Neptune's Needle

Naval officer. By 1790 he had begun sailing to Europe, and in 1794 he obtained his first command. In 1795 he returned to the West Indies trade, where he lost several vessels either to French privateers or financial disaster before being appointed, through the influence of his uncle William Hull, a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy, 9 March 1798.

Isaac Hull's first assignment was as fourth lieutenant of the Constitution, serving on it until 1801 and rising to first lieutenant in 1799 under Captain Silas Talbot. Constitution made a series of cruises to the coast of Santo Domingo (now Dominican Republic), where in May 1800 Hull led a cutting-out expedition into Puerto Plata, to capture a French privateer schooner, the Sandwich, an exploit in which he took great pride.

Hull was promoted to master commandant in 1804 and was advanced to captain in 1806, then the highest commissioned rank in the U.S. Navy. The courtesy title of "commodore" was accorded officers who commanded squadrons of vessels on separate service, and quarrels over the title shadowed many professional careers, including Hull's.

By 1806 the Thomas Jefferson administration had decided to bolster national defense by building gunboats to protect the coastline. Hull supervised gunboat building from 1806 to 1809 on Long Island Sound and in the Chesapeake.

Hull's fame rests on his years with the Constitution, 1810-1812. After a cruise to Europe in 1811-1812, he refitted and recoppered the ship at the Washington Navy Yard, sailing just after the declaration of war to join Commodore Rodgers at New York. He was chased off the port by a British squadron in a long and breathtaking escape and made Boston, where he restored his lost supplies then sailed alone and without orders in pursuit of British shipping. On 19 August 1812, off the Grand Banks, he met the British frigate Guerriere, also cruising alone. Guerriere, though eager for battle, was destroyed in half an hour. Hull returned with Constitution to Boston to find that his was the first capture of a British frigate and the first good news the country had had since war began.

At war's end Hull went briefly to Washington, D.C., as a member of the first Board of Navy Commissioners, but he detested the capital city and naval politics and transferred to the command of the Boston Navy Yard. In 1823 he left the navy yard to take command of the squadron on the Pacific coast of South America, where he served until 1827. In 1829 he became commandant of the Washington Navy Yard, remaining there until 1835. He commanded the Mediterranean squadron in the new ship Ohio from 1839 to 1841.

Hull spent the last year and a half of his life on leave, finally settling in Philadelphia, where he died.

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Peter Richards