Editor’s note: On May 10, 2022, Naval History and Heritage Command announced its commemoration of the 225th anniversary of the launch of the first of the U.S. Navy’s six frigates, which began the new United States Navy, including: United States (launched May 10, 1797), Constellation (September 7, 1797), Constitution (October 21, 1797), Congress (August 15, 1799), Chesapeake (December 2, 1799), and President (April 10, 1800).
The U.S. Congress, through the Constitution of the United States of America (1787), received the power to raise money “[t]o provide and maintain a Navy…”
[1] However, by the mid-1790s, even after the capture of several American merchant ships and their crews in the Mediterranean, some members of Congress believed that the costs of constructing, outfitting, and manning warships would entail large expenditures and ever-increasing taxes.
To counteract opposition to the “Act to provide a Naval Armament” (better known as the “Naval Armament Act”) which would establish a new navy for the United States, a new amendment, Section 9, stated:
“…That if a peace shall take place between the United States and the Regency
of Algiers, that no farther proceeding be had under this act.”
[2]
The amendment satisfied Naval Armament opponents; construction materials were gathered, and the creation of the U. S. Navy was underway.
Josiah Fox was hired in 1794 by the U. S. War Department (there was no Navy Department) as a clerk to assist Joshua Humphreys, the frigates’ designer, with drafting plans of the six warships. In May 1795, Fox was named assistant constructor for “Frigate D,” later named
Chesapeake,
[3] in Norfolk, Virginia; he was later promoted to full constructor. Secretary of War Timothy Pickering’s progress report on December 12
th noted that “the keel [of
Chesapeake] is completed and laid on the blocks”
[4] and that several sections of the warship were completed as well.
The “Treaty between Algiers and the United States,” drafted on September 5, 1795 established peace and was signed by President Washington on March 7, 1796. In accordance with the Section 9 amendment, the president wrote to Congress on March 15, 1796:
“The peace which is here contemplated having taken place [between the
United States and Algiers], it is incumbent upon the [president] to suspend
all orders respecting the building of the frigates…”
Construction on the frigates stopped. Washington’s letter also carried a caution,
“But, …the loss which the public would incur might be considerable from
the dissipation of workmen, …I have, therefore, thought it advisable, …to
submit the subject to the Senate and House of Representatives, that such
measures may be adopted… as may best comport with the public interest.”
[5]
The congressional committee to whom the president’s letter was referred decided:
“…it will be expedient to authorize the President of the United States to cause
to be completed, with all convenient expedition, two of the said frigates of
forty-four, and one of thirty-six guns.”
[6]
Construction on
United States (44),
Constellation (36), and
Constitution (44) continued; each was launched in 1797. Building on
Congress, Chesapeake, and
President was suspended, for the moment.
By spring of 1798, tensions again rose with Algiers, and, in addition, a new front opened in the Caribbean where American merchant vessels clashed with French privateers sailing for revolutionary France. The U.S. Navy needed more ships. The Congressional committee that had authorized President Washington to complete three frigates in 1796 also provided,
“[t]hat a discretionary power be committed to the President of the United States
to cause the others [frigates] to be finished…”
[7]
With the “discretionary power” given to now President John Adams and the tensions between the U.S. and France, which became the un-declared “Quasi-War,” the building of the last frigates was re-started. Benjamin Stoddert, first Secretary of the Navy, promoted the swift construction of
Congress,
Chesapeake, and
President.
Congress was successfully launched on August 15, 1799, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
[8]
Stoddert suggested to Fox that
Chesapeake’s size be reduced to hasten its construction. Fox obliged, abandoning the keel laid in 1795: “the old keel was thrown off the blocks and an entirely new [and smaller] one laid down and the stern raised.”
[9] Its keel, measuring only 127 feet 5 inches made it the smallest of the frigates.
Constellation (36) and
Congress (36) had 136-foot keels; the large 44-gun frigates had keels between 145 and 150 feet. The shorter keel and overall length could have negatively affected
Chesapeake’s speed, for a longer vessel length potentially made for a swift ship; speed was one of the design ideals for the frigates.
[10] In his “Report of Secretary of War concerning Construction of Frigates…” Henry Knox clearly outlined:
“…the vessels should combine such qualities of strength, durability, swiftness
of sailing, and force, as to render them equal, if not superior, to any frigates
belonging to any of the European Powers.”
[11]
Chesapeake’s launch was set for December 1, 1799. The day was “extremely cold” and with the
"tallow [grease] on [Chesapeake's] ways being frozen...the Constructor,
Mr. Fox, after having knocked away the [supporting] shores,
and the blocks being removed from under her, finding
she started and went a few feet but slowly thought it most prudent
to secure the ship and wait a more favorable opportunity..."
December 2
nd was more favorable and at one-thirty in the afternoon,
“in the presence of a great concourse of people, was safely launched into her
element the United States frigate
Chesapeake…”
[12]
The new frigate came to rest, floating in six fathoms – 36 feet – of water. The local newspaper,
The Norfolk Herald went on to boast,
“The
Chesapeake’s keel was laid on the 10
th of December last [1798]; two
hundred and sixty-five working days only have been taken to complete her....
As to the mould [shape], strength and beauty of the frigate, we shall not be
afraid to have even the eye of prejudice to pass on them its judgement.”
[13]’s service in the Quasi-War with France and the first Barbary War against Tripoli in North Africa was undistinguished. Then, in June 1807, during rising tensions over “Free Trade and Sailors’ Rights” with Great Britain,
Chesapeake was stopped by HMS
Leopard with the request to surrender four British Navy deserters.
Chesapeake’s captain, James Barron, refused to comply with Capt. Salusbury Humphreys’ demand to muster the crew. Angered, Humphreys opened fired on the unprepared
Chesapeake officers and sailors. Three were killed outright and eighteen were wounded, including Barron. The suspected Royal Navy deserters were removed from
Chesapeake and Capt. Barron and crew, who got off only one shot, were humiliated by the episode.
One year into the War of 1812, James Lawrence was the new captain of
Chesapeake. Less than two weeks into his assignment and with several officers and crew who were also new to the warship, Lawrence sailed from Boston on June 1, 1813 with the knowledge that Capt. Philip Broke and HMS
Shannon were hovering outside the harbor. Broke had commanded
Shannon for seven years and his crew were battle hardened. Within pistol shot of each other, the two frigates opened fire, but
Shannon’s fire was devastatingly accurate and deadly. Early on
Chesapeake’s rigging was badly damaged and the wheel was shot away, killing three men. Lawrence was wounded twice - the second shot a mortal one. First Lieutenant Augustus Ludlow was also mortally wounded. Broke led his own boarding party:
“Our gallant [boarders]… immediately rushed in under their respective
Officers, upon the Enemys [sic] Decks driving every thing [sic] before
them with irresistable [sic] fury. –the Enemy made a desperate, but
disorderly Resistance…”
[14]
In fifteen minutes,
Chesapeake’s flag was lowered within sight of spectators on the hills around Boston. Capt. Philip Broke and HMS
Shannon were victorious again. “Don’t give up the ship,” Capt. James Lawrence’s dying words, became an immortal rallying cry of the U.S. Navy.
USS
Chesapeake, as HMS
Chesapeake, had a very brief Royal Navy career. When sold in 1819, structural parts of the American warship became the interior of the 1820-built “Chesapeake Mill,” a flour mill in Wickham, England that today is an antiques market.
[2] “An Act to provide a Naval Armament,” Third Congress. Sess. I. Ch. 12.
[3] William Rush, famed Philadelphia ship carver was hired to create figurehead designs for the six frigates. He had difficulties imagining the name “Chesapeake” as a carving; Humphreys noted in his 14 May 1795 letter to Timothy Pickering: “[Rush]…suggested, the idea of calling one [frigate] the Revolution; as it is intended only to apply to our glorious revolution, I should suppose it might be adapted without creating improper revolutionary principles…”.
Papers of the War Department,
https://wardepartmentpapers.org; the name
Chesapeake remained and by the War of 1812, if not earlier, its bow carving was a simple billethead scroll.
[4] Timothy Pickering, “A statement of the progress in providing materials for the frigates, and in building them,”
Naval Documents Related to the United States Wars with the Barbary Powers, December 12, 1795, I:124.
[5] George Washington, “Communicated to Congress, March 15, 1796.”
Naval Documents…Barbary Powers, I:139.
[6] [William Bingham], “Communicated to the Senate, March 17, 1796.”
Naval Documents…Barbary Powers, I:139.
[9] Josiah Fox to Benjamin Stoddert, 8 January 1799, quoted in Merle Westlake,
Josiah Fox, 1763-1847 (California: Xlibris Corporation, 2003), 49.
[10] In fact, Captain Thomas Truxtun of USS
President who sailed in concert with
Chesapeake in the Caribbean noted in his log several times when
President’s speed was matched or over-matched with
Chesapeake’s; November 5, 1800: “Tried our Sailing with the
Chesapeake, & we beat her.”
Naval Documents…Quasi-War…, VI:522; 27 January 1801: “Came up with the
Chesapeake & left her in Our Wake.”
Naval Documents…Quasi-War…, VII:107; 30 January 1801: “Find very little difference between our Sailing and the
Chesapeake’s.”
Naval Documents…Quasi-War…, VII:111.
President was a large 44-gun frigate with a longer waterline and a taller rig than
Chesapeake, so it is not surprising to learn that it outsailed the smaller frigate, but
Chesapeake, under favorable conditions, appears to have been able to keep up with its larger compatriot.
[11] Henry Knox, “Report of Secretary of War concerning Construction of Frigates under the Act of 27 March 1794, communicated to the House of Representatives, 29 December 1794,”
Naval Documents…Barbary Powers, I:90.
[12] The Norfolk Herald, “THE LAUNCH,” 3 December 1799,
Naval Documents…Quasi-War…, IV:472.
[14] Philip Broke to Thomas Bladen Capel, 6 June 1813,
The Naval War of 1812, A Documentary History, Volume II, 1813, II:129,
<p>The Naval War of 1812, Volume II</p>. See editor’s note to this letter discussing the probability that Broke did not compose or write the letter due to his severe battle injuries; the editor offers suggestions from historians as to the letter’s actual authors.