Tragedy on the Potomac

"Captain Stockton! Captain Stockton! The Secretary is killed! Thank God the President is safe."

These bloody politicians wanting to go on their cruises up and down the Potomac to see the new ship "they" paid for. Old John Quincy Adams, just a congressman now, wouldn't come near the ship. The old curmudgeon says the politicians want more ships "to fire their souls with patriotic ardor for a naval war."

I suppose some like him will try to blame me for the explosion of Peacemaker, the cannon I designed and rushed aboard my ship The Princeton. It's true Peacemaker was not of as advanced a design as its twin, "Oregon."  Oregon had been designed by the Swedish inventor John Ericsson and built in England. Thanks to its revolutionary design, it could fire a 225 lb. projectile five miles.

Ericsson also designed Princeton, which was the first propeller driven ship with its engines below deck to protect them from enemy fire. Ericsson would go on to design USS Monitor.  I got my own oar into the design thanks to my political pull. In fact the ship itself was built thanks to the influence of the Stockton family in politics. My father was a U.S. Senator and my grandfather was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

Ericsson designed Princeton's steam engines as well as the gun Oregon. Princeton also carried twelve smaller cannons. Ericsson only planned on one heavier canon but I insisted on adding Peacemaker.

Princeton, named for an American victory in the Revolutionary War as well as the Stockton family's hometown, was less than six months old when we arrived in Washington on February 13, 1844. The local citizens were very interested in the new ship and her big guns, and we made several cruises on the Potomac with sightseers aboard. Peacemaker was fired several times without incident.

On February 27, President Tyler hosted a reception for me at the White House. The President was expanding the Navy because war with Mexico was imminent. The following day the President and many high ranking Federal officials including two cabinet members boarded Princeton for a cruise up the Potomac. Also aboard was former first lady Dolly Madison.

Travelling upriver, we fired Peacemaker several times, after which many of the guests, including the President, went below deck for lunch. Secretary of the Navy Gilmer suggested one final shot. When I pulled the lanyard, the left side of the gun exploded, killing Gilmer and Secretary of State Upshur. Also killed was my valet, a black slave named Armistead. Several crew members were killed as well. I was lightly wounded along with many others more seriously hurt.

The next day I wrote telling Congress that accidents such as this are bound to happen and that they should not lose confidence either in myself or in the ship's design. Congress, always skittery after such events, immediately scraped plans for future ships on Princeton's design. A Court of Inquiry exonerated me, saying I had taken "appropriate precautions."

As things heated up in Texas, Princeton was sent to the Gulf of Mexico. I myself was sent to the West Coast to command the fleet there and secure California for the United States. After the war I was elected to the US Senate from New Jersey. I resigned from that position to serve as president of the Raritan and Delaware Canal Company until my death in 1866. When the Confederate Army invaded Pennsylvania in 1863, I was put in command of the New Jersey militia, but we saw no action.

As for the Princeton, after her service in the Mexican War, she served in the Mediterranean. Upon her return to the United States, it was decided that needed repairs would be too expensive and she was broken up in the Boston Navy Yard late in 1849. If you're ever in Annapolis, step inside the front gate of the US Naval Academy for a look at Oregon, the gun that didn't explode.

Bloody hell!



Chairman Joe