Connecticut western news., 1881-12-21
" Old IrOnSides.3
HER AGED FRAME OF LIVE OAK DECLARED
 AT LAST UNWORTHY TO BE REPAIRED.

Lying at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, set aside as unfit for further use, is the frigate Constitution, "Old Ironsides." She was lowed from the Newport train ing ship squadron, and orders were re- ceived by Admiral George H. Cooper, commandant of the navy yard, to put her out of commission, as she was un- seaworthy and too worthless to be re- paired. In a few days the Constitution will take her place among the old hulks in Wallabout Creek, where, probably, she will be allowed to slowly drop to pieces. Several years ago the Navy Department concluded to break her up, but, the republication at the time of the old poem of Oliver Wendell Holmes, "Aye, tear her tattered ensign down." aroused popular protest, and she was repaired and converted into school ship. .... ., ,.
 The Constitution was one of the largest of six frigates whose construction was ordered by Congress on March 27, 1794. She was launched in October, 1797. She was built in Boston, of the best live oak, and cost $302,718.
 She began her career iu the Tripoli- tan war in 1904, engaging against bat teries mounting 115 guns at TripoE, and her broadsides assisted in recaptur- ing 300 American sailors who had been captured by the Tripolitans from on board of the frigate Philadelphia. In the war against Great Britain in 1872, she gained her famous victory over .tbe British frigate Guerriere on Aug. 19
 On Dec. 26 following the. Constitution had an engagement wish the British Efrigate Java, and after hot contest took her as a prize. The following year on cruise on the coast of Guiana and among the Windward Islands, she captured the British sloop-of-war Pic ton, letter of marque, and several mer- chant vessels. She barely escaped be- ing captured by British fleet in 1914 by taking refuge in the harbor of Salem, Mass. On Feb. 20, 1915. dur ing another cruise, she captured, after an action of forty minutes at night, the British frigate Crane and the British sloop Levant. The latter was recap tured by British squadron off the har-
 Dor of Porto Praya, and Capt. Stewart of the Constitution, fearing that the neutrality of the port would not be ob. served, ran away with his other prize.
 The Crane arrived at New York in April,
 1915, and the Const tuition a month
 later.
 During the administration of Presi
 dent Jackson, while the Constitution
 was moored in New York harbor, a 'curi ous incident occurred. A figurehead O. ! President Jackson had been put on th,
 prov, and the circumstance arousine the indignation of a lieutenant, he de ! termined that "Jackson should not gt l before the Constitution. He therefor, beheaded the figure. The head was re covered and replaced by Commodor, Elliott. It remained on the prov unti the vessel was repaired for centennia duty, when the efigy was removed an' l placed on pedestal on the grounds o the Annapolis Naval Academy. Tn picture of Capt. Isaac Hull, who frs commanded the Constitution in the Wa of 1872, hangs in the Governors room , in the City Hall, New York. The lat Beeckman von Hoffman, of New York was one of her lieutenants, and Ogdel , von Hoffman, who died about five year } ago, was one of her midshipmen in 1912