BY

JOHN G. M. SHARP

United States frigate Columbia and the sloop of war USS John Adams (1846)
(double click all images to enlarge)

Introduction: Commodore John Thomas Newton (1793-1856) wrote the report below to Secretary of the Navy, James C. Dobbin. In his report Newton chronicled the deaths and illness caused by an outbreak of yellow fever among the officers and crew of the frigate USS Columbia.¹ Her keel was laid in 1825 but, as was typical of much Navy construction during this period, she was not launched until much later on 9 March 1836.²

1. Yellow Fever is a tropical epidemic prone viral disease affecting the liver and kidneys, causing fever and jaundice and often fatal, transmitted to humans through the bite of an infected mosquito. Yellow fever is prevented by a vaccine which is safe and affordable. A single dose of yellow fever vaccine is sufficient to grant life-long protection. World Health Organization, 23 May 2023, https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/yellow-fever

2. Dictionary of American Fighting Ships DANFS Online Washington D.C.: Naval Historical Center. 1959-1991 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictionary_of_American_Naval_Fighting_Ships

On her first cruise, from May 1838 to June 1840 with Lieutenant George A. Magruder in command.³ When the Columbia rounded the Cape of Good Hope, she became flagship of Commodore George C. Read in the East India Squadron.⁴ She returned to the United States by way of Cape Horn becoming one of the first U.S. naval ships to circumnavigate the globe.She participated in the 1838 Second Sumatran Expedition in response to a Maylay pirate attack on an American merchant vessel in the Strait of Malacca.⁵

3. Magruder, George A. Midshipman, 1 January, 1817. Lieutenant, 28 April, 1826. Commander, 14 February, 1843. Captain, 14 September, 1855, dismissed 22 April, 1861. Naval History and Heritage Command https://www.history.navy.mil/our-collections/photography/numerical-list-of-images/nhhc-series/nh-series/NH-48000/NH-48050.html

4. George Campbell Read (January 9, 1788 to August 22, 1862) was a United States Navy officer. He served during the War of 1812, commanded the USS Chippewa during the Second Barbary War, commanded the East India Squadron from 1837 to 1840 including during the Second Sumatran expedition in 1838, commanded the Africa Squadron from 1846 to 1847, and the Mediterranean Squadron from 1847 to 1849. He commanded the Philadelphia Naval Asylum from 1839 to 1846, the Philadelphia Navy Yard from 1850 to 1853, and the Philadelphia Naval Asylum again during the American Civil War from 1861 to 1862. He was promoted to rear admiral in July 1862. Commodore Read Naval History and Heritage Command, https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/c/commodore-read.html

5. The Flag Ship, Or: A Voyage Around the World, in the United States Frigate Columbia; Attended by Her Consort the Sloop of War John Adams, and Bearing the Broad Pennant of Commodore George C. Read. Taylor, Fitch Waterman. (D. Appleton and Company, New York, 1840), p. 1. https://www.google.com/books/edition/A_Voyage_Round_the_World_in_the_United_
S/Sh8FAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=he+Flag-ship:+Or,+A+Voyage+Around+the+World+in+the+United+States+Frigate+Columbia...,+Volume+2&pg=RA1-PA13&printsec=frontcover

Columbia later served as flagship of the Home Squadron from January to May 1842, cruised on Brazil Squadron from July 1842 to February 1844 and in the Mediterranean Squadron from May to December 1844. She returned to the Brazil Squadron as flagship from November 1845 to October 1847, and was placed in ordinary at Norfolk Navy Yard upon her return home. In 1853 she was once again designated to lead the Home Squadron. The Columbia as the flagship of the Home Squadron was assigned to protect coastal commerce, aid ships in distress, suppress piracy and the Atlantic slave trade, make coastal surveys, and train ships to relieve others on distant stations. As Commodore Newton noted, the Columbia had already served as the Home Squadron flagship for over two years, (January 1853 to March 1855), unsaid though was that the frigate was in serious need of repair and maintenance.

In March 1855 Columbia paid a port call in Saint Thomas, then "a major hotspot for yellow fever."⁶ While in Saint Thomas the crew were exposed to a severe outbreak of yellow fever and approximately ten percent of the frigate’s crew were down sick and unable to perform their normal duties or stand watch, both impacting morale and effectiveness. On 4 March 1855 the Fleet Surgeon, Dr. Solomon Sharp, wrote to Commodore Newton to warn that the cases of yellow fever were increasing and that in his opinion the Columbia needed to make for either Norfolk or New York where there were adequate hospitals to render medical aide.

6. The United States Navy’s Response to the 1855 Yellow Fever, National Museum of the United States Navy , https://www.history.navy.mil/content/dam/museums/nmusn/Pamphlets/usn-response-1855-flu-epidemic/United%20States%20Navy%20Response%20to%20the%201855%20Yellow%20Fever.pdf

USS Columbia muster roll 1855, p. 84, Edward Southworth, age 51,
captain of the afterguard, died of yellow fever 29 March 1855⁷

7.Muster Rolls, Columbia, 1847-1855, Miscellaneous Records of the Office of Naval Records and Library 1803 -1859, page 75, Roll, 0001, Record Group 45, National Archives and Records Administration Washington D.C.
https://www.fold3.com/image/616668160/1847-page-43-us-miscellaneous-records-of-the-navy-department-1776-1930

Yellow fever in 1855 was still poorly understood. Historians and medical researchers now recognize that yellow fever and malaria were two of the unintended consequences of large scale sugar production in the Caribbean plantations. On these tropical locations, sugarcane was cultivated with a plentiful supply of water for a continuous period of more than six to seven months each year, either from natural rainfall or through irrigation. These same conditions are also the perfect incubator for mosquitoes. The mosquitoes are vectors for both malaria and yellow fever. Both diseases are widespread in the tropical and subtropical areas that exist in a broad band around the equator and particularly so in Cuba. The yellow fever virus is mainly transmitted through the bite of the mosquito, Aedes aegypti, but other mostly Aedes mosquitoes such as the tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus, can also serve as a vector for this virus. In epidemiology, a disease vector is any agent which carries and transmits an infectious pathogen into another living organism. Yellow fever typically brings on high fever, muscle pain, headaches and nausea. In unfortunate case, these symptoms are joined by jaundice, internal hemorrhaging with blood oozing through the nose and ears, delirium and vomit of partially coagulated blood with the color and constancy of coffee grinds, hence its Spanish name "vomito negro" or black vomit. This last stage is usually followed by multiple organ failure and death. Sailors often referred to yellow fever as "yellow jack" for the yellow pendant on flag ships and vessels flew as a warning to others of the presence of the disease.^{8, 9} As historian J. R. McNeil in his magisterial Mosquito Empire Ecology and War in the Greater Caribbean, 1620-1914, reminds us that it was not for nothing that yellow fever goes by the French Name "mal des matelots" (sailors disease) in the West Indies. Thus naval and merchant vessels unwittingly became super vectors with mosquito larvae hatching in the wet and damp spaces below deck.¹⁰ During this era, most doctors believed that draining the body of blood would help get rid of the disease.

8. J. R. McNeil Mosquito Empire: Ecology and War in the Greater Caribbean (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2010), 33-34 Timothy C. Winegard "The Mosquito: A Human History of our Deadliest Predator" (Dutton: New York 2019), p. 26.

9. Timothy C. Winegard The Mosquito: A Human History of our Deadliest Predator (Dutton: New York 2019), p. 26.

10. McNeil, p. 51.

In the United States historically, the fever was mostly confined to eastern port cities such as Philadelphia in 1793 and New York City in 1795, 1799 and 1803. Some two hundred years ago Stanford historian Kathryn Olivarius writes yellow fever "terrified many because there was no cure, no inoculation and no vaccination for the mosquito-borne virus that cumulatively killed over 150,000 people in New Orleans in the six decades between the Louisiana Purchase and the Civil War."¹¹Even today the Center for Disease Control web page informs readers, "There is no medicine to treat yellow fever. However, a vaccine is available to prevent disease."¹²

11. Stanford Report, Stanford University 25 March 2020, "New outbreak, familiar anxieties: Stanford historian Kathryn Olivarius examines yellow fever outbreak in 19th-century New Orleans" https://history.stanford.edu/news/new-outbreak-familiar-anxieties-stanford-historian-examines-yellow-fever-outbreak-19th-century

12. Center for Disease Control, Yellow Fever Virus, https://www.cdc.gov/yellow-fever/symptoms-diagnosis-treatment/index.html

Berthing spaces on frigate USS Constitution

In the tightly packed crew berths of the Columbia, the men could get little sleep as they heard and witnessed their shipmates fall ill or die on a daily basis from yellow fever. Likewise, knowing the uncertainty of the disease, many had grown filled with fear and dread less they too succumb to the fever. Their unease is reflected in their 27 March 1855 petition to Commodore Newton wherein they wrote:

"We have been afflicted by disease, first the small pox, then the cholera and scurvy and now that scourge of the West Indies, the Yellow Fever. We have every reason to believe the source of the sickness is in the Hold, for every man that has been infected has slept upon the Berth Deck, from the after part of the Fore, to the after part of the Main Hatch, all that have slept forward of the Fore Hold have escaped the infection."

In addition to yellow fever cholera and malaria, scurvy was a common malady. Dr. Thomas Williamson USN (1791-1859) chief surgeon and officer in charge at Portsmouth Naval Hospital confirmed the presence of scurvy among the new patients from the USS Columbia.¹³ He notated, "The Scurvy well developed in nearly all of these cases.¹⁴

13. Williamson, Thomas, Surgeon's Mate, 27 May, 1818, died 12 January, 1859.

14. Register of Patients at Naval Hospital Portsmouth, Volume 8: 1830-1861, p.284 National Archives and Records Administration Washington D.C. entering patients from the USS Columbia.

Navy Yard, Gosport Va., J. O. Montalant 1845

Norfolk and Portsmouth, Virginia, had largely been spared, but the yellow fever epidemic that struck those cities in the summer and fall of 1855 was one of the worst in U.S. history. The region appeared poised for major growth, due in part to Norfolk’s reputation as a healthy southern city, clean and virtually free of yellow fever, which had plagued southern ports sporadically since the late 1700s.¹⁵

15. Caelleigh, Addeane, "The Norfolk and Portsmouth Yellow Fever Epidemic"
Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Humanities, (07 Dec. 2020), Web, 26 Oct. 2024 https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/epidemic-the-norfolk-and-portsmouth-yellow-fever-1855/

On 22 March 1855 the Alexandria Gazette informed its readers of the frigates arrival with yellow fever cases. "The United States frigate Columbia has arrived at Norfolk from St. Thomas with fifty cases of yellow fever. All have been transferred to the Naval Hospital. She will be ordered into Quarantine immediately. Three marines and four sailors died before her arrival at Hampton Roads."¹⁶

16. Alexandria Gazette, (Alexandria, Virginia, 22 March 1855), p. 2.

In retrospect this yellow fever outbreak was but prologue, one fortunately contained temporarily by the quick quarantine of the Columbia and immediate transfer of her sick to Portsmouth Naval Hospital.

In June 1855 disease was brought to the prosperous port region by the steamer Benjamin Franklin, which docked in Hampton Roads for repairs after arriving from the West Indies.¹⁷ During the hot humid summer weather, the larva of Aedes mosquitoes found near perfect breeding ground in the bilges of naval and merchant vessels leaving St, Thomas for Norfolk. These vessels became the vector for this virus. In epidemiology, a disease vector is any agent which carries and transmits an infectious pathogen into another living organism.

17. Wagner, Lon, The Fever The Most Fatal Plague in American History (Koehlerbooks, Virginia Beach, Virginia, 2024) pp. 6-9.

In the end, an estimated 3,000 people died in Norfolk, approximately one-third of the entire population, while upward of 1,000 died in Portsmouth. See Yellow Fever in Norfolk and Portsmouth, Virginia 1855, as reported in the Daily Dispatch Richmond, Virginia, Transcribed with Introduction and Notes by Donna Bluemink, 2005. http://www.usgwarchives.net/va/yellow-fever/yfinindex.html#intro ¹⁸

Transcription: The transcriptions below made from digital images of letters and documents received by the Secretary of the Navy, James Cochran Dobbin (January 17, 1814 to August 4, 1857) located in Letters Received by the Secretary of the Navy from Commanding Officers of Squadrons Jan 1, 1854 to April 2 1855(Squadron Letters) 1841-1886. Many of these are found in the letters of Commodore John Thomas Newton to the Secretary of the Navy with multiple enclosures. In transcribing all passages from the letters and memorandum, I have striven to adhere as closely as possible to the original in spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and abbreviation, superscripts, etc., including the retention of dashes and underlining found in the original. Words and passages that were crossed out in the letters are transcribed either as overstrikes or in notes. Words which are unreadable or illegible are so noted in square brackets. When a spelling is so unusual as to be misleading or confusing, the correct spelling immediately follows in square brackets and italicized type or is discussed in a foot note.

Nautical Terms and Abbreviations:

Boy: The designation Boy in the early United States Navy was a rating given to young enlisted men 12 to 18 years of age who were in training as seaman. The naval apprentice bill was signed into law on 2 March 1837. The bill made it lawful to enlist boys for the navy not being under thirteen nor over eighteen years of age to serve until twenty-one. Within a few months there were several hundred apprentices on board naval vessels and the experiment gave promise of success. The secretary directed that the boys were to be "thoroughly instructed so as to best qualify them to perform the duties of seamen and petty officers." Most Boys were usually rated Ordinary Seaman at age 18. The rating Boy was divided into three pay grades: 3rd, 2nd and 1st Class Boy, with the 1st class usually reserved for the older boys. The pay for a third class boy was $5.00 per month, $6.00 per month for second class boys and those promoted to first class could expect $7.00 per month. Apprentice boys were not allowed to draw spirits (grog ration) or use tobacco.

Landsman abbreviated Lds: Landsmen was the lowest rank of the United States Navy in the 19th and early 20th centuries given to new recruits with little or no experience at sea. Landsmen performed menial, unskilled work aboard ship. A Landsman who gained three years of experience or re-enlisted could be promoted to Ordinary Seaman. The rank existed from 1838 to 1921.

Ordinary Seaman or O.S.: Ordinary seaman was the second-lowest rank of the nineteenth century United States Navy ranking above landsman and below seaman. Promotion from landsman to ordinary seaman required three years of experience or re-enlistment. An ordinary seaman who gained six years of life at sea and knew the ropes, that is, knew the name and use of every line in the ship's rigging could be promoted to seaman. An ordinary seaman's duties aboard ship included handling and splicing lines and working aloft on the lower mast stages and yards.

Seaman or Sea: In the nineteen century seaman typically had six years of experience at sea. A seaman was expected to be familiar with all the various stations aboard a vessel of war including battle stations, working aloft, to have an expert knowledge of lines and knots, to be able to handle small boats and be familiar with weapons such as cutlass and boarding ax.

Officers: The names, ranks, dates of service from the naval and marine officers, listed below are taken unless otherwise specified, from the Naval History and Heritage Command, Officers Continental and US Navy and Marine Corps 1775-1900. https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/o/officers-continental-usnavy-mc-1775-1900.html

John G. M. Sharp

* * * * * *

The Fleet Surgeon Dr. Solomon Sharp wrote on 4 March 1855 to Commodore Newton that the cases of yellow fever were increasing and that in his opinion the Columbia needed to make for either Norfolk or New York where there were adequate hospitals to render medical aide.

The increasing number of cases of Remittent fever of a malignant character since yesterday morning fully confirm me in the opinion that we should proceed to the most convenient Naval Station that may have benefit of a hospital and that the ship may be taken out, thus rendering her the sooner available for service –

The longer time we are delayed the less likely we are to have the benefit of cool weather which is desirable in our case –

Therein I must earnestly urge that we proceed with little delay as possible to either Norfolk or New York –

Very Restfully
Your Obedt Servt
[Signed] Solomon Sharp
Fleet Surgeon, Home Squadron

To Comodo John Thomas Newton
Commandg: U.S. Home Squadron

* * * * * *

While the frigate was in St. Thomas, on 17 March 1855 members of the crew began to show alarming symptoms suggesting the presence of Yellow Fever. Commodore Newton, as an experienced sailor, took active steps to protect his men from sickness and fever. In keeping with the prevailing medical wisdom (that bad air and congestion spread disease) he had the Columbia scrubbed and spotless and the crew quarters properly ventilated to remove stagnant air. As fatalities mounted Commodore Newton decided to take the Columbia on a northerly course, hoping the running breezes would cleanse his flagship of the infection. However, all this was to no avail. Marine Lieutenant George W. Campbell became the first officer to succumb. Prudently Newton directed his Squadron to return to home port Norfolk, Virginia. There at Norfolk the Naval Hospital medical staff took off fifty seriously ill members of the frigate’s crew.¹⁹

19. Dr. Thomas Williamson USN (1791-1859) chief surgeon and officer in charge at Portsmouth Naval Hospital, wrote in the patient register, p.284: "The Scurvy well developed in nearly all of these cases "from the USS Columbia".

* * * * * *

Transcriptions:

U.S. Flag Ship Columbia
Norfolk March 19, 1855

Sir,
I have the honor to report my arrival here this day in the Columbia, last from the Island of St. Thomas –

My last report dated 14th ulto informed you of my arrival at St. Thomas, and of my intention to remain there a fortnight or so that the crew might have fresh provision of which they had so long been deprived, and for much they were suffering – Up to the 17th, all hands remained comparatively healthy, and as far as we were able to learn, no fevers or epidemic of any kind prevailed in the town or harbor, but on that date a case of fever occurred on board and of malignant a type to prove fatal in a short time – the following day one or two other cases appearing. I got underway as soon as possible and ran out unto the fresh trades, and in the hope that a thorough ventilation would rid the ship of the infection. I remained two days on a wind in the Caribbean sea, but new cases appearing, and so short a time four having proved fatal, I concluded to call for the opinion of the surgeon of the ship, and in accordance with his advice as contained in his letter (a copy of which I herewith enclose) I bore up for the sail rock passage, and made the best of my way out of the tropics –

Had there been any decided decrease in the number of cases after cruising in northern latitude for a while, I should have returned to the West Indies, but symptoms of great debility coinciding among the crew and officers on the sick list increasing in numbers determined me to run to for this port -

The Malignant type of this fever may be inferred from the fact that many first cases after leaving the tropic and striking cooler weather, and two proving fatal in as high as latitude 33˚ and 36˚.

There is no doubt Sir, that our recent trip the unhealthy climate of San Juan and our subsequent long cruise added to the debility produced by two summers in the tropics, [illegible] our men for the reception of fever, and it is not at all strange that the sickness should have made its appearance on board - It is remarkable, however, up to our recent loss of seven men but three deaths have occurred on board the Columbia since she has been in commission now over two years –

There are at present 50 sick men on board, many of whom will be immediately removed to the Hospital –
I think it would be prudent to break out the provisions of the ship and clean the Hold thoroughly – this can be done in a week of ten days at the furthest –

Should you deem advisable I would discharge about 40 of the present crew who have but a month or two to serve, and recruit others in their stead – these men discharged would re-enlisted for the relief squadron –

The Columbia can be prepared for sea again in three weeks and ready for any cruise you may deem advisable to send her on –

I have the honor to be
very Respectfully
your Obet Servt
John Thomas Newton [signed]
Commanding, Home Squadron

[Addressed to]
Hon. J. C. Dobbin
Secretary of the Navy
Washington D.C.

It is my intention to leave here tomorrow for Washington to pay my respects to you in person -

Source: Letters Received by the Secretary of the Navy from Commanding Officers of Squadrons
Jan 1, 1854 to April 2 1855
(Squadron Letters) 1841 -1886
Publication number M 89
Record Group 45, pp.230 -233
NARA, Washington, D.C.

* * * * * *

U. S. Frigate Columbia
Off Norfolk, March 27th 1855

The Honl Secty of the Navy

Sir,
We the undersigned as respectfully and earnestly solicit your favorable consideration of the circumstances in which the Crew of the Columbia is placed. It is with confidence and hope that we address to you, Sir, this petition for our discharge. We are two years in active service, on one of the sickliest stations in the world. We have been afflicted by disease, first the small pox, then the cholera and scurvy and now that scourge of the West Indies, the Yellow Fever. We have every reason to believe the source of the sickness is in the Hold, for every man that has been infected has slept upon the Berth Deck, from the after part of the Fore, to the after part of the Main Hatch, all that have slept forward of the Fore Hold have escaped the infection. We have not had liberty for nine months, and the health of the Ships Company is seriously impaired thereby, unavoidably so as the places we have visited would not permit of the indulgence. Hoping that this will meet with your favorable consideration, we are

Very Respectfully
Your obdt servt
Charles Cook BM
John Granshaw TrM
Austin Daniels GM
Paul Atkinson C.F.C
On behalf of the Ships Company

* * * * * *

Muster Roll for USMC detachment stationed on board USS Columbia March 1855

U.S. Flag Ship Columbia
Norfolk March 24th 1855

Sir,
I have the melancholy and most painful duty to announce to the Department the death of Lieutenant Campbell of the Marine Corps late of this Ship, who died at the Naval Hospital last night at 10 o’clock of malignant yellow fever – ²⁰

20. George W. Campbell served as a 2nd Lieutenant USMC 14 October, 1852. Died 23 March, 1855

Lt. George W. Campbell, USM, # 2590, Register Norfolk Naval Hospital, p. 284,
entered 19 Mar, died 23 Mar 1855

It will be a satisfaction and consolation to his family and friends to know that Mr. Campbell had from his first attack, the best of medical attendance both on board the Ship, and subsequently the Hospital with all the comfort and constant attendance of his mess mates and friends, to whom and all he associated with he had from his amiability of character and disposition an amenity of manners and warmth indicative of himself -

Lieut. Campbell’s official position, high sense of honor and strict attention to duty never failed to command the highest respect and commendations of his brother officers and all who knew him –

I am happy to say that we have had no new cases of fever since our arrival and that the present condition of the sick on board and in the Hospital is favorable.

I have the honor to be

Very Respectfully
Your Obet Servt
L. B. Wilson [signed]
Commanding, Home Squadron

[Addressed to]

Hon. J. C. Dobbin
Secretary of the Navy
Washington D.C.

* * * * * *

John "Jack" G. M. Sharp resides in Concord, California. He worked for the United States Navy for thirty years as a civilian personnel officer. Among his many assignments were positions in Berlin, Germany, where in 1989 he was in East Berlin the day the infamous wall was opened. He later served as Human Resources Officer in South West Asia (Bahrain). He returned to the United States in 2001 and was on duty at the Naval District of Washington on 9/11. He has a lifelong interest in history and has written extensively on the Washington, Norfolk and Pensacola Navy Yards, labor history and the history of African Americans. His previous books include African Americans in Slavery and Freedom on the Washington Navy Yard 1799 -1865, Morgan Hannah Press 2011 and History of the Washington Navy Yard Civilian Workforce 1799-1962, 2004.
https://www.history.navy.mil/content/dam/nhhc/browse-by-topic/heritage/washington-navy-yard/pdfs/WNY_History.pdf
and the first complete transcription of the Diary of Michael Shiner Relating to the History of the Washington Navy Yard, 1813-1869, 2007/2015 online:
https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/d/diary-of-michael-shiner.html
His most recent work includes Register of Patients at Naval Hospital Washington DC 1814 With The Names of American Wounded From The Battle of Bladensburg 2018,
https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/r/register-patients-naval-hospital-washington-dc-1814.html
The Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Naval Training Station Hampton Roads and the Norfolk Naval Hospital (202) https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/g/the-great-influenza-pandemic-of-1918-at-the-norfolk-naval-shipyard-naval-training-station-hampton-roads-ad-the-norfolk-naval-hosptial.html
The last four works were all published by the Naval History and Heritage Command.
He recently served as consulting historian, for Animating History, on the film version, Diary of Michael Shiner (2024), https://animatinghistory.com/films/michaelshiner/
John served on active duty in the United States Navy, including Vietnam service. He received his BA and MA in History from San Francisco State University with honors. He can be reached at sharpjg@yahoo.com

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