27 m)
Beam:	25 ft (7.6 m)
Draft:	11 ft (3.4 m)
Propulsion:	Sail
Complement:	80 officers and enlisted
Armament:	2 × 9 pdr (4.1 kg) guns, 8 × 24 pdr (11 kg) carronades

The second USS Porpoise was a 224-ton Dolphin class brigantine (In Early American usage a brigantine was referred to as a hermaphrodite brig.) The USS Porpoise was later rerigged as a brig (see illustration at right). She was based on the same plans as Dolphin.

Porpoise was authorized by Congress on 30 June 1834; built in 1835; and launched 31 May 1836; Lieutenant William Ramsay in command.

Porpoise sailed from Boston, Massachusetts on 25 August 1836, called at various southern ports, and conducted coastal surveying operations under the direction of Lt. Charles Wilkes in the summer of 1837. In October 1837, she hunted pirates along the southern coast, and then resumed her survey work in December.

Porpoise, Lt. Cadwalader Ringgold in command, was then assigned to the squadron which Wilkes was to command on an extended exploratory expedition around the world. She stood out of Hampton Roads on 18 August 1838 with the United States Exploring Expedition Squadron. She assisted in the exploration and survey work of the Expedition as it confirmed the existence of the Antarctic Continent, charted vast areas of the South Pacific, circumnavigated the world, and returned to New York four years later.

Porpoise underwent overhaul at New York at the end of 1842 and sailed on 8 February 1843 for the west coast of Africa to join the squadron patrolling for slavers. She returned to New York on 19 November 1844.

From February 1845-July 1847, Porpoise cruised in the Gulf of Mexico, participating in the Naval operations against Tampico, Pánuco, and Veracruz during the War with Mexico. Upon return to Norfolk, Virginia, she remained decommissioned until 1 January 1848.

During the next three and a half years, she hunted slavers along the west coast of Africa, touching at the U.S. in the spring of 1850. Returning to New York from this extended cruise on 19 December 1851. She again decommissioned on 3 August 1852.

Recommissioned in May 1853, she was assigned to North Pacific Exploring and Surveying Expedition under Commander Cadwalader Ringgold, a veteran, like Porpoise, of the Wilkes Expedition. She joined the squadron at Hampton Roads, and with it, stood out to sea on 11 June 1853. Porpoise rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and with the squadron explored and charted many Pacific islands and shoals before arriving in China in March 1854. The squadron put to sea once more to explore in the Bonins, the Ladrones, and the Marianas. Porpoise parted company with the other vessels on 21 September 1854 between Formosa and China, and was never heard from again. It is supposed that she foundered in a heavy typhoon which occurred a few days after her separation from the squadron.

See also[link]

• European and American voyages of scientific exploration

References[link]

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.

USS Porpoise has been the name of more than one United States navy ship, and may refer to:

• USS Porpoise (1820), a schooner built in 1820 and wrecked in 1833
• USS Porpoise (1836), a brig in commission from 1836 to 1847, from 1848 to 1852, and from 1853 until lost in 1854
• USS Porpoise (SS-7), a submarine commission from 1903 to 1919, renamed USS A-6 in 1911
• USS Porpoise (YFB-2047), steamer in commission from 1918 to 1930, originally named USS Moosehead (ID-2047)
• USS Porpoise (SS-172), a submarine in commission from 1935 to 1945

Also

• A patrol vessel named USS Porpoise (SP-4) may have served ca. 1917-1919, but no records of her acquisition, commissioning, or service have been found

This article includes a list of ships with the same or similar names. If an internal link for a specific ship led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended ship article, if one exists.