He participated in one of the most successful actions of the African Slave Trade Patrol, fought in the American Civil War, twice played a prominent role in the history of the Kingdom of Hawaii, and served as commander of the Pacific and Asiatic Squadrons.

As a child, he was a schoolmate of Lucy Webb, who later would become First Lady of the United States as the wife of President Rutherford B. Hayes,[4] and the two were lifelong friends.

[9] From 1860 to 1862, Skerrett was assigned to the sloop-of-war USS Saratoga off the coast of Africa, and participated in the African Slave Trade Patrol.

Welles threatened him with imprisonment at Fort Mifflin if he did not withdraw his resignation, and Skerrett remained on duty at the navy yard.

He then transferred to the gunboat USS Aroostook in the Western Gulf Squadron, which was enforcing the Union blockade of Confederate ports in Texas.

[23][24][25] During her long Pacific surveying voyage, Portsmouth arrived at Honolulu in the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1874, joining the sloop-of-war USS Tuscarora and the Royal Navy corvette HMS Tenedos there.

Skerrett impressed other ship captains by bringing Portsmouth safely to her mooring without the help of a trained pilot, a feat previously thought impossible in Honolulu Harbor.

After the Hawaiian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Charles Reed Bishop, requested assistance in putting down the riot, 150 Marines from Portsmouth and Tuscarora joined a landing party of 70 men from Tenedos in dispersing the rioters and securing government buildings without bloodshed, and Kalakaua ascended the throne without further violence.

Skerrett then served a second tour at the Washington Navy Yard from 1875 to 1878, was promoted to captain on 5 June 1878, and was a lighthouse inspector in the First District in Maine from 1878 to 1881.

[34] Skerrett returned to sea in 1881 as commanding officer of the flagship of the Asiatic Squadron, the steam sloop-of-war USS Richmond.

He succeeded to command of the Asiatic Squadron in October 1883, and played a conspicuous role in protecting American interests in Indochina during the Sino-French War.

Over the next several weeks, the new Provisional Government of Hawaii, consisting mostly of American residents of the islands, sought annexation by the United States, but shortly after assuming office on 4 March 1893, President Grover Cleveland, who disapproved of the overthrow, dispatched James H. Blount as a special envoy to Hawaii with authority to act on Cleveland's behalf.