USS Prometheus (1814)

For other ships with the same name, see USS Prometheus.

Sail plan of USS Prometheus
History
United States
Name	USS Prometheus
Builder	William Seguin, Philadelphia
Acquired	by purchase, 1814
Decommissioned	October 1818
Fate	Sold, 1819
General characteristics
Type	Brig
Displacement	290 long tons (295 t)
Length	99 ft 9 in (30.40 m) (b.p) 82 ft (25 m) keel
Beam	27 ft 6 in (8.38 m)
Draft	11 ft 4 in (3.45 m)
Propulsion	Sail
Complement	50-60
Armament	in 1814 2 × 32-pounder gun 6 × 32-pounder carronades 4 × 9-pounder guns in 1816 1 × 32-pounder gun 4 × 18-pounder carronades 4 × 9-pounder guns in 1818 1 × 18-pounder gun 4 × 18-pounder carronades 6 × 9-pounder guns

The first USS Prometheus was a brig in the United States Navy from 1814 to 1818.

Prometheus was built by William Seguin, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; purchased in 1814 by the Navy from Messrs. Savage and Dryan, the original owners, as the brig Escape; commissioned and renamed Prometheus, she was fitted out at Philadelphia by Master Commandant Joseph J. Nicholson.

In March–May 1815 she made a cruise to the West Indies to carry U.S. Senators Eligius Fromentin and James Brown to Havana. She sailed for Europe on 14 August 1816 to take Edward Coles, special messenger from the President of the United States to the Emperor Alexander I of Russia, returning to Boston, Massachusetts, on 25 November. In 1817 she was employed in surveying the U.S. coast north of Newport, Rhode Island, and in 1818 she operated along the southern coast and at New Orleans, Louisiana.

In October 1818 she was pronounced unseaworthy and decommissioned. Prometheus was dismantled and sold at auction at New Orleans in 1819.

References

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