Lively-class 5th rate 38 (3m).
L/B/D:
154 × 39.4 × 13.5 dph (46.9m × 12m × 4.1m). Tons:
1,082 bm. Hull:
wood. Comp.:
362. Arm.:
14 × 32pdr, 28 × 18pdr, 4 × 9pdr. Des.:
Sir William Rule. Built:
Woolwich Dockyard, Eng.; 1810.
HMS Macedonian has the distinction of being the only British warship captured and returned to an American port during the War of more powerful
USS United States (44 guns) about 500 miles south of the Azores. The battle opened at about 0920, and by noon, Macedonian was shattered both in hull and crew. With 104 dead and wounded (as against only 12 American casualties), Captain John Surman Carden surrendered his vessel. After two weeks of repairs in mid-Atlantic, the two ships were able to proceed to New York, where they arrived in December. Purchased by the government and commissioned as USS Macedonian, in May 1813 she slipped out of New York with United States and the sloop
Hornet; but the three ships were forced into New London, where they remained until war's end. In 1815, Macedonian joined the ten-ship Mediterranean squadron sent to stop the harassment of U.S.-flag shipping by Barbary pirates, and on June 17, she helped capture the Algerian frigate Mashuda.
In 1819 Macedonian became the first ship to serve on the Pacific station. Under Captain John Downes (first mate of
USS Essex in 1813), she ranged as far north as Acapulco, protecting U.S. commerce in South America during a period of widespread revolt against Spanish rule led on the naval side by Chile's Scottish-born Admiral Lord Cochrane. Relieved by
USS Constellation (Captain Charles G. Ridgely), Macedonian returned to the Atlantic seaboard in 1821. After five years in the West Indies, she returned for another year in the Pacific. In 1828, she was broken up at the Norfolk Navy Yard. As was the custom, some of her timbers were used in a second ship of the same name. This second Macedonian continued in service until 1875; some of her timbers eventually ended up in a City Island, New York, restaurant called Macedonia House.
de Kay, Chronicles of the Frigate "Macedonian.".
