1754 ~ 1824
He is first mentioned at the age of 22 as an able seaman in the "Alfred" of Providence, RI in 1776. In July of the following year, he shipped with John Paul Jones in the warship US Ranger and made a cruise to Europe in that ship, and his conduct in the engagement between the Ranger, and the British sloop-of-war H.B.M.S. Drake in which the latter ship was captured and taken as a prize to Brest, received favorable mention from his commander.
He returned to the United States on the Ranger in 1778 and in the spring of 1779 shipped in the French warship Alliance, which carried Lafayette back to France. Upon his arrival at L'Orient, where John Paul Jones wa fitting out the warship Bon Homme Richard and in the engagement of this ship with the ship Serapis he again received commendation from his commander. In this engagement the Serapis was captured, but the Bon Homme Richard was so badly damaged that she was abandoned by Jones, who transfered his colors and crew to the Serapis, and the Bon Homme Richard soon sank afterward.
Reuben is documented in his twenty-sixth year and with words written by the founder of the American Navy. "A Journal Kept on Board the BonHomme Richard by the Honorable John Paul Jones Commander" names the crew and listed amoung the officers is Reuben Chase, Midshipman. Bound on a cruise begun 14 August 1779, Jones writes in the log under 22 August 1779: "At midday saw a sail in the North, gave chase to her; found her to be an English vessel, at 1/2 past 2 fired a shot at her. At 1/2 past 3 fired another shot and brought her too at 4 sent a boat on board, found her to be from Limrick bound to London. Put a Parize Master on board; Mr. Reuben Chase & 2 more men with 2 volunteers & sent them for the Port of L'Orient"
In December of 1779, the crew of the Bon Homme Richard, including Chase were transfered to the Alliance and in her made a cruise returning to L'Orient in February 1780. Here he was appointed to second Lieutenant in the Fench privateer La Bonne Adventure, which carried twenty guns, and in her made a cruise lasting from March 1780, to September 1781. On his return to the United States he was enrolled at Portsmouth, NH on the new frigate America (carrying 74 guns). This ship was subsequently presented, by the United States to the King of France in September of 1782 and her crew, including Lieutenant Chase were honorably discharged. This ended his naval career, which covered a peiod of about six years.
He then entered the merhacnt service and commisioned several packet ships between New York and European ports. in 1787 he was master of the ship Governor Clinton and made what was then a remarkable run from New York to Dover Castle in nineteen days, and upon this voyage he had with him, as a passenger, his former commander John Paul Jones.
He was a large, tall man, 6 feet 4 inches in height. He passed in Nantucket on his seventieth birthday, June 23, 1824. The charecter of "Long Tom Coffin" in J. Fennimore Cooper's novel "The Pilot" is said to have been drawn from the career of Reuben Chase.
Washington
8 August 1919
The name CHASE has been assigned to torpedo boat destroyer No. 323 under construction at San Francisco, California, in honor of your grand-father Midshipman Reuben Chase, U.S. Navy. Will you designate a sponsor for the vessel which is soon to be launched at San Francisco?
Very truely yours,
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Acting Secretary of the Navy
R.M.C.
When she was placed in commission at Mare Island Navy Yard on 10 March 1921, Lieutenant Commander Carleton E. Battle Jr., USN, assumed command. She became a unit of Division 45, Squadron 13, US Pacific Fleet, operating with Flotilla 2.
For the ten years she was in service, her schedule of employment was almost continuously on the West Coast, where she engaged in gunnery training and torpedo practice fire. She took part in training operations and fleet maneuvers through which the Navy developed the modern techniques of naval warfare practiced in World War II.
She took part in the Presidentail Fleet Review at Seattle, Washington in 1923. In 1927 she was detailed for temporary duty in Nicaraguan waters with the Special Service Squadron, for the protection of American lives and property while civil war raged there.
In the summer of 1928, she made training cruises with Naval Reserve personal aboard bound for Honolulu. In 1929 she operated off San Diego with USS Saratoga (CV-3) and USS Lexington (CV-2) aiding in the development of air craft carrier aviation.
Designated for scrapping in accord with the terms of the London Treaty, the Chase was decommissioned at the Destroyer Base, San Diego, on 15 May 1930, and stricken from the Navy List on 13 August 1930. In 1931 she was scrapped and her materials sold.
