The U.S.S. Constitution
Historic Sail Off Marblehead
Constitution's
first mission, during the late 1790's, was to guard American commerce
in the Caribbean. In 1803 President Thomas Jefferson sent her to the
Mediterraneaan to protect American ships and sailors from Barbary
Pirates. A treaty of peace was signed in June, 1805 between the United
States and Tripoli onboard Constitution. Later she was named
Flagship of the North Atlantic Squadron and in 1810 her new captain,
Isaac Hull, took her to sea. Two years later she met and defeated HMS
Guerriere, the first in a grand succession of victories in the War of
1812. It was during this ferocious battle that a sailor, astonished at
how the British cannonballs were bouncing off Constitution's
hull cried out "Huzzah, her sides are made of iron." Hence the nickname
"Old Ironsides." Her war service ended in 1815. In 1830, a false rumor
about her destruction prompted Oliver Wendell Holmes, then a Harvard
undergraduate, to write his famous poem "Old Ironsides" which is
credited with saving the ship. In 1844 under the command of Captain
John "Mad Jack" Percival, she became the first American warship to
circumnavigate the world. During the Civil War she served as a training
vessel in Newport, Rhode Island for Naval Academy midshipmen.
