Friday, December 16, 2022

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: LexingtonConstellationSaratogaRangerConstitution, and United States. You can read more here.
³ Well played, JB, well played.

28 comments:

  1. You tied making money, the drug trade, Chinese history and US Navy ship names all in one interesting article. Nicely done! As a plus I learned a bit about the Opium Wars...

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  2. Good post JB, waiting for the second part eagerly. I can see why ship names get recycled but as for Arizona, that's a gravesite.......nope...nope...nope.

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  3. JB, what a great article! I have almost zero knowledge of such things, so I am much more educated.

    Three years on a sailing ship in the Mediterranean in the 1800's. The mind boggles...

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  4. A most excellent history lesson! I knew some such as the six frigates of the early US Navy but the other history I was only marginally aware of. I am looking forward to the second post.
    - Barry

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  5. Wow, if I did my math right (200' x 41'/2=4500 sq ft approximately. 4500/340=~12 sq ft per man. Which also doesn't take into account food, ammunition, medical supplies and any other things needed to keep a ship at sea. Pretty tight quarters.
    Thanks for that tidbit of history, JB!

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    1. Juvat, the Navy stacks the crew, kinda like sardines; Junior Officers and Chief Petty Officers are two deep, the rest of the enlisted are anywhere from three to five deep ...so actually there is a lot of wasted space.

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    2. Skip,
      Well...I did forget cubic feet. That having been said, I have my doubts about "a LOT of wasted space." Just sayin'

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    3. Hey Skip are you saying that Junior officers are a waste of space? Haha.

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  6. Back in the 60's my father (a WWII Destroyer Escort vet) took me to see the Constellation. At the time it was tied up at a pier in Baltimore harbor. About all that was left was the hull and a deck. They were selling commemorative coins struck from copper spikes recycled from the ship to raise money for restoration. The deal was that it was good for a life time pass to the restored ship. My dad bought me one and I still have it. The powers that be reneged on their promise and I have to pay just like everyone else if I want to visit.

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  7. Very interesting. I didn't know "Connie" CV 64 was no. 3. After getting out of USAF as a fighter Crew Chief in 1973, I became a bos'n mate (Boatswain) as a rigger working at National Steel and Ship Co., 32nd St Naval Base, San Diego and North Island Naval Air Station, Coronado. Spent many a day in the bowels of CV 64, hauling chain falls, come-a-longs, beam clamps, shackles, nylon around to R and R steam turbine oil pumps, sump pumps, giant to small electric motors, etc. Hard work, interesting work, loved it. I'm still modified from it. After rigging, Tree Service.
    Tree Mike

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  8. Crusty Old TV Tech here. I got excited for a bit, reading the title, thinking you were to expound on perhaps the most beautiful commercial aircraft ever, the Lockheed L-049 Constellation, AKA the Connie. Then I realized it was about some historic navy floating timber, ah well. Still, a very illuminating article! More like this please!

    I do like the new name for the Crown Colony, Honk Kong, gave me a real chuckle it did!

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    1. Crusty- A+ on mind reading. Great minds think alike, and I was planning that for a part 3. Hopefully I can still surprise, surprise with part 4.
      John Blackshoe

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  9. Oddly enough, as many times as I have visited Maryland, I've never got up to see USS Constellation. Something I need to remedy!

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    1. Consider also Fort McHenry, as long as you are in the neighborhood. The Inner Harbor area is relatively safe, but rest of Baltimore is definitely high-crime, high risk. Along with USS Constellation, they have WW2 sub USS Torsk (SS-423); a lightship, a USCG cutter that is a Pearl Harbor survivor.

      USS Constellation is just coming out of a quick drydock visit to fix come leakage problems, so it may or may not be open for visits immediately. I think they might have reduced schedule during winter anyway.

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    2. I’m with nylon12: the Arizona demands special treatment. Re-using her name would be equivalent to grave-robbing.

      BTW, Baltimore did a great job revitalizing the Inner Harbor. Along with Constellation & Fort McHenry, on the “must/should see” list are the civilian B&O Railroad Museum and the Museum of Industry, and spending time at the Cross St. Market.
      [Full disclosure: my mother’s German family arrived Baltimore in 1852, live on Fort St., N. Fulton St., and other core-city streets. I recently visited the city & was escorted around by a third cousin who grew up & still lives there….]

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    3. PS: the second “anonymous” was me.

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    4. I give up. I can’t do this on my phone. I had a fairly long comment agreeing with nylon12, and additionally about a couple of Baltimore tourist attractions*, but it apparently was subsumed by some user error that I committed. :(
      * B&O Railroad Museum & Baltimore Museum of Industry

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    5. That the USCGC Taney in Baltimore?
      The story they told us was the CO was pissed about something so he had the crew at battle stations all through the night of 6 December 1941...

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    6. ColoComment - But, but, computers and smart phones make everything easier. /snark

      And I work on that stuff to make my living, fortunately my job involves testing to reveal errors. Unfortunately, business is good.

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    7. Rob - It is indeed USCGC Taney in Baltimore.

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    8. Sarge, a second on Fort McHenry. We went there this past Summer. I did not expect to enjoy it as much as I did. It is very well restored.

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    9. The FORD Class ENTERPRISE will be number Eight.
      The Big Badger Boat us the second WISCONSIN, the third will be a COLUMBIA Class SSBN.

      Sadly enough, there has only been two ENGLANDs, when we were promised there would always be one in the USN.

      Honk Kong?

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    10. Scott, are you consoled by the fact that we have a USS Winston Churchill? We also have a USS Canberra.

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    11. I am very pleased we have a WINSTON CHURCHILL!, We still have a CANBERRA? Oh, Dear God, she is a Little Coffin Ship! Not how I would honor CA-70!

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  10. Sarge- I just discovered this video of USS Constellation's recent drydocking. VERY interesting if you have never seen a [relativley small] ship in a drydock.
    https://youtu.be/_qIE2oCgVBg
    John Blackshoe.

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    1. Wow, she doesn't take up much room in there, does she? OTOH, she's a real beauty!

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  11. In September 1961 there were five or six members from my Basic Training company who had orders to the Connie at Brooklyn Navy Yard.

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