USS CHAUNCEY DD-296

ISAAC CHAUNCEY

Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, June 2018

Isaac Chauncey — born in Black Rock, Conn. — on 20 February 1772, entered the merchant marine as a young man and was later appointed a Lieutenant in the Navy from 17 September 1798. He fought with gallantry in the West Indies during the Quasi-War with France, 1799–1801. He went to the Mediterranean in 1802 and participated in the naval operations against the Barbary states. He commanded the frigate John Adams (1804–1805), the brig-rigged sloop-of-war Hornet (1805–1806), Promoted to the rank of Captain on 24 April 1806, he was furloughed to take command of the merchant ship Beaver on a voyage to China, and there again demonstrated his bravery in the face of a British warship’s efforts to examine his crew for possible impressment.

In 1807, after returning to the United States and resuming his naval service, Capt. Chauncey took command of the Navy Yard at Brooklyn, N.Y. After war began with Great Britain in mid-1812, Chauncey was ordered, on 12 September 1812, from New York City to Sackett’s (Sackets) Harbor, N.Y., near the Thousand Islands at the east end of Lake Ontario, to gain control of Lakes Ontario, Erie, Huron, and others, if necessary. Chauncey was designated Commander, Naval Forces on the Upper Lakes. As opposition, the British had a few small, armed merchant ships based at York [Toronto], Upper Canada [Ontario]. Chauncey subsequently engaged in an extensive program, building and buying vessels in order to improve the American position on the lake. On 8 November 1812, Chauncey, now Commodore, with the brigantine Oneida, armed with sixteen 24-pounders, and six armed schooners, got underway from Sackett’s Harbor. Finding the 22-gun British vessel, HMS Royal George, out at False Duck Islands on Lake Ontario, Chauncey chased her into Kingston Harbor, Upper Canada. At 3:00 p.m., he ran into the harbor to inspect the fort’s defenses. Two of his schooners were chasing merchantmen but the remaining four, each carrying a long 32-pounder, went in ahead of Oneida and kept up a brisk fire on the batteries while Oneida ranged beside Royal George. In 20 minutes, the British cut their rope cables and ran their ship ashore where troops could more easily defend her. Finding the shore batteries too heavy and the wind rising against his course out of the harbor, Chauncey retreated. Royal George was damaged and the schooner Simeo was sunk. Thereafter, four schooners sufficed to blockade Kingston Harbor until ice relieved them of the task.

Chauncey, in February 1813, petitioned the Navy Department to order Oliver Hazard Perry to Erie to command the Erie Squadron. Two months later, in April 1813, Chauncey, believing that his fleet was strong enough to co-operate offensively with the Army under General Winfield Scott, conducted an amphibious operation that captured York in May. He later engaged in a series of inconclusive actions against a British fleet, commanded by Sir James L. Yeo, on Lake Ontario (7–11 August 1813). Just over a month later, the two fleets fought another inconclusive, long-range engagement on Lake Ontario on 11 September 1813. The following spring, Yeo had Chauncey’s fleet blockaded at Sackett’s Harbor. Chauncey was able to turn the tables on Yeo in July 1814, blockading his force at York.

After hostilities ended early in 1815, Chauncey was placed in charge of the Portsmouth Navy Yard, at Kittery, Maine. He returned to the Mediterranean and commanded the Mediterranean Squadron (1816–1818) in the ship-of-the-line Washington. During his command of the squadron, Chauncey assisted in negotiation of a treaty with the Bey of Algiers. Returning to the United States, he later served on the Board of Navy Commissioners (1821–1824) and followed that with another tour as Commandant of the New York Navy Yard. During this tenure, in May 1829, Chauncey led a series of searches for the body of George Washington Adams, who committed suicide by jumping from the deck of the steamship Benjamin Franklin. He returned to the Board of Navy Commissioners in 1833 and became its President in 1837. Commodore Isaac Chauncey died in Washington, D.C., on 27 January 1840. He was interred at the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C.