HMS Macedonian

The HMS Macedonian, a 38-gun sailing
frigate, was built at Woolwich,
England, in 1809, launched 2 June                     Career
1810, and commissioned soon
thereafter, Lord William FitzRoy in    Laid down:     1809
command. Among the original crew was
the 13-year-old Samuel Leech, who      Launched:      2 June 1810
later wrote a memoir of his            Commissioned:  July(?) 1810
experiences.
                                       Fate:          captured by United States
Macedonian first delivered a company
of soldiers to Lisbon, Portugal, then         General Characteristics
remained in the area, guarding against Displacement:  1,325 tons
the possibility of French naval
attack. During this period, FitzRoy    Length:        161.5 ft ( m)
made personal profit by falsification  Beam:          40 ft ( m)
of records of ships' stores, for which Depth of hold: 18.3 ft ( m)
he was court-martialled in March 1811
and dismissed from the service (he was Complement:    306 officers and men
quietly reinstated in August,
presumably due to his aristocratic rank).

FitzRoy's replacement, William Waldegrave, was an interim appointment whose
command lasted for only a few weeks before he was himself replaced by John
Carden. One of Carden's first actions was to hire a band, a move popular
with the crew, but he did not get along with the first lieutenant David Hope.

In January 1812, Macedonian was ordered to secretly deliver some bills of
exchange to Norfolk, Virginia, and to bring back an equivalent quantity of
gold and silver specie, as part of a scheme to keep the Bank of England
solvent. During the visit, Carden socialized with the notables of Norfolks,
including Commodore Stephen Decatur (whom he was soon to meet under much
less friendly circumstances), but bungled the mission by inadvertantly
revealing what was planned, and had to return to Lisbon emptyhanded.

In September, Macedonian was ordered to accompany an East Indiaman as far as
Madeira, then to cruise in search of prizes as long as his supplies
permitted. The frigate left Madeira on 22 October, but only a few days
later, on the morning of 25 October, encountered the USS United States,
commanded by none other than his erstwhile dinner host Decatur. The USA had
just declared the War of 1812 on Great Britain, and both captains were eager
to achieve personal glory in a fight.

Unfortunately for Macedonian, the United States was one of the new 44-gun
frigates, and her broadside was 864 pounds of metal, vs Macedonian's 528
pounds. Within a few minutes of closing, United States brought all three of
Macedonian's masts, and riddled the hull, but then pulled away temporarily,
leaving Carden and Hope time to contemplate their lack of options. Finally,
avoid his ship being sunk and costing the lives of all his crew, Carden
became the first British frigate captain in history to surrender to an American.

Decatur was careful to preserve Macedonian, sending over a detail to help
repair it, and he brought the captured ship into Newport, Rhode Island, on 4
December 1812, immediately causing a national sensation. The USS
Constitution had previously beaten HMS Guerriere, but it was too badly
damaged to save; while Decatur's capture of a seaworthy warship was a
sizeable and welcome addition to the then-tiny US Navy.

The US took Macedonian into the Navy immediately, retaining the name.

Since that time, no other Royal Navy ship has been named Macedonian.

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