USS Brandywine

USS Brandywine in 1831
U.S.S. Brandywine off Malta, November 6, 1831
History
United States
NameUSS Brandywine
NamesakeBattle of Brandywine
Orderedas Susquehanna
BuilderWashington Navy Yard
Laid downSeptember 20, 1821
LaunchedJune 16, 1825
CommissionedAugust 25, 1825
Out of serviceSeptember 3, 1864
Stricken1867 (est.)
Fate
  • burned, September 3, 1864
  • raised and sold March 26, 1867
General characteristics
Typefrigate
Tonnage1708
Length175 ft (53 m)(between perpendiculars)
Beam45 ft (14 m)
Draft22 ft 4 in (6.81 m)
Depth of hold14 ft 5 in (4.39 m)
PropulsionFrigate sail
Speed13 kn (15 mph; 24 km/h)
Complement480 officers and enlisted
Armament
  • 30 × 32-pounder guns
  • 24 × 42-pounder carronades

USS Brandywine (formerly named Susquehanna) was a wooden-hulled, three-masted frigate of the United States Navy bearing 44 guns which had the initial task of conveying the Marquis de Lafayette back to France. She was later recommissioned a number of times for service in various theaters, such as in the Mediterranean, in China and in the South Atlantic Ocean.

During several instances she served as a role player in American gunboat diplomacy, a role she was well suited for with her large long-range 32-pounder guns and her short-range carronades which produced fragmentation and fire damage to the ship fired upon, as well as splinter and shrapnel injury to its crew.