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Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings

	U.S.S. CONSTELLATION Maryland
Pier 4, Pratt Street, Baltimore. U.S.S. Constellation,

Ownership and Administration. U.S.S. Constellation Commission of he Star-Spangled Banner Flag House Association, Inc., 844 East Pratt Street, Baltimore.

Significance. This venerable ship has gallantly served the Nation from shortly after its founding through its rise to a world power and is a tribute to the courageous men of the U.S. Navy. Launched at Baltimore in 1797, only about 2 months after the frigate United States at Philadelphia, she was the first ship to put to sea fully equipped and manned, to engage and defeat the enemy, to capture an enemy warship, and to carry marines. Though extensively altered and rebuilt during her years of globe-girdling service, the Constellation is one of the two surviving early U.S. naval vessels; the other is the reconstructed Constitution, today located in Boston Navy Yard. When the Navy finally decommissioned the Constellation, in 1955, she had been in service longer than any other naval vessel. Her career spanned the period from the age of fighting sail to the modern era—from the Barbary Wars and the undeclared naval war with France through the Civil War and World Wars I and II.

Immediately after the War for Independence, Congress disbanded the nondescript "navy" for reasons of economy. Early in 1794, however, in the face of raids on U.S. shipping in the Mediterranean by pirates of the Barbary States, it authorized the building of six frigates, four having 44 guns and two 36 guns. Opponents of a naval force inserted a provision that, if peace were made with Algiers, work would be suspended. President Washington, aware of potential enemies more dangerous than the pirates and favoring a permanent navy, directed that construction begin immediately and designated Joshua Humphreys, Philadelphia naval architect, to draw the plans. Keels were soon laid at six different ports: Portsmouth, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Norfolk. At the end of 1795 work, which was proceeding briskly, was temporarily suspended by the conclusion of a peace treaty with the Bey of Algiers. Because of French depredations on U.S. shipping, however, construction soon resumed on three of the ships.

In 1797, the year before Congress created the Navy Department, three frigates were launched: On July 10, the 44-gun United States, at Philadelphia; on September 7, the 38-gun Constellation, at Baltimore; and on September 20, the 44-gun Constitution, at Boston. Early in 1798, when war with France seemed inevitable, the three ships were not yet ready for sea duty, but in April of that year, under the command of Capt. Thomas Truxtun, the 1,287-ton Constellation put to sea, followed in July by the United States and the Constitution. Truxtun had been designated to oversee construction of his ship when it was designated only as Frigate "E." He and the builder, David Stodder, supported by various Government officials, had made many modifications in Humphreys' plans in the interest of better clipper design. Measuring 164 feet long and 40 feet wide, the ship could accommodate a complement of about 340 officers and men.

On the Constellation's "shakedown" cruise, during the undeclared naval war with France of 1798-1800, she convoyed a group of 60 merchantmen along the Atlantic coast. Sailing on to the West Indies, infested by French privateers that preyed on U.S. shipping, in 1799 she won her first victory by capturing the 44-gun French frigate L'Insurgente, the pride of the French Navy; and the following year damaged the 56-gun La Vengeance so badly that she later sank. The Constellation's speed won her the nickname "The Yankee Racehorse." Captain Truxtun pioneered in instituting for his seamen and marines a comprehensive shipboard training program, including gunnery practice, and establishing shipboard procedures.

After refitting at Norfolk, in 1800 the Constellation put out to sea once again. Under a new commander, Capt. Alexander Murray, she served at Guadeloupe Station until 1801, by which time the United States had made peace with France. In 1802 she headed for Gibraltar and entered the renewed war against the Barbary pirates. From 1805 until 1812, while she was laid up "in ordinary" at the Washington Navy Yard, workmen rebuilt her and added a few inches to her beam. During the War of 1812, though the British blockade confined her to Chesapeake Bay, she had a part in thwarting a British invasion attempt at Craney Island, Hampton Roads. In 1815, helping in the final subjugation of the Barbary pirates in the Mediterranean, during her last ship-to-ship battle she led a group of four ships that captured the 46-gun frigate Mashuda.

Between then and 1841 the Constellation served at various foreign stations, but in 1828 was laid up in Norfolk, where in 1831 she was again repaired and rebuilt, her stern being rounded. During the period 1841-44 the Constellation cruised around South America to the Orient as the flagship of Commodore Lawrence Kearny, in command of the East Indian Squadron, whose mission was the protection of U.S. interests in China against British encroachment. In the course of negotiations with Chinese officials, Kearny obtained for the United States commercial privileges similar to those the officials had granted to England. The negotiations paved the way for the later Open Door Policy in China. En route home, Kearny stopped at the Sandwich (Hawaiian) Islands to protest English attempts to take them over. He entertained King Kamehameha aboard the Constellation and promised U.S. support for Hawaiian independence. Britain finally refused the cession, and Kearny returned home.

From 1845 to 1853 the Constellation, outmoded as a fighting ship, was laid up "in ordinary" at Norfolk. During the next 2 years workmen at Norfolk's Gosport Navy Yard lengthened her by 12 feet and rebuilt her as a sloop-of-war, or corvette. After cruising for a few years in Mediterranean and Cuban waters, in 1858 she was decommissioned at Boston. The following year, recommissioned, she sailed to Africa to serve in the slave trade blockade. In 1861, unaware that the Civil War had broken out, she made the first capture of a Confederate vessel on the high seas—the slaver Triton out of Charleston. She remained in European waters until 1864, when the Navy returned her to the United States for blockade duty.

During the final, and comparatively uneventful, active years of the Constellation, she carried relief supplies to Ireland during the famine of 1880; served as a training and gunnery ship during World War I; and saw duty as a relief flagship of the Atlantic Fleet during World War II—at the behest of President Roosevelt, an avid student of the ship's history and alterations. After the war a citizen's group saved her from scrapping, and Congress authorized her return to Baltimore, her place of origin.

Present Appearance. Though decommissioned and recommissioned, rebuilt, and repaired numerous times during her long career, the Constellation today is an excellent example of an early U.S. ship. As much as a ship of her age can be, the Constellation is the warship that was launched in 1797. Perhaps 35 percent of the total hull is original, consisting of live-oak timber and pig-iron ballast. The alterations, representing a normal and orderly reworking of the basic structure to maintain the effectiveness of the ship throughout the years, do not impair her historical integrity. The U.S.S. Constellation Commission, which has devoted considerable effort to her restoration, has opened the ship to the public.

NHL Designation: 05/23/63