CONSTITUTION, THE. A forty-four-gun frigate, the most famous vessel in the history of the United States Navy, sometimes called 'Old Ironsides,' from the hardness of her planking and timbers. She was launched on October 21, 1797, hut was not completed and equipped until the following year, when she put to sea under Cap tain Nicholson for service against the French. During the war with Tripoli, 1801-05 (see BAR BART POWERS. WARS WITH) , she was Preble's flagship, and in 1805 took part in three of the five bombardments of the port of Tripoli. In July. 1812, in command of Isaac Hull (q.v.), she escaped front a British squadron off the New Jersey coast, after a spirited chase of three days, and on August 19, off Cape Race, fought her famous battle with the GucrrieTc, Captain Daeres, a somewhat weaker English frigate, she left a total wreck after an engagement of thirty minutes, the English losing 79 of their crew, the Americans 14. On December 29, under the command of Captain Bainbridge, she cap tured oft' Bahia, Brazil, the Jura (38 guns, Cap tain Lambert), after a two hours' engagement, in which the British lost 300 in killed and wounded, the _Americans 34. On February 14, 1814, under Captain Stewart, she captured the Picton. 16 guns. and a convoy, in the \Vest
Indies; and on February 20, 1815. she took the Cyane, 34 glans, and the Levant, 18 guns, after a fierce engagement—remarkable for the seaman ship of the Americans and the gallantry of the English—between the Madeira Islands and Gibraltar. The English lost 19 killed and 42 wounded out of 320: the Americans, 6 killed and fl wounded out of 451. Soon afterwards the Constitution was closely pursued by a strong British squadron. which recaptured the Levant. Reported unseaworthy between 1828 and 1830, she was ordered to be dismantled, but was re tained in deference to the popular sentiment aroused by Holmes's poem "Old Tronsides," and in 1833 was rebuilt. She went out of commission in 1855 at Portsmouth, N. TT., was subsequently used occasionally as a training ship, was again partially rebuilt in 1877, crossed the Atlantie for the last time in 1878, and was stored at the Boston Navy Yard in 1897. Consult: Hollis, The Frigate Constitution (Boston, 1900) ; and Roosevelt, The Naval 1l'ur of 1812 (New York, 1882).