Hecla I (Brigantine)
I
(Bomb brig: 1941.)
Hecla was purchased at New York in 1846. She commissioned there on 9 March 1847, Lt. Archibald B. Fairfax commanding.
The day after commissioning, Hecla sailed for the Gulf of Mexico to support American actions during the Mexican War. She arrived off the island of Sacrificio, near Vera Cruz, on the morning of 29 March, just in time to see the Mexican city fall to American forces that evening. From Vera Cruz Hecla was dispatched with other ships of the American squadron to patrol the Gulf of Mexico along the Mexican coast, stopping and searching all ships encountered. On 18 April, during this first patrol, she contributed 25 men and 4 officers to a successful amphibious expedition against the Mexican city of Tuxpan. Her first patrol in the Gulf ended on 24 April as she came to anchor off the Bar of Santander. Hecla made three more similar patrols in the summer of 1847, frequently stopping at various Mexican ports and sending men ashore for water and provisions.
On 15 August Hecla shifted upriver to anchor in the harbor of Alvardo, where she served as a harbor patrol vessel until the end of the Mexican War. She was especially vigilant for small canoes attempting to smuggle illegal supplies and ammunition up the river, seizing several.
With the end of the war, Hecla sailed for the United States on 20 July 1848, arriving in Norfolk on 15 August and continuing to New York on 4 September. She decommissioned there 9 September and was sold shortly thereafter.
