1830: Gunboat Diplomacy in Europe
Placed back in commission on 10 January 1830, Capt. Henry E. Ballard in command, the warship set out for the Gulf of Mexico two months later to gather information concerning conditions in that area. She returned to the east coast at Norfolk, Virginia on 7 July and began preparations for another European deployment.
Brandywine departed Hampton Roads, Virginia on 22 October 1830 and headed for Gibraltar. At first, this deployment was devoted almost exclusively to sailing from one peaceful port to the next, showing the flag to maintain and enhance American prestige. However, President Andrew Jackson—determined to collect indemnities owed to the U.S. for merchant ships that had been confiscated by several European nations while under Napoleon Bonaparte's governments during the Napoleonic Wars—decided to begin with the Kingdom of Naples.
While Napoleon's brother, Joseph Bonaparte, sat on the throne there, Naples had seized several American merchantmen; and the most recent successor to the throne, King Ferdinand II, had repudiated the debts. Jackson sent former Maryland congressman John Nelson to Naples as U.S. minister to negotiate the payment of these debts.
He also dispatched Commodore Daniel Patterson to the Mediterranean with reinforcements for the squadron already there and with orders to take overall command of American forces from Commodore James Biddle. The frigate gave a physical dimension to Nelson's legal arguments.
Read more about this topic: USS Brandywine (1825)
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