To James Madison from Benjamin W. Crowninshield, 8 February 1815
From Benjamin W. Crowninshield
Navy Department Feby 8th: 1815
Sir
Will you be pleased to name the Ships mentioned in the enclosed letter from Como. Chauncey,1 vizt. two to mount 100 Guns each, and one frigate of 44 Guns. I have the honor to be Very respectfully Your obedt: Servt:
B W Crowninshield
RC (DLC); letterbook copy (DNA: RG 45, LSP). RC docketed by JM. For enclosure, see n. 1.
1. Crowninshield evidently enclosed Capt. Isaac Chauncey’s letter to him of 29 Jan. 1815, asking what the three ships being built at Sackets Harbor should be called (DNA: RG 45, Captains’ Letters). A canceled note in an unidentified hand on the cover of Chauncey’s letter reads: “N.O.—Chippawa—Luisiania”; a penciled note in an unidentified hand below it reads: “N.O.—Chippawa—Plattsburgh.” Crowninshield wrote Chauncey on 14 Feb. 1815, instructing him to name the ships in accord with the latter note (DNA: RG 45, Letters to Officers). The two ships of the line, New Orleans and Chippewa, were incomplete at war’s end (Hickey, Don’t Give Up the Ship!, 136).