“Most Melancholy Accident” — John Tyler Presidential Dollar Coin

Today, the John Tyler Presidential Dollar Coin remembers the disaster on board the USS Princeton on February 28, 1844.

The USS Princeton was the first steam war vessel with screw propellers invented by John Ericsson.

Discourage in his home country of England, Ericsson came to the United States in 1839. He revolutionized American naval warfare with several inventions including the screw propeller and a rage finder.

On one of her exhibition trips near Washington DC, one of the USS Princeton’s guns exploded.

The next day, the American & Commercial Daily Advertiser newspaper of February 29, 1844 included several articles:

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Most Melancholy Accident!

The Washington papers of yesterday furnish the following particulars of a most melancholy event which occurred on board the U.S. steamship Princeton, while on an excursion in the Potomac river on Wednesday evening. The occurrence has cast a deep gloom over our city:

From the National Intelligencer.

Most Awful and Most Lamentable Catastrophe!

Instantaneous Death, by the Bursting of One of the Large Guns on Board the U. States Ship Princeton, of Secretary Upshur, Secretary Gilmer, Commodore Kennon, Virgil Maxcy, Esq., Col. Gardner, and others.

In the whole course of our lives it has never fallen to our lot to announce to our readers a more shocking calamity—shocking in all its circumstances and concomitants—than that which occurred on board the U. States Ship Princeton, yesterday afternoon, whilst underway, in the river Potomac, fourteen or fifteen miles below this city.

Yesterday was a day appointed, by the courtesy and hospitality of Capt. Stockton, Commander of the Princeton, for receiving as visitors to his fine ship (lying off Alexandria) a great number of guests, with their families, liberally and numerously invited to spend the day on board.

The day was most favorable, and the company was large and brilliant, of both sexes; not less probably in number than four hundred, among whom were the President of the United States, the Heads of several Departments, and their families. At a proper hour, after the arrival of the expected guests, the vessel got underway and proceeded down the river, to some distance below Fort Washington. During the passage down, one of the large guns on board (carrying a ball of 225 pounds) was fired more than once, exhibiting the great power and capacity of that formidable weapon of war. The Ladies had partaken of a sumptuous repast; the gentlemen had succeeded them at the table, and some of them had left it; the vessel was on her return up the river; opposite to the fort; where Captain Stockton consented to fire another shot from the same gun, around and near which, to observe its effects, many persons had gathered, though by no means so many as on similar discharges in the morning, the ladies who then thronged the deck being on this fatal occasion almost all between decks, and out of reach of harm.

The gun was fired. The explosion was followed, before the smoke cleared away so as to observe its effect, by shrieks of woe which announced a dire calamity. The gun had burst, at a point three or four feet from the breech, and scattered death and desolation around. Mr. Upshur, Secretary of State, Mr. Gilmer, so recently placed at the head of the Navy, Commodore Kennon, one of its gallant officers, Virgil Maxcy, lately returned from a diplomatic residence at the Hague, Mr. Gardner, of New York (formerly a member of the Senate of that state), were among the slain. Besides these, seventeen seamen were wounded, several of them badly and probably mortally. Among those stunned by the concussion, we learn, not all seriously injured, were Capt. Stockton himself; Col. Benton, of the Senate; Lieut. Hunt, of the Princeton; W. E. Robins, of Georgetown.

Other persons also were perhaps more or less injured, of whom, in the horror and confusion of the moment, no certain account could be obtained. The above are believed, however, to comprise the whole of the persons know to the Public who were killed or dangerously or seriously hurt.

The scene upon the deck may more easily be imagined than described. Nor can the imagination picture to itself the half of its horrors. Wives, widowed in an instant by the murderous blast! Daughters smitten with the heart-rending sight of their father’s lifeless corpse! The wailing of agonized females! — The piteous grief of the unhurt but heart-stricken spectators! The wounded seamen borne down below! The silent tears and quivering lips of their brave and honest comrades, who tried in vain to subdue or to conceal their feelings: What words can adequately depict a scene like this?

From the Washington Globe.

Postscript.

We stop the press to announce a most lamentable catastrophe which occurred on board the Princeton steamer on Wednesday evening. By the bursting of one of the great guns, the Secretary of the State, Mr. Upshur; the Secretary of the Navy, Gov. Gilmer; Commodore Kennon, Chief of the Bureau of Construction of the Navy; Virgil Maxcy, Esq., and Mr. Gardner, of Southampton, New York, were instantly killed; and six sailors are reported badly wounded. One of the President’s servants, a colored man, has since died.

Colonel Benton and Captain Stockton were slightly injured. The accident happened about 3 o’clock, some two or three miles below Alexandria. Colonel Benton’s injury arose not from any fragment of the gun, but merely from the concussion. He was at the butt of the gun, taking its range which it fired. He was not sensible of its stunning effect until he had called for aid to the bleeding sailors. He was stunned for a time, but was enabled to walk after reaching the shore, and has given a distinct account of the dreadful scene. Captain Stockton was burned by the powder, but not seriously injured.

Captain Stockton having, on successive days, extended invitations to visit his ship to the Executive and committees of Congress, and then to both Houses—invited the ladies of the city to an entertainment on this, which was meant as the gala day of his beautiful ship. It opened brightly, but has closed in the most dreadful gloom over our community. The only circumstance calculated to relieve the all-pervading distress, in, that of the multitude of ladies who were on board the ship, not one was injured. The happy exemption of such a multitude of the tender sex, who witnessed the havoc made in the midst of them of the most distinguished and beloved of their countrymen, while it brings some solace to the circle of their immediate friends, cannot but deepen the sympathies which they, and the whole community, feel for the bereaved families of those who have fallen. Mr. Upshur and Mr. Gilmer were idols in the happy family by which each was surrounded. The elder children of Mr. Gilmer are just grown; the younger still in the nurse’s arms. Commodore Kennon, Mr. Maxcy, and Mr. Gardner were all torn from family endearments—from wives and children.

We understand that Mrs. Gilmer was upon the deck when her husband fell. It was the third discharge of the gun (and fired at the request of Mr. Gilmer) that burst it. The daughter of Mr. Upshur, several of the family of Com. Kennon, and the daughters of Mr. Gardner, were on board the steamer; but none of them, except Mrs. Gilmer, were apprized of the death of those most dear to them, until after their return to the city. Almost all the ladies were below, at dinner, when the catastrophe occurred. Mrs. Gilmer was brought to the city almost in a state of distraction.

There were two hundred ladies on board, and during the two discharges of the gun, were on the desk; and many of them approached very near to observe the course of the ball after it struck the water. President Tyler was there also, but had attended the ladies to dinner before the third discharge.

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The newspaper continued with articles from other Washington papers.

The John Tyler Presidential Dollar Coin shows with an artist’s image of the USS Princeton’s gun bursting on February 28, 1844.

John Tyler Presidential Dollar Coin