Contrary to popular belief, the USS Constellation that floats in Baltimore’s Harbor is not the original 1797 ship that was constructed in Baltimore for a fledging Navy. Our Constellation, was constructed in 1854. She is a sloop-of-war and the second of four United States Navy ships to be named for the constellation of stars in the American flag. According to the US Naval Registry the original frigate (1797) was disassembled on 25 June 1853 in Gosport Navy Yard in Norfolk, Virginia, and the sloop-of-war was constructed in the same yard. The sloop was launched on 26 August 1854 and commissioned on 28 July 1855 with Captain Charles H. Bell in command.
She is the last existing intact naval vessel from the Civil War, and she was the last wind-powered warship built by the US Navy. Despite being a single-gundeck "sloop", she is actually larger than her frigate namesake, and more powerfully armed with fewer but much more potent shell-firing guns.
Characteristics:
Type: Sloop-Of-War
Nickname: “Connie”
Builder: Gosport Navy Yard, Norfolk, Virginia
Laid Down: 25 Jun 1854
Launched: 26 Aug 1854
Commissioned: 28 Jul 1855
Decommissioned: 4 Feb 1955
Length: 199’
Beam: 43’
Displacement: 1,400 Tons
Draft: 21‘
Crew: 20 Officers, 220 Sailors, 45 Marines
Armament: 4 32-Pounder Long Guns, 1 20-Pounder Parrott Rifle, 1 30-Pounder Parrott Rifle, 3 12-Pounder Bronze Boat Howitzers
Fate: Museum Ship
Awards: Civil War Campaign Medal, Spanish Campaign Medal, World War I Victory Medal, American Defense Service Medal, American Campaign Medal, World War II Victory Medal, National Defense Service Medal.
Service Notes:
From 1855–1858 Constellation performed largely diplomatic duties as part of the US Mediterranean Squadron.
She was flagship of the African Squadron from 1859–1861. In this period she disrupted the African slave trade by interdicting three slave ships and releasing the imprisoned Africans.
Constellation spent much of the Civil War as a deterrent to Confederate cruisers and commerce raiders in the Mediterranean Sea.
After the Civil War, Constellation saw various duties such as carrying famine relief stores to Ireland and exhibits to the Paris Exposition Universelle (1878). She also spent a number of years as a receiving ship (floating naval barracks).
After being used as a practice ship for Naval Academy midshipmen, Constellation became a training ship in 1894 for the Naval Training Center in Newport, Rhode Island, where she helped train more than 60,000 recruits during World War I.
Decommissioned in 1933, Constellation was recommissioned as a national symbol in 1940 by President Franklin Roosevelt; by this time the ship had become widely confused with her famous predecessor of 1797. She spent much of the Second World War as relief (i.e. reserve) flagship for the US Atlantic Fleet, but spent the first six months of 1942 as the flagship for Admiral Ernest J. King and Vice Admiral Royal E. Ingersoll.
Constellation was again decommissioned on 4 February 1955, and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 15 August 1955 – about 100 years and two weeks from her first commissioning. She was taken to her permanent berth – Constellation Dock, Inner Harbor at Pier 1, 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.
In 1994 Constellation was condemned as an unsafe vessel. She was towed to a drydock at Fort McHenry in 1996, and her $9 million restoration project was completed in July 1999.
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.
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.
Using the Constellation Model Solve the Puzzle:
N 39 17.Flying Jib - Main Royal - Mizzen Royal
W 076 36.Main Topsail - Main Top Gallant - Main Topsail
Check your solution