USS Princeton (1843)

USS Princeton

Lithograph of Princeton, by Nathaniel Currier, 1844.
History
United States of America
Name:	Princeton
Namesake:	Princeton, a borough in New Jersey
Ordered:	November 18, 1841
Laid down:	October 20, 1842
Launched:	September 5, 1843
Commissioned:	September 9, 1843
Fate:	Broken up, October 1849
General characteristics
Displacement:	954 long tons (969 t)
Length:	164 ft (50 m)
Beam:	30 ft 6 in (9.30 m)
Draft:	17 ft (5.2 m)
Propulsion:	Sail and steam
Speed:	7 kn (8.1 mph; 13 km/h)
Complement:	166 officers and enlisted
Armament:	2 × 12 in (300 mm) smoothbore guns, 12 × 42 pdr (19 kg) carronades

The first USS Princeton was a screw steam warship in the United States Navy. Commanded by Captain , Princeton was launched on September 5, 1843.

The ship's reputation in the Navy never recovered from a devastating incident early in her service. On February 28, 1844, during a Potomac River pleasure cruise for dignitaries that included a demonstration of her two heavy guns, one gun exploded killing six people, including Secretary of State Abel P. Upshur, Secretary of the Navy Thomas Walker Gilmer, and other high-ranking federal officials. President John Tyler, who was aboard but below decks, was not injured.

Princeton was laid down on October 20, 1842, at the Philadelphia Navy Yard as a 700 long tons (710 t) corvette. The designer of the ship and main supervisor of construction was the Swedish inventor John Ericsson, who later designed the USS Monitor. The construction was partly supervised by Captain Stockton who had secured the political support for the construction of the ship. The ship was named after Princeton, New Jersey, site of an American victory in the Revolutionary War and hometown of the prominent Stockton family. The ship was christened with a bottle of American whiskey and launched on September 5, 1843. It was ordered commissioned on September 9, 1843, with Captain Stockton in command.