John Blackshoe Sends: Serendipity History - Connies and the Military, Part One

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Editor's Note: Okay, I encouraged him to chime in from time to time, so he did. Another nice bit of prose from our own independent, unpaid, correspondent on des affaires navales, John Blackshoe. This is the first of two parts. Take it away JB ...

Haunted by Sarge’s lamentations about nothing to post, I pondered about something passably fit for family consumption. No politics, no creepy clowns¹, no math required, non-fattening and FREE! In a fit of desperation Sarge might decide to post this, or not.

So, listen up, this is no “malarkey.” Remember our recent discussion over using the name USS Arizona for a newer ship? This has some precedents to consider, like USS Constellation. You may have heard of her. Or rather “them” as in plural, not some woke pronoun affectation.

The first USS Constellation (1797-1853) was one of the Navy’s original “Six Frigates” authorized in 1794 to combat the scourge of Muslim pirates out of Tripoli seizing Americans. “Constellation” referring to the pattern of stars on the flag of our new nation, was one of ten names suggested to President Washington, from which he selected six.

USS Constellation (1797-1853) in 1813
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Completed in about three years at a shipyard near Baltimore, this was a 38 gun frigate, ship rigged, about 200 feet overall, with a 41 foot beam and a crew of 340 men. Her assignments included ops against the piratical Muslims, and the uppity French during the “Quasi-War” and various escorting of merchant ships in the Atlantic, Med, and Caribbean. She missed any action during the War of 1812 after being trapped in the Chesapeake bay for the duration. Post 1815 she resumed escort duties various places, engaged in suppression of the slave trade and piracy (some overlap…) in the Caribbean, and ops in the Med. In 1835 she supported ops against the Seminole Indians in Florida, from the Gulf of Mexico coast. Later she circumnavigated the globe protecting American interests the Opium War. British and American forces battled Chinese forces of the Qing dynasty 1840-42, part of the opening of “treaty ports” where other nations had trading rights, immune from Chinese controls, and ceding Honk Kong to British control. (I bet the Chinese bitterly remember “treaty ports” while most Americans never heard of them.) 

Completing her voyage home, USS Constellation stopped in Hawaii, blocking British attempts to make them a protectorate, then visiting various South American ports. Arriving home in 1845 Constellation was laid up until scrapped in 1853.

For a full history of the first Connie read this.

Next was the the USS Constellation (1855-1955), a 22 gun “sloop of war” now a museum ship in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. A wonderful example of the last Navy ship built for sail power only. A ship dogged by controversy and mythology.

Despite the fantasies of some, the ship in Baltimore really is the SECOND USS Constellation, built 1853-1855 at the Gosport [Norfolk] Navy Yard, while the first was being scrapped. The new ship was 199 feet overall, (about one fifth the length of a carrier) with a 43 foot beam and manned by 21 officers and 265 sailors. Incredibly, she remained on the Navy rolls from 1855 until 1955, in and out of commission with various breaks in service. Her initial assignment was a Med cruise (for three YEARS!), followed by missions to the Caribbean, and anti-slavery patrols off Africa. She spent most of the Civil War back in the Med and then the Caribbean chasing Confederate commerce raiders and seeking blockade runners.

After the Civil War, Constellation was a receiving ship (sort of a temporary barracks) at Norfolk. From 1871 to 1892 she was mainly a gunnery training ship for the U.S. Naval Academy, before they had a football team. She had occasional tasks as a maritime pickup truck such as hauling various artifacts for exhibitions back and forth to Europe or famine relief supplies to Ireland in 1879. After the USNA job, she ended up in Newport, RI as a training ship for enlisted recruits until 1920 when sail handling skills were no longer taught. In 1914, she became a surrogate for the earlier Constellation for War of 1812 commemorative events, assuming a symbolic historical relic role. During WW2 she was the nominal flagship for Admirals King and Ingersoll when they were CINCLANTFLT. Post war, she languished as a relic in need of (never funded) restoration, until decommissioned in 1955 and given to a private group for restoration. 

For much of the 20th century many people fantasized (encouraged by forged documents) that this ship was the USS Constellation built in 1797 and thus the OLDEST ship in the Navy. (Move over, USS Constitution!) However, historians finally proved that the first ship was broken up while this was being built, with about the only recycled part being the name. In 1994 the old museum group clinging to the mythical 1797 origins gave up (literally) and a new group took over, and presents the ship today as the one commissioned in 1855, not 1797.

So, U.S. Navy warship names DO get used again. Even multiple times.

The name was stripped from the 1855 Constellation (renamed “Old Constellation”) in 1920-23 to be used on a new battle cruiser (CC-2), subsequently canceled under the Washington Naval Treaty, and never commissioned under any name, so the name was returned. What was old became new again, or something.²

The name was used for a fourth ship, the USS Constellation (CV-64) which served 1961-2003.  Overall length 1,080 feet and beam of 282 feet, 39 foot draft and 80,000 tons displacement. Professional surface warfare crew of 3,150 with an additional 2,480³ passengers and their aeroplanes.

Editor's Note: But that, my friends, is a story for another day. Probably tomorrow, but you didn't hear that from me. Oh wait, yes, you did.

¹ Ahem. YMMV

² She would have been a Lexington-class battlecruiser, yes, that Lexington. The names for the planned six ships of that class were: Lexington, Constellation, Saratoga, Ranger, Constitution, and United States. You can read more here.

³ Well played, JB, well played.