USS ''Onkahye'' was a topsail

schooner A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoon ...

of the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

. A unique

ship A ship is a large watercraft that travels the world's oceans and other sufficiently deep waterways, carrying cargo or passengers, or in support of specialized missions, such as defense, research, and fishing. Ships are generally distinguished ...

in the American Navy under

sail A sail is a tensile structure—which is made from fabric or other membrane materials—that uses wind power to propel sailing craft, including sailing ships, sailboats, windsurfers, ice boats, and even sail-powered land vehicles. Sails may ...

, the vessel occupied a significant place in ship development, being the only converted sailing

yacht A yacht is a sailing or power vessel used for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a , as opposed to a , such a pleasu ...

to serve on a distant station before the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

. Its design was influential and it is considered the model for modern American sailing yachts. While serving in the anti-piracy/anti-

slave trade Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

patrols in the Caribbean, it went down in 1848 off

East Caicos East Caicos is the fourth largest island in the Turks and Caicos Islands. To the west, it is separated from Middle Caicos by Lorimer Creek, a narrow passage that can accommodate only small boats. To the south is South Caicos. East Caicos has no ...

, in the

Turks & Caicos Islands The Turks and Caicos Islands (abbreviated TCI; and ) are a British Overseas Territory consisting of the larger Caicos Islands and smaller Turks Islands, two groups of tropical islands in the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean and no ...

. A NOAA-supported expedition in 2008 conducted field work in search of the ''Onkahye'' and the , also known to have gone down in that area in 1816.

History

''Onkahye'', a schooner yacht of a radical design by Robert L. Stevens, was laid down in 1839 by William Capes, Williamsburg, New York, opposite the Brooklyn Navy Yard. After it was launched in 1840, the Navy purchased it in early 1843 and converted it to a warship. It was commissioned at

Gosport Navy Yard The Norfolk Naval Shipyard, often called the Norfolk Navy Yard and abbreviated as NNSY, is a U.S. Navy facility in Portsmouth, Virginia, for building, remodeling and repairing the Navy's ships. It is the oldest and largest industrial facility tha ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

, 11 July 1843, with Lt. William C. Whittle in command. Because of its speed, the schooner's design strongly influenced the development of modern American sailing yachts."Anti-piracy/Anti-slavery Patrols"
Slave Ship Trouvadore website, accessed 7 April 2008 Departing

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

23 October 1843, ''Onkahye'' spent its first commission as a dispatch vessel in

Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston metropolitan area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint o ...

, returning to Norfolk 18 June 1844. It was decommissioned two days later. It was recommissioned on 10 April 1845 and sailed on 9 May for duty in the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

and the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

. It was among the ships on anti-piracy/anti-slave trade patrols, as the United States and Great Britain had worked cooperatively since 1808 to suppress the international

. It sailed to

Vera Cruz, Mexico Veracruz (), formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave), is one of the 31 states which, along with Me ...

, to unload passengers, moved on to

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

, and then returned to Norfolk 14 July. ''Onkahye'' sailed for the West Indies again on 11 September. It remained on duty in those waters and along the northern coast of

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

until it sailed from Mobile Bay on 8 November 1845 for Norfolk, where it arrived on 1 January 1846. ''Onkahye'' was decommissioned on 9 January. ''Onkahye'' was recommissioned 22 April 1847, Lt. Otway Berryman commanding, and sailed for Caribbean waters once again before the month was out. Cruising the West Indies and South American coast, the schooner put into

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

22 November 1847 and stayed there until 29 January 1848. ''Onkahye'' captured the bark ''Lawrence'', a heavily laden slaver, at that port 24 January 1848.

Fate

''Onkahye'' continued its patrols in the West Indies until it was lost off

Caicos The Turks and Caicos Islands (abbreviated TCI; and ) are a British Overseas Territory consisting of the larger Caicos Islands and smaller Turks Islands, two groups of tropical islands in the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean and nor ...

Reef on 21 June 1848 without loss of life.

Post-script

In 2008, underwater

archaeologists Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

, sponsored by

NOAA The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (abbreviated as NOAA ) is an United States scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditio ...

and the Museum of Turks & Caicos, added ''Onkahye'' to the list of ships they were searching for. They had already located and identified the wrecks of the Spanish slaver ''

Trouvadore ''Trouvadore'' was a Spanish slave ship that was shipwrecked in 1841 near East Caicos in the course of a run transporting Africans to be illegally sold to the sugarcane plantations in Cuba. As the United Kingdom had a treaty with Spain prohibi ...

'', which sank in 1842, and , which sank in 1816.

References

External links

history.navy.mil: USS ''Onkahye''

US Schooner Onkahye contemporary history

US Schooner Onkahye modern wreck history
{{DEFAULTSORT:Onkahye Schooners of the United States Navy Dispatch boats of the United States Navy Individual yachts Ships built in Brooklyn Maritime incidents in June 1848 Shipwrecks of the Turks and Caicos Islands 1840 ships