USS ASP vs. Overwhelming Odds
14 JULY 1813
USS ASP vs. OVERWHELMING ODDS
In February of 1813 our nation was struggling once again against the naval superpower of the day, Britain, and fears of a British incursion into the Chesapeake were real. Our Navy was no match for His Majesty’s, but we nevertheless purchased the 79-ton bay schooner Adeline in Alexandria and outfitted her at the Washington Navy Yard as the 3-gun sloop-of-war USS ASP. This day found her cruising with the 4-gun sloop USS SCORPION in the Yeocomico River, a tributary of the Potomac. Exiting the tributary to the Potomac proper, the pair were sighted by the British cruisers HMS CONTEST, 14, and HMS MOHAWK, 18, about 1000 this morning. ASP, being a bit ungainly, ducked back into the Yeocomico and anchored up one of her creeks. Her skipper, Midshipman James B. Sigourney, correctly surmised that the British cruisers drew too much water to enter the creek. But the British launched three small boats that were shortly seen rowing toward ASP, led by LT Curry of CONTEST and LT Hutchinson of MOHAWK.
ASP beat to quarters, and without time to raise her anchors, she cut her cables and turned further up the creek. But shallowing water halted the Sigourney’s escape with the enemy still in relentless pursuit. The Midshipman ordered his 21-man crew to the guns, and three 18-pounders flashed in anger. These, and muskets, kept up a steady fire against the advancing enemy boats. For moments it looked like the British would prevail despite the intense fire–until American iron and lead took its toll. The cruel volleys that tore through their ranks convinced LT Curry to opt for discretion.
About an hour later, the enemy was reinforced with two more boatloads of attackers. This time the American fire could not turn them back. They swarmed aboard ASP with a vengeance, cutting down ten of the American crewmen including Midshipman Sigourney. Upwards of 50 British possessed the deck, and against those odds the eleven surviving Americans scattered into the Virginia woods. Here, second in command Midshipman Henry M. McLintock rallied the men. The British set fire to ASP and quit both her and the creek–too soon, it would prove. McLintock regained the deck and after a difficult struggle, stemmed the fires aboard the schooner. ASP was able to get underway and return to Washington. She was repaired and continued in service in the defense of Baltimore for the remainder of the War of 1812. She finally left naval service over a decade later, in 1826.
In modern times two destroyers, the WWI Wickes-class SIGOURNEY (DD-81) and the WWII Fletcher-class DD-643, remember Midshipman James B. Sigourney.
Watch for more “Today in Naval History” 19 JUL 25
CAPT James Bloom, Ret.
Cooper, James Fenimore. History of the Navy of the United States of America, Vol. II. Philadelphia, PA: Lea & Blanchard, 1840, pp. 186-87.
Department of the Navy, Naval History Division. Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 1 “A”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1991, p. 430.
Department of the Navy, Naval History Division. Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 6 “R-S”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1976, p. 502.
Letter of Midshipman Henry McLintock to Secretary of the Navy, dtd. 19 July 1813. IN: Dudley, William S. (ed). The Naval War of 1812: A Documentary History Vol II. Department of the Navy, Navy Historical Center, Washington, DC: GPO, 1992, p. 368.
Roosevelt, Theodore. The Naval War of 1812. New York, NY: Da Capo, 1999, pp. 196-97.
ADDITIONAL NOTES: USS SCORPION escaped up the Chesapeake Bay toward Harve de Grace, Maryland. SCORPION would be burned 14 months later in the Patuxent River to prevent her capture by a British force advancing on Washington, DC.
One of the curiosities in our early Navy was the coexistence of two warships named, USS ASP. Communications being what they were during the War of 1812, the name given to one of the warships operating on Great Lakes was not known in Washington DC at the time the small schooner above was commissioned.
