John Shaw (naval officer)

A third-generation Anglo-Irishman, John Shaw's father and father's father were both officers of the British Armed Forces. The family of his mother—Elizabeth Barton—were also English emigrants to Ireland. John Shaw himself was born in Mountmellick, Kingdom of Ireland in 1773. In 1790, 17-year-old Shaw and his brother left Ireland for the fledgling United States, arriving in New York City before heading to the nation's capitol of Philadelphia. On 9 August 1798, Shaw married the Philadelphia Quaker, Elizabeth Palmer, with whom he had two surviving daughters: Elizabeth Shaw married Francis Gregory and had seven children; her younger sister Virginia married William F. Lynch and bore two children. After the death of Elizabeth, Shaw wedded Mary Breed of Charleston, Massachusetts in her hometown on 13 October 1820. Shaw died from illness in Philadelphia on 17 September 1823 at the age of 50. ==Pre-Naval work==

Having discovered a taste for life on the ocean, Shaw sailed from the US in 1791 and worked aboard ships, making four round-trips to Guangdong through 1797. During his second trip to Qing-ruled China, Shaw was on aboard the ship Sampson when it repelled an attack by Malayan proas in the Bangka Strait; on his third voyage, he served as third officer, and by his fourth excursion to East Asia, Shaw was his ship's first officer. Shaw was one of several-hundred members of the Macpherson's Blues irregular military; Shaw was a Blues private in the 1794 suppression of the Whiskey Rebellion, and didn't return to Philadelphia until the end of the year. ==Naval sailing==

Quasi-War In late 1797, Shaw was the sailing master of a brig that traveled to the West Indies and returned to the States in spring 1798, having been harassed by French Naval ships in the lead-up to the Quasi-War. Having suffered these, and with the support of Brigadier General Samuel Smith, the 25-year-old Shaw applied for a commission with the nascent United States Navy. War of 1812 When the War of 1812 broke out with the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, of the 14 gunboats vital to the defense of New Orleans, Shaw only had ten operational. Also under his command were the brigs , , and USS Enterprise; Shaw also purchased the commercial vessel Remittance on behalf of the Navy to become , a ship in poor condition that nonetheless met muster at the Battle of New Orleans. While combat eschewed the Gulf until the war's waning years, and Shaw worked to prepare coastal defenses (including a blockship), he also had to contend with "extensive" piracy and smuggling on his coast. Pirate ships were duplicitously flying the flags of the newly independent United Provinces of New Granada and Captaincy General of Venezuela, and illegal attacks on Spanish ships were coming from a pirate base in Louisiana's Barataria Bay. In March 1813, Shaw commanded the naval component of General Wilkinson's seizure of the Imperial Spanish city of Mobile. When he left in October 1813, Shaw was succeeded at New Orleans by his second-in-command, Daniel Patterson. painting) In spring 1814, Shaw was given command of a squadron of blockaded ships (, USS Macedonian, and ) in Connecticut's Thames River; Hornet escaped and captured , but Shaw's United States and Macedonian remained stuck until March 1815. 1815–1823 With the declaration of the Second Barbary War, Shaw captained United States and left for Algiers. When he arrived at Málaga in September 1815 with Commodore William Bainbridge, the conflict was already over. Bainbridge therefore took the bulk of US Naval forces back to the states, leaving Shaw in command of the US Naval assets in the Mediterranean: United States, , , , and . When he was relieved by Commodore Isaac Chauncey in autumn 1816, Shaw remained in-theater until the following November when he left for the US commanding Constellation, which was in need of repair; Shaw arrived at Hampton Roads on 26 December 1817, ending his deployment after 28 months. In April 1818, Shaw was placed in charge of the Naval Station Norfolk through the following July when he stepped down on account of poor health. Shaw took command of on 2 October 1819, and captained that ship based out of Boston Harbor for over two years. Excepting his 20 March20 September suspension by court-martial for "unofficer like conduct", Shaw remained in Greater Boston until requesting transfer to a warmer climate on 26 May 1823. On 23 August, he was offered command of Charleston Navy Yard, "a station rather of honor, however, than of active duty." Shaw accepted the assignment on 26 August, but died 22 days later in Philadelphia. Legacy The first US Naval ship named for Shaw was , commissioned on 9 April 1917 with Lieutenant Commander (LCDR) Milton S. Davis in command. The second was , commissioned on 18 September 1936 with LCDR E. A. Mitchell in command. ==References==