Taney

Taney
(RC: t. 112; Ibp. 73'4"; b. 20'6"; dph. 9'4"; a. 6
12-pdrs.)

Taney-sometimes referred to as Roger B. Taney— was a wooden-hulled, schooner-rigged revenue cutter completed in late 1833 or early 1834 at New York City by Webb and Allen. In January 1834, she embarked on a special cruise off the east and gulf coasts, from Maine to Texas. Relieving revenue cutter Jefferson on station at Norfolk, Va., in November of 1834, Taney later extended her cruising grounds to Baltimore, Md., in October 1837. She sailed to New York for repairs in the summer of 1843.

Taney maintained this schedule of regular cruises with the Revenue Cutter Service until the onset of hostilities with Mexico when she was placed under Navy orders. Although the latter country possessed meager resources for outfitting privateers, commercial interests in the United States feared that she might issue a few letters-of-marque permitting privately-owned armed ships to prey upon American shipping.

Although the Spanish government cooperated in suppressing the few attempts that had been made to outfit privateers in Spanish ports, the United States dispatched Taney—with sloop-of-war Marion and steamer Princeton-to the Mediterranean station to prevent the appearance of Mexican privateers there. Taney arrived at Gibraltar on 29 August 1847 and remained there until she returned to the United States on 22 August 1849.

The revenue cutter departed New York at the end of October 1849 and conducted soundings in the Atlantic before being transferred to the United States Coast Survey in August of 1850. The following year, turmoil raged on the island of Cuba. The United States sought to steer a neutral course by prohibiting "filibustering" from her shores. Taney sailed southward for

Florida waters to seek out a suspected lair of filibusters up the St. Illa River. She found nothing suspicious however, and her commanding officer, Capt. T. C. Rudolph, subsequently reported that apparently the expedition had been cancelled.

Taney returned to New York harbor in the summer of 1852, where she capsized on 3 August. Eventually righted and repaired at the New York Navy Yard Taney operated out of Eastport, Maine, from January 1853 until October 1855, when she shifted south to cruise out of Savannah, Ga. After being repaired at Norfolk in August 1857, she returned to her station at Savannah. While operating from that base, she was struck by lightning off Tybee Island, Gal, and severely damaged on 30 August 1857.

Taney was subsequently sold on 5 January 1858.