Isaac Chauncey was an American naval officer. He was President of the Board of Navy Commissioners from 1821 to 1824.
Background
Isaac Chauncey was born on the 20th of February, 1772 in Black Rock, Connecticut, United States. Descended from Charles Chauncy, the second president of Harvard College, he was the fifth of nine children born to Wolcott and Ann (Brown) Chauncy.
Career
At the age of nineteen Chauncey was given command of the ship Jenny, belonging to the Schermerhorns, wealthy New York shipowners. It is narrated that during one of his voyages between Charleston and New York the crew and all the officers except himself were taken sick with yellow fever and that singlehanded he brought the vessel into port. On June 11, 1799, he was appointed a first lieutenant of the frigate President, then building at New York, taking rank from September 17, 1798, and during the last year of the naval hostilities with France he made a cruise in her in the West Indies, with Commodore Truxtun in command.
Chauncey was retained under the peace establishment of 1801, ranking sixth in the list of lieutenants, and in the war with Tripoli he found employment during the period 1802-1805, first as acting commander of the flagship, Chesapeake, and later as commander, successively, of the New York and the John Adams.
While he was in command of the New York an explosion of gunpowder near the magazine threatened the destruction of the vessel and all on board. Chauncey coolly and bravely led a party of volunteers below who put out the fire and saved the ship. Joining temporarily the flagship Constitution he participated in the attack on Tripoli made by the fleet of Commodore Preble, August 28-29, 1804, when much damage was done to the enemy. His services on this occasion were especially commended by his commodore. He was promoted master-commandant on May 18, 1804, and captain on April 24, 1806—the highest statutory rank in the navy.
About the time of the latter promotion he was furloughed, with permission to make a voyage to the East Indies. This he did in command of a vessel belonging to John Jacob Astor. A year later he returned to the navy and took command of the New York navy-yard, where he was stationed until early in the War of 1812. Possessing the confidence of President Madison and Secretary of the Navy Hamilton, Chauncey, early in September 1812, was made commander of the naval forces on Lakes Ontario and Erie, with power to build, purchase, and hire vessels, appoint officers, enlist seamen, buy naval stores, and establish navy-yards. This was the most important command at the disposal of the Navy Department.
In October 1812, he arrived at Sackett’s Harbor, New York, where he made his headquarters for upward of three years. An excellent organizer, he established a navy-yard, with a naval hospital, naval school, and rope walk, and built or otherwise procured a fleet of more than twenty vessels. The objectives of his naval operations on Lake Ontario were three in number and more or less interrelated: the reduction of fortified places in conjunction with the army, the capture or destruction of the ships of the enemy (commanded by Sir James L. Yeo), and the obtaining of a naval superiority on the lake.
In 1813 he ably assisted the army in the reduction of York and Fort George. During that year both fleets did considerable cruising, but little fighting. On September 28, in an engagement with Yeo, Chauncey won a victory but failed to make the best use of the force under his command. Both commanders proved to be wary and excessively cautious. The year ended indecisively. In the campaign of 1814 Chauncey appeared in an even less favorable light. At critical moments he was inactive. Throughout the war he failed, except for brief periods, to establish a naval superiority on Lake Ontario. At last the confidence of President Madison was shaken, and he ordered Commodore Decatur to relieve him. The proposed change, however, did not take place, and Chauncey remained on the lake. It is obvious that among the naval commanders of the War of 1812 he is not of the first rank.
Soon after leaving Sackett’s Harbor in the summer of 1815 he took command at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, of the Washington, one of the first ships of the line in the navy. With this vessel as his flagship, he commanded the Mediterranean squadron in 1816-1818, and, together with Consul William Shaler, negotiated a treaty with Algiers. During the years 1821-1824 he was stationed in Washington as one of the three postcaptains comprising the Board of Navy Commissioners, which assisted the secretary of the navy in administering the navy; and in the years 1823-1832 he was again commandant of the New York navy-yard. In 1832 he returned as navy commissioner to Washington where he remained until his death, serving for the last three years of his life as president of the board.