LETTERS M ore to t h ese stories ... The article on USS Constitution 's years after 1815 by CDR Tyrone G . Martin, USN (Ret.), was interesting and contained info rmation that is not generally known to m uch of the public. But there is another part of the story that m ay be of interest to your readers. It concerns Will iam Patterson (1752-1835), a prominent citizen of Baltimore who m ade his for tune in sh ipping a nd rea l es tate. Du ring the America n Revolution, he was one of the Baltimore merchants who cont ributed money to Lafayette to assist the French in the Yorktown cam paign; he also served in th at sam e battle with the 1" M aryland Cava lry. Readers w ith an interest in h istory m ay have heard of him because his daughter, Betsey, m arried Jerom e Bon apa rte, brother of Emperor Napoleon of France. The marriage ended in d ivorce in 1812. It is bel ieved that Patterson read a small item in the Niles Weekly Register reporting on the recent arrival of the friga te Constitution ro Bosron on 2 July 1828 , hom e from a three-year assignment in the Mediterranean. W hatever his inspiration was, on 15 July Patterson wro te a letter to Secretary of the Navy Samuel L. Southard ro share this thought: "It has often occurred ro me, that the best possible use that could be made of that C elebrated vessel wo uld be ro have her holed up at the Navy yard in Washington, a parmenant [sic] H ouse built over her & kept for the admiration a nd benefit of future generations." He was concerned that the ship wou ld m eet a premarure end if she was kept in continued service. If the ship was preserved in Washingron, he postulated, it wo uld excite a nd stimul ate yo ung naval officers in futu re generations. "It wo uld do more to promote the interest and stability of our Navy than many Vicrories." A short time after this, the election of 1828 rook place and Andrew Jackson became president; John Branch of North Carolina was appointed Secretary of the Navy. Not long afterwards, the Niles Weekly Register printed a no tice that Secretary Bra nch planned to sel l or scrap the Constitution; a similar news srory disseminated in Bosron caught the eye of a young college student nam ed O liver Wendell H olm es . A nd the rest is history.
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We Welcome Your Letters! Please send correspondence to: seahistory@gmail.com or Editor, Sea History, 7 Timberknoll Rd. , Pocasset, MA 02559 Patterson's effort was described in a short piece that was published in the Maryland H istorical M agaz ine in 1964. H AROLD B. LANGLEY Milton, North Carolina H avi ng sailed onboard the historic schooner Ernestina some years ago, I particularly enjoyed the recent Sea History article about her 1928 voyage into the Pacific and the update o n her restoration. The ship has a long and varied history, wh ich has been covered in prev ious issues of Sea History, but readers m ay not know about an aspect of her pas t fro m her early years as the Effie M. Morrissey that involves Effi e's bro ther, C layton. The 1894 Effie M . Morrissey was built fo r a Nova Scoti a fis herman, Captain W illiam M orrissey, who named his new schooner after his daughter, Effie Maude. Effie's bro ther, C layron Mo rrissey-o r "Clayt," as he was called-was born in 1874 and started going to sea at a yo ung age on voyages with his fa ther. Over the years he developed a talent fo r m anaging a crew, earning their trust and frie ndship, and maximizing thei r pro ductivity, making him a respected and sough t-out captain. Effie M. Morrissey was his firs t com m and . C lay t eventually immigrated tO Gloucester, Massachusetts, a nd, in time, became legendary as one of the m ost competent skippers ever ro sail out of a North Atlantic fis hing port.
In 1922 , Captain M orrissey took comm and of the Henry Ford, a 140-foot schooner with a reputation for speed under sail; H enry Ford was selected as the Am erican challenger to the Canadian schooner Bluenose fo r the international Fishermen's C up. Bluenose wo n, but Morrissey so enjoyed the com petition th at he skipp ered the Henry Ford in th e 1923 and 1926 races to try again. H e d id not prevail. Subsequently, Morrissey stated , "I am not a sportsm an," admitting that he was better suited at bringing home an abundant catch.
Gloucester's Fisherman's Memorial In 1923 sculptor Leonard Craske chose Morrissey, plus fo ur other Gloucester fis h erm en and o ne profession al m odel clothed in oilskins, to pose for the now icon ic fis h erm an statue that overlooks Gloucester Harbor. Lours A RT H UR NORTON
Wes t Simsbury, Connecticut
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