USS Macedonian ( 1836 ) The second USS " Macedonian " , was a three - masted , wooden - hulled sailing frigate of the US Navy , carrying 36 guns . Rebuilt from the keel of the first at Gosport ( later Norfolk ) Navy Yard , Portsmouth , Virginia beginning in 1832 , the new " Macedonian " and was launched and placed in service in 1836 , with Capt . Thomas ap Catesby Jones in command . Service history . West Indies Squadron . " Macedonian " was assigned to the West Indies Squadron to cruise in the West Indies and along the west coast of Africa from 1839 to 1847 as a continuing deterrent to Caribbean pirates . By a joint resolution of Congress on 3 March 1847 " Macedonian " and sloop - of - war were placed in civilian hands to carry food to Ireland during the Great Famine of the late 1840s . With a volunteer crew , " Macedonian " , Capt . George C . De Kay in command , departed New York on 15 June with 12 , 000 barrels of provisions for Ireland donated by private citizens of the United States , returning to Brooklyn Navy Yard some months later to resume Navy service . Expedition to Japan . In 1852 " Macedonian " docked at the Brooklyn Navy Yard to be razeed and converted to a sloop - of - war for the expedition to Japan , 1852 to 1854 . Assigned to the East India Squadron under Commodore Matthew Perry , she , Capt . Joel Abbot in command , was one of the six American ships arrayed off Uraga , Japan , on 13 February 1854 during Perry ' s second visit to negotiate the opening of Japan to foreign trade . The Convention of Kanagawa signed at Yokohama on 31 March 1854 was a distinct naval feat in the diplomatic field . Commodore Perry had created such a show of force on his initial visit at Kurihama on 14 July 1853 that the Japanese began their turn to the West . " Macedonian " remained on patrol in the North Pacific for the next three years . Then , from 1857 to 1861 she served with the Home Squadron in the Mediterranean and the Caribbean . Civil War . With the crisis of the American Civil War looming just ahead , the frigate departed Portsmouth , New Hampshire , for Pensacola , Florida , on 12 January 1861 to join in preventing a possible Confederate attack on the harbor . On 11 February " Macedonian " sailed for Veracruz , Mexico , arriving the 24th . She then began patrol operations along the Gulf coast and the coast of South America , with stops at Aspinwall ( later Colón , Panama ) and Portobelo , Panama ; Martinique ; and St . Thomas , U . S . Virgin Islands . On 3 December she got underway with from St . Thomas for the east coast , arriving Boston Navy Yard on 16 January 1862 . " Macedonian " spent most of the next two years with the West Indies Squadron . In July 1863 she cruised along the coast of Portugal with sloop - of - war hunting Confederate States Ship . It was around then that Alfred Thayer Mahan served aboard for a brief time . From the end of that year through 1870 , " Macedonian " served as school and practice ship for midshipmen at the United States Naval Academy , first at Newport , Rhode Island , then after the Civil War at Annapolis , Maryland . In 1871 she was laid up in ordinary at the Norfolk Navy Yard , where she was sold to Wiggin and Robinson for merchant service . Post - Navy . There is no record of " Macedonian " having actually sailed as a merchant ship , and the next reference to the ship , in 1900 , mentions her as having been converted into the Macedonian Hotel at City Island , Bronx . The hotel was sold in 1912 and renamed the City Island Casino , but burned down on 9 June 1922 . The naval origin of the Macedonian Hotel was mentioned in a Ripley ' s Believe It or Not item in 1983 .