USS President (1800)

President rides out a storm at anchor.
History
United States
Name	USS President
Namesake	President of the United States
Ordered	27 March 1794[2]
Builder	Initially Forman Cheesman; later Christian Bergh
Cost	$220,910[4]
Laid down	1798[3]
Launched	10 April 1800[1]
Maiden voyage	5 August 1800
Captured	15 January 1815
General characteristics
Class and type	44-gun Frigate
Tonnage	1,576 tons [5]
Length	175 ft (53 m) between perpendiculars
Beam	44 ft 4 in (13.51 m)
Decks	Orlop, Berth, Gun, Spar
Propulsion	Sail
Armament	32 × 24-pounder guns(10.9 kg) 22 × 42-pounder guns(19 kg) carronades 1 × 18-pounder (8 kg) long gun[5]
United Kingdom
Name	HMS President
Acquired	15 January 1815
Fate	Broken up, 1818[a]
General characteristics [6]
Class and type	50-gun 60-gun (1817)
Tons burthen	1533 7⁄94 (bm)
Length	173 ft 3 in (52.8 m) (overall); 146 ft 4+3⁄4 in (44.6 m) (keel)
Beam	44 ft 4 in (13.5 m)
Depth of hold	13 ft 11 in (4.2 m)
Armament	30 × 24-pounder guns (10.9 kg) 28 × 42-pounder (19 kg) carronades 2 × 24-pounder guns (10.9 kg)

USS President was a wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate of the United States Navy, nominally rated at 44 guns; she was launched in April 1800 from a shipyard in New York City. President was one of the original six frigates whose construction the Naval Act of 1794 had authorized, and she was the last to be completed. The name "President" was among ten names submitted to President George Washington by Secretary of War Timothy Pickering in March of 1795 for the frigates that were to be constructed.^[7][8] Joshua Humphreys designed these frigates to be the young Navy's capital ships, and so President and her sisters were larger and more heavily armed and built than standard frigates of the period. Forman Cheeseman, and later Christian Bergh were in charge of her construction. Her first duties with the newly formed United States Navy were to provide protection for American merchant shipping during the Quasi War with France and to engage in a punitive expedition against the Barbary pirates in the First Barbary War.

On 16 May 1811, President was at the center of the Little Belt affair; her crew mistakenly identified HMS Little Belt as HMS Guerriere, which had impressed an American seaman. The ships exchanged cannon fire for several minutes. Subsequent U.S. and Royal Navy investigations placed responsibility for the attack on each other without a resolution. The incident contributed to tensions between the U.S. and Great Britain that led to the War of 1812.

During the war, President made several extended cruises, patrolling as far away as the English Channel and Norway; she captured the armed schooner HMS Highflyer and numerous merchant ships. In January 1815, after having been blockaded in New York for a year by the Royal Navy, President attempted to run the blockade, and was chased by a blockading squadron. During the chase, she was engaged and crippled by the frigate HMS Endymion off the coast of the city. The British squadron captured President soon after, and the Royal Navy took her into service as HMS President until she was broken up in 1818. President's design was copied and used to build the next HMS President in 1829.

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