Hi I'm the History Guy, I have a degree in history, I love history and if you love
history too this is the channel for you. Do you remember that navel accident where
20 civilians were injured, six people were killed, two of them U.S. cabinet secretaries
and the president's future father-in-law? You would think that if something like that
happened you'd remember it. But it did, and not too many Americans do remember it, even
though it is one of the most significant events in American history. And so today we are going
to talk about the Princeton disaster of 1844. The Princeton was a marvel, a steam sloop of
the United States Navy. She was the first U.S. Navy vessel to be driven by a steam-powered screw
propeller. She was the fastest ship in the fleet and one of the most advanced in the world. She
was designed by engineering genius John Ericsson with the help of Navy Captain Robert Stockton,
who was a politically connected naval officer who believed in modernizing the fleet and had
the political pull to pull the strings to get a ship like this built. February 28th 1844, the
Princeton was fully outfitted and ready to sail, and so she was taken on a pleasure demonstration
cruise down the Potomac. Guests included President John Tyler, members of his cabinet, former First
Lady Dolly Madison, and 200 other guests, and while they cruise they could enjoy demonstrations
of the Princeton's two huge 12-inch main guns, the Oregon and the Peacemaker, either of which
could throw a 200-pound cannonball five miles. On the last demonstration of the day disaster struck,
the breach of the Peacemaker exploded throwing shrapnel into the crowd. Six people were killed
and 20 injured. The dead included the U.S. Secretary of State Abel P. Upshur,
Secretary of the Navy Thomas Walker Gilmore, and New York State Senator David Gardiner,
father of Julie Gardiner, President Tyler's fiance. The cause of the accident was really
jealousy. While it seemed like Ericsson and Stockton were a great team, in fact Stockton was
jealous of Ericsson and trying behind the scenes to steal credit for many of his innovations,
Ericsson had designed the Oregon, and he designed it using built-up construction,
which is a process that puts hot steel rings around the base of the gun that's being created,
in order to give it much more strength at the breech. The Peacemaker on the other hand,
was made by Stockton and while he stole some of Ericsson's designs he didn't understand built up
construction. He used cast iron and he solved the problem just by making the cast iron thicker at
the breech, that made a more impressive looking gun but had the problem of all cast iron guns,
cast iron can not stand the traverse forces of the explosion, simply put because of the design,
the Peacemaker breech was going to explode at some point. Because of his political connection,
Stockton was able to avoid responsibility in the court of inquiry and actually tried to
pass blame to Ericsson, despite the fact that Ericsson had nothing to do with the building
of the gun Peacemaker. Ericsson was disgusted, no longer trusted the Navy, and the program for
modernizing the Navy was halted setting the Navy back at least a decade. John Ericsson,
the greatest naval engineer of his day, refused to work with the U.S. Navy again for 17 years until
he was begged to by the Lincoln administration during the Civil War, when of course he produced
his revolutionary design for the USS Monitor. But the most immediate effect was on the
presidential election of 1844 and that was because of the death of Abel P. Upshur. Upshur
was a fantastic politician and he had just worked through delicate negotiations with the parties
of the day, the Whigs, the Democrats and Sam Houston in Texas to bring Texas into the Union,
Texas statehood before the end of John Tyler's administration. That deal died with Upshur
especially since his replacement, John C Calhoun, managed to alienate the Whigs. That was important
because Texas statehood was John Tyler's big argument for re-election and when the
deal fell through his popularity declined, his odds of reelection declined, and he ended up
not even running in 1844. But it also impacted the Democratic nomination, because of Upshur's death,
the annexation of Texas was a major issue in the campaign of 1844 and that caused the Democrats to
shift away from their original favored candidate, former President Martin Van Buren who opposed
expansion, to move to a pro expansion candidate the dark horse James K. Polk, and that allowed
the Democrats to attract the former John Tyler voters to the Democratic Party and then Polk won
the 1844 election against the Whig nominee Henry Clay on the issue of Texas expansion. And so,
were it not for the explosion aboard the Princeton our 11th President, James K Polk, would not even
have been nominated, more or less elected. The explosion determined the election of 1844.
So how important was James K Polk? Well despite the fact that he only served for one term,
the Polk administration was actually extremely impactful. Polk support for Manifest Destiny and
expansionist ideas directly impacted the map of the nation through things like the acquisition
of the Oregon Territory. But maybe more powerfully it was his pressing for expansion and direct acts
of James K Polk as President that led us to war with Mexico in 1846, and the Mexican-American War
had huge impacts in both the United States and in Mexico directly through things like
the acquisition of California and the American Southwest, the map of the United States is what
it is today because of the election of James K Polk. But the war with Mexico also exacerbated the
sectarian divisions that would eventually lead 15 years later to the U.S. Civil War. Ulysses Grant
who famously fought in both the Mexican War and the Civil War argued, that the U.S. Civil War,
the pivotal moment in U.S. history that cost 3/4 of a million American lives, was the direct
consequence of the war with Mexico, which was the consequence of the election of James K Polk,
which was the consequence of the explosion aboard the Princeton in February of 1844.
Rarely in history has a moment, one brief instant in time, so profoundly impacted the direction
of a people and a nation. And that is why you should remember the Princeton disaster of 1844.
I'm the History Guy. I hope you enjoyed this edition of my channel, 5 minutes
of history, short snippets of forgotten history 5 to 10 minutes long. If you
enjoyed this then please click the like button there on your left. If you have any questions or
comments then write them in the comment section and I would be happy to respond. And if you want
to get five minutes more of forgotten history, then click the button on your right, to subscribe.