"Editor's Note: On May 10, 2022, Naval History and Heritage Command will commemorate the 225th anniversary of the launch of the first of the U.S. Navy's six frigates (United States), which began the new United States Navy. The launch of the frigates is a significant moment in both U.S. Navy and American history, and the U.S. Navy's earliest heroes, achievements, and traditions are part of the six frigates story.
After the close of the American Revolution, trade with foreign countries was vital to the economic recovery of the new United States. Important trading destinations were in and around both the Mediterranean and Caribbean Seas. However, the American Navy had been disbanded after the Revolution and the American merchant fleet sailed unprotected from the late 1780s to the 1790s.
Sweeping the Mediterranean and capturing vessels were the Barbary corsairs, privateers working for the North African states of Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli, and Morocco. U.S. attempts at stemming the depredations on its fleet and their crews included both diplomacy and tribute, with little success. In 1791, the U.S. Senate Committee on Mediterranean Trade concluded that only a navy could protect American shipping in the Mediterranean. In 1793 at least eight American merchant vessels were captured by Algiers. The increasing threat to American ships prompted President George Washington to recommend building a navy. Finally, on March 27, 1794,
"An Act to provide a Naval Armament," was signed by President Washington, bringing to life the new United States Navy.
The frigate
[1] class was determined to be the most cost-effective warship for the new Navy. Joshua Humphreys, a well-known Philadelphia ship-builder and designer was appointed the chief “Naval Constructor” by the U.S. Congress. As Humphreys later wrote:
“As soon as Congress had agreed to build frigates, it was contemplated to make them the most powerful, and, at the same time, the most useful ships. After the most extensive researches, and mature deliberations, [the frigates’] dimensions were fixed, and I was directed to prepare the draughts [drawings].”
[2]
Six frigates, rated to carry either 44 or 36-guns, were built as six private shipyards along the U.S. Atlantic coast. The warships, initially nameless, were known only by letter designations to differentiate one from the other.
[3] Frigate “B” [i.e.
United States] was built at Humphreys’ own yard. Construction progress on the frigates, the largest wooden vessels (either merchant or war ship) yet built in America, was much slower than expected. In late December, 1794 Humphreys optimistically predicted, “The foundation [onto which
United States would be built]…is laid, and one piece of keel [of a three-to-four-piece white oak keel] hauled up. There is every reason to believe this ship may be completed next year.”
[4] Little did Humphreys know that his frigate would not be ready for launch for another two and half years.
On December 15, 1795 Secretary of War Timothy Pickering submitted a progress report on the frigates to the U.S. Senate which included information on
United States:
“The keel is completed and laid on the blocks…The stern frame is complete and ready for raising. About two-thirds of the live oak for the frame is received…The masts, bowsprit, yards, and the other spars, are procured…The copper necessary for…various parts of the ship, and for sheathing the bottom, is in the public stores…All the anchors are procured, and the hemp for the cables and materials is now spinning and preparing…Kentledge for ballast is all cast and delivered; a contract for the treenails has been made, and next month appointed for delivery.”
[5]
This report and similar ones on the other five frigates sound optimistic. Note, however, that Pickering’s statements about materials procurement and construction were made nearly one year
after Humphreys’ predicted December, 1795 launch of
United States. The delays inherent in simultaneously building so many warships of such a large scale seriously impeded construction and the expectations for when the ships would go to sea. A later Congressional report noted five principal reasons for the frigates’ significant delays and cost overruns: the building of the ships in different places; the size of the ships; the quantity of live oak used in construction; the rise in the price of labor and materials; and certain losses and contingencies.
[6] And delays specifically noted in
United States’ construction was that
“The last load of live oak necessary to complete the frame of…
United States did not arrive at the port of Philadelphia until the last of July, 1796; several pieces for other parts of the ship, not for a considerable time after; and the masts…from failures in contracts, were not received before the middle of June, 1797. The yellow fever soon after making its appearance, suspended her final completion.”
[7]
Despite the delays, the great day for launching
United States eventually arrived and May 10, 1797 was set for the event. As described by
The Philadelphia Gazette the following day:
THE LAUNCH.
Yesterday at 5 minutes past one o’clock, the…frigate was launched, from the dockyard of Mr. Joshua Humphreys, in a manner which does great honor to the conductors. The descent from her ways was gradual and uniform and her appearance in the water truly elegant… The…river [was] crowded with vessels of different descriptions and the stages and house tops…were covered with citizens of every age and sex. The entrance of The United States into her destined element was announced by a federal discharge from the artillery and the united felicitations of nearly twenty thousand spectators.[8]
Joshua Humphreys’ own letter of May 11, 1797 did not describe a “gradual and uniform” descent into the Delaware River. He wrote to Secretary of War James McHenry with detailed information about the preparations made for
United States’ launch-ways including the “anchors sunk into the yard in front of the ship” with large cables to restrain the ship until the time of launch. Humphreys continued:
“… at 12 - I gave orders to harding [
sic] in the wedges, in order to take a part of the burthen [burden] of the ship from the wale shores which with the keel would bare the whole weight of the ship…”
Fifty-five carpenters were working directly under the ship, driving the wedges,
“…between the blocking fixed to the bottom and the bilgeway…on each side & to give the ship a solid fixed situation…and to take as much weight as possible off the blocks under the keel that they might be more easily be taken out…”
Humphreys then gave orders for the blocks under the keel to be removed, but,
…before they could all be got out, the ship began to move, which strained the Spurr [
sic] Shores so much as to induce me to believe some accident might possibly happen, under this Idea I thought it most prudent to order the the [
sic] Spurr [
sic] Shores to be taken away and before I could give the word to cut the lashing of the Cables the ship gained considerable way[.] Cap
t. Dale (who commanded on board) very prudently ordered them cut[;]…the ship was left to herself, only to be conducted by her launching ways to her own element, with at least thirty of her workmen under her bottom, who poped [
sic] up as she passed over them, where she safely arrived at One o’clock…
[9]
United States’ rapid, nearly uncontrolled descent down its launch-ways caused the new warship to strike bottom, damaging its false keel (protective “bumper” on the bottom of the keel). Secretary of War McHenry wrote to John Barry,
United States’ captain, on August 30, 1797 expressing that he was “very happy to learn that the Careening business is finished and the damage which the Frigate received in launching completely repaired.”
[10] Careening
United States required the complete removal of all of the ship’s ballast and outfitting equipment that was already on board. Frustratingly, this launching mis-adventure was another set-back to finishing
United States and getting it out to sea.
However, all of the delays were forgotten once the frigate went to sea in mid-summer 1798.
United States was one of several U.S. Navy vessels sent to patrol and convoy the American fleet in the Caribbean against French privateers during the undeclared
Quasi-War with France[M2] . Captain Barry wrote to Joshua Humphreys extolling the sailing qualities of
United States:
“…I now transmit you an account of the sailing qualities of…
United States…No ship [that] ever went to sea steers & works better, and in point of sailing, I have every reason to believe she is equal, if not superior to any ship I ever saw. I have seen nothing that I could not with the greatest ease, outsail, and on a sea, an easier vessel perhaps never spread canvas…”
[11]
And thus began the United States Navy, which for more than 200 years has helped to keep worldwide sea lanes free since the frigate
United States first sailed down the Delaware River and into the Atlantic Ocean in 1798.
[1] A sailing frigate was a ship-rigged warship (three masts, all masts carried square sails on horizontal yards) with its main battery on a single covered gun deck (more guns could be and were emplaced on the upper, uncovered deck).
[2] “The Report of Joshua Humphreys, Naval Constructor, on the progress made in building the Frigates,” December 23, 1794,
American State Papers: Naval Affairs 1: 8.
[3] “A” (Portsmouth, VA) became
Chesapeake; B” (Philadelphia) became
United States; “C” (New York) became
President; “D” (Boston) became
Constitution; “E” (Baltimore) became
Constellation; and “F” (Portsmouth, NH) became
Congress.
[4] “Report of Joshua Humphreys…,” December 23, 1794,
American State Papers 1:9.
[5] Timothy Pickering, “A statement of the progress in providing materials for the frigates, and in building them,” December 12, 1795,
American State Papers: Naval Affairs 1: 18.
[6] James McHenry, “Naval Expenditures, and the Disposition of Materials, Communicated to the House of Representatives,” March 22, 1798,
American States Papers: Naval Affairs 1: 37.
[8] “The Launch,”
The Philadelphia Gazette, May 11, 1797, quoted in Martin I.J. Griffin,
Commodore John Barry, ‘The Father of the American Navy’: The Record of His Services for Our Country (Philadelphia, PA: published by the author, 1903), 317.
[9] Joshua Humphreys to Secretary of War James McHenry, May 11, 1797, Joshua Humphreys letter book volume 2, 1797-1800, Joshua Humphreys papers (Collection 0306), The Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
[10] Secretary of War James McHenry to Captain John Barry, August 30, 1797,
Naval Documents Related to the Quasi-War Between the United States and France 1:16. “Careening” was the difficult and dangerous operation whereby a floating vessel was hauled over onto its side to expose the below-the-waterline hull for work.
[11] Captain John Barry to Joshua Humphreys, September 19, 1798,
Naval Documents… Quasi-War 1:424.