USS Congress

Five United States Navy ships have been named USS Congress, after the legislature of the US.

• The first Congress was a galley built on Lake Champlain, and that served as flagship in the Battle of Valcour Island.

• The second Congress was a 28-gun sailing frigate (length 126 ft, breadth 34.9 ft, depth 10.5 ft) built by Lancaster Burling at Poughkeepsie, New York, under authority of an act of the Second Continental Congress dated 13 December 1775. One of the first 13 ships authorized to be built by the new government, she was placed under the command of Captain Grenell in the summer of 1776. Before her outfitting was completed, the British occupied the approaches to the Hudson River and extended their control of the environs throughout 1777. The infant Continental Navy suffered the destruction of Congress in October 1777 to prevent her seizure by the enemy.

• The third Congress was a 36-gun sailing frigate launched in 1799 and in service periodically until she was broken up in 1834.

• The fourth Congress was a sailing frigate mounting 52 guns, launched in 1841, active in the Mexican-American War, and destroyed by the ironclad CSS Virginia in 1862.

• The fifth Congress was a screw sloop commissioned in 1870 and decommissioned 1876.