On This Day 22 December

[Coog]

On 22 December 1797 the 36-gun HMS Phoebe, Captain Robert Barlow, captured the French 36-gun Néréide, Captain Antoine Canon. Phoebe sighted the Néréide at 10am; the pursuit started at 11:30am and ended at 10:45pm with Néréide's surrender. During the chase Néréide fired her stern guns at Phoebe and the two vessels exchanged broadsides shortly before the Néréide surrendered. Phoebe lost three men killed and 10 wounded; Néréide lost 20 men killed and 55 wounded. Part of the reason for the disparity in casualties was that the ratio of the weight of the broadsides was 407 pounds to 268 pounds. In 1847, the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Phoebe 21 Decr. 1797" to all remaining members of her crew who had participated in the action.

[Anav]

1775 - Congress commissions the first Naval officers: Esek Hopkins, commander in chief of the fleet, Capts. Dudley Saltonstall, Abraham Whipple, Nicolas Biddle and John Hopkins. Lieutenants appointed included John Paul Jones.

1841 - USS Mississippi, the first U.S. ocean-going side-wheel steam warship, is commissioned in Philadelphia.