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US Navy · Ship Histories

Sylph II

(Sch.: t. 41; cpl. 13; a. 1 gun)

The second Sylph-a schooner built in 1831 by Dorgin and Baily as Sarah Ann-was purchased by the Navy at Baltimore, Md., in April 1831; was renamed Sylph~ on 26 April 1831, was fitted out at the Washington Navy Yard, and was commissioned there on or about 19 May 1831, Lt. H. E. V. Robinson in command.

The schooner was ordered to cruise along the coasts of the southern states to protect live oak timber growing on public lands. Live oak was then used extensively in shipbuilding.

Sylph was reported ready for sea on 3 June and sailed for Norfolk on that day or soon thereafter. Records of her movements thereafter are scarce. We know that she departed Pensacola, Fla., in July, but she was not heard from again. It was assumed that she was lost-with all on board-during an intense storm in.

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