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1 Overview of USS Constitution Re-Builds & Restorations USS
Overview of USS Constitution Re-builds & Restorations USS Constitution has undergone numerous “re-builds”, “re-fits”, “over hauls”, or “restorations” throughout her more than 218-year career. As early as 1801, she received repairs after her first sortie to the Caribbean during the Quasi-War with France. In 1803, six years after her launch, she was hove-down in Boston at May’s Wharf to have her underwater copper sheathing replaced prior to sailing to the Mediterranean as Commodore Edward Preble’s flagship in the Barbary War. In 1819, Isaac Hull, who had served aboard USS Constitution as a young lieutenant during the Quasi-War and then as her first War of 1812 captain, wrote to Stephen Decatur: “…[Constitution had received] a thorough repair…about eight years after she was built – every beam in her was new, and all the ceilings under the orlops were found rotten, and her plank outside from the water’s edge to the Gunwale were taken off and new put on.”1 Storms, battle, and accidents all contributed to the general deterioration of the ship, alongside the natural decay of her wooden structure, hemp rigging, and flax sails. The damage that she received after her War of 1812 battles with HMS Guerriere and HMS Java, to her masts and yards, rigging and sails, and her hull was repaired in the Charlestown Navy Yard. Details of the repair work can be found in RG 217, “4th Auditor’s Settled Accounts, National Archives”. Constitution’s overhaul of 1820-1821, just prior to her return to the Mediterranean, saw the Charlestown Navy Yard carpenters digging shot out of her hull, remnants left over from her dramatic 1815 battle against HMS Cyane and HMS Levant. -
To the Shores of Tripoli: Greek Soldiers and the American
To the Shores of Tripoli Greek Soldiers and the American-Tripolitan War of 1801-1805 By Harry Psomiades, Ph.D. This is the story of the first Greek contingent to participate in an Amer- ment of perpetual peace between the ican war and of the success of Greek-American arms at Derne, Tripoli two governments. It recognized in1805. It is also the story of William Eaton, a long forgotten American William Eaton as "General and Com- hero; and of timid men and a miserly Congress acquiescing to the threats of mander in chief of the land forces, minor potentates. which are, or may be, called into serv- ice against the common enemy." In May 1801, Joseph Pasha of peace with Tripoli seemed to escape Article V of the convention was in- Tripoli (Libya), feeling that he was all of our efforts. However, the tide teresting in that it betrayed Eaton's not receiving enough tribute money was finally turned with the extraor- Yankee trader background and was ($83,000 a year), declared war on dinary exploits of a former army of- contrary to the theoretical American the United States. Until then, the new ficer named William Eaton, Ameri- attitude toward the world community. American state had paid almost $2 can consul at Tunis. It obliged Hamet to reimburse Amer- million, one-fifth of its annual rev- Eaton was convinced that the war ican expenditures in restoring him to enue, to the Barbary states of Tunis, would not end with blockade and the "throne" from tribute paid to Tripoli, Algiers, and Morocco—either Tripoli by Denmark, Sweden, and the bombardments and persuaded Presi- to ransom American prisoners or in dent Thomas Jefferson and the new Batavian Republic! return for permitting American mer- U.S. -
The Life of Silas Talbot, a Commodore in the Navy of the United States
•' %/ .i o LIFE OF TALBOT THE LIFE OF SILAS TALBOT COMMODORE IN THE NAVY OF THE UNITED STATES, BY HENRY T. TUCKERMAN. NEW-YORK: I C. RIKER, 129 FULTON-STREET. 1850. ETgoT Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1850, by H. T. TUCKERMAN, in the Clerk's Office of the Southern District of New-York. John F. Trow, Printer, 49 Ann-st., N. Y. PREFACE The following memoir was intended for the series of American Biography edited by- President Sparks. Owing to the suspension of that valuable work, and at the suggestion of its accomplished editor, the present sketch appears in a separate volume. In preparing it, I have been actuated by a desire to ren- der justice to a highly efficient and patriotic American officer, and, at the same time, to preserve some of the incidents and corre- spondence which belong to that period of our country's annals, to which the flight of time only adds new significance and interest. There has been manifest, until within a few 1* VI PREFACE. years, a singular indifference to the histori- cal and biographical details of our revolu- tionary era ; and an absence of that cordial recognition of individual merit in some of the chief actors of that great drama, which confirm, not only the proverbial charge of ingratitude against republics, but justify De Tocqueville's theory with regard to their exclusive devotion to the immediate, and their peculiar insensibility to the lessons of the past. The difficulty experienced in ob- taining many of the facts in this brief and imperfect sketch, as well as the original documents requisite to authenticate them, is sufficient evidence of the forgetfulness and neglect to which the records of American public characters are liable. -
The United States Navy Looks at Its African American Crewmen, 1755-1955
“MANY OF THEM ARE AMONG MY BEST MEN”: THE UNITED STATES NAVY LOOKS AT ITS AFRICAN AMERICAN CREWMEN, 1755-1955 by MICHAEL SHAWN DAVIS B.A., Brooklyn College, City University of New York, 1991 M.A., Kansas State University, 1995 AN ABSTRACT OF A DISSERTATION submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of History College of Arts and Sciences KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY Manhattan, Kansas 2011 Abstract Historians of the integration of the American military and African American military participation have argued that the post-World War II period was the critical period for the integration of the U.S. Navy. This dissertation argues that World War II was “the” critical period for the integration of the Navy because, in addition to forcing the Navy to change its racial policy, the war altered the Navy’s attitudes towards its African American personnel. African Americans have a long history in the U.S. Navy. In the period between the French and Indian War and the Civil War, African Americans served in the Navy because whites would not. This is especially true of the peacetime service, where conditions, pay, and discipline dissuaded most whites from enlisting. During the Civil War, a substantial number of escaped slaves and other African Americans served. Reliance on racially integrated crews survived beyond the Civil War and the abolition of slavery, only to succumb to the principle of “separate but equal,” validated by the Supreme Court in the Plessy case (1896). As racial segregation took hold and the era of “Jim Crow” began, the Navy separated the races, a task completed by the time America entered World War I. -
Draft Chapter
Ocean Special Area Management Plan Chapter 4: Cultural and Historic Resources Table of Contents 400 Introduction ......................................................................................................................3 410 Historic Contexts and Cultural Landscapes of the Ocean SAMP Area .......................4 410.1 Pre-Contact Geological History............................................................................5 410.2 Narragansett Tribal History.................................................................................6 410.3 European Exploration and Colonial Settlement Landscape Context .............16 410.4 Post-Colonial Cultural Landscape Context.......................................................18 410.5 Military Landscape Context ...............................................................................21 410.6 Fisheries Landscape Context ..............................................................................31 410.6.1 Rhode Island Fisheries.............................................................................31 410.6.2 Fishing and Subsistence on Block Island.................................................33 410.6.3 Historic Shipwrecks of Fishing Vessels ..................................................34 410.6.4 Historic Harbor Features..........................................................................35 410.7 Marine Transportation and Commercial Landscape Context ........................35 410.8 Recreation and Tourism Landscape Context....................................................38 -
Black Sailors During the War of 1812 Lauren Mccormack, 2005 Revised by Kate Monea and Carl Herzog, 2020
Black Sailors During the War of 1812 Lauren McCormack, 2005 Revised by Kate Monea and Carl Herzog, 2020 A publication of the USS Constitution Museum, Boston © 2020 USS Constitution Museum | usscm.org Black Sailors During the War of 1812 Lauren McCormack, 2005 Revised by Kate Monea and Carl Herzog, 2020 CONTENTS Introduction .............................................................1 Free Blacks in the Post-Revolutionary American North ........................2 Free Blacks in Boston, Massachusetts ........................................5 Black Participation in the Maritime Trade ....................................7 Life at Sea for Black Sailors in the early United States Navy ....................10 Black Sailors on USS Constitution ..........................................17 A publication of the USS Constitution Museum, Boston © 2020 USS Constitution Museum | usscm.org Introduction At the beginning of the nineteenth century, free black men from the northeastern United States, struggling to make their way in a highly discriminatory American society, went to sea in the merchant marine and the U.S. Navy, including aboard USS Constitution. By no means did shipboard life completely extract them from the prejudices of a white-dominated culture, but it often provided them with better opportunities than they had on land. Like their fellow white sailors, black seamen in the Early Republic could count on stable pay with the benefit of room and board. For many, sea service and its pay provided a path to a better life ashore. Because race was not specifically noted in U.S. Navy personnel records at the time, much remains unknown about these men. However, a survey of the status of life for free blacks on shore sheds light on why some may have found seafaring an attractive opportunity. -
The New Navy and America's Rise As a World Power, 1880-1919
THE NEW NAVY AND AMERICA'S RISE AS A WORLD POWER, 1880-1919 A Report of a Senior Study by Michael Arpino Major: History Maryville College Spring Term, 2012 Date approved ____________, by _______________________ Faculty Supervisor Date approved ____________, by _______________________ Division Chair Abstract The years between 1880 and 1919 witnessed the rise of the United States as a respected world power driven by a world class New Navy. This thesis provides a survey of historical events outlining this development set against the greater context of national and international events during this period. By tracing the course of these events from the pre-history of the New Navy, through the Spanish-American War, to the First World War and beyond, this thesis demonstrates the application of Mahanian principles to Naval history and America's emergence as a power. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Introduction The Establishment of the United States Navy and its Role 1 Chapter I The Genesis of the New Navy and Alfred Mahan 4 Chapter II The Spearhead of American Imperialism 21 Chapter III Big Stick Diplomacy and the Seeds of the American Superpower 34 Conclusion Mahan's Enduring Specter: Trade, Warfare, and the Role of the Navy into the Future 54 Bibliography 59 INTRODUCTION THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY AND ITS ROLE On August 26, 1775, amid the background of Revolution and War that was spreading across the colonies, the Rhode Island General Assembly recorded their decision to commission a fleet of ships to “preserv[e]... the lives, liberties, and property of the good people of these Colonies.”1 The first ship to fill this role had been hired two days previously. -
H. Doc. 108-222
Biographies 589 crat to the Seventy-third and Seventy-fourth Congresses 16, 1831; attended the common schools and was graduated (March 4, 1933-January 3, 1937); was not a candidate for from Keene (N.H.) Academy; moved to Wisconsin in 1853 renomination, but was a successful candidate for Governor and settled near Beloit, Rock County; engaged in agricul- of Montana and served in that office from January 4, 1937, tural pursuits; elected alderman and was a member of the until January 6, 1941; resumed his ranching activities; died first city council of Beloit; unsuccessful Democratic candidate in Lewistown, Mont., May 23, 1955; interment in Lewistown for election in 1880 to the Forty-seventh Congress; appointed City Cemetery. postmaster of Beloit by President Cleveland on August 2, 1886, and served until August 17, 1889, when a successor AYRES, Steven Beckwith, a Representative from New was appointed; appointed secretary of the State agricultural York; born in Fort Dodge, Iowa, October 27, 1861; moved society of Wisconsin in 1885 and served until 1899; elected with his parents to Elmira, N.Y., in 1866; attended the as a Democrat to the Fifty-second Congress (March 4, 1891- grammar school; moved to Penn Yan, N.Y., in 1873; at- March 3, 1893); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1892 tended the Penn Yan Academy and was graduated from to the Fifty-third Congress; retired from public life and ac- Syracuse (N.Y.) University, in 1882; engaged in the pub- tive business pursuits and resided in Beloit, Wis., until his lishing business at Penn Yan and was editor of the Yates death there on March 11, 1907; interment in the Protestant County Chronicle; delegate to the Republican State conven- Cemetery. -
A Friendship Under Fire
Volume 3, Issue 6 I A Newsletter for the Supporters of the Hampton Roads Naval Museum A Friendship Under Fire The Confrontation Between Stephen Decatur and James Barron, Part 1 by Joe Mosier n March 22, 1820, two of the Tragically, the meeting could have been former friends. They had first served senior officers of the United avoided except for the manipulations of together in the wardroom of United States OStates Navy met on "the field of two other officers who acted as seconds. in 1798. Their later correspondence honor" at Bladensburg, Maryland. This The meeting between James Barron shows Third Lieutenant Barron acted as duel was the result of a long-standing and Stephen Decatur was in some a mentor to the new midshipman. Their feud based on an insult to a lady and respects not typical. Christopher McKee paths had crossed frequently in the small a naval battle that was not fought. pointed this out in his landmark study of navy of that era. In 1804, Decatur the early U.S. Navy, A Gentlemanly and Honorable Profession. "In spite of the misleading impression created by the Barron-Decatur duel, the practice of dueling was all but entirely confmed to the younger members of the officer corps." At the time of their confrontation, Barron was 51 years old and Decatur 41. By contrast, twelve of eighteen officers killed in duels before 1815 were midshipmen. This trend had worried Decatur, who was himself probably the most experienced in dueling among naval officers of his day. In 1809, while While respected by all in Hampton Roads, the Decatur commanded the frigate United One of the greatest heroes of the U.S. -
Washington's Presidency
The Federalist Presidential Administrations (1789-1801) The First Electoral College As of December 15th, 1788, 11 of the Original Thirteen States had ratified the Constitution (Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina, New Hampshire, Virginia, New York) and thus were eligible to select Electors for the election of the First President of the United States. Sixty-Nine electors were appointed from 10 states (New York failed to appoint electors in time) Breakdown of the First Electoral College State # of Electors How Appointed state divided into electoral districts and electors Delaware 3 elected by public in districts Pennsylvania 10 elected by voters statewide New Jersey 6 Appointed by State Legislature Georgia 5 Appointed by State Legislature Connecticut 7 Appointed by State Legislature 2 chosen by state legislature, rest chosen from Massachusetts 10 leading vote receivers in each Congressional District Maryland 6 elected by voters statewide South Carolina 7 Appointed by State Legislature New Hampshire 5 elected by voters statewide state divided into electoral districts and electors Virginia 10 elected by public in districts Appointed by State Legislature (but the New York 0 Legislature was deadlocked, and so no one was chosen in time) The First Election Electors voted for two individuals on the ballot (for 138 total votes cast), and with no campaigning, the electors could vote for whomever they felt would do a good job in this unprecedented position. The results were as follows: -
Adair, John]: MANUSCRIPT WRIT DATED APRIL 29, 1799
Item No. 1 Crockett Flees the Jurisdiction! 1. [Adair, John]: MANUSCRIPT WRIT DATED APRIL 29, 1799. JOHN ADAIR COMPLAINS THAT JOHN CROCKETT HAS FLED THE COUNTY, OWING ADAIR ONE HUNDRED GUINEAS. JUSTICE OF THE PEACE GABRIEL SLAUGHTER ORDERS THE SHERIFF OF MERCER COUNTY, WHERE BOTH ADAIR AND CROCKETT RESIDE, TO SEIZE CROCKETT'S ESTATE TO PAY THE DEBT. [Mercer County, KY: April 29, 1799]. Folio, single leaf 7.5" x 12.5", partly untrimmed. Completely in neat ink manuscript, signed by Gabl. Slaughter, docketed on verso. Light age toning, old folds. Very Good. John Adair [1757-1840], eighth Governor of Kentucky, fought in the Northwest Indian War, was a United States Congressman and a delegate to Kentucky's Constitutional Conventions of 1792 and 1799. Suspected of complicity with Aaron Burr, he lost his bid for a full term in the U.S. Senate in 1806; Adair was later acquitted. [Kleber: KENTUCKY ENCYCLOPEDIA, 1992.] Gabriel Slaughter [1767-1830], born in Culpeper County Virginia, moved to Kentucky in 1791. He was a Justice of the Peace of Mercer County and Kentucky's seventh Governor from 1816-1820. [Id. 825.] John Crockett belonged to the Kentucky branch of the Crockett family [Davy Crockett's father was a different John Crockett]. $500.00 Item No. 2 The Thriving, Illegal African Slave Trade 2. [African Slave Trade]: CORRESPONDENCE WITH SPAIN, PORTUGAL, BRAZIL, THE NETHERLANDS, SWEDEN, AND THE ARGENTINE CONFEDERATION, RELATIVE TO THE SLAVE TRADE. FROM JANUARY 1 TO DECEMBER 31, 1841, INCLUSIVE. PRESENTED TO BOTH HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT BY COMMAND OF HER MAJESTY, 1842. London: Printed by William Clowes and Sons, 1842. -
THE MODERNIZATION of the OTTOMAN NAVY DURING the REIGN of SULTAN ABDÜLAZİZ (1861-1876) By
THE MODERNIZATION OF THE OTTOMAN NAVY DURING THE REIGN OF SULTAN ABDÜLAZİZ (1861-1876) by DİLARA DAL A thesis submitted to The University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies Department of Classics, Ancient History and Archaeology College of Arts and Law The University of Birmingham April, 2015 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. ABSTRACT The main focus of this study is to examine the modernization of the Ottoman navy during the reign of Sultan Abdülaziz, exploring naval administration, education, and technology. Giving a summary of the transformation of shipbuilding technologies and bureaucratic institutions of the Ottoman naval forces between 1808 and 1861, it analyses the structure of the Ottoman navy, its level of development in comparison to previous periods of time, and the condition of the vessels making up the naval fleet from 1861 to 1876. It also intends to evaluate the character of existing administrative structures at the outset of Abdülaziz’s reign in 1861 and the nature of subsequent changes, including structural reorganization of the Imperial Naval Arsenal, the Ministry of Marine, and the Naval Academy, as well as advancements in military training and seafaring; all within the context of the impact of these changes on the military, political, and economic condition of the Empire during the reign of Sultan Abdülaziz.