SARATOGA

Ship Name and Designation History

This section lists the names and designations that the ship had during its lifetime. The list is in chronological order.

USS SARATOGA
Commissioned January 4 1843 - Decommissioned December 10 1844
Recommissioned March 15 1845 - Decommissioned January 9 1847
Recommissioned 1847 - Decommissioned February 26 1848
Recommissioned April 17 1848 - Decommissioned November 30 1849
Recommissioned August 12 1850 - Decommissioned October 10 1854
Recommissioned September 6 1855 - Placed in Ordinary 1858
Decommissioned June 26 1860
Recommissioned November 5 1860 - Decommissioned August 25 1861
Recommissioned June 24 1863 - Decommissioned April 28 1865
Recommissioned October 1 1867 - Decommissioned July 7 1869
Recommissioned May 16 1871 - Decommissioned October 14 1871
Reactivated May 1 1875 Gunnery Ship at Annapolis
Placed in Ordinary May 7 1876
Recommissioned May 19 1877 - Decommissioned October 8 1888
Loaned to Pennsylvania between 1890 and 1907, as a state marine school ship at Philadelphia

Sold August 14 1907 to Thomas Butler & Co. of Boston
Fate unknown

Naval Covers

This section lists active links to the pages displaying covers associated with the ship. There should be a separate set of pages for each name of the ship (for example, Bushnell AG-32 / Sumner AGS-5 are different names for the same ship so there should be one set of pages for Bushnell and one set for Sumner). Covers should be presented in chronological order (or as best as can be determined).

Since a ship may have many covers, they may be split among many pages so it doesn't take forever for the pages to load. Each page link should be accompanied by a date range for covers on that page.

Covers Page 1 (DATE RANGE)

Postmarks

This section lists examples of the postmarks used by the ship. There should be a separate set of postmarks for each name and/or commissioning period. Within each set, the postmarks should be listed in order of their classification type. If more than one postmark has the same classification, then they should be further sorted by date of earliest known usage.

A postmark should not be included unless accompanied by a close-up image and/or an image of a cover showing that postmark. Date ranges MUST be based ONLY ON COVERS IN THE MUSEUM and are expected to change as more covers are added.

>>> If you have a better example for any of the postmarks, please feel free to replace the existing example.

Postmark Type --- Killer Bar Text	Postmark Date	Thumbnail Link To Postmark Image	Thumbnail Link To Cover Image

5th Commissioning August 12 1850 to October 10 1854

New Bedford MA CDS

c1850

No Image

Posted to USS SARATOGA at Panama - Forward to Maine

Other Information

Assigned as Flagship Africa Squadron, Commodore Matthew C. Perry June 5 1843
Assigned to the squadron of Commodore Robert P. Stockton in the Gulf of Mexico
Reassigned to the Home Squadron, Commodore Connors July 3 1844, in the Gulf of Mexico
Reassigned to the Brazil Squadron December 4 1844 CDR. David G. Farragut in command
Assigned to the Home Squadron, Commodore Matthew Perry April 26 1847
Assigned to the West Coast of Africa 1861
Captured Slaver NIGHTENGALE off Kabinda, Angola April 21 1861
Assigned to guard duty off the Delaware breakwater 1863 protecting Union shipping approaching and departing Delaware Bay
Joined the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron January 13 1864

If you have images or information to add to this page, then either contact the Curator or edit this page yourself and add it. See Editing Ship Pages for detailed information on editing this page.