Jonathan Thorn (8 January 1779 – 15 June 1811) was a career officer of the United States Navy in the early 19th century. Early life and Naval career Born on 8 January 1779 at Schenectady, New York, during the Revolutionary War, Thorn was the eldest of fifteen children of Samuel Thorn and Helena Van Slyck Thorn. He was appointed a midshipman at age 21 on 28 April 1800. His brother Robert Livingston also served in the U.S. Navy as a surgeon on the frigate during the War of 1812. His other brother, Herman, was purser on the USS Wasp and the USS Peacock. Jonathon Thorn served in the Navy during the Tripolitan War, and volunteered to take part in the hazardous expedition to destroy the captured frigate Philadelphia, which was moored beneath the guns of the defended Tripoli harbor. On 16 February 1804, Lieutenant Stephen Decatur led a party of these volunteers in the ketch Intrepid into Tripoli and burned the American ship so it could not be used by the enemy. Attached to the schooner Enterprise, Thorn was assigned to Gunboat No. 4, under Decatur's command. In this vessel, he participated in the attack on Tripoli with Commodore Edward Preble's squadron on 3 August 1804. Specially commended by Decatur for his conduct in this battle, Thorn received command of one of the Tripolitan gunboats captured. On 7 August, he commanded this vessel and crew in the engagement with the Tripolitan pirates. Brooklyn Navy Yard Thorn was assigned as the first commandant of the New York Navy Yard at age 27 in June 1806, and served there for 13 months. Appointed an acting lieutenant in November 1803, he was promoted to full lieutenant on 16 February 1807. Thorn was youngest officer ever to command a United States Naval Yard. His letters reflect his efforts to build, preserve, and inventory Gun Boats. "A junior officer Thorn's position at the navy yard and his independence of action were hampered by his rank, and a somewhat suspicious and inflexible nature. Thorn's tenure in Brooklyn though was brief; his few surviving letters disclose a young man plagued by doubts, suffering poor physical and possibly mental health. In July 1807 Thorn exhausted requested and was granted a leave of absence. In addition to his health Thorn was probably frustrated by the lack of promotional opportunity. In the peacetime navy promotions were few and Thorn must