USS Franklin (1815)

Career
Name: USS Franklin
Namesake: Benjamin Franklin
Builder: Philadelphia Navy Yard
Laid down: 1815
Launched: August 1815
Commissioned: before 14 October 1817
Fate: Broken up, 1852
General characteristics
Type: Ship of the line
Displacement: 2,243 long tons (2,279 t)
Length: 190 ft 9 in (58.14 m)
Beam: 54 ft 7 in (16.64 m)
Draft: 24 ft 3 in (7.39 m)
Armament: • 30 × long 32-pounder guns
• 32 × medium 32-pounder guns
• 2 × 32-pounder carronades

The third USS Franklin of the United States Navy was a 74-gun ship of the line.

History

Built in 1815 under the supervision of Samuel Humphreys and Charles Penrose, she was the first vessel to be laid down at the Philadelphia Navy Yard.

Franklin sailed on her first cruise on 14 October 1817, when under the command of Master Commandant H. E. Ballard she proceeded from Philadelphia to the Mediterranean. She carried the Hon. Richard Rush, U.S. Minister to England, to his post. Subsequently she was designated flagship of the Mediterranean Squadron, cruising on that station until March 1820. She returned to New York City on 24 April 1820.

From 11 October 1821 until 29 August 1824 she served as flagship on the Pacific Squadron. Franklin was laid up in ordinary until the summer of 1843 when she was ordered to Boston as a receiving ship. She continued in this capacity until 1852 at which time she was taken to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, razed and broken up.

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