USS Montezuma (1798)

History
United States
Name:	USS Montezuma
Laid down:	1795
Acquired:	26 June 1798
Commissioned:	August 1798
Fate:	Sold, 30 December 1799
General characteristics
Displacement:	347 long tons (353 t)
Draft:	16 ft (4.9 m)
Propulsion:	Sail
Complement:	180 officers and enlisted
Armament:	20 × 9-pounder guns

The first USS Montezuma was a ship in the United States Navy during the Quasi-War with France. Her merchant name was retained.

Montezuma was built in Virginia in 1795 for transatlantic voyages; acquired by the Navy 26 June 1798 from William Taylor at Baltimore, Maryland, for service against French naval vessels and privateers attacking American merchantmen during the Quasi-War; and placed in service by the end of August 1798, Capt. Alexander Murray in command.

Departing Baltimore on 3 November, Montezuma sailed as flagship of a squadron consisting of brig Norfolk, cutter Eagle, and schooner Retaliation for the West Indies to cruise off Guadeloupe and Martinique, to protect American merchantmen and search for French men-of-war. The ships encountered two enemy vessels on 20 November and gave chase, capturing without a fight the brig Fair American, an American vessel taken by French privateers only five days previously, but losing Retaliation to two French frigates that appeared on the horizon. After a long chase the squadron was able to evade the French warships and then put into St. Thomas. Montezuma continued on her duty in the West Indies, convoying merchant ships to various Caribbean ports into 1799 and then on 7 March fell in with and captured French brig Les Amis, 16 guns, off Curaçao. She was ordered home in mid-March and arrived Philadelphia after convoying 57 merchant ships to various ports on the eastern seaboard 12 May 1799.

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