George C . Read George Campbell Read ( January 9 , 1788 – August 22 , 1862 ) was a United States Naval Officer who served on Old Ironsides during the War of 1812 and commanded vessels in actions off the Barbary Coast and India . Read eventually rose to the rank of rear admiral . Early life . George Campbell Read was born in Ireland and emigrated to the United States at an early age . ( Some references give his birthplace as Glastonbury , Connecticut . ) At the age of 16 , Read entered service in the United States Navy as a midshipman on April 2 , 1804 . Military career . Read first joined the crew of the " USS Constitution " ( aka Old Ironsides ) in 1806 under the command of his uncle , Captain Hugh G . Campbell . Early in his service , because of his relationship with the captain , he was suspected of being an informant concerning a fight between two lieutenants : Melancthon Taylor Woolsey and William Burrows . For a long time , Woolsey and the other officers shunned Read who endured the treatment without complaint . When it was eventually learned that it was the captain ' s clerk and not Read who had informed , Woolsey apologized to him and asked why he remained silent about the real informant . Read replied , " That would have been doing the very thing for which you blamed me , Mr . Woolsey : turning informer . " Thereafter , Woolsey referred to this incident as an example of Read ' s great self - restraint and self - respect . On April 25 , 1810 , after six years of service , Read was promoted to Lieutenant , and he served aboard the " USS Constitution " under Commodore Isaac Hull during the War of 1812 . When the " Constitution " defeated the British warship " HMS Guerriere " on August 19 , 1812 , he was detailed by Hull to board the English vessel and accept her surrender . Two months later , on October 25 , Read was serving under Commodore Stephen Decatur aboard the " USS United States " when they defeated the British warship " HMS Macedonian " . As a lieutenant , Read commanded the brig " USS Chippewa " during the Algerian War of 1815 . He was promoted to Commander in 1816 , and served in the Mediterranean and off the coast of Africa . After a promotion to captain in 1825 , he took command of the " USS Constitution " . From 1838 to 1839 Read took part in retaliatory actions against the pirates and raiders who preyed on American shipping in India . he commanded the Second Sumatran Expedition which was undertaken in response to the massacre of the merchant ship " Eclipse " . From 1839 to 1846 , Read commanded the Philadelphia Naval School . As commander there , he served on a Naval board with Commodores Thomas ap Catesby Jones , Matthew C . Perry , and Captains Elie A . F . La Vallette and Isaac Mayo for the examination of midshipmen entitled to promotion . He next commanded the African Squadron from 1846 to 1847 and the Mediterranean Squadron from 1847 to 1849 . When the American Civil War broke out in 1861 , Read was again in charge of the Philadelphia Naval Asylum . Read was promoted to rear admiral in July 1862 . He died one month later , on August 22 , after 58 years of Naval service . He is buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania . His wife , Elizabeth , the daughter of Captain Richard Dale , died on March 1 , 1863 and was buried beside him . USS Commodore Read . The naval patrol ship USS Commodore Read was named in honor of Read . Formerly a ferryboat , it was purchased by the Navy on 19 August 1863 , refitted at New York Navy Yard and commissioned on 8 September 1863 . The ship served with the Potomac Flotilla during the American Civil War until 20 July 1865 .