The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1875-12-11
THE OLD IRONSIDES.
NAVAL CONTRIBUTION TO THE CENTENNIAL.

NAVAL CONTRIBUTION TO THE CENTENNIAL
Among the contributions from all parts
of the country which will find place in
the great Exposition at Philadelphia next
year, there is none to which Americans will
point with more natural pride than to an
old vessel, stately still to look upon, but
which has well nigh ontlived its usefulness
If a stranger wonderingly questions the
reason, it is to be hoped that the story will
be told him of this old ship, more glorious
than the mythical Argo, which deserves to
be embalmed in epic, as we'll as in lyric
verse. This ship is the famous Constitu-
ton, or, if not identically the same, at any
rate sprung from the loins of Old Ironsides,
and perpetuating its honored name. For
the sake Of any who are ignorant of the
details of this once familiar story, the fol
lowing sketch has been drawn up from
materials furnished by Cooper, Emmons
and other authorities less readily accessible.
No attempt has been made to present the
story in any Fictitious light, as it is be-
leved that, in this instance, the simple
narration of the unadorned facts will be
found at once most trustworthy and most
acceptable:
In 1874, when the petty Algerine pirates,
who had grown bold from long continued
and UNPUBLISHED depredations, were fast
becoming an unbearable pest in the Medi-
terranean, Congress passed law directing
the construction of six vessels of war for
the purpose of protecting our growing
! commerce. Under this law, creating lit
! tie navy, the frigate Constitution was built.
Her model was designed by Mr.. Joshua
Humphreys, of Boston, and her builders
were Gen. Claghorne and his foreman, Mr..
Hartly, to the last of whom the credit of
her construction appears to be mainly due.
Her keel was laid on Charlestown Neck in
the same year that the law was passed, but
her building was not hurried, and it was
not till the Goth day Of September, 1897,
that she slid down the carefully laid ways
into the sea. When she was finally ready
| for service the total cost of her equipment
|
thousand dollars, and there were plenty of
croakers who shook their sage heads over
the useless expense of her building, and
demonstrated that she would never be
worth to the nation a 1.-THE of her cost.
There were plenty of men, though, who
were eager to show what she could do, and
SO full crew was found for her without
difficulty, and under her first Captain,
Samuel Nicholson, she sailed away from
the harbor of Boston, July 20, 1898, on
trial cruise along our Atlantic coast. On
this trip she proved herself an admirable
vessel Of her class, and her sailing qualities
were still further tested the next year,
when cruising on the West India station,
under First Lieutenant Isaac Hull-for the
Captain of a crack English frigate chal-
lenged Hull to race for a cask of wine,
and Hull accepting, nothing 10th, the two
vessels started, ON even terms, at sunrise
and kept up the contest till sunset. The
course was dead beat to windward, and
at the end of the day the English ship was
hull down to leeward. 1t goes, without
saying, that the English Captain promptly
delivered over the wine and departed for
parts unknown instanter. The Constitution
continued on her old cruising ground, but
nothing of note happened to her till the
year 1903, when she was ordered to the
Mediterranean as the flagship of Commo-
dore Edw. Preble. A treaty of peace and
| commerce had been made with Algiers in
1895, but the other Barbary States were
not a whit better, and it was high time to
give them a lesson which they would be
likely to take to heart. Three times, in
close succession, the plucky American fri
gate sailed alone into the harbor of Tripoli,
brushed away from before her the swarms
of piratical gunboats and galleys, and kept
up for hours a single-handed fight with all
the batteries and forts. 1t is wonder, as
Cooper says, that she was not knocked to
shivers; but singularly enough the damage
she sustained was comparatively slight,
while the hornets nest of pirates was
pretty we'll shaken to pieces. They has
tened to make piece with "those devils of
Americans" and the uncommon respect
with which they, as we'll as their confreres
of Algieys and Tunis, afterwards treated
the American flag on the Mediterranean
was in great part due to the wholesome
fear inspired by the now redoubtable Old
Ironsides. The greatest services, however,
which she was to render the country, and
which should make her name byword
with children even, remained unperformed
as yet, and to these it is that we must now
turn, though leaving untold the interesting
episodes which intervene, as when, for
instance, at Spithead, in 1911, her Captain,
again the same Isaac Hull, ventured to
brave in just cause the English Admiral,
Sir Roger Curtis, backed by forty British
ships.
War was declared with Great Britain
June 10, 1912, and on the 9Th of July the
Constitution got under weigh from her
moorings off Annapolis, and started on
cruise along the coast to the north of
Chesapeake Bay. On the 18th of July she
fell in with British squadron of four ships
anu Orig, uuueT COIuIuOuOTo DTOke, ana
as fighting with such odds against her was,
of course, out of the question, she had
nothing to do but to run for it. The Eng
lish ships stood after her in hot pursuit,
and then ensued the famous chase for
nearly three days and nights, which won
for Hull and his crew as much glory as a
victory. At one time, by hedging and
towing, at another by skillfully making
the most of the faintest Whit of air, and
again by the aid of fortunate squall
which sent her scudding along under reefed
topsails, the American frigate was fairly
pulled out of the confident hands of the
enemy and brought safely into Boston.
Quickly leaving port again, and sailing
out to sea, when nearly 700 miles east of
Cape Cod British frigate, the Guerrero,
one of the squadron which had chased the
Constitution a month before, was sighted,
and the ship was at once cleared for action.
The vessels came into close quarters at 9