Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1882-10-26
.OLD IRONSIDES."
The Frigate Constitution to be TOwed
to Portsmouth, N. H.-Her History.

The frigate Constitution, "Old Iron
sides,r which has been lying in ordinar,
at the New York Navy Yard for SOM
time past, is about to be removed from
e her present moorings by order Of th'
Secretary of the Navy and towed by th'
Powhatan to Portsmouth, n. H. Seyera
years ago the Navy Department con
cluded to break her up, but the republi
cation at that time of the following line.
of the old poem of Oliver Wendell
Holmes aroused a popular feeling of in
dignation, and she was repaired and con.
verted into schOolship: ss.---
Ay, tear her tattered ensign down!
Long has it waved on high,
And many an eye has danced 10 see
That banner in the sky;
Beneath it rung the battle shout
And burst the cannenS roar;
The meteor of the ocean air
Shall sweep the clouds no morei
The Constitution was one of the larg-
est of six frigates whose construction
was ordered by Congress on March %,
1904. She was launched in October,
1797.' She was built in Boston, of the
best live oak, and cost $3O2,71S. She
began her career in the Tripolitan war
in 1904, engaging against batteries
mounting 1I5 guus- at Tripoli, and her
broadsides assisted in recapturing 300
American sailors, who had been captur-
cd by the Tripolitans from on board the
frigate Philadelphia. In the war against
Great Britain in 1912, she gained her IA
nous victory over the British frigate
Guerriere on August 10. On December
20, following, the Constitution had an
engagement with the British frigate
Java, and, after IA hot contest, took her
as prize. , The following year, on a
cruise on the coast of Guiana and among
the Windward Islands. she captured the
British slOop-Of war Picton, "a letter Of
marque. and several merchant vessels.
She barely escaped being captured by a
British fleet in 1914 by taking refuge in
the barber OfSalem, Mass. On February
20, 1915, during another cruise, she cap
tured, after an action of forty minutes
at night, the British frigate Cyane and
the British sloop i1evant. The latter was
recaptured by a British squadron off the
harbor of Porto Prays, and Captain Stew W.
art, of the Constitution, fearing that the
neutrality of the. port would not be OBJ
served, ran away with his other prize.
The Cyane arrived al New York in April
1915, and the Constitution month later.
- During the administration of Presi
dent Jackson, while the Constitution was
mooreu III New York harbof, curious
- incident OccunrGd. A ligurehead OF
President jackson had been put.on Tn,
Prov, and the circumstances arousinc
the indignation of lieutenant, he de
termine.i that jackson should not go
before the ConstituIion.P He, therefore.
beheaded the figure. The head was re-
covered and replaced by Commedore e.
-1iott. itrtmained on the PROV until the
y ivesseIwas repaired for Centennial dut,
when the efigy was removed and placed
On a-pe.festal ON The fgrpnnds of the An
napoiiss ssNaval "a cateniy. la 1872 tht
Constitution was for time laid up n,
ordinary, and in 1876 she was docked
and oyerllauled. Her last previous voy-
age was to France at the time Of the
Paris Exposition. = 6-.. 49, ....-