Previous ships called Independence: Difference between revisions

This Independence, first ship-of-the-line commissioned in the U.S. Navy, launched June 22, 1814 in the Boston Navy Yard. She immediately took on guns and was stationed with frigate Constitution to protect the approaches to Boston Harbor. Wearing the broad pennant of Commodore Williaua Bainbridge, and under command of Captain William Crane, she led her squadron from Boston July 3, 1815 to deal with piratical acts of the Barbary Powers against American merchant commerce. The Independence was recommissioned three times: 1837, 1849, and 1854. She was a ship that proved to be very durable and was not decommissioned permanently until November 3, 1912. Finally on September 20, 1919, the Independence was burned on the Hunter's Point mud flats to recover her metal fittings. The sturdy veteran of the days of wooden ships and iron men had survived more than a century, 98 years of which were spent serving the U.S. Navy.

This Independence was a 7898 gross ton freighter and was built at San Francisco, California, in 1918. She was taken over by the Navy soon after completion and placed in commission as USS Independence in mid-November 1918, a few days after the Armistice had ended World War I combat action. In January 1919 the ship made one voyage to England, with a cargo of food. She was decommissioned in March 1919 and returned to the United States Shipping Board. Extensively rebuilt in about 1930, she was the merchant ship City of Norfolk until 1940, when the Navy again acquired her. Converted to a transport, she served until 1946 as the USS Neville.