Editing Jonathan Thorn

{{Short description|US Navy officer (1779–1811)}}
{{Use American English|date=August 2022}}
{{Infobox military person
| honorific_prefix  = 
| name              = Jonathan Thorn
| honorific_suffix  = 
| image         = 
| image_size    = 
| alt           = 
| caption       = 
| native_name       = 
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| birth_name    = 
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| birth_date    = {{birth date|1779|01|08}}
| birth_place   = [[Schenectady, New York]], U.S.
| death_date    = {{death date and age|1811|06|15|1779|01|08}}
| death_place   = [[Clayoquot Sound]], [[British Canada]]
| placeofburial = unknown
| placeofburial_label = 
| placeofburial_coordinates = <!-- {{Coord|LAT|LONG|display=inline,title}} -->
|allegiance= [[United States of America]]
|branch={{Flag|United States Navy|1795}}
| serviceyears  = 1800–1810
| rank          =[[Lieutenant (navy)|Lieutenant]]
| servicenumber = <!-- Do not use data from primary sources such as service records -->
| unit          = 
| commands      = [[Brooklyn Navy Yard|New York Navy Yard]] (1806–1807)<br>''[[Tonquin (1807)|Tonquin]]''<br>[[Pacific Fur Company]], 1810–1811
| battles       = [[First Barbary War|Tripolitan War]]
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'''Jonathan Thorn''' (8 January 1779 &ndash; 15 June 1811) was a career officer of the [[United States Navy]] in the early 19th century. 

==Early life and Naval career==
Born on 8 January 1779 in [[Schenectady, New York]], during the [[American Revolutionary War|Revolutionary War]], Thorn was the eldest of fifteen children of Samuel Thorn and Helena Van Slyck Thorn.<ref name=trgcdeath>{{cite web |url=http://www.ussjpkennedyjr.org/thorn647/ltthornbk.html |publisher=Friends of the USS J.P. Kennedy, Jr. |last=Thorn |first=Charles E. |title=Heroic life and tragic death of Lt. Jonathan Thorn, United States Navy |agency=(pamphlet)|date=June 1941 }}</ref>

He was appointed a [[midshipman]] at age 21 on 28 April 1800. His brother Robert Livingston also served in the U.S. Navy as a surgeon on the frigate {{USS|Constellation|1797|6}} during the [[War of 1812]]. His other brother, Herman, was a purser on the USS Wasp and the USS Peacock. Jonathon Thorn served in the Navy during the [[First Barbary War|Tripolitan War]] and volunteered to take part in the hazardous expedition to destroy the captured [[frigate]] [[USS Philadelphia (1799)|'' Philadelphia'']], which was moored beneath the guns of the defended [[Tripoli, Libya|Tripoli]] harbor. On 16 February 1804, Lieutenant [[Stephen Decatur]] led a party of these volunteers in the [[ketch]] [[USS Intrepid (1798)|'' Intrepid'']] into Tripoli and burned the American ship so it could not be used by the enemy. 

Attached to the [[schooner]] [[USS Enterprise (1799)|''Enterprise'']], Thorn was assigned to ''Gunboat No. 4'', under Decatur's command. In this vessel, he participated in the attack on Tripoli with [[Commodore (rank)|Commodore]] [[Edward Preble]]'s squadron on 3 August 1804. Specially commended by Decatur for his conduct in this battle, Thorn received command of one of the Tripolitan gunboats captured. On 7 August, he commanded this vessel and crew in the engagement with the Tripolitan pirates.<ref name=trgcdeath/>

==Brooklyn Navy Yard ==

Thorn was assigned as the first commandant of the [[Brooklyn Navy Yard|New York Navy Yard]] at age 27 in June 1806 and served there for 13 months. Appointed an acting lieutenant in November 1803, he was promoted to full [[Lieutenant (navy)|lieutenant]] on 16 February 1807.<ref name=trgcdeath/> Thorn was the youngest officer ever to command a United States Naval Yard. His letters reflect his efforts to build, preserve, and inventory gunboats.  "A junior officer Thorn's position at the navy yard and his independence of action were hampered by his rank and a somewhat suspicious and inflexible nature. Thorn's tenure in Brooklyn though was brief; his few surviving letters disclose a young man plagued by doubts, suffering poor physical and possibly mental health. In July 1807 Thorn exhausted requested and was granted a leave of absence. In addition to his health, Thorn was probably frustrated by the lack of promotional opportunities. In the peacetime navy promotions were few and Thorn must have sensed his tenure in Brooklyn would not improve his prospects..."<ref>Sharp, John G.M. ''A Documentary History of the New York (Brooklyn) Navy Yard 1806-1856'' 2019, http://www.usgwarchives.net/va/portsmouth/shipyard/sharptoc/brooklyn-sharp.html</ref>

==Pacific Fur Company==
In 1810, Thorn was granted a two-year furlough to command the [[Pacific Fur Company]]'s sailing [[Barque|bark]], the ''[[Tonquin (1807)|Tonquin]]'', owned by [[John Jacob Astor]]. The ''Tonquin'' was to sail to the [[Pacific Northwest]] to establish a fur trading post.<ref name="fur">{{cite web |access-date=2007-02-17 |archive-date=2007-04-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070414021241/http://www.thefurtrapper.com/astorians.htm |first=O. Ned |last=Eddins |publisher=TheFurTrapper.com |title=John Jacob Astor – Pacific Fur Company: Astorians – Tonquin – Fort Astoria |url=http://www.thefurtrapper.com/astorians.htm |url-status=dead |work=Mountain Man Plains Indian Canadian Fur Trade}}</ref> The ''Tonquin'' left [[New York City]] on 8 September 1810, sailing around [[Cape Horn]] on [[Christmas]] Day.<ref>{{cite book |author-link=Gabriel Franchère |last=Franchère |first=Gabriel |url=https://archive.org/stream/narrativevoyage00franrich |title=Narrative of a voyage to the Northwest coast of America, in the years 1811, 1812, 1813, and 1814, or, The first American settlement on the Pacific |translator-first=J. V. |translator-last=Huntington |location=New York City |publisher=Redfield |year=1854 |page=31 |via=Internet Archive}}</ref> The crew stopped off in the [[Kingdom of Hawaii]] to gather additional labor and resources, arriving at the [[River mouth|mouth]] of the [[Columbia River]] on 22 March 1811.<ref>Franchère (1854) pp. 55, 84, 84-86.</ref> Two days later and at the cost of eight lives, the ''Tonquin'' crossed the [[Columbia Bar|bar]].<ref>Franchère (1854) pp. 94.</ref>

Thorn and his crew spent 65 days near the mouth of the river, where they built [[Fort Astoria]] on the south side of the river, in present-day [[Astoria, Oregon|Astoria]].<ref name="fur"/> On 5 June, the ship crossed the bar and headed north along the coast to trade for furs.<ref name="fur"/> Thorn anchored off [[Clayoquot Sound]] (now in [[British Columbia]]) around 15 June, having traveled along the west side of [[Vancouver Island]]. He soon tried to trade with the local [[Tla-o-qui-aht]] people. Mutually satisfactory terms could not be settled upon, and Thorn slapped the elder appointed to represent the indigenous interests with a fur in the face.<ref name=Jones>{{cite journal |last=Jones |first=Robert F. |title=The Identity of the Tonquin's Interpreter |journal=[[Oregon Historical Quarterly]] |issue=98 |year=1997 |page=296-314}}</ref> Insulted by this behavior, the natives soon attacked and killed the majority of the crew. The last five men drove off the Tla-o-qui-aht. Later four men escaped from the ship, but three were found ashore and killed. The next day, natives returned to plunder the ship; James Lewis, the last surviving crew member on board, feigned a truce to lure them on the ship, then lit the gunpowder [[Magazine_(artillery)#Naval magazines|magazine]] and blew it up, sacrificing his life to prevent it from being used by the Tla-o-qui-at.<ref name=shtfvsl>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=31dWAAAAIBAJ&pg=7115%2C2904169 |newspaper=Spokesman-Review |location=Spokane, Washington |agency=Associated Press |title=Searchers hope to find 1811 vessel |date=August 21, 1983 |page=B7 |via=Google News}}</ref> The only known crew survivor was [[Joseachal]], an interpreter from the [[Quinault nation]] who had relatives among the Tla-o-qui-at.<ref name=Jones/>

===Leadership===
Thorn's behavior has been sharply criticized by fur traders who had to sail with him. In particular [[Gabriel Franchère]] stated that: <blockquote>He was a strict disciplinarian, of a quick and passionate temper, accustomed to exact obedience, considering nothing but duty, and giving himself no trouble about the murmurs of his crew, taking council of nobody, and following Mr. Astor's instructions to the letter. Such was the man who had been selected to command our ship. His haughty manners, his rough and overbearing disposition, had lost him the affection of most of the crew and all the passengers: he knew it, and in consequence, sought every opportunity to mortify us... <ref>Franchère (1854). p. 48.</ref></blockquote>
[[Alexander Ross (fur trader)|Alexander Ross]] recounted: <blockquote>...for the captain, in his frantic fits of passion, was capable of going any lengths, and would rather have destroyed the expedition, the ship, and everyone on board, than be thwarted in what he considered as ship discipline or his nautical duties.<ref>{{cite book |author-link=Alexander Ross (fur trader) |last=Ross |first=Alexander |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AoEFAAAAQAAJ |title=Adventures of the first settlers on the Oregon or Columbia River |location=London |publisher=Smith, Elder and Co. |year=1849 |page=42 |via=Google Books}}</ref></blockquote>

==Legacy and honors==
Two U.S. Navy [[destroyer]]s have been named [[USS Thorn|USS ''Thorn'']] in his honor.

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

==External links==
*[http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=2688 Biography at the ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online'']
*[http://www.ussjpkennedyjr.org/thorn647/jthorn.html ussjpkennedyjr.org] - Jonathan Thorn 
*[https://www.history.navy.mil/our-collections/photography/numerical-list-of-images/nhhc-series/nh-series/NH-92000/NH-92837-KN.html history.navy.mil: USS ''Thorn'']
*[http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=8673 History Link.org] - ''Tonquin'' sights the mouth of the Columbia River (essay 8673)

{{Authority control}}
{{Pacific Fur Company}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thorn, Jonathan}}
[[Category:1779 births]]
[[Category:1811 deaths]]
[[Category:Military personnel from Schenectady, New York]]
[[Category:United States Navy officers]]
[[Category:American military personnel of the First Barbary War]]
[[Category:American people murdered abroad]] 
[[Category:People murdered in British Columbia]]
[[Category:People murdered in 1811]]
[[Category:19th-century murders in Canada]]