USS Fredonia
barque that served in the U.S. Navy 1847–1851

USS Fredonia was an 800-ton bark that served the U.S. Navy as a transport and as a storeship. After several voyages to California by way of Cape Horn, she became the station warehouse in Arica, where she was destroyed by an earthquake.
Service history
Fredonia was built in 1845 at Newbury, Massachusetts. She was registered on 27 May 1845. Her master was George Lunt. Her owners were Micajah Lunt and John Currier of Newbury, and George Lunt and Stephen Frotheringham of Newburypart. The US Navy purchased her at Boston, Massachusetts on 14 December 1846 for $52,000. The vessel was fitted out as a storeship and on 5 January 1847 was placed in commission under command of Lieutenant C. W. Chauncey.
Assigned to the Home Squadron, Fredonia sailed from Boston 9 January 1847 for the east coast of Mexico. On 16 February she arrived off Anton Lizardo where she remained until October, rendering assistance to vessels in distress and performing duty as guard ship while dispensing provisions, wood, water, ordnance equipment, and ammunition to the squadron of Commodores David Conner and Matthew C. Perry engaged in the bombardment and occupation of Vera Cruz, Tuxpan, and Tabasco, Mexico.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “USS Fredonia” is barque that served in the U.S. Navy 1847–1851. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Fredonia, barque and served, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “barque that served in the U.S. Navy 1847–1851” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 16, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q7869498. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1845, 1846 and 1847.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “USS Fredonia”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow USS Fredonia primary sources, USS Fredonia archive and Fredonia research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “USS Fredonia”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “USS Fredonia” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.