The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1876-02-12
Historical.
OLD IRoNsIDEs.


Of the country which will find place in
the great Exposition ut Philadelphia this
year, there is none to which Americans will
point with more natural pride than to an
old vessel, stately still to look npon, but
which has well-nigh outliyed its usefulness.
liza stranger wouderiugly questions the
reason, it Is to be hoped that the story will
be told him of this old ship, more glorious
than the mythical Aryo, which deserves to
be embalmed in epic, as well as in lyric
verse. This ship is the famous Constitu-
tiOn, or, If not identically the same, at any
rate sprung from the loins of Old Ironsides,
and perpetuatiDg 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 accessi-
Bile. No attempt has been made to present
the story in any Fictitious light, as it is
believed that, in this instance, the simple
narration of the unadorned facts will be
found ut once most trustworthy and most
acceptable:
In 1894, when the petty Algerinc pir-
ates, who had grown bold from long-con-
tinued and unpunished depredations, were
fast becoming an unbearable pest in the
Mediterranean, Congress passed law d.
recting the construction of six vessels of
war for the purpose of protecting our grow
ing commerce. Under this law, creating
a little 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
Charleston 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 was estimated to be
about three hundred 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
tithe Of her cost. There were plenty Of
men, though, who were eager to show
what she could do, and SO full crew was
founl for her without difficulty, and under
her first Captain, Samuel Nicholson, she
sailed away from the harbor of Boston,
July 90, 1898, on u trial cruise along our
Atlantic coast. On this trip she proved
herself an admirable vessel of her class,
and her smiling qualities were still further
tested the next year, when cruising on the
West India station, under First Lieutenant
Isaac Hull--for the Captain of crack
English frigate challenged Hull to a race
for 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 a
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
instantcr. 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 Mediterra-
mean as the flagship of Commodore Edw
Preble, A treaty of peace and commerce
had been made with Algiers in 1895, but
the other Barbary States were not 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 sue
cession, the plucky American frigate sailed
alone into the harbor of Tripoli, brushed
away from before her the swarms of pirat-
ical gunboats and galleys, and kept up for
hours single-handed fight with all the
batteries and forts II 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 well shaken to pieces. They mas
tened to make peace with "those devils of
Americans" and the uncommon respect
with which they, as well as their confreres
of Algiers and Tunis, afterward 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,
us when, for instance, at Spithead, in 1911,
her Captain, again the same Isaac Hull,
vontured to brave in a just cause the Eng
lish 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 Constellation got under weigh from her
moorings off Annapolis, and started on a
cruise along the coast to the north Of
Chesapeake Bay. On the 18th Of July
she fell in with British squadron Of four
ships and brig under Commodore Broke,
and as fighting with such odds against her