This cache is not at the listed coordinates! Solve this
puzzle to find the actual coordinates:
In the battle between President and Little Belt,
Little Belt suffered AB killed or wounded.
C = 2 * ( A + B )
N35 38.80C W84 41.30A
The Anchors Aweigh series was placed in honor of the men of the
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is dedicated to one of the warships involved in battle. If you find
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Because of the difficulty in finding suitable locations for some
of the caches, some puzzle caches were used so that the find icon
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USS President
USS President was a nominally rated 44-gun wooden-hulled,
three-masted heavy frigate of the United States Navy. She was named
by George Washington to reflect a principle of the United States
Constitution. She was launched in April 1800 from a shipyard in New
York City. President was one of the original six frigates
whose construction the Naval Act of 1794 had authorized, and she
was the last to be completed.
Chesapeake - 38 guns - constructed at Gosport,
Virginia
Constitution - 44 guns - constructed at Boston,
Massachusetts
President - 44 guns - constructed at New York, New
York
United States - 44 guns - constructed at Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania
Congress - 36 guns - constructed at Portsmouth, New
Hampshire
Constellation - 36 guns - constructed at Baltimore,
Maryland
Joshua Humphreys designed these frigates to be the young Navy's
capital ships, and so President and her sisters were larger
and more heavily armed and built than standard frigates of the
period. Her first duties with the newly formed United States Navy
were to provide protection for American merchant shipping during
the Quasi War with France and to defeat the Barbary pirates in the
First Barbary War.
On 16 May 1811, President was at the center of the
Little Belt Affair; her crew mistakenly identified HMS
Little Belt as HMS Guerriere, which had impressed an
American seaman. The ships exchanged cannon fire for several
minutes. Subsequent U.S. and Royal Navy investigations placed
responsibility for the attack on each other without a resolution.
The incident contributed to tensions between the U.S. and Great
Britain that led to the War of 1812.
During the war, President made several extended cruises,
patrolling as far away as the English Channel and Norway; she
captured the armed schooner HMS Highflyer and numerous
merchant ships. In January 1815, after having been blockaded in New
York for a year by the Royal Navy, President engaged the
frigate HMS Endymion off the coast of the city. She was
captured soon afterward by a British squadron, and the Royal Navy
placed her into their service as HMS President until she was
broken up in 1818. President's design was copied and used to
build the next HMS President in 1829.
Little Belt Affair
In 1807, the Chesapeake-Leopard Affair heightened
tensions between the United States and Britain. In preparation for
further hostilities, Congress began authorizing naval
appropriations, and President recommissioned in 1809 under
the command of Commodore John Rodgers. She made routine and
uneventful patrols, mainly along the United States' eastern
seaboard, until 1 May 1811, when the British frigate HMS
Guerriere stopped the American brig Spitfire 18 miles
(29 km) from New York and impressed a crewman.
Rodgers received orders to pursue Guerriere, and
President sailed immediately from Fort Severn on 10 May. On
16 May, approximately 40 miles (64 km) northeast of Cape Henry, a
lookout spotted a sail on the horizon. Closing to investigate,
Rodgers determined the sail belonged to a warship, and raised
signal flags to identify his ship. The unidentified ship, later
learned to be HMS Little Belt—a 20-gun sixth
rate—hoisted signal flags in return, but the hoist was not
understood by President's crew. Little Belt sailed
southward and Rodgers, believing the ship to be Guerriere,
pursued.
Darkness set in before the ships were within hailing distance,
and Rodgers hailed twice, only to have the same question returned
to him: "What ship is that?" According to Rodgers, immediately
after the exchange of hails, Little Belt fired a shot that
tore through President's rigging. Rodgers returned fire.
Little Belt promptly answered with three guns, and then a
whole broadside. Rodgers ordered his gun crews to fire at will;
several accurate broadsides heavily damaged Little Belt in
return. After five minutes of firing, President's crew
realized their adversary was much smaller than a frigate and
Rodgers ordered a cease fire. However, Little Belt fired
again and President answered with more broadsides. After
Little Belt became silent, President stood off and
waited overnight. At dawn it was obvious that Little Belt
was greatly damaged from the fight; Rodgers sent a boat over from
President to offer assistance in repairing the damage. Her
Captain, Arthur Bingham, acknowledged the damage; declining any
help, he sailed to Halifax, Nova Scotia. President had one
sailor slightly wounded in the exchange, while Little Belt
suffered 31 killed or wounded.
Upon President's return to port, the U.S. Navy launched
an investigation into the incident. Gathering testimony from
President's officers and crewmen, they determined that
Little Belt had fired the first shot in the encounter. In
the Royal Navy investigation, Captain Bingham insisted that
President had fired the first shot and continued firing for
45 minutes, rather than the five minutes Rodgers claimed. In all
subsequent reports, both captains continually insisted that the
other ship had fired the first shot. Reaching a stalemate, the
American and British governments quietly dropped the matter.