Constitution drying her sails after a summer rainstorm dominates the Boston harbor scene. She and her sisters President and Un ited States were the most powerful f rigates in existence, as all Americans believed
and the world was to learn; a fast ship built with battleship scant lings and main battery, she was saved by her inbred speed and hard sailing on more than one occasion in her unmatched career.
The USS Constitution at Anchor in Boston, 1803 A lthough the ship exists in all her glory in Boston and more has bee n written about her than perhaps any other famou s ship in the US Navy, Constitution st ill poses problems to the artist, in that it is difficult accurately to define her exact appearance at some important points in her long career, durin g which she was altered, reconstru cted and refitted several times. The existing vessel seems to show her at a period well after 1815 , as far as one ca n ascertain, but contemporary references have to be consulted to discover precisely how she looked prior to this date. A "master plan" for the 44-gun frigates ordered in 1794 exists and the buildin g plans are reproduced in Chapelle's The American Sailing Navy typical for Constitution, United States and President. She was a fair ly ornate ship, it is said , the figurehead being "a Hercules with the fasces of the United States and the Constitution standin g upon rock ... " This figurehead was shat52
tered in a colli sion with President in 1804 in the Mediterranean (I quote Mr. N. V. Brewington in Shipcarvers of North America) and replaced by a billet head. The ea rliest contemporary illustrations I can find are plates 25 and 30 (actually of President) as reproduced in American Naval Broadsides by Edgar Newbold Smith, dati ng approximately between 1797 and 1804. H ere, the Constitution is shown at Bosto n after refitting for service in the Mediterranean, 1803. She is much a ltered, with roya l masts a nd ya rds, a sin gle spritsai l ya rd , an d built-up bulwarks fore a nd aft, best references being the Michele Felice Corn e painting of 1803 (though the flag at first gla nce appears to have seve nteen stars) in the Constitution Muse um , Navy Yard, Boston, which shows th e Hercu les figurehead. There is a superb pri nt in the Pea body Muse um (date 1804 o nwards because the bi llet head is shown), and mo re important
a sketch by Commodore John Rogers himself, di sp layed in the Smithsonian Institution and presumed to date from May 1805 when Rogers took over as Commodore of th e Mediterranean squadron from Capta in Samuel Barron. A lthough she was laid up for two yea rs from 1807 , it appears to be in this form that Constitution went to war in 18 12.
The Continental Frigate Boston Breaks out her Royals, 1777 The 24-gun fri ga te Boston was built a t Newburyport by the partnership of Jonathan Green leaf and Ralph Stephen Cross, her sister ship being th e Delaware, built a t Philadelphia . The Boston fell into British hands when Charleston, South Carolina was captured in May 1780, and later served \With the Roya l Na vy as th e Charlestown IUntil sold and broken up in 1783 . British irecords list the Charlestown as a 28-gun sixxth rate of 5 14 ton s burthen. SEA !HISTORY, SUMMER 1979