The Charleston built frigate John Adams with the American fleet on the Guadeloupe station under Commodore Truxtun at Basseterre, St. Christoper's and Nevis, Leeward Islands, West Indies

The U.S. frigate John Adams, named for the first Vice-President of the United States and also for the new country's second President, was built by Paul Prichard at Charleston, South Carolina, and launched on 5th June 1799. Measured at 544 tons and 139 feet in length, she carried a crew of 220 men and her original armament consisted of 24-12pdrs. and 6-24pdrs. During an extremely long and varied career, she served with distinction in the West Indies and off the Barbary Coast of North Africa, each for more than one commission, although she took little part in the Anglo-American War of 1812-14 due to the fact that she was unable to break the British blockade of New York where she had been sent for repairs when hostitilities began. Almost entirely rebuilt in 1829-31, she returned to the Mediterranean where she was granted the rare privilege of passing through the Dardanelles with guns mounted. Later visiting Liberia, she then embarked on a celebrated round-the-world cruise in 1838, returning to Boston in June 1840. After two years laid up, she was sent to African waters to assist the Royal Navy's anti-slavery patrol and thereafter operated in the Pacific and the Far East before coming home in January 1862. The American Civil War saw her in several roles, including flagship of the Charleston blockading squadron, and she was only finally decommissioned late in 1865 prior to being sold out of the service in 1867.