Explosion of the Peacemaker aboard the USS Princeton February 28, 1844: How America was Horrified and the President Barely Escaped Alive
Everyone who was anyone among the social and political elite of Washington D.C. was there on that fateful day in February of 1844. On that day nearly five-hundred ladies and gentlemen attired in gowns and tuxedos with top hats and white gloves to match pulled up to the Washington Naval Yard on the shores of the Potomac River in their luxurious horse drawn carriages. Each of them eagerly awaited the spectacle that had been promised them. All of these well dressed ladies and gentlemen were at the Washington Naval Yard on this overcast, cold and dreary February day at the personal invitation of one man. That man was a prominent American Naval officer and member of one of New Jersey’s most affluent and influential historical families, Captain Robert F. Stockton. Captain Stockton’s reputation was so solid and his family so well known that no one in the nation’s capital could possibly refuse his invitation. The assembled guests attired in their finery walked up the...