|
USS Pennsylvania launched in 1837, was a three-decked ship of the line of the United States Navy, rated at 130 guns, Her only cruise was a single trip from Delaware Bay through Chesapeake Bay to the Norfolk Navy Yard. The ship became a receiving ship, and a fixture in Norfolk harbor. She was destroyed in the Civil War.
Amateur Theatricals: This 22 July 1843 invitation from the officers and crew of the USS Pennsylvania to the USS Decatur provides a glimpse of an often unreported but important side of naval life.1 In the 1840’s amateur theatricals, plays, skits and song, such as those mentioned below, provided both entertainment and a diversion to naval crews confined to life aboard ship for lengthy stays. Renowned author Herman Melville who served as an ordinary seaman on the USS United States recounted with pleasure a similar theatrical held on board that vessel for the frigate’s crew on July 4, 1844.2 The USS Pennsylvania was used as a receiving ship in 1843 and was stationed in Norfolk harbor. The ship’s large berthing areas were used to house newly recruited sailors before they were given a permanent assignment and as quarters and rooms for the new apprentice boy’s school.3 The Pennsylvania’s large and spacious decks were ideal for conversion to a temporary stage or outdoor class rooms.
USS Pennsylvania
22 July1843The U.S. Ship Pennsylvania Thespian Corps request the pleasure of your company on board this evening (July 22nd) at which time they will appear in a Bombastic Farce (written expressly for the occasion) entitled “The June Bug Time”, after a spirited and original comic story “The Wonders of 1843”. There follows “The Polite Professor“ by Morris and a comic duet entitled “Forty Shilling” by the apprentice boys Thompson & Dexter. After which the Laughable Farce of the “Mock Doctor” and a recitation called “Domestic Happiness”, the performance to commence at 8 o’clock
To: Captain Abbot & the Officers of the Decatur on behalf of the Officers and Crew of the U.S. Ship Decatur has the pleasure of accepting the invitations of the Thespian Corps of the U.S. Pennsylvania for this evening, July 22, 1843
1 Miscellaneous Records of the Office of the Navy Department, Letters, (draft), Gosport Virginia, 1843, Abbot to Kennedy 22 July 1843, pp 1-2, RG 45, National Archives and Records Administration Washington D.C.
2 Melville, Herman, White Jacket, (Harper Brothers, New York, 1850), p. 144. https://www.google.com/books/edition/White_jacket/DgYGAAAAQAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=The%20Old%20WagonPaid%20off
3 Sharp, John G, The Gosport Navy Yard Apprentice Boys School and the question of foreign birth, June 7, 1839, http://www.usgwarchives.net/va/portsmouth/shipyard/nnysharp7.html accessed 10 April 2021.
Apprentice boys aboard the school ship, USS Sabine,
Harpers Weekly 1865
