The ship was launched on 1 October 1814 and was commissioned at Portsmouth on 26 August 1815, Captain John Orde Creighton in command.

David Porter, Col. Franklin Wharton, the Commandant of the Marine Corps, and President and Mrs. James Madison.

The Chief Executive and his lady came on board "at half past meridian, to visit the ship, on which occasion yards were manned and they were saluted with 19 guns and three cheers."

Washington made port at Naples on 25 July, and Pickney debarked to commence his special mission—to adjust the claims of American merchants against the Neapolitan authorities.

The next day, the Vice President of the United States, Daniel D. Tompkins, visited the ship; and the warship blocked her colors at half-mast on the 8th, in honor of the interment of the remains of General Richard Montgomery, who had been killed leading the Continental assault against Quebec in 1775.