Olde Towne Photos: John Julius Guthrie

Friday, February 12, 2016

John Julius Guthrie

John Julius Guthrie was attached to the USS Saratoga as its executive officer on anti-piracy patrol. On April 21, 1861, as Civil War commenced back at home, Saratoga captured an American slaver, the clipper Nightingale of Boston, off Kabenda Bay, forty miles north of the Congo on the west coast of Africa, and freed 961 slaves, landing them in Liberia. This was the last capture of a slaver by the United States' African Squadron.

John Julius Guthrie The career and fate of the last captain of Robert J. Walker is important to note. John Julius Guthrie (1815-1877) was born in Washington, North Carolina. He received an appointment to West Point but after a year transferred to the U.S. Navy and served aboard USS John Adams before transferring to the USS Columbia in 1838, where he served until 1842. Guthrie was an officer of great character and promise, and in 1842 was promoted to Lieutenant and attached to the Sloop-of-War USS Warren. He then served on the USS Union (1844) the U.S. Schooner On-Ka-Hy-e (1845-1846) and the U.S. Schooner Flirt (1846), with the Home Squadron during the blockade of Veracruz during the Mexican War. Guthrie then joined the crew of USS Brandywine (1847-1850). He also served on USS Saranac (1852-1853), and USS Levant (1855-1858). While on USS Levant in the Far East, Guthrie captured a Chinese flag while fighting ashore when the U.S. briefly intervened in the Second Opium War and sent ships to protect U.S. lives and property. After a brief landing at Canton, which was unopposed and without incident, the retreating U.S. boats were fired upon. In retaliation, Levant, USS San Jacinto and USS Portsmouth attacked and silenced the Chinese forts protecting the entrance of the Pearl River, with landing parties encountering fierce resistance when they took the forts and spiked the guns with a loss of ten dead and 32 wounded and hundreds of Chinese dead. Guthrie's bravery under fire and his capture of the flag attracted favorable attention, especially in his home state of North Carolina. Guthrie's service also included time with the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. as a hydrographer, and with the Coast Survey, when he commanded Walker. Following his time on Walker, in which his 17-year-old son, John J. Guthrie, Jr. was a member of the crew (and survived), John Julius Guthrie was attached to the USS Saratoga as its executive officer on anti-piracy patrol. On April 21, 1861, as Civil War commenced back at home, Saratoga captured an American slaver, the clipper Nightingale of Boston, off Kabenda Bay, forty miles north of the Congo on the west coast of Africa, and freed 961 slaves, landing them in Liberia. This was the last capture of a slaver by the United States' African Squadron. When Saratoga returned home to Brooklyn Navy Yard, the war was underway, and Guthrie resigned his commission in the U.S. Navy on July 6, 1861. On July 13, he was appointed a 1st Lieutenant in the Confederate States Navy. Serving as commander of a floating battery at Island No. 10 on the Mississippi, and then briefly as the second commanding officer of the ironclad CSS Chatahoochee. Chatahoochee was disabled by a boiler explosion during Guthrie's command, and his colleagues later criticized his actions following the accident, when he came on deck and instead of taking command decided instead to bless and administer the final rites to his dead or dying crew. Guthrie went on to a successful career as commanding officer of the government-owned blockade runner Advance, but was not on board when the steamer was captured in 1864. In 1865, back in his native North Carolina at war's end, Guthrie applied for and received a pardon from the U.S. Government. Ten years later, Guthrie returned to public service as the newly appointed Superintendent of the U.S. Life Saving Service's Sixth Life-Saving District to serve stations just being built on the Outer Banks, in 1875. On November 24, 1877, the USS Huron, enroute to the Caribbean, stranded in the surf off Nag's Head and began to batter apart with 132 officers and crew. Hearing of the disaster, Guthrie joined the steamer B & J Baker, attempting to arrive in time to rescue as many as they could from the wreck. On the morning of November 25, they reached the wreck in heavy seas and launched a boat to reach shore and make contact with the survivors. The boat was caught in a heavy swell and capsized, killing Capt. Guthrie and four of the steamer's crew. In all 102 people died, 98 of them Huron's crew. The ocean that had not claimed John Julius Guthrie when Walker sank on June 21, 1860, finally took him seventeen years later.

GUTHRIE, John Julius, naval officer, born in Washington, North Carolina, in 1814; died at sea, near Cape Hatteras, in November, 1877. He became a midshipman in 1834, passed midshipman in 1838, and lieutenant in 1842. He served in the Mexican war and in the attack on the barrier forts in Canton river, China, in November, 1856, where he displayed gallantry. He pulled down the Chinese flag, which he presented to North Carolina as a trophy, and received the thanks of the legislature, in 1861, at the beginning of the civil war, he resigned his commission and entered the Confederate service. He was on active duty in New Orleans, and also commanded the "Advance," running the blockade between Wilmington and the Bermudas. At the close of the war he removed to Portsmouth, Virginia, and in 1865 was the first officer of the regular service who had joined the Confederates to be pardoned by the president. His disabilities were removed by a unanimous vote of congress. He was appointed in 1870 superintendent of the lifesaving stations from Cape Henry to Cape Hatteras, and was drowned while endeavoring to succor the passengers and crew of the United States steamship "Huron" in a storm off Cape Hatteras.