The Frigate Constitution

DURING the past twenty-five years there have been centennial celebrations of many battles, and of other events connected with the foundation of the republic ; but none has greater significance for us as a nation capable of defending our rights and of resisting pressure from without, than the centenary of the launching of the Constitution in Boston on October 21, 1797. She marks the beginning of our navy. Two other ships were launched a few days earlier than she, but neither has won such a place in our affections or in our history.

Up to 1798, the navy, which had no ships, was supposed to be a branch of the War Department, and on May 21 of that year the first Secretary of the Navy was appointed, in accordance with a recent law of Congress establishing a separate department. As the Constitution went into commission about that time, the naval service may be said to have come into existence with her. Her exploits have been the chief addition to its fame. During the earlier years of the frigate our foreign relations became more and more unsatisfactory, and some of our ablest statesmen were abroad, unsuccessfully endeavoring to make treaties acceptable to the nation’s self-respect. We were paying tribute in the shape of men to England, of ships and their cargoes to France, and of money to the Barbary powers. While France and England were at war, each strove to outdo the other in its restrictions upon our commerce. The system of impressment begun by England could not be endured by an independent nation, but France would have followed even in that imposition, had it not been impossible to prove an American sailor to be a Frenchman. As it was, her minister to the United States attempted to ride roughshod over our laws, and our ministers to France were insulted and browbeaten. The treatment accorded to one of our ships which grounded on the French coast, and was stripped of her cargo by direction of the government, was enough to make us forget the friendship of France during the Revolutionary War. It was such a world as this into which the Constitution was born. The child of our country in its weakness and poverty, she has survived to a destiny unrivaled in all the annals of naval warfare. She has accomplished without a single failure every task assigned to her, and in a long life has never brought discredit to an officer or a man serving on board of her. Most of our great commanders in the first half of the century began or found their careers upon her decks. Preble, Rodgers, Hull, Decatur, Bainbridge, and Stewart in turn commanded her during the first twenty years of her existence. It was a happy coincidence that she received the name of the great bulwark of our republic.

The frigate was authorized by act of Congress on March 27, 1794, together with five other frigates, to be used against the Barbary States in the protection of our merchant shipping, and in the deliverance of American captives held for ransom ; but in consequence of a treaty purchased by the payment of tribute to the dey of Algiers, the work on these ships was stopped. After some consideration of the subject, Congress directed the completion of the three most advanced, one of them being the Constitution. By this delay the timbers were allowed two years for seasoning, and became so hard as to earn for her, fifteen years later, the name “ Old Ironsides.” Her completion was hurried forward by the expected war with France. The two main arguments for the new navy were, therefore, the suppression of piracy and the maintenance of our rights as neutrals. The impressment of seamen on the high seas did not become a burning question until later.

The design and model of the Constitution were made by Joshua Humphreys, of Philadelphia, and sent to Boston for use in the construction of the ship. The materials were carefully selected wherever they could be found, and all the best features of the English and French ships were adopted, without regard to expense, Her builder, Colonel George Claghorn, kept her fully three years in the shipyard near what is now Constitution Wharf in Boston, from the time of laying the keel to the final equipment. It is interesting to note that Paul Revere supplied all the copper fastenings. The first day set for the launch was September 20, and the President, John Adams, and the governor of the State were present to see her off; but the settling of the ways under the moving load checked her twenty-seven feet from the start. It was not deemed prudent to use rams or tackles on her, and the builder spent one month shoring up the ways. She finally slid into the water on October 21, 1797. The United States had been launched on July 10 of the same year, at Philadelphia, and the Constellation on September 7, at Baltimore. Admiral Preble in his History of the Flag says, however, that “ the Constitution was the first of the new frigates to carry the fifteen stars and fifteen stripes upon the deep blue sea.” This flag was hoisted just before the launch by a workman named Samuel Bentley. Captain Nicholson, the inspecting officer, had reserved that honor for himself; but Bentley, with the assistance of a man named Harris, took advantage of his absence at breakfast to work off an old grudge by quietly running up the flag.

The ship cost, ready for sea, about three hundred thousand dollars. She was one hundred and seventy-five feet long, forty-three and a half feet in beam, and fourteen and a half feet deep, with a tonnage of 1576 by measurement. Her power and classification were distinctly below those of a line-of-battle ship, but she had greater speed under sail, and was thus better fitted to escape from a too powerful antagonist. In relation to modern navies, the armored cruiser New York probably comes nearest to a similar position among the ships of her time. She had less than one half the length of the New York, only two thirds the beam, and about three fourths the draught, — making her not far from one of our gunboats in size. It is said that many of her first guns were purchased in England. She was called a forty-four gun frigate in accordance with the common practice of that day, though the batteries actually consisted of thirty long 24-pounders on the main deck, and twenty-two 32-pound carronades on the spardeck. Two 24-pounders were at times carried on the forecastle as bow-chasers. These guns were heavier than those usually carried on frigates of her own class in foreign navies, and she had only one gun-deck instead of two. In connection with the interminable controversy which subsequently arose over the superiority of the Constitution and her class to the English frigates captured during the war of 1812, it is well to remember that Mr. Humphreys intended his three larger frigates to be a little better in every respect than English or French ships of the same rating. He aimed at advantages similar to those we are now seeking in our new battle-ships and cruisers ; better guns, greater speed, and greater cruising capacity. His reasons, stated in a letter to Robert Morris, still apply. He says : “ The situation of our coast and depth of water in our harbors are different in some degree from those of Europe, and as our navy must be for a considerable time inferior in the number of vessels to theirs, we are to consider what size ships will be most formidable, and be an overmatch for those of an enemy. If we build our ships of the same size as the Europeans, they having so great a number of them, we shall always be behind them. I would build them of a larger size than theirs, and take the lead of them, which is the only safe method of commencing a navy.”

Herein lies the secret of our success. It belongs as much to our fame as does the splendid discipline of our men. The humane principle in war is never to fight on equal terms ; otherwise two armies or two ships will be exterminated instead of one. There are always causes behind the results in war, and valuable lessons to be learned. The Constitution received only the reward given to those who have the foresight to provide a better ship, better guns, and a better crew than their opponents. Her victories cannot be explained as accidents. In the fight with the Guerriere she fired a broadside weighing 684 against the Guerriere’s 556 pounds. Two guns were removed before the engagement with the Java, and her broadside was 654 against 576 pounds. Her crew was larger in both instances.

The first duty of the Constitution, as was anticipated, proved to be in the war of reprisal against the French, whose depredations on our commerce had become unendurable. Overrating their influence in America, they had begun by seizing English ships in our waters, and had ended by capturing our own ships as well, — so determined were they to force us into an alliance. Our government had no alternative but a return in kind, and in August, 1798, Captain Nicholson, sailed from Newport with the Constitution and four revenue cutters for a cruise along the coast south of Cape Henry, to pick up French cruisers, privateers, and merchantmen. Towards the end of the year she was assigned to a squadron in the West Indies, where she remained until near the close of the war with France, serving part of the time as Captain Talbot’s flag-ship. Her career during this period does not present much that is exciting, as she captured only a few insignificant prizes. The Constellation had the fortune to be the only frigate which saw really serious service against ships of her own class.

Two events, however, were full of promise for the future. The first was a friendly race with an English frigate. The two ships happened to meet at sea not far from San Domingo, and the English captain went on board the Constitution to see Captain Talbot. He looked over the ship and expressed great admiration for her, but declared that his own ship could outsail her on the wind. As he had come out by way of the Madeiras, he offered to bet a cask of wine against an equivalent in money on the result, if Captain Talbot would meet him thereabouts some weeks later. He was going into port to clean bottom and refit. The agreement was made. When the Englishman came out and closed with the Constitution, the two captains dined together, and arranged all the conditions of the next day’s race. They kept near each other during the night, and at dawn made sail upon the firing of a gun. All day long the race continued in short tacks to windward. Isaac Hull sailed the American frigate, watching for every possible opportunity and advantage. His skill in handling the ship under sail gained him a lasting reputation. The men were kept on deck all day, moving from side to side to bring the ship to an even keel on the different tacks. As Cooper says, “ the manner in which the Constitution eat her competitor out of the wind was not the least striking feature of the trial.” When the gun was fired at sunset, the Englishman was hull down to leeward. The Constitution, accordingly, squared away before the wind, and joined him just after dark. A boat was waiting, and the English captain came on board like a true sportsman, with his cask of Madeira. It is a pleasant picture to see the two captains meeting over a social glass of wine in celebration of the event; especially since English ships did not at all mind impressing an occasional American as a recruit.

The next and not very creditable exploit of the Constitution was unfortunate in its ultimate effects. In May, 1800, a party of sailors and marines, under the leadership of Hull, was sent into a Spanish port to cut out a French letter of marque, Sandwich. The party numbered about ninety, all of whom, with the exception of six or seven, were hidden in the hold of the sloop Sally, armed for the purpose by the Constitution. They ran alongside the Sandwich in broad daylight, and in two minutes had captured her. The marines were sent on shore to spike the guns of the Spanish fort, while sails were bent and she was made ready to leave the harbor. Although this part of the undertaking consumed several hours, she escaped without the loss of a single man. No expedition was ever better planned and carried out, but in the end it cost the crew dear ; for they lost all their prize-money in paying damages for the illegal capture in a neutral port; besides, the Sandwich was returned to her original owners.

From March, 1801, to May, 1803, the Constitution lay at Boston, dismantled, but in September of the latter year we find her in Gibraltar, on the way to Tripoli, as Commodore Preble’s flag-ship. The war with Tripoli would make a long story, and since it was principally carried on with the smaller ships, only an outline will be given here ; but the courage and daring of the American sailors stand out in two or three incidents which cannot be passed over in silence. The details of every expedition were planned on the Constitution, and the young commanding officers who came over her side to see Preble (“ boys ” he called them) must have gathered courage and inspiration from the great commander. The flag-ship was too large for effective service against fortifications protected by shoals and uncertain winds, and the blockade was conducted by small ships from America and gunboats procured in Messina from the Sicilian government. From time to time Tripolitan ketches were captured, and fitted out to aid in the service.

Just before Preble’s arrival off Tripoli, while in chase of a small vessel at the mouth of the harbor, the Philadelphia had run on the rocks ; and as she could not be got off, Captain Bainbridge and his whole crew surrendered. They were prisoners in the castle during the two years of the war, and were in as much danger from their countrymen’s guns as was the Turk. The Philadelphia had been floated off and brought into the harbor, where she was being fitted up. All the guns were in place and ready for use, when Captain Bainbridge managed in some way to communicate with Preble, giving information about her, and suggesting that she be destroyed, as she was undoubtedly intended for service against her old flag. The subject was broached to Lieutenant Stephen Decatur, who at once volunteered to go in with his own ship, the Enterprise, and capture her by boarding. The plan was so far modified by Commodore Preble as to substitute for the Enterprise, in this hazardous service, a Tripolitan ketch that Decatur had captured a few days before. The ketch, rechristened the Intrepid, and fitted out specially for the undertaking, was manned by volunteers from Decatur’s ship, with some additions from the Constitution. In this wretched boat, rigged for sixteen oars, and hardly larger than a fair-sized sailing yacht, seventy-four men left the fleet, accompanied by the brig Siren under Lieutenant Commandant Stewart, and headed for a passage through the rocks to the inner harbor.

She arrived in sight of the town in the afternoon, and anchored off the entrance at nightfall; but a sudden and violent gale swept her to the eastward, and both she and the Siren had to ride out at sea the terrific storm that lasted six days and nights. At times it was feared that the Intrepid could not last through it; but the seventh day found both vessels near the harbor, once more in favorable weather. The Siren, well disguised, did not approach within sight of the coast during daylight, but the Intrepid sailed calmly for the port as if on an ordinary trading voyage. Decatur had made all his arrangements to burn the Philadelphia, and then to escape by towing or rowing the Intrepid out of the harbor under cover of the darkness. Every man had his allotted station and task, and as soon as the frigate was taken each was to rush with combustibles to a specified place. The greater part of the crew lay hidden behind the bulwarks, as the ketch drifted slowly down in the half-darkness of a new moon to the anchorage.

It is well to stop a moment to consider what one mistake would have cost them. The Philadelphia had a full crew, all her guns were loaded, and she was surrounded by Tripolitan gunboats. Not one of the Americans could have escaped if the slightest suspicion had been aroused before boarding ; yet they went boldly on to within a few feet of the Philadelphia, and saying that the ketch was a Maltese trader that had lost her anchors in the storm, they asked for a line, and begged permission to tie up astern overnight. She lay only forty yards from the port battery, and in the range of every gun. While Decatur coolly sent a boat to make fast to the forechains of the Philadelphia, some of the latter’s crew came out with a line from the stern, and assisted them in making fast there also. A few minutes of cautious pulling on the bow-line, then a wild cry of “ Americanos ! ” from the Turks who were looking over the bulwarks, and the Americans were springing up the side in a scramble to see who could be first on the frigate’s deck. In a mad panic the crew were either cut down or driven into the sea. Everything worked exactly as Decatur had planned it, and within twenty minutes the ship was ablaze. His men were fairly driven back into their boat by the flames.

The return was even more perilous than the entrance, as all the forts and gunboats had taken the alarm. Their shots were falling around the Intrepid and dashing the spray into the faces of her men, as she swept down the harbor under sixteen long oars. The flames of the Philadelphia, with the roaring of her guns as they went off one by one in the intense heat, the blinding flashes of the Turkish guns, and the uproar in the town made the night one never to be forgotten ; a fit ending to what Nelson pronounced “ the most bold and daring act of the age.” Decatur rejoined Stewart, who was waiting for him outside, and the two set sail for Syracuse.

Nine months later, the little Intrepid left a lasting and melancholy memory in our service by her mysterious and fatal ending. She was fitted as a floating mine, to be carried into the midst of the dey’s flotilla, and then blown up. One hundred barrels of powder and one hundred and fifty shells were placed in her, with a train leading to a convenient spot near the stern. Captain Richard Somers and Lieutenant Henry Wadsworth, with a few volunteers, went in her. They had two small boats in tow for the escape after lighting the fuse. As it was part of their plan not to permit themselves or the ship to be taken by the enemy, who were greatly in need of powder, Somers’s idea is said to have been to blow her up in case they were boarded before reaching the proposed position. The night was very dark when they put out from the Nautilus and disappeared within the harbor. Three gunboats were hanging about the entrance at the time. To those waiting to pick up the returning party the suspense was intense, although it lasted only a few minutes. The Turks had taken alarm at something, and were firing in every direction. Suddenly the Intrepid’s mast and sail were seen to lift within a sheet of flame, and a frightful concussion shook even the ships of the American fleet outside. The crew of the Nautilus waited in vain for the return of their comrades, but none of them came back. So far as was ever known the Intrepid did no damage, and the cause of the explosion is a mystery to this day.

Amid such scenes as these, varied with hand-to-hand conflicts in the harbor, the Constitution passed two years. In one attack, Decatur fought single - handed with a giant Turk, whom he finally killed by reaching around his body and firing a shot into his back. The ball passed through him, and lodged in Decatur’s clothing. It was during this struggle that Decatur’s life was saved by a young sailor, who lost his arm by interposing it between his captain and the sword of an assailant. No story has been oftener told to American children.

The incessant activity of Preble seems remarkable when we consider the character of the service, so far from home, and at all times distant from the base of supplies. He traveled thousands of miles in his voyages between Syracuse and Tripoli, with an occasional visit to Tunis for the purpose of overawing the bey, who was not to be trusted. The Constitution bombarded the fortifications three times, and on one occasion, while supporting a general attack on the fleet in the harbor, silenced all the Tripolitan guns. The dey was finally forced into signing a treaty of peace, giving American ships entire freedom of commerce in the Mediterranean ; but Preble did not stay to see the end. He was relieved of his command by Commodore Barron, who, on account of sickness, was soon succeeded by Captain Rodgers. The treaty was drawn up in the cabin of the Constitution, under Rodgers’s directions. By a demonstration of the whole fleet before Tunis, the bey likewise was frightened into making a treaty.

The importance of this war was twofold : it gave our merchant - ships comparative safety in the Mediterranean, and it formed the nursery in which our naval officers were trained for the more difficult tasks before them. Nearly all the great names of the next war appear in connection with Tripoli. Whatever may be said of England’s greatness on the sea at this time, it was America, the new nation of the West, which freed Christendom of its scourge in North Africa.

The Constitution reached New York in the latter part of 1807, and was kept on the home coast until the summer of 1811, in expectation of trouble with England. She made a voyage to Cherbourg, however, to carry over the United States envoy to France, and returned to Washington in the spring of 1812, after having touched at ports in Holland and England. The crew was discharged, and the ship placed for overhauling in the hands of Nathaniel Haraden, her old sailing-master under Preble. Her captain complained that she had fallen off in sailing qualities, and requested that she be hove out for repairing the copper. Mr. Haraden, who knew her thoroughly, at anchor and at sea, not only patched up the copper, but also completely restowed her ballast, leaving about one third of it on shore. The result was magical, and no doubt contributed to her escape from an entire squadron soon after. She dropped down the Potomac in June, with only half her crew and several of the old officers, and, when news of the war came, went to Annapolis to complete her equipment. On July 5 she sailed with a green crew, some of whom had never been to sea, and many of whom had not even been stationed at the guns and sails.

Captain Hull’s marvelous power of organization is exhibited in the adventure which befell him twelve days later. We may call this the first of the great international races outside of New York harbor, with the Constitution as prize. It has become memorable in the navy for the use of the liedge-anchor in the shallow water off the Jersey coast. To this day, if one asks an American tar how Hull escaped from the British in 1812, he will reply, " He kedged.”

At two o’clock on the afternoon of July 17, when about forty miles east of Cape May, heading for New York, four sails were discovered to the north. Hull immediately tacked to the northeast, and the squadron, which consisted of the Shannon, the Belvidera, the Africa, and the Æolus, under Commodore Broke of the British navy, gave chase. At four o’clock a fifth sail was made out to windward, bearing northeast in a favorable position to close with the Constitution. This ship was the Guerriere. Fortunately the wind shifted at sunset, which placed the Constitution to windward ; but for forty-eight hours there was either a calm or hardly more than enough wind to give steerageway. Hull employed every expedient known to the seaman to get away, except that of throwing his provisions, guns, and boats overboard. He lost nothing but two thousand gallons of water pumped out to lighten the hull. During the calm, both the English and the Americans resorted to towing by means of boats; but as the former had five frigates to draw upon for men, it was only a question of time how the struggle would end. One of the ships drew up uncomfortably close, when Hull and his first lieutenant suddenly conceived the idea of fastening all their spare ropes and cables together and paying them out to an anchor carried half a mile ahead. By pulling on the ropes the American walked mysteriously away from the Englishman, who never afterwards got near enough to throw a shot into the Constitution. The sails were trimmed to take advantage of every catspaw of wind. The men were shifted from one side of the deck to the other, to favor her sailing, and not a man slept in his bunk for nearly three days. All guns were loaded, ready for action, several having been placed to give a fire directly astern. The Shannon, the Belvidera, and the Guerriere opened fire at long range, as fortune of wind and sea brought one or the other within firing distance, but no shot took effect. At one time, during a puff of wind, Captain Hull expected to be overtaken by the Belvidera, so close had she come on the quarter, and he prepared to cripple her, if possible, before her consorts could come up ; but it was not to be.

The chase really ended on the evening of the third day, when a heavy rainsquall came up from the south. Hull saw it, and, with the men in readiness, let everything go by the run at the instant it struck. As soon as his ship was obscured by the rain, he quickly shortened sail, and went off on the starboard tack at eleven knots. The English, some miles to leeward, deceived by the apparent confusion on the American ship, let go their sails before the wind struck them, and went off more to leeward on different tacks. One hour later, when the squall had passed, the Constitution was hull down, and too far away for any possibility of capture. The chase was abandoned next morning, when daylight found the American almost out of sight. Nothing in the annals of our navy has ever exhibited more perfect seamanship, ready resource, and constant cheerfulness than this chase, in which our ship was pitted against a whole fleet under some of the best English captains.

Her next cruise was the shortest and most fateful in her long life of one hundred years, and the whole country was soon to resound with her exploits. Our people were thoroughly discouraged over the outlook on land. The war with England was unpopular, and nowhere more so than in New England, the chief sufferer from the embargo. Yankee ports were filled with Yankee ships complaining bitterly that their trade had been destroyed. Incompetence reigned in the army, and the campaign against Canada had proved a miserable failure. Yet here was a ship going out alone to battle with the greatest navy of the world, at a time when England had reached the very summit of her power on the sea. A large squadron was off the coast, as Hull well knew. It had been thought advisable in Washington to have all naval vessels safely anchored in port and dismantled, in order to prevent the English blockading fleet from getting them. Fortunately, Captains Bainbridge and Stewart, both of whom afterwards commanded the Constitution in successful actions against the British, were able to dissuade the department from this foolish step. Orders were sent, however, to keep the Constitution in Boston ; but Hull had already sailed, in anticipation of some such outcome of the controversy. It is said he feared that the blockade might shut him in, or that he might be relieved by Captain Bainbridge, his senior in command ; at any rate, he got away on August 2, 1812, just before the orders reached Boston. He stood to eastward around Nova Scotia to the mouth of the St. Lawrence River, and then to the south and east, but made no important capture.

On the morning of the 18th Captain Hull learned from a Salem privateer that a large British frigate had been sighted the day before to the south. The Constitution was accordingly headed in that direction, and at two o’clock on the afternoon of the 19th a strange sail was made out to the east by south, — too far away, however, for any clear indication of her character and nationality. The Constitution was at this time about seven hundred miles due east of Boston, with ample room for the interview which Captain Dacres of the Guerriere — as the ship turned out to be — had desired for months. He had been so eager as to indorse on the register of the ship John Adams, from Liverpool, a letter to the commander of the American squadron, expressing a wish to meet a United States frigate of the same force as the President outside of Sandy Hook “ for a tête-à-tête.” In Isaac Hull, the man who would rather fight than eat, he found everything that was lively and hearty. Many generations of American boys have gloried over the fight between the Constitution and the Guerriere, and Cooper has drawn a vivid picture of the scene.

Hull ran down before the wind to take a look at the stranger, and found him with his main topsail aback, waiting for the Constitution to come up. Both ships cleared for action, and when the Constitution was still far astern the Guerriere began firing at long range. Only two or three shots were fired in return, and then the American bore down upon the Englishman in silence. Nothing shows more forcibly the perfect discipline of the ship than this hour of waiting, with men standing at quarters and their comrades falling around them. Even Mr. Morris, the first lieutenant, found it hard to restrain his impatience, and he asked to be allowed to fire. Not till the ships were fairly abreast and within pistol-shot of each other was the word finally given. The effect was almost instantaneous as a whole broadside struck the Guerriere, followed quickly by a second staggering blow. Her mizzenmast went overboard, and the Constitution was able to pass around the Guerriere’s bow, where she delivered a raking fire which cut away the foremast and much of the rigging. In wearing to return across her bow, the Guerriere’s starboard how fouled the port quarter of the Constitution. It was while in this position that both sides tried to board, and Lieutenant Bush of the marine corps was killed, and Lieutenant Morris was dangerously wounded. Two guns in the bow of the Guerriere were fired point-blank into the cabin of the Constitution and set fire to the ship. The danger was grave, but the wind and sea swept them clear, and Lieutenant Hoffman put out the fire. As the ships separated, the Guerriere’s foremast and mainmast went by the board, leaving her a helpless hulk in the trough of the sea. Captain Dacres’s interview was over, having lasted, from the first broadside of the Constitution, just thirty minutes. He was wounded, seventy-nine of his men out of a crew of two hundred and seventy-two were killed and wounded, and not a stick was left standing on his deck. There was no need to haul down the flag; it was gone with the rigging, and Captain Dacres surrendered perforce. The Constitution had lost fourteen men and had sustained comparatively small injury. Within a few hours she was ready for another fight. The Guerriere was so cut to pieces that she could not be taken into port, and Hull burned her. The last act, after removing the prisoners and wounded, gives one a glimpse of the Christianity and chivalry of these two captains who spoke the same tongue and in whose veins flowed the same blood. Captain Hull asked Captain Dacres if there was anything he would like to save from his ship. He said yes, his mother’s Bible, which he had carried with him for years. An officer was sent to get it. Thus began a friendship between these enemies which lasted till Hull’s death in 1843.

Many stories are told of this fight, which was one of the most dramatic in history, both in its action and in its immediate effects upon the country. In the Guerriere’s crew there were ten Americans, who, to the honor and credit of the English, were sent below. One of them, a merchant-ship captain, was standing near Captain Dacres while the Constitution was approaching. The Guerriere was pouring out shot after shot, and broadside after broadside, as the other came like death upon an unsuspecting victim. The silence was appalling, and Captain Dacres asked the American what it could mean. “ Do you think she will strike without firing a shot ? ” As the story goes, the American answered, “ No ; and if you will permit me, sir, I will join the doctor in the cockpit, where I can be of use in taking care of the wounded.” The English captain’s reply, “ Go, if you wish, but there are not likely to be many wounded,” found speedy contradiction. Within a few minutes after the American reached the cockpit, and while he was waiting in agonizing suspense, a terrific roar sounded above the English guns, and the Guerriere staggered under blow after blow. In a few minutes all was silence, and the American, passing a line of wounded, stuck his head up through the hatch to find the Guerriere a hopeless wreck. Tradition has it that in this fight the Constitution obtained her sobriquet “ Old Ironsides.” When struck by a shot from the Guerriere, the outside planking did not yield, and the shot fell into the sea. One of the seamen shouted, " Huzza ! her sides are made of iron!” It is also said that Hull, who was a short, fat man, stooped down to give his first order to fire, and split his breeches from keel to truck.

Upon Captain Hull’s arrival in Boston, the news of his victory was received with exultation. It had followed close upon the surrender of Detroit, and was like a bright gleam in the darkness. Our people could now feel that the navy, though small, was not impotent against the greatest sea power of the world, and, ship for ship, we had nothing to fear. Standing by itself, the destruction of the Guerriere amounted to nothing. It was the moral effect which gave it great and lasting importance. The surprise and gloom produced in England by the disaster were equaled only by the inability to explain it. In one English newspaper we find this conclusion : “ From it the inference may be drawn that a contest with the Americans is more worthy of our arms than was at first sight imagined.” The London Times said: “ It is not merely that an English frigate has been taken, after what we are free to confess may be called a brave resistance, but that it has been taken by a new enemy,— an enemy unaccustomed to such triumphs, and likely to be rendered confident by them. He must be a weak politician who does not see how important the first triumph is in giving a tone and character to the war.”

A dinner, in which men of all political parties united, was given to Hull and his officers at Faneuil Hall on September 5. They marched in procession with a great number of prominent citizens up State Street, in the middle of the afternoon, and sat down to what the Palladium called an “ excellent dinner,” which must have been interminable, for seventeen toasts were drunk. From these the following are selected as an evidence of the effect of the victory upon “ all political parties: ” —

“ The American Nation — May danger from abroad insure union at home.”

“Our Infant Navy — We must nurture the young Hercules in his cradle, if we mean to profit by the labors of his manhood.”

“ The Victory we Celebrate — An invaluable proof that we are able to defend our rights on the ocean.”

“No Entangling Alliance — We have suffered the injuries and insults of despotism with patience, but its friendship is more than we can bear.”

The next action in which Old Ironsides engaged followed in less than five months, with a ship practically her equal. The command had been turned over to Captain Bainbridge, who sailed, in company with the Hornet, for the West Indies on October 26. At San Salvador they fell in with an English ship, which they challenged to come out and fight the Hornet. She agreed at first, but delayed so long that Captain Bainbridge finally left the Hornet waiting outside of the harbor, and sailed to the southeast along the coast of Brazil. On December 29, about thirty miles off the coast, two sails were sighted: one a small vessel standing in towards the land, and the other a larger ship, which had headed up, apparently to examine the new arrival. Satisfied that the larger ship was a British frigate, Captain Bainbridge headed offshore to get more sea-room. The fight between the Constitution and the Java then began, with the latter in chase, — just the reverse of the action with the Guerriere. The firing opened with broadsides from both ships, the Java being on the port quarter of the Constitution and about a mile to windward. As the English frigate was the faster sailer in the light wind which prevailed, she constantly overreached the Constitution, so that there was much manœuvring to avoid being raked. The battle lasted a little over two hours, and both sides displayed splendid seamanship, but the end found the Java dismasted and helpless. As usual, the American gunnery had been vastly superior to that of the English, although the Constitution’s rigging was so badly cut up that she returned to the United States for repairs. Captain Bainbridge did not consider it practicable to get the Java home, and he accordingly burned her. Lieutenant Hoffman, who set fire to her, had performed the like duty for the Guerriere. After a few days near San Salvador with the Hornet, whose intended victim had not yet come out, the Constitution laid her course for Boston, which she reached February 27, 1813, bearing the news of her own victory. She and her crew were received with the wildest enthusiasm, and the town turned out to do honor to the victors. What was better than all to Jack Tar, he received his prize-money for two ships captured within four and a half months.

After extensive repairs, under the direction of Captain Charles Stewart, who went in command of her, Old Ironsides got to sea again on January 1, 1814, for a cruise towards the Barbadoes. She captured a few small prizes and attempted to overhaul a British frigate, and was herself chased into the harbor of Marblehead on April 3 by two frigates on the blockade of the New England coast. Captain Stewart had to throw overboard a quantity of old rigging, provisions, and other heavy articles, to escape. He moved down to Boston shortly afterwards, where the ship remained until December.

Her last cruise during the war began on December 17, 1814, with a long reach to the Bay of Biscay by way of the Bermudas and the Madeiras. The morning of February 20, 1815, off the coast of Morocco, opened with a light mist over the sea and a variable wind. At one o’clock in the afternoon a sail hove in sight, followed within an hour by a second. They proved to be the British ships Cyane and Levant, carrying in all fiftyfive guns, firing a broadside weighing 754 pounds against the Constitution’s 654. The Constitution made all sail to overhaul them, and opened fire on the Cyane, the sternmost ship, at four minutes past six. By fine manœuvring and rapid handling of guns she played havoc with both English ships without permitting herself to be raked. At one time, when she had forged ahead enough to fire into the Levant, the Cyane attempted to pass astern of her to rake; but Captain Stewart braced the yards flat to the masts and literally backed through the smoke to a position alongside of the Cyane, into which he poured a withering fire. The Cyane surrendered at ten minutes to seven, and left the Constitution free to pursue the Levant. The prisoners were first removed and damages were repaired, so that it was two hours before the action began again. The Levant surrendered at ten o’clock. This whole action, covering about four hours, was fought by moonlight, and exhibits the wonderful agility of the Constitution under sail. Captain Stewart’s seamanship enabled him to manage two ships without suffering materially himself. The smoke from the guns obscured much of the movement. The British ships lost seventy-seven in killed and wounded, and the Constitution fourteen.

The next day Captain Stewart made sail for Port Praya, Cape Verde Islands, the nearest neutral port, where he arrived with his two prizes seventeen days later. The discipline and readiness of the American sailors are again well demonstrated by an occurrence on the very day after anchoring, when three frigates appeared in the offing. Not knowing what they were, and feeling sure that English ships would not respect the neutrality of the port, Captain Stewart made sail to get out of the harbor before the strangers came in. Within seven minutes after the first alarm his ships were all under weigh, standing out to sea. Thus began another of those lucky escapes for which the Constitution had become as famous as for her victories. She and her two prizes hugged the north shore of the island close hauled on the port tack, with the English squadron following and almost within gunshot. In fact, they tried firing at long range. While the Constitution easily held her own to windward, her antagonists weathered the Cyane and Levant. Hoping to divide their forces, Captain Stewart signaled to the Cyane to tack to the northwest, which she did, and in this way escaped. She reached New York without further incident. The same manœuvre was tried with the Levant, but the whole English squadron immediately turned in pursuit, and left the Constitution to sail away. She landed her prisoners at Maranham and sailed for Porto Rico, where the news of peace reached her. Her last cruise during the war ended at New York on May 17, 1815.

In the meantime, the Levant, finding escape impossible, had put into her anchorage at Port Praya, and was there retaken by the British ships, whose officers learned to their chagrin that it was the Constitution which had been thus deserted in order to retake an English prize.

The subsequent career of Old Ironsides is soon told. Her period of intense activity had passed, and she had won eternal fame by three great victories and three wonderful escapes. After six years of rest she was to carry her country’s flag to distant ports for the protection of American merchant-ships in peaceful pursuits, until superseded by the new agent, which was even then beginning to change the construction of ships and to render them independent of wind and wave. Between the years 1821 and 1838 she made two long cruises to the Mediterranean, for the purpose of holding the piratical states on the southern shore to their treaties. The really critical point in her life arrived in 1828, during a prolonged stay in Boston, when the Secretary of the Navy came near accomplishing what no enemy had ever succeeded in doing, — forcing her to strike her flag. He recommended to the navy commissioners that she be broken up, as the cost of repairing her hull promised to equal her original cost. The popular clamor aroused by the publication of this decision resulted in the saving of the frigate. Oliver Wendell Holmes’s poem, Old Ironsides, dashed off in the heat of indignation, did much to create an irresistible public sentiment. It was published in every newspaper through the land, and circulated in handbills at Washington.

The necessary money was appropriated, and the ship was practically rebuilt at Boston without alteration of model or plan.

No sooner had the excitement subsided than she was plunged once more into a discussion more bitter than ever. There had been no difference of opinion about breaking her up, but there was a very rancorous difference about the propriety of Andrew Jackson as a figurehead. The commandant of the Navy Yard, thinking to please the President and his admirers, had procured a finely carved statue of him, and had placed it under the bowsprit. It raised a great storm of indignation in Boston, and Commodore Elliott put a guard over the ship to protect her against threatened attack. On a dark night, however, during a heavy rain, Samuel Dewey crossed the Charles in a small boat, and, within sight of a sentry posted near by, sawed off the head, which he brought away as a trophy of his exploit. He subsequently carried it to Washington. A new figure-head of Jackson, put on immediately afterwards, remained until 1876.

From 1838 to 1855 the ship was successively in the Atlantic, the Asiatic, the Mediterranean, and the African squadrons, with occasional visits to home ports for repairs. Her commander in China was Captain John Percival, who, as a boy of seventeen before the mast, had been impressed by the English from an American merchant-ship. By his intelligence and energy Percival rose in the English service, and was captain of the foretop on Nelson’s flag-ship at Trafalgar. As the Constitution went out to China by the way of Cape Horn, and returned through the India seas, her voyage extended completely around the globe. Her cruising days may be said to have ended with her return to Portsmouth, N. H., in 1855, where she lay housed over until the outbreak of the rebellion, when she was taken to Annapolis. Once more she made one of her miraculous escapes. She was nearly defenseless, and the opportune arrival of the Eighth Massachusetts Regiment, under General Butler, saved her from falling into the hands of the Confederates. Her moorings were slipped, and she was towed over the bar by a steamer seized from Confederate owners. A tug from Havre de Grace carried her to New York, whence she was taken to Newport as a school-ship for the Naval Academy. In 1871 she was moved to Philadelphia, and there rebuilt for the Exposition of 1876. She made a voyage to Havre in 1878 for the purpose of transporting goods to the Paris Exposition, and her return early in 1879 was, as usual, full of incident. With a cargo of goods on board she ran aground at Ballard’s Point, England, only a few hours out from Havre, and had to be taken to an English dockyard for examination. A few days later, when clear of the Channel, her rudderhead was wrenched off, and she put into Lisbon for repairs. The voyage to New York ended on May 24, 1879. After use for a short time as a training-vessel for naval apprentices, she was taken to Portsmouth, N. H., where she remained, housed over as a receiving-ship, until she was brought to Boston on September 18, 1897. Frequent rebuilding and renewal of parts have changed her hull much as the human body is said to change with time, though the keel and floor timbers are those which thrilled with the shock of the old guns, and floated under Preble, Hull, Bainbridge, Stewart, and a host of other gallant seamen. The model has been carefully preserved.

In reckoning up the services of the Constitution, it is well to consider the condition of the country during the period of her greatest activity. When she was built, the nation was only a handful of scattered colonies, without experience in wielding the instrument of government framed with infinite pains by our forefathers to foster and strengthen common interests and common action. There were no railroads or telegraph wires to bind us closer together, and to bring our States within easy reach of one another. Any measure by the chief executive and legislative powers which affected adversely the commerce of a section was certain to be followed by talk and threats of separation. We had no background of history to draw upon as a reserve force in national crises. If the war of 1812 was the second war of independence, it was likewise the first for the Union. It was thought by many to be unnecessary, but it changed us from provincials to citizens of one great country, and it taught us something about the relation of the separate States to the central government in the organization for war, and thus strengthened the North to withstand the shock of fifty years later. During the first eight years of our existence as a nation we had no navy, and we could not be taken seriously even by the countries with which hundreds of our ships traded. The merchant-ships were prey to any armed vessel which chose to take out of them either men or money. The spectacle of a frigate loaded down with a valuable cargo of merchandise and dollars, and sent as a present to the dey of Algiers to purchase a peaceful trade in the Mediterranean, is the most humiliating in our whole history. The manning of such a vessel by former American slaves of Algiers was the last touch required to complete the picture. Until we had proven our ability to strike hard blows, we were scarcely better off with the European powers. Our rights as neutrals were totally disregarded, and American seamen were taken out of our merchant-ships, and even our war-ships, to a slavery different only in kind from that in the Barbary States.

As the flag-ship of a squadron which effectually broke up the system of tribute to a nest of pirates, the Constitution will forever deserve our gratitude; and as the chief actor in a war which united the country in the maintenance of its rights as a neutral power and of the immunity of its sailors from capture on the high seas, she must be handed down in bodily presence to our children. Let us take the words of a foreigner for an unprejudiced view of our position in naval matters. An accomplished French admiral writes as follows : “ When the American Congress declared war on England in 1812, it seemed as if this unequal conflict would crush her navy in the act of being born; instead, it but fertilized the germ. . . . The English covered the ocean with their cruisers when this unknown navy, composed of six frigates and a few small craft hitherto hardly numbered, dared to establish its cruisers at the mouth of the Channel, in the very centre of the British power. But already the Constitution had captured the Guerriere and the Java, the United States had made a prize of the Macedonian, the Wasp of the Frolic, and the Hornet of the Peacock. The honor of the new flag was established.”

It is small wonder we exulted, perhaps too extravagantly, over Hull’s victory. May we not say that this triumph so early in the war exerted a strong influence in turning the common people of Massachusetts against the wild talk of separation? The Boston Centinel, which had condemned the war most unsparingly, heartily rejoiced in the achievements “which placed our gallant officers and hardy tars on the very pinnacle of the high hill of honor, and which established the necessity and utility of a navy.” “ This honor and usefulness must thunder in the ears of the navy-haters in high places. Give us a navy.”This ship, launched from a Boston shipyard, commanded by a Yankee sailor, and flying the stars and stripes, had brought home as a trophy the standard of the invincible navy. The charm was broken, and other victories on the sea followed fast, to prove to the world the existence of an independent nation on this side of the Atlantic. If the first triumph had given a “ tone and character to the war,” the Constitution had done more : she had given tone and character to the nation for all time. Although the treaty at the close of the war of 1812 left us very much where we were before, the actual result was to give us standing before the world and complete freedom on the sea. The English have ever been a brave and chivalrous people, but their respect and consideration have been measured largely by the power of a nation to strike back. Our forefathers’ children on both sides of the water have met in friendship and mutual good feeling on the deck of Old Ironsides many times since 1815.

The old ship cannot be dismissed without some reference to her successor in the annals of our history after sails had lost their importance. The Constitution and the Monitor have certain curious points of resemblance and of difference. Both were departures in type from what had gone before, and both wrought great changes in the construction of warvessels for the navies of Europe. One stands to-day as the most beautiful example of the old sailing frigate; the other was but the crude beginning of the modern battle-ship. Both gained their victories over people of the same race and blood and the same maritime traditions. The Constitution went boldly out from Boston in the face of tremendous odds, and the Monitor left New York as a forlorn hope. It is strange that both should have sailed just before a change of orders could reach them. One is almost persuaded to see in this the hand of a good Providence which favored our country.

The most important effect of victory in both conflicts was a moral one : in the first case putting heart into the nation, and in the second infusing hope and courage into the North. Washington took a deep interest in the construction of the Constitution, and Lincoln’s favorable opinion secured the trial of the Monitor. Both ships have served in the fulfillment of our destiny as a great and united nation.

Monuments in wood were thought by the Greeks to be fitting memorials of strife between people of the same blood. The Constitution still survives, — a hull which has renewed itself with every generation as our most precious memorial of the nation’s glory. Let those who fear the temptations of a growing navy contrast our foreign relations before the coming of the Constitution and our present position in the family of nations. The lack of ships then carried us swiftly into war, as the possession of them now will form the surest pledge of peace.

Ira N. Hollis.