On February 28, 1844, during a Potomac River pleasure cruise for dignitaries, one gun exploded, killing six people, including Secretary of State Abel P. Upshur and Secretary of the Navy Thomas Walker Gilmer, and injuring others, including a United States Senator and Captain Stockton.

The disaster on board the Princeton killed more top U.S. government officials in one day than any other tragedy in American history.

[citation needed] The ship was named after Princeton, New Jersey, site of an American victory in the Revolutionary War and hometown of the prominent Stockton family.

Former President John Quincy Adams, now a congressman and skeptical of both territorial expansion and the armaments required to support it, said the Navy welcomed politicians "to fire their souls with patriotic ardor for a naval war".

[citation needed] Captain Stockton wanted his ship to carry two long guns, so he designed and directed the construction of "Peacemaker", another 12 in (300 mm) muzzleloader, by Hogg and DeLamater of New York City.

"Peacemaker" was built with older forging technology, creating a larger gun of more impressive appearance but lower strength.

[12] On February 28, USS Princeton departed Alexandria, Virginia, on a demonstration cruise down the Potomac with Tyler, members of his cabinet, former First Lady Dolley Madison, Senators Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri, Nathaniel P. Tallmadge of New York, William Cabell Rives of Virginia, Samuel S. Phelps of Vermont, Spencer Jarnagin of Tennessee, Edward A. Hannegan of Indiana, and about 400 guests.

Six men were instantly killed: Another 16 to 20 people were injured, including several members of the ship's crew, Senator Benton, and Captain Stockton.

Rather than ascribe responsibility for the explosion to individuals, Tyler wrote to Congress the next day that the disaster "must be set down as one of the casualties which, to a greater or lesser degree, attend upon every service, and which are invariably incident to the temporal affairs of mankind".

[21][f] At Stockton's request, the Committee on Science and Arts of the Franklin Institute conducted its own inquiry, which criticized many details of the manufacturing process, as well as the use of a welded band for reinforcement rather than the shrinking technique used on the Oregon.

[22] Ericsson had a distinguished career in naval design and is best known for his work on USS Monitor, the U.S. Navy's first ironclad warship.

[23] Julia Gardiner, who was below decks on Princeton when her father David died in the Peacemaker explosion, became First Lady of the United States four months later.

"[24] Because he had been widowed less than two years and her father had died so recently, they married in the presence of just a few family members in New York City on June 26, 1844.

In 1888, Julia Gardiner told journalist Nellie Bly that at the moment of the Peacemaker explosion, "I fainted and did not revive until someone was carrying me off the boat, and I struggled so that I almost knocked us both off the gangplank".

This led to the development of new techniques that produced cannons that were stronger and more structurally sound, such as the systems pioneered by Thomas Rodman and John A.

Upon her return from Europe, she was surveyed and found to require $68,000 ($2.49 million in present-day terms) to replace decaying timber and make other repairs.

[32] The "Oregon" gun is on display inside the main gate of the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.

[34] It was later installed on the porch of Princeton University's Thomson Hall,[35] which was constructed as a private residence in 1825 by Robert Stockton's father Richard.