The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-12-20
OLD IRONSIDES' SISTERS.
Career of the Frigates President and
United States.

United States.
Boston Juornal: When the keel of
the Constitution was laid down in Bos-
ton in 1884 work was simultaneously
begun at New York on a sister frigate,
known as the President. and at phila-
delphia on another, known as the Unit
ed States.
The Constitution and the United
States figured in the ocean war with
France which soon followed their
launching, and they and the President
all bore an active part in the struggle
With the Barbary powers and in the
war OF 1912. 1t was from no fault OF
theirs that the two sister vessels failed
to win as bright and imperishable
laurels as Old lronsides, and it may be
well briefly to trace their history.
Like the Constitution, the two other
ships were powerful 44-gun frigates,
with 24-Dounders on their main deck,
and carronades above. All three were
built on virtually the same model. The
Constitution and United States went
into the struggle of 1912 with a repu-
tation as lucky ships''-and gloriously
they sustained it. The President, on
the other hand, like the Chesapeake,
was regarded as an unlucky ship, and
| events strilxingly verified this sailors
superstition. Although the President,
on June %, 1872, off Nantucket Shoals,
! fired the first shot of the war, which
| went crashing through the stern of the
British frigate Belvidere, the Briton es-
! capped after a hot chase, and from that
! day on, in cruise after cruise, for two
! years and a half, the President never
| had the good fortune to bring-tO an
enemy worthy of her metal.
On the night of Jan. IA, 1876, under
command of Captain Stephen Decatur,
| the President set sail from New York
! in a bowling tempest. The night was
! Near Sandy Hook the President ran
ashore ana pounded violently for two
! hours breaking her false keel, parting
| her ruddar braces and causing the hull
! to become "nogged," or bent i n the
| middle. Captain Decatur wished to re-
! turn TO New York to repair these Seri-
Gus injuries, hut the gale blew him to
sea, and when morning broke he found
! himself in sight of a British squadron,
composed o. the race Majestic and
| three frigates. A hard chase ensued.
! The crippled President steadily lost
! ground, and after a long running fight
which cost Captain Decatur a fifth of
! his crew, the ship was surrendered,
/ though not before she had cut to pieces
| the nearest frigate, the Endymion.
The President was taken first to Ber-
=
| model was much admired, and used for
years as q pattern for new frigates for
| the British navy. It is said that the
President is still afioat in the Thames,
! and in the Worlds Fair last year it was
suggested that England be invited to
return her as a token of International
amity. But our cousins have so few
important trophies of 1872 that it was
felt that it would be ungracious to
| make this request, as we'll as impos-
sible TO grant it.
True to her reputation, the United
| States had a very different career On
the 25th of October, 1912, she fell in
with the British frigate Macedonian,
off the Canary Isles, and captured her
in a battle which was as brilliant as
any single victory Of "Old Ironsides -
The American vessel came out of the
fight practically uninjured. and with
the loss of only 10 men, while 104 fell
! killed or wounded on the Macedonian
The prize was brought into New York
and fitted for the American service.
but both she and the United States
We're kept closely blockaded at New
London until the end of the war For
many years afterward the United
| States was a cruising ship in our for
eign squadrons, affectionately styled
! 'Old Wagon" and treasured for her
lCng life and usefulness. 1t was in
this frigate that Herman Melville made
the voyage from Valparaiso home
around the Horn, which he describes in
his book. White Jacket" When the
rebellion broke out the United States
was lying condemned and dismantled
at the Norfolk navy yard. She was
scuttled and sunk by the federal Of
ficers when they abandoned the yard,
then raised and used as a receiving
ship by the confederates and finally
burned and destroyed by them when
they, in turn, evacuated Norfolk in
I9oz' before the onward march of the
Union armies.
Thus OF the three noble 44-gun fri
gates which, from 1897 to 1916. were the
largest and heaviest ships in the Amer
lean navy, only "Old Ironsides," most
famous and best beloved, remains to
hoist the stars and stripes on their
Tooth anniversary