battle of Mani la Bay, at which Olympia was the American flagship . The eventual growth of the United States into a m ajor naval power (which it emphatically was not in 1898) would ve ry likely have occurred in any case, but the die was cast in 1898. Although the Spanish-American war was hastily conceived with no strategic designs on the Pacific, the early and complete victory at Mani la Bay prompted conquest of the Phi lippines as a target of opportunity. The Philippine conquest, in turn, had profound consequences on the American role in the wo rld. If the wa r had been confined to C uba and Puerto Rico, it is possible the United States might have been confined to exercising its power in the home waters of the Caribbean, and retained only a coasrwise navy to secu re those interests
and guard the approaches to the soon-robe-built Atlantic-Pacific Canal. (Panam a as a nation did nor yet exist). Having defeated Spain in the Philippines a nd decided to remain there ourselves, however, the US had taken on the m antle of a wo rldw ide power-something that required a wo rld-ranging navy. Some believe the US conquest of the Philippines was the next, natural, a nd ultimately beneficial step in Manifest Destiny. Some see it as a murderously foo lish and catas trophic blunder, which set us on a collision course with Japa n a generation later. Either way, there is no arg uing that it was not a pivotal event in wo rld histo ry. The catalys t for a world-ranging chain reaction was the powder burned in Olympia's guns, at the precipitating moment of what became the American Century.
ex-USS Constellation At a Glance: 1854 Sloop of War. Constellation is the last sail-only warship designed and built for the US Navy, an excellent example from a period of Ameri-
SEA HISTORY 148, AUTUMN 20 14
can dominance in design of fast wooden sa iling ships. Ir is the last vessel afloat which served in the Civil War, and the last vessel of her type on the planet which participated in the suppression of the African slave trade.
ex-USS Constellation ""
Slavery, if not the original sin of humanity, was most certa inly the original sin in the fou nding of this nation . Slavery had been as common as war and pestilence rhroughour all recorded history. The truly amazing aspect to this story is not that such evil existed for so long, but that after 5, 000 yea rs the system came crashin g down in about a 150-yea r period. Not that its remnants do not persist, they do, bur on nothing of rhe scale of the pas t. If nor eradicated, slavery has at least been delegitimized a nd shrunken into a furtive criminal activity. The passing of mass chattel slavery is a milestone of human social development of rhe same order of magnitude as the mas tery of fire or introduction of agriculture. The pa rticular chapter known as rhe Atlantic Slave Trade was a nearly fourhundred-year saga of horror. Any ta ngible link to its interpretation, let alone an instrument of its ending, is nor on ly worthy of preservation bur is of particular importance on a personal level to a huge portion of rhe American community. The Constellation is a survivor of active duty in the war rhar to this day is rhe most traumatic event in US history.
Ernestina (ex-Effie M. Morrissey) At a Glance: 1894 G loucester Fishing Schooner. The schooner is rhe definitive Am erican-developed class of sailing vessel. The New England fishing schooner was an important rype, which reached its apogee of development at the end of the nineteenth century. Designed by the well-
noted "Mel" McClaine, and built as the Effie M. Morrissey, Ernestina is an excellent example of a type which numbered in rhe hundreds and carried on a major American industry. Sailing to the Grand Banks for cod, in va rying vessel types, went on from New England shores for three hundred years. Looked at from a wider perspective to take in the span of European fishin g, it becom es a 500-year story. This history alone would make her very worthy of preservation, but this career in fishin g was succeeded by historically significant later careers. As a n Arctic exploration and survey vessel, Ernestina is rhe sole American survivor from the Age of Exploration, and one of rhe last ships anywhere rhar participated in rhe 500-year effort to penetrate rhe polar ice to extend rhe reach of science, navigation, and cartography.
Effie M . Morrissey
1928
Ernestina had ye t another career as a Cape Verde packet, the last wooden sailing vessel in the trade of carrying goods and immigrants across the Atlantic from the O ld Wo rld to the New. This was another great human endeavor in wooden sa iling ships for the same 500-year period. Looked at as a whole, wooden sailing ships going after cod, probing the edges of ice and rock, and the migration of peoples, are each an Atlantic story of several hundred years. This ship was a participant in the last chapter of all three of these
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