(Fenimore Cooper, ex-midshipman, author)

Type and Characteristics - Sailing schooner, ex-New York pilot boat Skiddy, 95 tons, purchased by USN January 1853 as a tender, armed with 3 guns, commissioned 21 March 1853, first commanded by Master H K Stevens.

Log Period and Areas of Service - 1853-56, Surveying Expedition to the North Pacific Ocean.

Summary of Service, c1853-56

11 June 1853 - Led by USS Vincennes, expedition departed Hampton Roads for the Cape of Good Hope and the Far East.

1853-54 - With two other ships of the Squadron (believed to be John Hancock and John P Kennedy), surveyed the islands and waters between Batavia and Singapore, and from Java north to the South China Sea.

June 1854 - Rejoined flagship at Hong Kong.

Summer 1854 - Surveyed local coast of China and joined East India Squadron to protect American interests.

September 1854 - Squadron sailed north to Petropavlovsk. Here the ships separated. Vincennes headed into the Arctic, while Fenimore Cooper searched the Aleutians for the crew of whaler Monongahela, missing since 1853. Took passage for the United States, calling in at Sitka, Alaska, then Russian territory.

11 October 1855 - Arrived San Francisco.

1855-58 - Carried supplies between Mare Island Navy Yard and San Francisco.

Fate: Grounded in typhoon off Yokohama, Japan 23 August 1859, declared total loss and abandoned.

Link: DANFS

 

A general note on the sources.