Commodore John Thomas Newton (May 20, 1793 – July 28, 1857) was an officer in the United States Navy[1][2] who commanded several ships over a period of decades, undertaking missions in the Caribbean and leading the first crossing of the Atlantic by an American steam-powered warship.

He was court-martialed following a fire that destroyed that vessel, but his suspension from service was remitted by President John Tyler, after which Newton commanded Pensacola Navy Yard and the Home Squadron for periods.

Lieutenant Newton was awarded a presentation sword in 1817 by the city of Alexandria for gallantry during the February 24, 1813 sinking of HMS Peacock by Hornet.

[9] On June 12, Porter ordered Newton to deliver letters to various military governors, as well as the admiral stationed in Jamaica, and also to suppress piracy.

[9] In September of that year, the ship put in at Thompson's Island, where an outbreak of disease was underway, leading to the deaths of a number of members of the crew, though Newton was spared.

Landing at the Isla de Mona in February of that year, Newton found papers and property from the brig William Henry out of Baltimore, which had been captured by pirates.

[13] The following year, Lieutenant-Commandant Newton searched the south coast of Cuba for pirates for three months, following the orders of Commodore Lewis Warrington dated April 30, 1825.

[14] In 1832, USS St. Louis, under Commander Newton, joined the West Indies Squadron and, until 1838, sailed the Caribbean, fighting piracy and the slave trade and protecting American commerce.

[15] Among the crew under Newton's command was future admiral Benjamin F. Sands, who wrote of an August 1833 experience while the ship was docked in New York Harbor: Captain Newton was very polite to the party [of Sands' visiting family members], which particularly gratified me; but when they left to continue their eastern trip and I was starting for Washington, the complimentary letter he gave me was more than gratifying, as I had remembered a number of little tiffs in the course of the cruise... still the merry twinkle in his eyes often told me that there was no angry feeling mixed up with his manner of discharging his official duties, although I was rather a noisy midshipman, and must have annoyed him often.

Once he was compelled to suspend me from duty to preserve a proper discipline and to furnish an example to other midshipmen (as the French say, "pour encourager les autres"—the reason they assigned for the shooting of poor old Admiral Byng by the English for his failure at Port Mahone!

[25] Newton was the commandant of Pensacola Navy Yard in Florida[26] from 1848 to 1852, requesting and receiving a visit from the touring teetotalist reformer Father Mathew to that facility in January 1851.