USS Constitution Museum Frequently Asked Questions

Additional FAQ Resources

Websites

The Captain’s Clerk – www.polkcounty.org/timonier

Naval History and Heritage Command – http://www.history.navy.mil/

USS Constitution Official Site – http://www.history.navy.mil/ussconstitution/index.html

National Archives – www.archives.gov

Library of Congress – www.loc.gov

Further Reading

First Person Accounts a number of these hard-to-find titles are available through Google books

Brooks, George S., ed. James Durand: An Able Seaman of 1812. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1926.

Evans, Amos. Journal Kept on Board the Frigate Constitution. Lincoln, MA: William D. Sawtell, 1967.

Hawes, Lilla M., ed. “Letters of Henry Gilliam, 1809-1817.” Georgia Historical Quarterly 38 (March, 1954): 46-66.

Jones, George. Sketches of Naval Life, with Notices of Men, Manners and Scenery, on the Shores of the Mediterranean, in a Series of Letters From the Brandywine and Constitution Frigates. 2 vols. New Haven, CT: Hezekiah Howe, 1829.

Leech, Samuel. A Voice From the Main Deck: Being A Record of the Thirty Years’ Adventure of Samuel Leech. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1999.

Martin, Tyrone G. ed. The USS Constitution’s Finest Fight, 1815: The Journal of Acting Chaplin Assheton Humphreys, US Navy. Mount Pleasant, SC: The Nautical & Aviation Publishing Company of America, 2000.

Nordhoff, Charles. Man-of-War Life: A Boy’s Experience in the United States Navy, During a Voyage Around the World in a Ship-of-the-Line. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1985.

Price, Norma Adams. Letters from Old Ironsides 1813-1815, written by Pardon Mawney Whipple, USN. Tempe, AZ: Beverly-Merriam Press, 1984.

Smith, Moses. Naval Scenes in the Last War, Or, Three Years Aboard the Frigates Constitution and Adams, Including the Capture of the Guerrière. Boston: Gleason’s Publishing House, 1846.

Wines, Enoch Cobb. Two Years and a Half in the Navy: Or, Journal of a Cruise on the Mediterranean and Levant on Board of the U.S. Frigate Constellation in the Years 1829, 1830, and 1831. Philadelphia: Carey and Lea, 1832.

General Histories of USS Constitution and War of 1812

Eckert, Edward K. The Navy Department in the War of 1812. Gainsville, FL: University of Florida Press, 1973.

Fowler, William M. Jack Tars & Commodores: The American Navy 1783-1815. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1984.

Gardiner, Robert. The Naval War of 1812. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1999.

Hickey, Donald R. The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1989.

James, William. A Full and Correct Account of the Chief Naval Occurrences of the Late War Between Great Britain and the United States of America. London: T. Egerton, Whitehall, 1817.

Martin, Tyrone G. A Most Fortunate Ship: A Narrative History of Old Ironsides. Revised Edition. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2003.

_____. Undefeated: “Old Ironsides” in the War of 1812. Chapel Hill, NC: Tryon Publishing Co., 1996.

McKee, Christopher. A Gentlemanly and Honorable Profession: The Creation of the U.S. Naval Officer Corps, 1794-1815. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1991.

Life at Sea

Blake, Nicholas. Steering to Glory, A Day in the Life of a Ship of the Line. London: Chatham Publishing, 2005.

Bolster, W. Jeffrey. Black Jacks: African American Seamen in the Age of Sail. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997.

Cordingly, David. Women Sailors and Sailor’s Women. New York: Random House, 2001.

Dye, Ira. “Seafarers of 1812 – A Profile.” Prologue 5, no. 1 (1973): 2-13.

_____. “The Tattoos of Early American Seafarers, 1796-1818.” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 133, no. 4 (1989): 520-554.

Estes, J. Worth. Naval Surgeon: Life and Death at Sea in the Age of Sail. Canton, MA: Science History Publications, 1998.

Lewis, Jon E. Life Before the Mast: Sailors’ Eyewitness Accounts From the Age of Fighting Ships. Edison, NJ: Castle Books, 2002.

MacDonald, Janet. Feeding Nelson’s Navy: The True Story of Food at Sea in the Georgian Era. London: Chatham Publishing, 2004.

Shipbuilding and Seamanship

Caruana, Adrian B. The History of English Sea Ordnance 1523-1875: The Age of the System, 1715-1815. Rotherfield, East Sussex, England: Jean Boudriot Publications, 1997.

Harland, John. Seamanship in the Age of Sail. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1996.

Lavery, Brian. The Arming and Fitting of English Ships of War, 1600-1815. London: Conway Maritime Press, 1987.

Martin, Tyrone G. Creating a Legend. Chapel Hill, NC: Tryon Publishing Company, 1997.

Tucker, Spencer. Arming the Fleet: US Navy Ordnance in the Muzzle-Loading Era. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1989.