Scope and Content Note

As part of his naval training, Midshipman Franklin Buchanan (1800-1874) kept this journal, a continuation of the Special Collections & Archives Division’s MS 1, from 23 August 1818 to 21 April 1820. The FRANKLIN (ship-of-the-line) was the flagship of the Mediterranean squadron and cruised on station there until March 1820, returning to New York on 24 April 1820. Among the ports of call were Syracuse, Palermo, Naples, Cadiz, Port Mahon, and Leghorn [Livorno].

The volume includes two pencil sketches, one a profile bust of Benjamin Franklin outlined in pen with the Latin motto “Eripuit fulmen coelo, Sceptrumque tyranis” written above, and the other a half-length bust of George Washington. The ship’s captain, Master Commandant Henry E. Ballard, left the FRANKLIN on 15 November 1818 to take command of the ERIE (sloop-of-war) and Lieutenant John Gallagher took command of the FRANKLIN. Commanding officers were supposed to examine the midshipmen’s record keeping and the frequency of Gallagher’s signature in the journal indicates that he reviewed Buchanan’s work regularly, whereas the only time “Examined H.E. Ballard” appears is on the date of his departure for the ERIE.

Among items of note is Commodore Charles Stewart’s general order of 8 July 1819 suspending from their duties Ballard, Gallagher, Captain Thomas McDonough, commander of the Guerrière (frigate), Master Commandant Joseph J. Nicholson, commander of the SPARK (brig), and Lieutenant Benjamin Page, Jr. of the FRANKLIN. From July until the end of the cruise, Lieutenant Joseph Wragg examined Buchanan’s journal. At the end of the volume are a few pages with penciled lists of clothing and on the last page a diagram of “Franklin’s Spirit-room.”