Another week, another famous ship being built at the Washington Navy Yard. This one is best known for its very first voyage, when it carried a famous Revolutionary War hero back to his home in France.
The 1820s were a quiet time for the armed forces of the United States, and especially its Navy. Nonetheless, there was a continued desire to build new and better warships, and thus, on September 20, 1821, a new ship was laid down at the Washington Navy Yard.
The ship was considered the apotheoisis of the frigate as begun with the six original frigates authorized in 1794. A few more ships of this class were built over the next years, before being replaced by steam ships.
While the men at the Navy Yard were busy building this new ship, given the provisional name USS Susquehanna, the Marquis de Lafayette came over to see the changes wrought to the country whose independence he had fought for some 50 years earlier. Lafayette was greeted raptorously whereever he went. So when in the fall of 1825, it was time to return home, President John Quincy Adams decided that not only would it not be acceptable for Lafayette to return home on a private vessel, but that he should be taken on the newest, best ship that the Navy had to offer: The frigate currently being built in Washington.
On top of this, Adams decided that the ship should be christened Brandywine, after the first battle that Lafayette had fought in, and one where he had proved his mettle to George Washington. The Brandywine was commissioned in August, and in September it was time to take Lafayette back. While the ex-general was still being feted in the White House by Adams and others, the Brandywine, under command of Captain Charles Morris, was taken to the mouth of the Chesapeake to await her passenger.
Lafayette, together with the secretary of the Navy, Samuel Southard, and others, boarded the steamer Mount Vernon and headed down the Potomac, to the cheers of citizens lining both banks.
Final good-byes on board the Brandywine took so long that the captain had to delay the departure until the next morning. Finally, on September 8, 1825, he cast off and Lafayette’s triumphant trip to the US was over.
The Brandywine off Malta ca. 1831 (Google books)
The crossing was rough, and the ship did not help matters by continually taking on water. “Leak[ing] without it being discovered at what place; the pumps, in spite of their constant employment, could not keep the vessel clear, and some persons already regretted were were so far from the land,” according to Auguste Levasseur’s 1829 book on Lafayette’s trip.
Morris however showed that he was equal to the task, and simply had 32,000 pounds of iron heaved overboard. This not only improved the trim of the boat, but also raised the leak to the point where it could easily be found and repaired. The rest of the trip ended up passing much more comfortably.
Some three weeks after departure, the Brandywine and its famous passenger arrived in France, to further painful farewells. While Lafayette would spend his last ten years fighting for reforms in France, the Brandywine served all around the world, finally being laid up in 1850. The outbreak of the Civil War brought the Brandywine out of retirement, though her service as a storeship was cut short by a fire in her paint locker, which caused the ship to sink. She was later raised and sold for scrap: A sad end to a ship with such a remarkable beginning.