Maritime naval prints and sailing
ships HMS Java and USS Constitution shown in battle by naval artist
Montague Dawson. Naval art prints of other sea battle available
The Constitution, with the sloop Hornet in
company, sailed from Boston on 26th October 1812. War with Great Britain
had broken out in June of that year and the two ships, under Commodore
William Bainbridge in the Constitution, headed south down the Atlantic
with the intention of joining the frigate Essex in the Pacific. The
Constitution had been launched at Boston in 1797. She and her two sister
ships, the United States and President were the most powerful frigates of
their day and for sixteen years their superiority in their class remained
unchallenged. They were built to be 'an overmatch for those of an enemy'
and were constructed in such a way that their scantlings (ie. the sizes of
their timbers) should be equal to those of a 74 gun ship-of-the-line. This
superiority was soon to be shown when the Constitution overwhelmed the
British frigate Java off the coast of Brazil on 29th December. Like the
Victory, Constitution ('old ironsides' as she was long ago nicknamed) is
still in existence and today remains in special commission at Boston, the
oldest warship in the world still afloat and a unique link with the old
sailing navy of the United States.
