Combat· War of 1812
Loss of USS Adams
Caught up the Penobscot River in Maine, the sloop USS Adams met an inglorious end.
Captain Charles Morris had brought the frigate-turned-sloop into Hampden for repairs after she ran aground, and when a British expedition pushed up the river, he prepared to defend her. Morris landed his guns, mounting some on a hill and the rest on the wharf, and stood with about two hundred seamen and Marines and a body of local militia. When the British advanced through the morning fog, the militia broke and ran, and with his position turned, Morris ordered the guns spiked and set fire to the Adams to keep her from the enemy. American losses were minimal. The British went on to occupy eastern Maine for the rest of the war, but the Adams herself was denied them, destroyed by her own crew rather than surrendered.
Podcast episodes on War of 1812
Record no. 233