and fl ourishing as a speakeasy in this era. Constitution returned to her berth in Boston after her triumphal tour, and the Beaumont moved up the Hudson to Hastings, where her bleached bulk can be seen today . Photo, H. Cotterell, Jr. , courtesy South Street Seaport Museum.
Humphreys kn ew hi s ships would be expensive , and it made sense to cover the investment . He maintained that one of these ships would serve the nation ' s needs better than two ordinary fri gates, so he was prepared to spend up to that level. Not everyone bought this concept , and in fact Josiah Fox, a highly educated draftsman he invited to review hi s work and who was ultimately hired to do the fini shed designs, never reall y bought it at alluntil after the big ships won their sensational victories. It was, in fact , a minor miracle that the United States and the Constitution (the only two of the original four 44s trul y completed to Humphreys ' design) survi ved the antinavy lobby in Congress at all. Clause 9 of the act of 1794 had specified that the building program would halt if peace with Algiers was achieved . Although peace was reached in the spring of 1795, a bill was passed authori zing the completion of three fri gates-two as 44s and one as a 36. Work continued on the United S tates in Philadelphia which was dul y launched on IO May 1797 , and on the Constitution in Boston where , after several aborti ve attempts, she slid down the ways on 2 1 October. The Quas i War in France in 1798 led to a renewed enthusias m for building, and two years later the President was launched at New York . Although she shared their heavy guns, she onl y looked like her two sisters. Her hull had been changed to make her sail faster and she was probabl y built of fir rather than the much heavier oak . She was indeed faster and she became the most popular of the class . The power of her much stro nger sisters was, after all , invisible until the shot began to fl y . It had not been apparent even to the veteran Royal Navy officers who vi sited aboard the Constitution during her stay in England a fe w months before she and the United States began shooting the Briti sh heavy fri gates to pieces in 18 12 . Many- perhaps most-US Navy officers didn ' t reall y get the concept behind the Constitution either. Nor did they comprehend how gravel y that concept was compromised by making one of her sisterships light and fas t but of limited staying power. The other two ships of the six originally called for by Congress , the C hesap eake and Congress , were commi ssioned as 36s in 1800 . The Chesap eake, built under the direct supervi sion of Josi ah Fox, fared particul arl y badl y, being reduced in size and built light. Follow ing the Engli sh fas hion, her main battery consisted of twenty-eight 18-pounders instead of thirty 24-pounders-a reducti on of some 30 percent in broadside we ight which was aggravated by a still more serious loss in penetrating power.
Her Impact on the War In the years of increas ing tension between England and the United States which led up to the War in 181 2, the government recogni zed the need for a naval force of some kind . But President Thomas Jefferson and hi s successor, James Madi son, had not reall y wanted fri gates , or anything bigger than gunboats. In fact , timber that had been set as ide for big ships was di verted to build swarms of these smaller craft which typically carried two 24-pounder guns. They were not very seaworthy and one shot could sink them . When America rushed into the War of 18 12, these craft did nothing to prevent the English fleet from working its will on the American coast and shipping. The War of 181 2 was launched , over the strenuous objecti ons of the maritime states, as a land war to take Canada- ' ' a mere matter of marching, '' as Je fferson put it. But the marching quickl y went the other way as American outposts fell ; and despite the victories of the Constitution and the United States , the Briti sh remained masters at sea . However, fresh fro m the Constitution ' s shattering victory over the Guerriere , Isaac Hull and two fell ow captains protested the " parade" of Briti sh ships-of-the-line off their coasts and urged the building of a SEA HISTORY , SUMM ER 1987
mi xed fl eet of ships-of-the-line and big fri gates. The former would at least have the effect of forcing the British to concentrate the ir shi ps in battle squadrons and loosen their grip so the big frigates could slip away to sea and wreak their havoc . Earl y in 18 13, Congress responded with an act authori zing six 44-gun fr igates and-mirabile dictu !-four 74-gun ships-ofthe-line , two-decked third rates nimble enough to get away from any three-decked second rates of I00 gun s. To help pay fo r thi s program , many of the gunboats were sold off. But the new fri gates ne ver got to sea. They were bottled up by the Briti sh blockade , which remained the dominant fact of the who le war. The ships-of-the- line were completed too late fo r service in the war. The land war was eventually resolved by decisive American naval victories under Perry on Lake Erie and McDonough on Lake Champl ain , and by Andrew Jackson' s repulse of the Briti sh attack on New Orleans after the peace had actuall y been signed . On the Atl antic, the Royal Navy upheld a Pax Britannica lasting fro m 18 15 to 191 4, effectively underwriting the Monroe Doctrine pro mulgated in 1824 , which barred a heavil y armed , reactionary Europe from interventio n against the North and South American republics which had gained independence from the ir mother countries in thi s peri od.
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Constitution' s victories contributed more than meets the eye to this ultimately sati sfactory state of affairs. The wild public enthusias m they generated he lped ho ld the New England states in the Union, although a secess ion convention was actually he ld at Hartford . And the victories he lped the United States break away from the coloni al re lationship with England in both American and British eyes. The Constitution also offered an encouraging example as the nation bro ught into be ing¡ a first cl ass , blue-water navy in time to fi ght the World Wars of our century . Constitution' s message to hi story he lped change Briti sh minds dramaticall y about what they had to deal with in America . More important , she helped form the American attitudes about what kind of people, newly brought together under their unique form of government , they would be . " It is most difficult to conjecture all the thoughts that come to mind when a sailor looks at the grand o ld ship C onstitution' ' wrote Admi ra l Arleigh Burke in SEA HI STORY fi ve years ago, " she carries a message reaching out over the horizo n!" One must hope that this message will be relearned and re info rced in every generation . Kn owing her story, one can' t rea ll y see the o ld frigate without saying: Go for it , Constitution ! Break away-and keep sailing fo rever!