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The Constellation & Constitution are almost ready... The ingrate Thomas Paine...
The Constellation & Constitution are almost ready... The ingrate Thomas Paine...
Item # 703582
June 14, 1797
COLUMBIAN CENTINEL, Boston, June 14, 1797
* USS Constitution & Constellation
* United States Navy first warships
A page 2 report notes: "Gen. Smith (of Baltimore)...mentioned that the Constellation frigate, building at that place, would be launched the 4th of July next. The Constitution, building here will be afloat the second week of August--She has upwards of 200 hands constantly at work on her; and such is the forwardness of her masts, sails, rigging, &c. that there is not the least doubt that if she is wanted, that she will be the first ready for active service."
Page 2 also has an interesting report on Thomas Paine attempting to sail back to America from Europe: "...but was laudably refused passage...Should any American commander so much forget his duty as to give him a passage, it is earnestly to be hoped that Paine, on his arrival, for his infamous falsehoods against the characters of Washington and Adams, will be treated by every American with scorn and contempt--while the pointed (finger) silently says, there goes 'an ingrate'...".
Four pages, never-trimmed margins, nice condition.
background: In 1797, the United States launched two of its first and most iconic warships—the USS Constitution and USS Constellation—as part of the Navy’s founding fleet authorized under the Naval Act of 1794. Designed by Joshua Humphreys, these frigates were intended to be fast, heavily armed, and durable enough to take on any equivalent European warship. The USS Constitution, built in Boston and later nicknamed “Old Ironsides,” was a 44-gun heavy frigate constructed with thick live oak timbers that made her exceptionally resilient in battle, famously defeating British ships during the War of 1812. The USS Constellation, a 38-gun frigate launched from Baltimore, gained early fame during the Quasi-War with France, notably for capturing the French frigate L’Insurgente in 1799—the U.S. Navy’s first major victory. Both ships symbolized the emergence of American naval power, combining innovative design with national ambition, and while the original Constellation was later dismantled and replaced in 1854 (a point of historical confusion), the Constitution survives today as the world’s oldest commissioned warship still afloat.
Category: The 1600's and 1700's
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