USS Brooklyn (1858)

Early career[edit]

Brooklyn – the first ship so-named by the U.S. Navy – was the first of five screw sloops of war authorized by the U.S. Congress on March 3, 1857; laid down later that year by the firm of Jacob A. Westervelt and Son; launched in 1858; and commissioned on January 26, 1859, Capt. David G. Farragut in command. On February 5, Brooklyn got underway for a trial run to Beaufort, South Carolina, where she arrived on the 11th. Following a week's visit to that port, she headed for the West Indies to investigate conditions in Haiti where liberal forces had ousted Emperor Soulouque and installed Fabre Geffrard as President. Farragut found that the people of Haiti were delighted to be free of the oppressive rule of the former monarch and with the end of a racial war that had bled their nation. Upon the recommendation of the American consul, Farragut sailed for the Isthmus of Panama. After visiting Aspinwall, Brooklyn set a course for the Mexican coast and reached Veracruz early in April. The legal president of Mexico, Benito Juárez – who had been driven from Mexico City by forces of General Miguel Miramón of the Clerical Party—was making that seaport his temporary capital.


The United States, which recognized the Juarez government, had sent former Maryland Congressman Robert Milligan McLane to Veracruz as the American minister and ordered Farragut to make Brooklyn available to McLane so that he might keep abreast of developments in the ongoing civil war and assist American consuls who were striving to protect U.S. citizens and property. During part of the time the screw sloop of war lay off Veracruz, McLane resided on board. In July Brooklyn proceeded to Pensacola, Florida, for coal, provisions, and water, and she reached that port on the 15th. As soon as she finished replenishing, the ship returned to Veracruz, but she was back at Pensacola again by September 7. From there, she sailed for New York and reached the New York Navy Yard on the 26th of that month. With McLane—who had returned to the United States for consultations with the U.S. Secretary of State and the U.S. President—on board, Brooklyn departed New York Harbor on November 8 and headed back toward the Gulf of Mexico. She arrived at Veracruz on the 21st and remained in port while McLane negotiated an agreement with the Juárez Government. After the treaty was signed on December 12, she got underway again and proceeded to New Orleans, Louisiana, where she arrived on the 18th.


With her bunkers full once more, she headed down the Mississippi River on Christmas Eve and crossed the gulf to Veracruz. However, in mid- January she reembarked McLane and took him to New Orleans so that he might catch a train for Washington, D.C., where he was needed to explain the treaty he had negotiated with Juárez to doubtful senators. From New Orleans, Brooklyn proceeded to Pensacola to prepare for a return to Mexican waters. However, before McLane could get back to the Gulf Coast from Washington, orders reached Pensacola sending her north. She stood out to sea on February 19, 1860 and reached New York City on the 27th. Underway again on March 11, she arrived at Norfolk, Virginia, the following afternoon and there awaited McLane whom she embarked and delivered back to Veracruz on the 28th. The steamer operated along the Mexican coast through the spring and into the summer carrying McLane to various ports where he conferred with the American consuls. Late in July she left the Mexican coast and returned to Norfolk early in August. There, she received orders to prepare for a voyage carrying members of a scientific expedition to the Gulf of Mexico to find a route across the isthmus of Chiriqui. She sailed on the 13th and reached Chiriqui, Boca del Toro, Panama, on the 24th. But for a run to Aspinwall from September 12 to 17, she remained off the expedition base at Chiriqui until mid-October when she returned to Aspinwall. There on October 20, Capt. William S. Walker relieved Farragut in command.