USS Constellation (1854)

Civil War

From 1855 to 1858, Constellation performed largely diplomatic duties as part of the U.S. Mediterranean Squadron.

She was flagship of the Africa Squadron from 1859 to 1861. In this period, she took part in African Slave Trade Patrol operations to disrupt the Atlantic slave trade. The ship interdicted three slave ships and released the imprisoned Africans:

Constellation spent much of the war as a deterrent to Confederate cruisers and commerce raiders in the Mediterranean Sea.

Pre–World War I

After the Civil War, Constellation saw various duties such as carrying exhibits to the 1878 Exposition Universelle in Paris and famine relief stores in the 1879 Irish famine. She also spent a number of years as a receiving ship (floating naval barracks).

World War I

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

World War II

Decommissioned in 1933, Constellation was recommissioned as a national symbol in 1940 by President Franklin Roosevelt. Remaining in Newport, she spent much of World War II as relief (i.e. reserve) flagship for the U.S. Atlantic Fleet, but spent the first six months of 1942 as the flagship for Ernest J. King and Vice Admiral Royal E. Ingersoll.

Post-war restoration

In October 1946, Constellation was moved to Boston, where she was kept as a relic with the venerable USS Constitution. She remained in commission until 1954.

She was moved to Baltimore in 1955, and taken to her permanent berth – Constellation Dock, Inner Harbor at Pier 1, 301 East Pratt Street, Baltimore, Maryland and designated a National Historic Landmark on 23 May 1963, and she was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on 15 October 1966. She is the last existing intact naval vessel from the American Civil War, and she was one of the last wind-powered warships built by the U.S. Navy. She has been assigned the hull classification symbol IX-20.

In 1994, Constellation was condemned as an unsafe vessel. She was towed to a drydock at Sparrows Point, near Fort McHenry, in 1996, and a $9 million rebuilding and restoration project was undertaken and completed in July 1999. In an attempt to safeguard the wood planking, the hull from the waterline to the keel was covered in a fiberglass coating and painted an aqua-blue.

On 26 October 2004, Constellation made her first trip out of Baltimore's Inner Harbor since 1955. The trip to the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis lasted six days, and it marked her first trip to Annapolis in 111 years.

In late 2012, it was determined the wood hull behind the fiberglass sheathing (installed during the 1996–98 rebuilding) contained significant rotting. Therefore, the ship was again put in dry dock and, over a 6-month period, was rebuilt with fresh (and chemically treated to resist rotting) wood planking during 2014–2015. The rebuilt ship was returned to her inner harbor berth in late March 2015. Her rigging was completed by May 2015, and she is now again open to the public.

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

The ship is now part of Historic Ships in Baltimore, which also operates the Coast Guard cutter USCGC Taney (WHEC-37), the World War II submarine USS Torsk (SS-423), the lightship Chesapeake, and the Seven Foot Knoll Light. Constellation and her companions are major contributing elements in the Baltimore National Heritage Area.

Identity controversy

Starting shortly after World War II, a controversy arose over whether the 1854 sloop was a new ship or a rebuilt version of the 1797 frigate. Naval architect Howard I. Chapelle was one of the first people to raise the issue. In a 1949 book, he pointed out the differences in the hull dimensions of the 1797 Constellation and the 1854 Constellation, which led him to conclude they were two distinct ships.

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 who favored the theory that the ship traced its lineage to the 1797 original relied on three main points:

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 original frigate—and. In March 1989, researchers Dana M. Wegner and Colan Ratliff from the David Taylor Research Center came upon the builder's half-hull model of Constellation in the U.S. Naval Academy Museum. This was important because half-hull models are only built for new designs, not rebuilds, and the use of half-hull models was not introduced until after 1797.

Besides evaluating the half model, the researchers also reviewed all the evidence used in the debate to date. With the help of FBI and BATF forensics investigators, they concluded that some of the documents supporting the ship being a rebuild were forgeries. In 1991, they published their findings and conclusion that the current Constellation and the original frigate are two different ships.

A more recent and thorough analysis was published by the historian Geoffrey M. Footner in 2003, supporting the assertion that the ship was rebuilt in 1854 but rightfully traces its lineage to 1797.

Awards