American War Hero · War of 1812 · Notice Nearby
Wikimedia Commons — File:Rembrandt Peale - William Bainbridge - NPG.79.172 - National Portrait Gallery.jpg (Public domain)
William Bainbridge
May 7, 1774 – July 28, 1833
Born Princeton, New Jersey
Died Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Captain, U.S. Navy; commanding officer USS Constitution — defeat of HMS Java off Brazil, December 29, 1812; later Commodore
William Bainbridge already knew Mediterranean hard luck when the War of 1812 put him back on a frigate deck. On December 29, 1812, commanding USS Constitution off the Brazilian coast, he fought and took HMS Java after a sharp engagement that left Constitution damaged and Java a wreck — the action dated in Navy logs, prize papers, and Bainbridge’s own after-action report to the Navy Department. Congress voted him a gold medal for that cruise.
Earlier Tripolitan captivity and later Mediterranean squadron command fill other folders. This register files the Constitution–Java fight: ship, date, opponent, result. Bainbridge died in Philadelphia in 1833. The Rembrandt Peale portrait at the National Portrait Gallery, on Wikimedia Commons, is public domain. He is not marked missing.
- Publication
- NN-HERO-1812-010
- Content hash
- 61e1050f 46d5eebf e7ce1df6 232eec85 60564094 b19f271f 65b7e251 43a30b20
- Base anchor
- 0x30cd92 8a145bad 2650d62c d2de6088 b878ffe0 90271b73 ba78a986 918af37d 35
Base stores the content hash, publication number, memorial id, and timestamp — not the full obituary text. The complete memorial remains on Notice Nearby. This is not a legal affidavit.