Tunis Craven - U.S. Navy Service

U.S. Navy Service

Promoted to Passed Midshipman in September, 1835, he was on duty in connection with the Coast Survey almost continually until 1843, nearly two years after his promotion to Lieutenant, in September, 1841. In 1838 he married Miss Mary Carter, a member of one of the oldest and most influential families on Long Island, who died in 1843, leaving three children. The same year Lieutenant Craven was ordered to the receiving ship at New York, where he remained until ordered to the Dale in May, 1846. In the meantime he had married again and removed from Brooklyn to Bound Brook, N. J. His second wife was Miss Marie L. Stevenson, of Baltimore, Md., by whom he had three children.

After his return from the Dale he was employed on Coast Survey duty, with the exception of a year (1850) at the Naval Observatory, till 1859. Most of this time he commanded the steamer USS Corwin, but in October, 1857, went in the Varina in command of the Atrato Expedition, which was for the purpose of surveying a route for a proposed ship canal through Isthmus of Darien (now called Panama) by way of the Atrato River.

In 1859 Lieutenant Craven was ordered to the command of the steamer Mohawk, Home Squadron, in which he captured two slavers; in 1860 he saved the crew of the Bella, a foundering Spanish vessel, for which he was given a gold medal and diploma by Queen Isabella II. About the same time the New York Board of Underwriters presented Mrs. Craven with a handsome silver service for efficient services rendered to merchant vessels at sea by her husband.

In 1861 Lieutenant Craven was ordered to command the Crusader, Home Squadron, but was shortly after promoted to Commander and ordered to command the Tuscarora, special service. The Tuscarora went to England with orders to report to the U. S. Minister, Mr. Adams. While in Southampton the Confederate steamer Nashville came in; but upon her leaving, the Tuscarora was unable to follow until the expiration of twenty-four hours, when, giving up the chase, Commander Craven went to the Mediterranean, where he succeeded in watching the CSS Sumter so closely that her officers and crew finally deserted the ship at Gibraltar.

The Tuscarora was ordered home in 1863, and Commander Craven was detached and ordered to command the Tecumseh, then building at Secor's yard, Jersey City. In the following spring the Tecumseh left New York and joined the squadron of Admiral Lee in the James River.