Guide to Remarks Made on Board the United States Frigate Congress, 1817

This volume spans the period 27 April 1817 to 11 September 1817, continuing the Special Collections & Archives Department's MS 22. The U. S. S. Congress (frigate), under the command of Captain Charles Morris, had sailed from Boston in November 1816 to the Gulf of Mexico. In July 1817, Morris received orders to proceed to Port-au-Prince with dispatches for the consular agent there, and from thence to Cap-Haïtien with an agent to demand satisfaction from Henry Christophe (1767-1820) for a captured American vessel. Afterwards, Morris was to sail to the coast of Venezuela to gather intelligence on the war for independence from Spain.

The journal pages are printed forms with the running head "Remarks made on board the United States' frigate [Congress Charles] / [Morris Esqr] Commander, of [36] Guns, [ ] day of [ ] 181[ ]," the owner supplying the content within the brackets. There is no evidence as to who kept this journal, although from the handwriting, it is not the same person who kept MS 22. The entries contain the standard information found in logbooks.

On the afternoon of 19 May, the U.S.S. Tom Bowline, a hermaphrodite brig, fired a salute and sailed for New York. Other U.S. Navy vessels mentioned are the schooner Firebrand and the brig Boxer. On 10 June, "Lt Comt Porter and __ Tyler Esqr came on board...At 7 Lt Comt Porter left the ship." Lieutenant John Porter commanded the Boxer, which had sailed from New York in May with Septimus Tyler, the agent designated to negotiate with Christophe.

The Congress stopped a Spanish brig on 30 June, taking "an Amn. Seaman out of her, he having been impress'd in the Havanna [sic]." The frigate arrived at Port-au-Prince on 23 July. After anchoring, she fired a 15-gun salute that was returned from the town. On 1 August, Congress arrived at Cap-Haïtien, called Cape François in the journal. Soon after, the warship was on its way to Venezuela. The remarks for 21 August read, "the town of Pampata [Pampatar] on the Island of Margaretta [Margarita], a poor impverish'd place, the Royalists landed a few days since sack'd the suburbs & reimbark'd after being severely 'drubb'd' as the Patriots report." A week later, the Congress was anchored at Barcelona and Captain Morris left the ship in the gig. He returned the next day "accompanied by a Spanish Officer." The journal ends with the Congress still on its cruise.

Morris, Charles. The Autobiography of Commodore Charles Morris, U.S. Navy. Boston: A. Williams & Co. published for the Naval Institute, 1880.

Annals of Congress, 16th Cong., 1st sess., 2259-60.

Niles' Weekly Register, 5 May 1817.