View of the Bay and Harbour of New-York, from the Battery – Smith William D, 1800, NYPL Digital Collection
Cornelius Rose was born in New York and shipped when he was 10 years old in 1798. Cornelius joined the US Navy in 1812 and was assigned to the USS Enterprise (1798). Cornelius was on the ship when it engaged the HMS Boxer on September 5th, 1813. Lieutenant William Burrows commanded the USS Enterprise, and the ship had a crew of 102 men and 16 cannons and fourteen 18-pound carronades. Both the HMS Boxer and the USS Enterprise were evenly matched. The USS Enterprise attacked the HMS Boxer off the Coast of Maine, and within a half hour the battle was over and the HMS Boxer surrendered (Shulman). The commander of the HMS Boxer, Captain Samuel Blythe was killed in action, and so was Lieutenant William Burrows (Shulman).
The Enterprise and the Boxer, Sept. 5th, 1813 – Irwin Bevin - The Mariner’s Museum, Bailey Collection
Cornelius would go on to serve on the Frigate USS President (1800) during the last years of the War of 1812, and the Frigate USS Constellation (1797) during the Second Seminal War. The last ship that Cornelius would serve on was Ship Chila. There was a Whaling Ship called the Chila that hailed out of Newburyport,Massachusetts, in the 1840s and is mentioned in the Ship Log of the Pocahontas on pg. 13 (Holmes).
Cornelius was a widower when he entered Sailors Snug Harbor in 1857. He would be tabooed for one month in May of 1869 for fighting with Joseph Rhodes, an inmate of the harbor. Cornelius would remain at the Harbor for 15 years, dying at 85 years old. Cornelius is buried in Snug Harbor Cemetery Plot 2, Row 3, Grave 6; see cemetery map.