USS Constitution (wallpaper 3) Ship Gallery | OceanShooter

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USS Constitution (wallpaper 3). USS Constitution ship images wallpaper gallery 3. USS Constitution ship pictures and images collection 3. Constitution was recommissioned in December with Captain John Rodgers again taking command to oversee a major refitting. She was overhauled at a cost just under $100,000; however, Rodgers inexplicably ignored cleaning her copper sheathing, later leading him to declare her a "slow sailer". She spent most of the following two years on training runs and ordinary duty. When Isaac Hull took command in June 1810, he immediately recognized that she needed her hull bottom cleaned. "Ten waggon loads" of barnacles and seaweed were removed. Hull departed on 5 August 1811 for France, transporting the new Ambassador Joel Barlow and his family; they arrived on 1 September. Remaining near France and Holland through the winter months, Hull continually held sail and gun drills to keep the crew ready for possible hostilities with the British. After the events of the Little Belt Affair the previous May, tensions were high between the United States and Britain, and Constitution was shadowed by British frigates while awaiting dispatches from Barlow to carry back to the United States. They arrived home on 18 February 1812. USS Constitution (wallpaper 3). USS Constitution ship images wallpaper gallery 3. USS Constitution ship pictures and images collection 3. During the war, CONSTITUTION ran the blockade at Boston on seven occasions and made five cruises ranging from Halifax, Nova Scotia, south to Guiana and east to Portugal. She captured, burned, or sent in as prizes nine merchantmen and five ships of war. Departing Boston on 2 August she sailed to the coast of Nova Scotia, where she captured and destroyed two British trading ships. Cruising off the Gulf of St. Lawrence on 19 August, she caught sight of GUERRIERE, a fast British frigate mounting 49 guns. GUERRIERE opened the action, pouring out shot which fell harmlessly into the sea or glanced ineffectively from the hull of CONSTITUTION whose cheering crew bestowed on her the famous nickname "OLD IRONSIDES," which has stirred generations of Americans. As the ships drew abreast, Hull gave the command to fire and successive broadsides razed GUERRIERE's mizzen mast, damaging her foremast, and cut away most of her rigging. GUERRIERE's bowsprit fouled the lee rigging of CONSTITUTION, and both sides attempted to board, but the heavy seas prevented it. As the ships separated GUERRIERE fired point blank into the cabin of CONSTITUTION and set it on fire, but the flames were quickly extinguished. GUERRIERE's foremast and mainmast went by the board and she was left a helpless hulk. The flag of GUERRIERE was struck in surrender and when the Americans boarded her they found her in such a crippled condition that they had to transfer the prisoners and burn her. It was a dramatic victory for America and for CONSTITUTION. In this battle of only half an hour the United States "rose to the rank of a first-class power"; the country was fired with fresh confidence and courage; and union among the States was greatly strengthened. USS Constitution (wallpaper 3). USS Constitution ship images wallpaper gallery 3. USS Constitution ship pictures and images collection 3.