The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-10-16


ates, it was really vast
undertaking for the small body of
American citizens = relatively far
greater in magnitude than any of our
recent ventures in the heet-building
line.
The six ships cost the five millions
OF Americans $I,555, IoI. At that ratio
our present population would spend
more than twenty-five millions of dol
lars year for new war vessels.
SO the historians who express sur
prise because the Republic approached
the subject of the frigates with fear
and trembling, are wrong in their at
titude. America was doing a big thing
then-as big as anything that She has
done since.
Nor did the young navy builders
construct ships cheaply. The "Con-
stitution'' cost $3o2,7Io. Her tonnage
was 1876, one-seventh of that of bat
tleships of the "Kearsarge'' class.
When the Constitution" fred her en-
tire battery letting go everything
aboard that would take powder and
shot, she threw a total weight of
metal that was much less than one
shot from anyone of the big guns of
the "Kearsarge" type.
So the frigates were the reverse of
cheap ships
The first feet was divided into
three forty-four gun frigates and three
of thirty-six guns. The forty-four gun
frigates each had 1876 tonnage. The
others ranged from 1868 to 1914.
'Cnnc4i+rf;O,, ,, 4
United States" were the three big
ships. Chesapeake" Congress" and
Constellation" were the thirty-six
gun vessels.
'Forty-four gun ship" did not mean
absolutely what it said, for the Con
stitution'' carried forty-eight guns
twenty-eight long twenty-four poun-
ders on the main deck and twenty long
twelve Founders on the quarter deck
and forecastle
The modern ships of the "Kear-
sarge Kentucky" type carry almost
that many guns in their secondary
battery alone, and with a single one
of any of those small quick-frers
would have swept the CONSTITUTIONS
deck clean before her men could have
fired two broadsides.
There were great differences in cost
between the various ships, although
they were designed by Joshua Hum
phreys of Philadelphia to be practi-
cally of one type. Each vessel was
built in different port on the At
lantic coast, and where the "Constitu-
ton" cost $3o2,7Io, the President
cost only $22o,oIo The United
States" cost $2oo,336. The thirty-six
gun Constellation" cost more than
any of the three forty-four gun ships,
for her cost was $3I4,2I2. The two
other thirty-six gun ships cost as fol-
lows: chesapeake" $22o,678; "Con-
gress," $Io7,24o.
The expenses of keeping the ships
in commission were no small items
either. They weren't stingy about
men in those days, and the baby
United States cheerfully undertook to
pay and feed crews of $50 men on
each forty-four gun vessel, and 3I2
men on each thirty-six gun frigate.
The pay of the officers were by no
means beggarly either, when it is re-
membered that dollar was as big
as the moon in those days. The cap
tains of these great ships received SIS
month and six rations a day, each
ration being counted as worth Is
cents, which they could draw in cash.
The lieutenant received $40 a month
and three rations a day. The other
ranks were paid as follows: Captain
of marines, SEQ month and two
rations; chaplain, $40 month and
two rations; sailing master, $40
month and two rations; surgeon. $50
a month and two rations; boatswain,
gunner, sailmaker and carpenter, $I4
a month and two rations.