Chapter III: Epilogue

Scarce one tall frigate walks the sea
Or skirts the safer shores
Of all that bore to victory
Our stout old Commodores.

So wrote Oliver Wendell Holmes in 1865. Many years have passed since then. Again a tall frigate walks the sea. She carries a message from many a stout old commodore, many an alert topman, many a keen-eyed gunner. In fact, she carries a message from our Navy to our People.

All the stories of “Old Ironsides” in this little pamphlet are based
on chapters of _We Build a Navy_, by Commander H. H. Frost, U. S.
Navy, published by U. S. Naval Institute, Annapolis, Maryland.

_Information about the “Constitution”_

The building of the _Constitution_ resulted from the failure of the new United States government to purchase protection from the Algerian pirates. By a majority of two, the House of Representatives voted, in March, 1794, to provide six frigates that “separately would be superior to any European frigate.” The _Constitution_ was one of these. She was designed by Joshua Humphreys of Philadelphia and built at Hartt’s Wharf in Boston, near the present Constitution Wharf. The copper bolts and fittings were supplied by Paul Revere. Construction was all but abandoned after a new treaty was made with the pirates, but the insistence of Presidents Washington and Adams, coupled with the rising difficulties with revolutionary France, finally brought the work to completion. She was launched in October, 1797, and commissioned quickly.

The _Constitution_ was rated as a 44-gun frigate but has carried as many as 55 guns at various times. The present arrangement closely follows that of her early days. The guns on the spar deck are 32-pounder carronades, short, light guns which threw heavy shots a short distance (300 to 400 yards). On the gun deck are long 24-pounders, heavy guns with much greater range but less smashing power than the carronade. In the following table the ranges given are for one degree of elevation. The long gun could attain ranges up to 2,000 yards by greater elevation, the projectile leaving the gun with a velocity of about 1,500 feet per second.

The _Constitution_ cost $302,917. Her original dimensions were: length over-all, 204 feet; beam, 43.5 feet; draft, forward 21 feet, aft 23 feet; displacement 2,200 tons. She was generally considered an excellent sailer, the report being that “she works within eleven points of the wind; steers, works, sails, scuds, and lies-to well; rolls deep and easy, and sailing close-hauled has beaten everything sailed with.”

Guns of the Constitution

Location Type No. Length Weight Bore Powder Approx.
lbs. inches charge range

Gun deck, 24-pdr., 12 9′ 5¾″ 5,135 5.824 8 lbs. 700 yds. for’d. and aft American Gun deck, 24-pdr., 18 10′ 5¾″ 5,733 5.824 8 lbs. 700 yds. amidships English Spar deck 32-pdr., 20 5′ 5″ 2,240 6.41 4 lbs. 400 yds. carronades Spar deck, bow 24-pdr. 2 9′ 9½″ 4,170 5.824 8 lbs. 700 yds. chasers

The two bow chasers are 18-pounders bored for 24-pound shot. They are
lighter than the standard 24-pounder to reduce top weights. Total
weight of broadside, 734 pounds. As shot were frequently underweight,
this figure is not exact.

Her complement was 400 officers and men, but she usually cruised with about 50 men in excess. At sea the men were crowded closely together and there was much sickness. The ration was fixed by law and it made a monotonous diet. The legal ration for Sunday was 1½ lbs. beef, 14 oz. bread, ½ lb. flour, ¼ lb. suet, ½ pt. spirits. On week days pork was sometimes substituted for beef, with cheese or dried peas in place of suet. The meat was usually salted, the bread stale and moldy, the spirits good.

Transcriber’s Notes

—Silently corrected a few typos.

—Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook
is public-domain in the country of publication.

—In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by
_underscores_.

—Inserted the original page-footer line drawings into the text.