Jonathan Young

Commodore Jonathan Young (27 November 1826 – 17 May 1885) was an officer in the United States Navy. He participated in anti-piracy actions and the African Slave Trade Patrol, fought in the Mexican War, Puget Sound War, and American Civil War, and served briefly as commander of the Asiatic Squadron.

Naval career Young was born in Ohio, on 27 November 1826. He was appointed as a midshipman from Illinois on 19 October 1841 and served in the Home Squadron from 1841 to 1844, attached first to the paddle steamer and then to the sloop-of-war . While in the Home Squadron, he was part of a boat expedition against pirates at the Isle of Pines south of Cuba in 1842 and participated in the capture of a slave ship carrying 500 African slaves.

From 1845 to 1848, Young was attached to the 74-gun ship-of-the-line , the flagship of Commodore James Biddle, commander of the East India Squadron. During his time aboard Columbus, the ship sailed first to the East Indies and then continued around the world, stopping at Edo, Japan, in July 1846 to forcibly deliver a letter requesting the opening of trade between the United States and Japan from President of the United States James K. Polk to the Emperor of Japan, Kōmei, and receive a reply. Later in the voyage, she operated off California from 1847 to 1848 during the Mexican War before completing her circumnavigation of the globe in 1848. Young was promoted to passed midshipman on 10 August 1847.

Young served aboard the sailing frigate , flagship of Commodore Foxhall A. Parker, Sr., the commander of the Home Squadron, from 1849 to 1850, and then aboard the sloop-of-war in the Pacific Squadron from 1850 to 1852; he again sailed around the world while aboard St. Marys. He then performed duty at the United States Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., during 1853.

Young was at the Portsmouth Navy Yard again from 1879 to 1881, and was promoted to commodore on 19 June 1882.

Death Young died at Crocker House in New London on 17 May 1885 of a recurring fever he had contracted six weeks previously in Washington, D.C., while sitting as a member of the court martial of former Surgeon General of the United States Navy Philip S. Wales. He is buried with his wife and children at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.