USS Constellation (1854)

USS "Constellation" constructed in 1854 is a sloop-of-war, or corvette, and the second United States Navy ship to carry this famous name. According to the US Naval Registry, the original frigate was disassembled down to the keel on 25 June 1853, in Gosport Navy Yard in Norfolk, Virginia, and she was rebuilt as a faster, heavy sloop-of-war.

ervice History

19th Century

The sloop was launched 26 August 1854, and commissioned 28 July 1855, with Captain Charles H. Bell in command.

From 1855 to 1858, "Constellation" performed largely diplomatic duties as part of the US Mediterranean Squadron. She was flagship of the US African Squadron from 1859 to 1861. In this period, she disrupted the African slave trade by interdicting three slave ships and releasing the imprisoned slaves. The last of these was captured at the outbreak of the American Civil War: "Constellation" overpowered the slaver brig "Triton" in African coastal waters. "Constellation" spent much of the war as a deterrent to Confederate cruisers and commerce raiders in the Mediterranean Sea.

After the Civil War, "Constellation" saw various duties such as carrying famine relief stores to Ireland and exhibits to the Paris, France Exposition Universelle (1878). She also spent a number of years as a receiving ship (floating naval barracks).

20th Century

After being used as a practice ship for Naval Academy midshipmen, "Constellation" became a training ship in 1894 for the Naval Training Center in Newport, Rhode Island, where she helped train more than 60,000 recruits during World War I.

Decommissioned in 1933, "Constellation" was recommissioned as a national symbol in 1940 by President Franklin Roosevelt. She spent much of the Second World War as relief (i.e. reserve) flagship for the US Altlantic Fleet, but spent the first 6 months of 1942 as the flagship for Admiral Ernest J. King and Vice Admiral Royal E. Ingersoll.

Restoration

"Constellation" was again decommissioned on 4 February 1955, and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 15 August 1955—about two weeks and one hundred years from her first commissioning. She was taken to her permanent berth—Constellation Dock, Inner Harbor at Pier 1, 301 East Pratt Street, Baltimore, Maryland (coord|39|17|07.95|N|76|36|40.28|W|)—and designated a National Historic Landmark (reference number 66000918) on 23 May 1963 [cite web|url=http://www.marylandhistoricaltrust.net/nr/NRDetail.aspx?HDID=22&FROM=NRNHLList.aspx|title=Maryland Historical Trust|date=2008-06-08|work= National Register of Historic Places:Properties in Baltimore City|publisher=Maryland Historical Trust] . She is the last existing American Civil War-era naval vessel and was one of the last sail-powered warships built by the US Navy. She has been assigned the hull classification symbol IX-20.

In 1994, "Constellation" was condemned as an unsafe vessel. She was towed to drydock at Fort McHenry in 1996, and a $9-million restoration project was completed in July 1999.

On 26 October 2004, "Constellation" made her first trip out of Baltimore's Inner Harbor since 1955. The trip to the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, lasting 6 days, marked the ship's first trip to the city in 111 years.

Tours are regularly available, self-guided or with the assistance of staff. Nearly all of the ship is accessible, and about half the lines used to rig the vessel are present (amounting to several miles of rope and cordage). A cannon is demonstrated daily, and tour groups can also participate in demonstrations such as turning the yards.

Identity controversy

For some time, there was controversy over whether or not the 1854 sloop was a new ship, or a rebuilt version of the 1797 frigate. Much of the controversy was created when the city of Baltimore promoted the ship and even rebuilt sections of the ship to resemble the 1797 frigate. Additionally, when the ship was to be rebuilt in the 1990s, naval historians that favored the theory that the ship was indeed the 1797 original, relied on three main points:
# Some of the funds used to build the sloop were originally allocated to rebuild the frigate
# Some timbers from the broken-up frigate were used in the construction of the sloop
# The frigate was never formally stricken from the Naval Vessel Register—a wooden, sailing man-of-war called "Constellation" was continuously listed from 1797 until 1955

Supporting the position that they are different ships are the facts that the sloop was designed anew from the keel up (without reference to the frigate), and was planned to have been built even if the frigate had not arrived in the yard at that moment. The paper "Fouled Anchors: The "Constellation" Question Answered", by Dana M. Wegner, "et al.", published by the Navy's David Taylor Research Center in 1991, concludes that they are different ships. The proof advanced in this paper was confirmed during the 1999 renovation, during which evidence was uncovered pointing to the construction of an entirely new sloop-of-war of the 1850s era.

References

External links

* http://www.constellation.org/ USS "Constellation" Museum
* [http://www.hnsa.org/ships/constellation.htm HNSA Web Page: US Sloop of War Constellation]
* [http://www.comicbookbrain.com/a_uss_constellation_history.php The Question of the USS Constellation] Ship history and summation of the ongoing controversy, with images
* [http://www.marylandhistoricaltrust.net/nr/NRDetail.aspx?HDID=22&FROM=NRNHLList.aspx U.S.S. Constellation, Baltimore City] , including photo in 2003, at Maryland Historical Trust