HorseS**t, there wrong, give them my name, I'll straighten them out.
O.K. Enought already! here is the super short history of the ships, so the debate can stop! No I did not cut and paste!
It was because of the incidents of the Barbary Corsairs that the US Navy was born. This Navy began as a minuscule force amid many large, better-trained, equipped fighting ships. Within 10 years of its creation we would become a force to be reckoned with. By 1812 we were pitted against the world best fearsome maritime war machine, the Royal Navy. And we WHIPPED IT ASS, AND SENT IT HOME TO MAMA.
In 1786 Jefferson writing in Paris to a fellow minister John Adams, stated, “the best way to deal with these Pirates is “Through a medium of war”. This Jefferson acknowledged, would require ”a small maritime force”. That was the rub; of the 35 small ships built or purchased, we did not have a single ship ever sailing under a “Letter of Marques".
Under the Articles of Confederation the talk was largely academic, we basically had no budget to even buy a long boat much less a proper ship of the line. But with the adoption of the Constitution and the continually harassing Barbary outrages, the idea of a Navy took root. In 1793, Portugal, which was considered the guardian of the Straights of Gibraltar, gave up the ghost and the Corsairs had free rain over the Med. The British kept buying off the Corsairs, which increased their anger toward the “Cheapskate Americans” who would not pay a tribute! The nerve of us!
On March 27, 1794, The Senate having already approved, the House of Representatives passed an act authorizing the creation of the Navy. It was impossible for our Government to have the funds to build great ships of the line as Britain had, but we could build a smaller, faster and nimble ships. Fortunately, we did not have to look too far to find a builder, that man was Joshua Humphrey of the firm of the shipbuilding firm Wharton and Humphrey’s. He was appointed “Constructor or Master Builder” of a 44 gun ship to be built at the port of Philadelphia. He also came with his own novel ideas of what a Frigate should look like.
The term “Frigate” comes from a kind of galley that had sailed the Mediterranean in the late 1300's. Over the next few centuries the term evolved to mean a small and fast sailing vessel. The captains of the six vessels were already selected and sent to over see the construction of their vessels, each made demands to make slight changed to their ships. The shipbuilding was going at a good clip, and then shocking news came from Washington. A peace treaty was ratified with the Dey of Algiers, (read payoff) $642.500 of our tax dollars plus an annual lump payment of $21,600, (see congress has not changed it's been messed up since it's beginning) So Congress trying to save money cut back the original order of 6 ships to three. Think about it, the money had to come from somewhere. (Since they had not invented toilets yet, we could not be charged for $600.00 toilets seats!)
Here are the short, short dates of the ship launching:
USS United States....May 10, 1798 (44 guns) (damaged on launch, put in for refit next day!
USS Constellation....Sept. 7, 1797 (38 guns)
USS Constitution .....Oct. 21, 1798 (44guns) had hard time getting down the ways.
I could write a lot more but I'm tried. Anybody has any questions, please yell.
Jake