USS Jarvis (DD-393)

The second U.S. Navy ship named for James Canon Jarvis (1787–1800), the son of James Jarvis of New York, who was appointed a midshipman from that state on 23 March 1799. On 30 January 1800, 13-year-old Jarvis sailed on board frigate Constellation , Commodore Thomas Truxtun in command, when she set out from St. Kitts to seek battle against the French during the Quasi-War. Constellation sighted 52-gun French frigate La Vengeance , Capt. François M. Pitot in command, not far from Guadeloupe in the West Indies on 1 February 1800. The two ships adroitly maneuvered to gain the wind and closed, and Truxtun called on the French to heave to and strike their colors, to which the French defiantly answered by opening fire. The ships repeatedly fired into each other, and closed to board twice but both times broke away, and men in the tops shot down their foes’ crewmen, drenching the decks in blood.

During the ferocious battle the French blasted Constellation ’s masts and sails, and Jarvis climbed aloft and commanded the topmen to secure the mainmast. An older seaman warned Jarvis that the mast might topple but he refused to come down. “My post is here,” he courageously replied, “I can’t leave it until ordered.” The enemy fire then carried away part of the mast, and Jarvis was swept over the side with the falling rigging. The Americans severely damaged La Vengeance , but she utilized the cover of darkness to escape from Constellation which, disabled by the loss of her mainmast, proved unable to pursue, and the battered French ship made Curaçao. “I regret much his loss,” Truxtun commended Jarvis’ duty in a report to Secretary of the Navy Benjamin Stoddert, “as a promising young officer and amiable young man.” The Sixth Congress deemed his sacrifice worthy of further honor and passed a joint resolution on 29 March 1800. “And be it further resolved: That the conduct of James Jarvis, a Midshipman in said frigate, who gloriously preferred certain death to an abandonment of his post, is deserving of the highest praise, and the loss of so promising an officer is a subject of National regret.”

The second Jarvis (DD-393) was laid down on 21 August 1935 at Bremerton, Wash., by the Puget Sound Navy Yard; launched on 6 May 1937; sponsored by Mrs. Antoinette M. Craven, wife of Vice Adm. Thomas T. Craven, Commandant Thirteenth Naval District and Puget Sound Navy Yard; and commissioned on 27 October 1937, Lt. Cmdr. Robert R. Ferguson in command.

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From the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, compiled by the Naval History and Heritage Command (Jarvis II (DD-393)). A work of the United States Government, in the public domain.