From: Dictionary of American Fighting Ships

William Richardson Davie, born in England 20 June 1756, came to Colonial America in 1763, and graduated from Princeton College, N.J., in 1776. Joining the Army during the revolution, he served under Casimir Pulaski and later took an active part in the Carolina campaign, becoming General Nathaniel Greene's Commissary General. After the war he settled in Halifax, N.C., and became successively a prominent lawyer, State legislator, and founder of the University of North Carolina. In 1798 Davie was elected Governor of North Carolina. He was appointed a Brigadier General during the Quasi-War with France; and became a peace commissioner to Paris in 1799, sent there by President John Adams after the XYZ affair. Governor Davie retired to his South Carolina plantation in 1805 and died there 29 November 1820.

(Gy: l. 52'; b. 15'; dph. 5'8"; cpl. 28; a. 1 24-pdr., 5 to 6 how.)

Governor Davie was built at Wilmington, N.C., as one of a group of galleys authorized by act of Congress 4 May 1798. The small vessels were built and equipped by the Navy Department but operated under the War Department as a kind of Naval Militia.

Governor Davie was assigned to cruise the coast and inlets of North Carolina under Captain William McKerrall (or McKerall) during the Quasi-War with France 1798 to 1801. Late in 1801 she was ordered turned over to the Revenue Cutter Service, but believed to have been sold instead, probably about 1 February 1802 at Wilmington. N.C.

Transcribed by Yves HUBERT (hubertypc@aol.com)