USS Portsmouth (1843)

USS Portsmouth in 1896 (John S. Johnston, photographer)
History
Name:	USS Portsmouth
Builder:	Portsmouth Navy Yard
Launched:	23 October 1843
Commissioned:	10 November 1844
Decommissioned:	14 July 1878
Struck:	17 April 1915
Fate:	Sold, and destroyed, 6–7 September 1915
General characteristics
Type:	Sloop-of-war
Tonnage:	1022
Length:	151 ft 10 in (46.28 m)
Beam:	37 ft 3 in (11.35 m)
Draft:	16 ft 6 in (5.03 m)
Propulsion:	Sail
Complement:	200 Naval officers and enlisted, 27 Marines
Armament:	18 × medium 32-pounder guns 2 × Paixhans 64-pounder shell guns

The second USS Portsmouth was a wooden sloop-of-war in the United States Navy in service during the mid-to-late 19th century. She was designed by Josiah Barker on the lines of a French-built privateer, and built at the Portsmouth Navy Yard, directly across the Piscataqua River from Portsmouth, New Hampshire. She was described as an improvement over the USS Saratoga built in the same shipyard a year earlier. The Portsmouth was launched on 23 October 1843 and commissioned on 10 November 1844, with Commander John Berrien Montgomery in command.

The Portsmouth had an important role during the Mexican-American War, seizing the port of Yerba Buena (today's San Francisco) from Mexico. She had set sail on 25 January 1845 from Norfolk, Virginia, on a cruise around Cape Horn to join the Pacific Squadron under the command of Commodore John D. Sloat. En route, she made stops in Rio de Janeiro, Valparaiso, Callao, the Sandwich Islands, and Acapulco. Upon arriving off the Departamento de Las Californias coast, with Lieutenant Benjamin F. B. Hunter as her Sailing Master, she was initially engaged in watching the movements of British vessels there to prevent the possibility of Great Britain acquiring the region during any conflict between the U.S. and Mexico. After the declaration of war with Mexico, a detachment of Marines under the command of Second Lieutenant Henry Bulls Watson rowed ashore on 9 July 1846, marched to the pueblo's main plaza, and raised the American flag, thereby seizing the city. Renamed Portsmouth Square, the site is located in modern Chinatown.