Original sentence: Consequently, his heavy frigate was designed to overpower other frigates, while remaining fast enough to flee ships of the line.During the 1790s, American merchant shipping came under harassment from both France and pirates from the Barbary Coast, necessitating the construction of a naval force to defend America's merchant marine.From then until 1797, the United States' only armed maritime service was the Revenue Marine, founded in 1790 at the prompting of Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton.Humphreys designed a diagonal rib scheme, intended to reduce hogging, and covered this in extremely heavy planking.Humphreys realized that the underpopulated United States could not begin to match the European nations in the size of their navies.In August 1785, after the Revolutionary War drew to a close, Congress sold , the last ship remaining in the Continental Navy.In late 1792, Secretary of War Henry Knox requested that shipbuilders submit plans for six vessels.President was given her name by President Washington.The Naval Act of 1794 provided for the construction of four ships carrying forty-four guns each, and two ships carrying thirty-six guns each.The design which would eventually be used for Chesapeake was unusual for the time, being long on keel, wide of beam, and mounting very heavy guns.The plans of naval architect Joshua Humphreys and draftsman Josiah Fox were accepted in 1793.This gave the ship's hull a strength that other, more lightly built frigates simply could not match