The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1954-08-09
BY FRANK W. LOWERING

ny FNANN W. HOV NtNV
If the City of Baltimore buys the
U. S. Frigate Constellation
which, in name, at least, came to
the rescue of Key West from ma
rauding Indians in 1886, it will gel
"a lemon" according to Howard
/. Chapelle, marine architect Oh
Cambridge, Md, and author Of
''Eiistory of the American Sailing
Navy"
Chapeile says the wooden hulk
the City Of Baltimore is authorized
by Congress to purchase is not the
original Constellation" at all; that
the historic vessel was a frigate,
and the ship rotting at her dock
in the Boston (Charlestown) Navy
Yard is a corvette.
Chapelle reveals this \ extraor-
binary story in the August issue
of Yankee Magazine, published al
Dublin, N. H.
He says "a little Sentimentalism
can work wonders. 1t may even
move a proud symbol of American
independence down to Baltimore
to become a national monument. >
But ''facts can become battered
and blunted against sentimental
ism, and even the very clear facts
about the rotting hulk of the Con
stellation' prove it to be mot the
grand old frigate of the Revolu
ton"
cirea 1855
On the contrary, Chapelle asserts
the vessel is the last sailing man
of-war built for the American
Navy in 1885 at the Navy Yard
in Norfolk, Va. and adds, sit may
be worth preserving for this rea-
son alone"
When Chapelle offered his evil
dence soon after the movement be-
gan to save the vessel, hot fight
started between the Letters to the
Editor department of 4. the Balti-
more Sun, in the historical society
and in the streets, with the senti-
mentalistS Indignantly disagreeing
with Chapelle, "as if it were
matter of opinion and patriotic
fervor."
The marine architect adds that
since no actual records show the
constellation" was actually brok'
en- UP, even though this ship was
largely rebuilt, they argue that In
clusion of part of the original Will
still make this "the grand old fri
gate" of history.
Even the Navy, Chapelle says,
''for rather ludicrous reasons,
seemed anxious to perpetuate the
fiction" Chapelle, so the magazine
article runs, felt he needed to Of
fer no more than these proofs: IN
an intensive hunt through Navy
Plan files back in 1885, when they
were kept at the Washington Navy
Yard, he uncovered plans and Off
set tables of the first "Constella-
tom, a frigate.
Old Plans Found
Chapelle had inspected the exist
ing constellation" when it was at
che Newport, R. l., Naval College,
and noted that the present ship
was entirely unlike the drawings
of the original frigate."
The marine architect then
searched the Navy Plan files and
found there, and also in the Blu
reau of Ship Models, complete
plans of the present existing cor
vette. Constellation"
He says "there was nothing to
,rdicate that any part Of the old
ships structure was to be retain
Al " He subsequently measured
the present Constellation" at the
Norfolk Navy Yard and verified
her accordance with the later
(corvette) plans.
Further research led Mr.. Cha
nsl,e to the conclusion: Il had es-
tshlished the historical fact
.Soueht. that the existing corvette
,ras built on a brand new design
IN every detail, and that her iden'
+if;cation with the original frlgate
was mere fable. also found a
Few model-makers who mad come
10 the same conclusion:
- statements made officially Dy
the Navy refer to the "Constena-
ton as rebuilt. Chapene caiis
tbs "a piece Of administrative