The USS Constitution: a most fortunate ship

USS Constitution in her home port of Boston, October 2010

It was 206 years ago this month that Congress declared war on the United Kingdom, marking the start of the War of 1812.

What followed was a conflict that fails to stir the blood when we look back on it, even though the war gave us what later became our national anthem. Maybe our indifference stems from the fact that this inconclusive war had plenty of low points, including a British invasion of Washington, D.C., and three failed American assaults on Canada.

As historian Don Hickey told the Christian Science Monitor on the war's 200th anniversary in 2012: “It's forgotten because the causes don't resonate much today. We went to war to force the British to give up the removal of seamen from our ships and restrictions on our trade with Europe. Nowadays, nobody goes to war to uphold maritime rights. And to confuse the issue of causes, we invaded Canada.”

Yet the War of 1812 had its inspiring moments, thanks in large part to the accomplishments of the U.S. Navy, on Lake Erie and at sea. And there was no greater player in that drama than the USS Constitution, “Old Ironsides,” a Boston-based frigate that is now the world’s oldest commissioned naval vessel still afloat.

Constitution was built in Boston and launched in 1797. By the time the War of 1812 broke out, the 44-gun ship “had already won all of her engagements" in the Quasi War with France (1798-1801) and the Barbary Wars (1801-1805), according to www.history.navy.mil.

“During the War of 1812, to the surprise of both the Americans and the British, she defeated four English warships, earning each of her three captains a congressional gold medal,” the web site notes. “Upon returning to Boston from each victory at sea, the ship and her sailors were honored with parades and public adoration, and her legend grew into the national icon that ‘Old Ironsides’ remains to this day.”

The site explains that the Constitution’s victories had little impact on the course of the war because the British fleet was so large, but as Tyrone G. Martin wrote in A Most Fortunate Ship, a history of the Constitution: “What Constitution did accomplish was to uplift American morale spectacularly and, in the process, end forever the myth that the Royal Navy was invincible.”

One of Constitution’s greatest victories, and the one that earned her her nickname, occurred on Aug. 19, 1812, when the frigate, which was then outfitted with 55 guns, encountered the 44-gun HMS Guerrière off the coast of Nova Scotia.

“Closing the distance of several miles between the two warships, HMS Guerrière raised three British ensigns as an invitation to a duel,” www.history.navy.mil explains. “USS Constitution’s Capt. Isaac Hull answered with four American ensigns.”

During the 35-minute battle that followed, a sailor observed British cannonballs bouncing off the Constitution’s 25-inch oak hull. “Huzza!” he cried out. “Her sides are made of iron!” 

The Constitution’s 24-pound shots were devastating, and the British captain surrendered. Once the Guerrière’s officers and crew were removed from her, the Constitution set her ablaze.

“It is not merely that an English frigate has been taken, after, what we are free to confess, may be called a brave resistance, but that it has been taken by a new enemy, an enemy unaccustomed to such triumphs, and likely to be rendered insolent and confident by them,” the London Times wrote once news of the battle reached Britain. “Never before in the history of the world did an English frigate strike to an American.”

HMS Guerrière and the USS Constitution, a painting by Anton Otto Fischer