Length 86 feet between perpendiculars, 67 foot keel
Cannon Armament::
10 18-pounder (weight of shot) cannonades
and 2 9-pounder "Long Tom" guns
Launched:
May 17, 1821, at the Washington D.C. Navy Yard,
Commanded by Lieutenant Matthew C. Perry
Complement:
Normally; 70 Men
The first USS Shark,
was one of five small schooners that the United States intended for use in
suppressing piracy in the West Indies. Four were of the Baltimore Clipper
design and needed immediately and were built at different Navy Yards. The
Alligator at Boston, the Dolphin at Philadelphia, the Porpoise
at Portsmouth, and the Shark at Washington, D.C. These clippers
required a large crew to handle them and they were somewhat dangerous when
driven hard, consequently not replaced when they went out of service.
Lt. Matthew C. Perry (pictured here as a Commodore) was assigned to the
Shark on May 11, 1821, to supervise the outfitting, launching and ultimate
commissioning. In 1822 the Shark was ordered to Key West (now
Florida, but then known as Caya Hueste en Norte del America from the
Spanish position in Havana, Cuba) to determine its adequacy as a United
States installation. Lt. Perry was so convinced that he planted the U.S flag
claiming the island as U. S. property in spite of both Spanish and English
claims, naming it "Thompson's Island" after the Secretary of the Navy, Smith
Thompson. The Shark continued to patrol the Caribbean, the West
Indies, and the coasts of Africa monitoring the slave trade and piracy of
that era, capturing or assisting in the capture of several slave and pirate vessels.
From 1823 to 1839, under various commanders, she continued patrol duties primarily on the
western coasts of Africa regulating slave trade. On July 11, 1939, she was
ordered to the Pacific Squadron and was the first war vessel to pass east to
west through the Strait of Magellan. In the Pacific the Shark
protected American interests during the South American unrest and along the
North American coast during trouble in California.
The watercolor rendering, at the left, by Gunner William H. Myers, of the USS
Cyane depicts ships of the Pacific Squadron circa 1842-1843. The ships,
left to right, are USS United States, the USS Cyane, the
USS Saint Louis, the USS Yorktown, and the USS Shark
(barely able to be discerned).
On May 1, 1843, Lt. Neil Howison joined the
Pacific Squadron and soon took command of the Shark. On April 1,
1846, he was ordered to Honolulu for repairs, coppering, and provisioning.
They were completed on June 23, 1846, and she set sail for the Columbia
River in the Oregon Territory; there to protect American interests over the
Canadian border dispute between the United States and Great Britain.
(President Polk's "54-40 or fight" slogan of his campaign.}
Shark arrived at the Oregon coast on July 15, 1846, and between August 4th and the 11th ten men
deserted her. Howison's efforts to penetrate the Columbia and Willamette
Rivers were frustrated by inaccurate charts (he was advised of this while in
Honolulu), an inability to secure a qualified pilot, and frequent incursions
(not of warfare) with the Hudson Bay Company representing the King of
England. Consequently he frequently returned to Fort Vancouver, immediately
to the north. On August 23, he entered the Columbia River, but was ordered
to leave the river by September 1st. Prevailing conditions hampered his exit
and by September 8, Howison brought the Shark
into Baker's Bay and prepared to cross the bar partially blocking the channel.
On September 10, 1846, the USS Shark
was lost on the South Spit of Clatsop Beach while attempting to leave the
Columbia River. Of course there was the resultant ordeal of the sailors
leaving the Shark and those remaining.
Howison: "On the 10, in the afternoon, an
attempt was made, and resulted in the shipwreck of the schooner ..." as he
reported to the Navy Court of Inquiry in March of 1847.
"The Shark's tour of duty was much more successful than those of her sister ships.
The Alligator wrecked of what is now Miami, Florida in 1823. The Porpoise
was wrecked in the West Indies in 1833. The Dolphin, which was the
first one launched, was found rotting away in 1835 and dismantled." from The Schooner
Shark, Shark Rock. and Cannon Beach by Jim Dennon, and published January, 1988, by the Cannon
Bay Historical Society.
In the ensuring years, and even until relatively recently, artifacts from the Shark have
been found washed ashore in the northern Oregon coast. Three of her cannon
washed ashore in October, 1846, at Cape Arch which eventually gave the name
of Cannon Beach, a great resort town, in Oregon in the proximity of where
the Shark was shipwrecked. The shipwrecked sailors formed a community
called "Sharksville" at Fort George (now Astoria) until they were taken to
San Francisco by the schooner Cadboro on November 16, 1846. Their
particular legacy was to have carved their names into a "Shark Rock" which
remains to this day in Cannon Beach.
Lt. Matthew C. Perry (pictured here as a Commodore) was assigned to the
Shark on May 11, 1821, to supervise the outfitting, launching and ultimate
commissioning. In 1822 the Shark was ordered to Key West (now
Florida, but then known as Caya Hueste en Norte del America from the
Spanish position in Havana, Cuba) to determine its adequacy as a United
States installation. Lt. Perry was so convinced that he planted the U.S flag
claiming the island as U. S. property in spite of both Spanish and English
claims, naming it "Thompson's Island" after the Secretary of the Navy, Smith
Thompson. The Shark continued to patrol the Caribbean, the West
Indies, and the coasts of Africa monitoring the slave trade and piracy of
that era, capturing or assisting in the capture of several slave and pirate vessels.
