USS Constellation (1797)
 |
|
| career |
.svg){kind=small}
|
|---|---|
| Commissioned: | 1794 |
| Laid on the keel : | Summer 1795 |
| Launch : | September 7, 1797 |
| Commissioning: | ? |
| Status: | ? |
| Sister ships: | USS Congress |
| Fate: | Canceled in Norfolk, Virginia in 1853 |
| General data | |
| Displacement: | 1278 t |
| Length (trunk): | 50 m |
| Width: | 12.5 m |
| Mast height (main mast): | ? m |
| Draft: | ? m |
| Drive: | sail |
| Speed: | 14 knots max. |
| Crew: | 340 officers and men |
| Armament: | 36 x cannons, |
The USS Constellation was a wooden frigate in the United States Navy . She was the first ship put into service for the US Navy. She was also the first ship in the US Navy to go to sea and into battle, defeat an enemy ship, and the first to take a prize for the United States.
history
Order and background
On March 27, 1794, the US Congress passed a law to build the first US Navy warships to protect American merchant shipping, with particular reference to North African pirates . The Constellation and its sister ship, the USS Congress, as well as the USS Chesapeake , USS Constitution , USS President and USS United States were the six frigates in this first US naval construction program.
construction
The construction of the Constellation took over Harris Creek Shipyard in Fells Point, Baltimore , where it was launched on September 7, 1797. She was later put into service as the first of the six ships ordered.
period of service
The quasi-war against France
Despite France's important role in achieving American independence, the number of captures of US merchant ships by French privateers increased in the 1790s. President John Adams then commissioned the US Navy to protect the trade routes of American ships and to combat French privateers. The Constellation was put into service under Captain Thomas Truxtun in order to be able to intervene immediately in the American-French fighting of the quasi-war . Under the command of Truxtun, the Constellation fought on February 9, 1799 against the fast French 36-gun frigate L'Insurgente and was able to muster them as a prize . This was the first major naval battle victory for an American warship.
Battle of the La Vengeance
The next notable victory was achieved by the Constellation under Truxtun in February 1800 in a five-hour night battle against the French 54-gun frigate La Vengeance . The high speed of the American opponent inspired the French to nickname it "Yankee Racehorse".
Other missions
Subsequently, the Constellation served in the war against the North African barbarian states and in 1812 in the war against Great Britain. In 1840, the ship was the first American warship to sail around the world in China.
cancellation
In 1853 the Constellation was removed from the fleet and demolished at the Gosport Naval Shipyard in Norfolk, Virginia. It was felt that Constellation was 1853 just overhauled and thus identical to that set out in that year to Kiel and put into service in 1854 Constellation . This error is based on the listing of the new corvette Constellation as a "rebuild" on the part of the naval administration in order to be able to circumvent the approval of a new building and the approval of funds at the Congress . An investigation by the David Taylor Research Center on behalf of the US Navy has also shown that the Constellation, which was put into service in 1854, was a new build.
Individual evidence
- ↑ A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: US Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1875. Library of Congress , accessed March 7, 2010 .
- ^ USS Constellation, our Oldest Ship
- ^ Howard I. Chapelle, "The history of the American sailing navy", Norton / Bonanza Books New York 1949, ISBN 0-517-00487-9 , page 468
- ^ Dana M. Wegner, Colan Ratliff, Kevin Lynaugh: Fouled Anchors: The Constellation Question Answered . David Taylor Research Center . September 1991. Archived from the original on October 24, 2003. Retrieved on April 5, 2010.
literature
- Howard I. Chapelle, "The history of American sailing ships", Norton / Bonanza Books New York 1935, ISBN 0-517-023326
- Howard I. Chapelle, "The history of the American sailing navy", Norton / Bonanza Books New York 1949, ISBN 0-517-00487-9
- Lloyd, Christopher: Atlas of the history of the sea . Maps and image documents from the beginning to the present. Ed .: Stapleton, Michael. Verlag Gerhard Stalling AG, Oldenburg and Hamburg 1980, ISBN 3-7979-1861-5 .
- Völker, Thies: Lexicon of famous ships . spectacular adventures from Noah's Ark to the Titanic. Eichborn Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2002, ISBN 3-8218-1625-2 .
