Sloop

The first navy warship to be named for the victory at Vincennes was built in New York and commissioned on August 26, 1826. In the 41 years to follow, the 18-gun sloop of war would be taken out of service and recommissioned a total of six times, circumnavigate the globe four times and sailed waters ranging from coastal waters off Norfolk, Virginia to such distant lands as Japan and Antarctica.

The sloop-of-war Vincennes first sailed on September 3, 1826 from New York into the Pacific where she gradually made her way across the ocean to Macao, China by 1830. From Macao, Vincennes made three more stops before returning to New York on June 8, 1830 becoming the first U.S. warship to circumnavigate the globe. Two days later Vincennes was decommissioned.

Recommissioned soon after, Vincennes sailed for the West Indies and, after a nasty year-long bout of yellow fever among the crew, was again decommissioned for a time in 1833 before setting out for the Pacific once more. On a routine search for shipwrecked and stranded American seamen, Vincennes became the first American warship to call at Guam.

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