| Subject: Re: The Eagle of the Sea |
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joeb
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Date Posted: 21:22:53 09/13/12 Thu
In reply to:
Wes
's message, "The Eagle of the Sea" on 11:06:19 08/25/12 Sat
>Once again, I wrote a column for the paper that I
>think many here would find interesting.
>
>-- Wes
>
>----
>
>The USS Constitution, the world's oldest
>warship still in commission, got to sail for seventeen
>minutes on Sunday, the first time it had been under
>sail in thirteen years.
>
>Naturally, the Navy is pretty careful with this
>treasured relic, now over two hundred years old, so it
>was stirring to see it under sail again. The War of
>1812 is a long time ago, of course, and there weren't
>many bright spots in it -- but other than the Battles
>of Lake Erie and New Orleans, the Constitution,
>otherwise known as "Old Ironsides" was involved with
>most of the high spots.
>
>Back in the 1830s, this famous ship was getting to be
>pretty run down, and there was talk of scrapping it.
>However, even back then there were people that
>respected the past. There was a law student who wrote
>poetry for fun who took affront to the plan and wrote
>a poem, the first verse of which goes:
>
>Ay, tear her tattered ensign down!
>Long has it waved on high,
>And many an eye has danced to see
>That banner in the sky;
>Beneath it rung the battle shout,
>And burst the cannon's roar;--
>The meteor of the ocean air
>Shall sweep the clouds no more.
>
>The poem was picked up and reprinted all over the
>country. It was the main force in saving the ship, and
>made the career of one of our nation's most respected
>poets, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Without him, the
>harpies of the shore would surely have plucked the
>eagle of the sea.
>
>If I recall correctly, during the Civil War the
>Constitution was moved from Annapolis to New
>York for obvious reasons. It wasn't until about 1878
>that the Navy decided to move the ship back to
>Annapolis. At the age of then about eighty, it was
>decided it wasn't safe for the ship to be out by
>itself, so it was decided to have it towed back. A
>scratch crew was pulled together to ride the ship
>during the tow.
>
>Unfortunately, the tug selected for the tow was aged
>and asthmatic itself. Off the coast of New Jersey, it
>could barely make headway with the tow, so the captain
>of the tug signaled the Constitution, asking if
>it could put on a little sail to make things go
>easier. Old Ironsides broke out a few sails, but
>shortly afterward the dissatisfied tugboat captain
>still wasn't making much progress, so he asked the
>ship to break out a few more sails, and of course, the
>captain of the Constitution did.
>
>They still weren't making a lot of progress, so a
>third time the tugboat captain asked if the old relic
>could help out. The captain of the Constitution
>replied in the affirmative. He dropped the towline
>altogether, and sailed past the tugboat breaking out
>every sail they could find on board. They beat the tug
>to Annapolis by four days.
>
>She may have been a relic out of the past, extremely
>aged for a ship in those days, but the
>Constitution was still the eagle of the sea.
>
>I read this story in a magazine many years ago and am
>not sure I remember all the details, but that was, if
>I recall correctly, the last time the
>Constitution was out on its own.
>
>The ship was moved to Boston many years later; most
>years it's just turned around once each year to
>equalize weathering. But on its two hundredth
>birthday, they took it out for a short sail around
>Boston Harbor in celebration, and Sunday they took it
>out again to celebrate the two hundredth anniversary
>of the ship's legendary victory over the British
>frigate HMS Guerriere.
>
>Those who watched it -- or saw a story about it on TV
>-- could not have helped but be thrilled to see the
>ship under sail once again. Our thanks to Oliver
>Wendell Holmes for doing his part in making it
>possible.
Josiah Barker was the Naval Constructor at the Charlestown Shipyard from 1811-1846 during the first reconstruction of USS CONSTITUTION. I was researching my ancestry and found his bio. When he retired he was presented with a cane made from one of the oak timbers replaced while he supervised rebuilding the ship in the 1830's.
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