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

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- PEOPLE -- UNITED STATES --

Benjamin W. Crowninshield (1772-1851) --
5th Secretary of the Navy, 16 January 1815 - 30 September 1818

Benjamin William Crowninshield was born in Salem, Massachusetts, on 27 December 1772. Son of a sea captain and merchant, he worked in the family shipping business, served at sea, and was also active in politics. He was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1811 and the state Senate in 1812.

Crowninshield became Secretary of the Navy in January 1815, at the end of the War of 1812, and managed the transition to a peacetime force. This included implementation of the new Board of Commissioners administrative system and the building of several ships of the line, the backbone of a much enhanced Navy. He also oversaw strategy and naval policy for the brief, and very successful war with Algiers in 1815.

After leaving Navy office, Crowninshield returned to business and political affairs in Massachusetts, prospering in both. In addition to serving two more terms in the Massachusetts House, he was also elected to four terms the United States Congress during the 1820s. Benjamin Crowninshield died on 3 February 1851.

USS Crowninshield (DD-134), 1919-1940, was named in honor of Secretary of the Navy Benjamin Crowninshield.

This page features our only images of Benjamin W. Crowninshield.


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the "Online Library's" digital images, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

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

Photo #: NH 54721-KN (Color)

Benjamin W. Crowninshield,
Secretary of the Navy, 16 January 1815 - 30 September 1818

Portrait by U.D. Tenney.

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

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 141KB; 625 x 765 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 54720

Benjamin W. Crowninshield
,
Secretary of the Navy, 16 January 1815 - 30 September 1818

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 59KB; 560 x 675 pixels

 


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the "Online Library's" digital images, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


Return to Naval Historical Center home page.

14 March 2000