Feb. 24, 2023

A “Terrible Catastrophe”: The February 1844 Naval Gun Explosion that Almost Killed a President

By 1843, when he approached the Navy for permission to build Princeton, its first steam-powered man-of-war, Robert Field Stockton had already distinguished himself as a U.S. Navy officer in the War of 1812, as a key negotiator in the establishment of Liberia, and as an aggressive pirate hunter.After 16 years at sea, Stockton used an extended shore