Career
Ordered:
Laid down:
Launched:
Commissioned:	1844
Fate:	scuttled
Stricken:
General Characteristics
Displacement:	189 tons
Length:	147 feet
Beam:	38 feet 1 inches
Depth of Hold:	17 feet 2 inches
Propulsion:
Speed:
Range:
Complement:
Armament:	four eight-inch shell guns, 18 32-pounders

USS Plymouth, a sloop-of-war, was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for Plymouth, Massachusetts, a town on Plymouth Bay , about 35 miles southeast of Boston, Massachusetts. Plymouth was founded by the Pilgrims in 1620.

Built by the Boston Navy Yard, she departed Boston, Massachusetts, on 3 April 1844 for the Mediterranean Sea, Commander Henry Henry in command. After over a year in European waters, she sailed westward and arrived at New York City on 4 October 1846. Following service on the east coast, Plymouth departed New York, 13 February 1848, for the Far East, returning to Norfolk, Virginia, from the East Indies on 29 January 1851. On 23 August 1851 she stood out from Hampton Roads, bound once again for the Orient. After duty on the East Indies Station , she joined Commodore Matthew Perry's expedition to Japan, entering Tokyo Bay on 8 July 1853 and departing on 17 July. She returned in February of the following year and before heading home put into Shanghai where she sent a party ashore to support a coordinated British-American expedition against hostile forts in the area.

Returning to Norfolk 11 January 1855, Plymouth began an extended tour in the Atlantic. Assigned as midshipmen training ship during the summers of 1855 and 1856, she tested new ordnance under the command of Commander John A. Dahlgren in 1858 and resumed duties as a training ship for midshipmen during the summers of 1859 and 1860.

Plymouth was at Norfolk for repairs during the secession crises in the winter of 1860–1861. After Virginia seceded from the Union, she was burned and scuttled there, 20 April 1861, to prevent her capture by the forces of the Confederate States of America when the Navy Yard fell into their hands.

See USS Plymouth for other ships of the same name.

References