USS Porpoise was a 224-ton Dolphin class brigantine (later rerigged as a brig). Built at the Boston Navy Yard, she was commissioned in August 1836 and performed survey and anti-piracy duties off the U.S. coast for the next two years. In August 1838 she began an extended deployment with the United States Exploring Squadron, commanded by Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, who had the sloop of war Vincennes as his flagship. For more than four years Porpoise sailed around the world, examining previously unseen regions off Antarctica and surveying much of the south Pacific. During 1843-1844 the brig participated in anti-slavery patrols off western Africa. This was followed by wartime service off Mexico's eastern shore in 1845-1848.
Later in 1848 Porpoise returned to west African waters for a second tour of duty against the slave trade, this one lasting until December 1851. Her next assignment was as a part of an exploring squadron under the command of Cadwallader Ringgold. She left the United States in June 1853, sailed eastwards around the southern tip of Africa and arrived in China in March 1854. After visiting the Bonins, the Ladrones and the Marianas, the squadron was between Formosa and China on 21 September 1854 when Porpoise parted company. Never heard from again, she was presumably lost with all hands in a South China Sea typhoon a few days later.
This page features all the views we have related to the U.S. Brig Porpoise (1836-1854).
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.
Other related views: In addition to the images presented
above, the following sketches by Charles F. Sands were made during
Porpoise's cruise off West Africa in 1848, but do not show
her or any of her crew:
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Page made 22 September 2003