USS Sabine - Savior of Marines, Pirate Hunter, and School Ship of the US Navy

Construction on USS Sabine began in 1823. Although mostly completed by 1828, she was kept in a ship house at New York for decades. In 1853, she was modernized and lengthened before being launched in 1855. Her initial service was as flagship of the 1858 Paraguay Expedition. In 1859 she saw service in the Caribbean. Two of her sailors were buried at Greytown, Nicaragua in this period. In 1861 she was dispatched to Pensacola and helped keep Fort Pickens in US Army hands. In November of 1861 her crew battled a fierce gale to rescue an entire battalion of Marines from the sinking transport S.S. Governor. In 1862 she was sent to hunt the Confederate "Pirate" CSS Alabama. In 1864 she became a school ship - first training apprentice sailors. She joined the United States Naval Academy in 1869 and took midshipmen on cruises to Europe. She spent her final years as a receiving ship at the Portsmouth Navy Yard in Kittery, Maine.