Ship's Crew
Nathaniel Haraden
Rank(s): Sailing Master
Dates of Service: 6/30/1802 - 5/14/1803
Birth Date: 3/12/1768
Death Date: 1/20/1818
Nathaniel Haraden was born on March 12, 1768 in Gloucester, Massachusetts. His nickname was “Jumping Billy”. He married twice. His father was Jonathan Haraden, a hero of the Massachusetts State Navy in the early years of the American Revolution and later as a successful privateersman.
Nathaniel Haraden was Constitution’s shipkeeper from June 30, 1802 to May 14, 1803. The frigate was in ordinary for the extent of his tenure. Major repairs were done from May to August 1803, including recaulking all the planking, replacing the original copper sheathing, rerigging, and fitting new yards. At this time there was no dry dock in the United States, so all repairs below the waterline were done by careening, or heaving the ship over in each direction to reach the areas normally underwater. Haraden kept an extensive log chronicling the ship’s repairs. Haraden stayed on as sailing master under Commodore Edward Preble. He later commanded Gunboat No. 8 during the frigate’s expedition to the Mediterranean, where Preble assumed command of the Mediterranean fleet during the Barbary War and Battle of Tripoli Harbor. Haraden was commended for gallantry in action at the siege of Tripoli on August 3, 1804.
Haraden returned to the United States after four years overseas and was in charge of the Ordinary at the Washington Navy Yard from 1806 to 1807. In 1807, he was put in charge of Gunboats Nos. 57 and 58 in Norfolk, Virginia, and commissioned as a lieutenant. Later, he returned to the Washington Navy Yard as second officer under Captain Thomas Tingey, and helped rebuild the yard after it was burned down in 1814 following the American defeat at Bladensburg and the British occupation of the capital during the War of 1812. He was promoted to master commandant on April 16, 1816. Haraden died January 20, 1818 in Washington, D.C. The town of Gloucester, Massachusetts erected a monument in his honor in 1932.
Two destroyers (DD-183, 1919 and DD-585, 1943) have born the name “Haraden” in honor of Nathaniel and his father, Jonathan.
