USS Trumbull (1800)

USS Trumbull, the third US Navy ship to bear the name, was an 18-gun sloop-of-war constructed by naval agent Joseph Howland between 1799 and 1800. Construction of naval ships and expansion of the US Navy was authorized by Congress in response to large losses of merchant ships in the so-called Quasi-War between the United States and France.

Service history
Following fitting out, it departed New London, Connecticut in March 1800 under the command of Master Commandant David Jewett. Its first mission was to escort the provisions ship Charlotte from New York to the West Indies, replenishing the American Squadron operating against the French.

Trumbull joined the American Squadron commanded by Silas Talbot in the USS Constitution. Trumbull's main duties in the area were protection of American shipping and the interception of French privateers and merchantmen.

In early May, the armed French schooner Peggie was captured. On 3 August, while off Jeremie in Haiti, Trumbull, commanded by Captain David Jewett, captured the French schooner Vengeance, armed with eight or ten guns (not, as is sometimes found, the 38-gun frigate Vengeance that tangled with the USS Constitution and was later taken into the Royal Navy). The ship had fled Haiti with 130 people aboard, crew and refugees together, as Toussaint's troops took possession of the island. Talbot ordered Jewett home with Vengeance as a prize, Trumbull arriving back at New London in late summer. The Vengeance was later condemned as a national vessel and was returned to France under the treaty soon afterwards concluded with that country.

Trumbull then returned to patrol off Santo Domingo, before later transporting Navy Agent Thomas T. Gantt to St. Kitts to relieve Thomas Clarkson. Following the end of hostilities with France as a result of the Treaty of Mortefontaine, Trumbull returned to the United States in the spring of 1801, was sold later that year and her crew discharged.