Daily Yellowstone Journal

OLD IRONSIDES
The frigate Constitution, "Old Iron-
sides," which has been lying in ordi-
nary at the New York navy yard for
some time past, is about to be removed
from her present moorings by order of
the secretary of the navy, and towed
by the Powhatan to Portsmouth, N.
H. Several years ago the navy de-
partment concluded to break her up,
but the republication at that time of
the following lines of the old poem of
Oliver Wendell Holmes aroused a pop-
ular feeling of indignation, and she
was repaired and converted into a
school ship:
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 constitution was one of the larg-
est of six frigates whose construction
was ordered by congress on March 27,
1794. She was launched in October,
1797. She was built in Boston, of the
best live oak, and cost $302,718. She
began her career in the Tripolitan war
in 1804, engaging against batteries
mounting 115 guns at Tripoli, and her
broadsides assisted in recapturing 300
American sailors who had been cap-
tured by the Tripolitans from on board
the frigate Philadelphia. In the war
against Great Britain in 1812 she gain-
ed her famous victory over the British
frigate Guerriere on August 19. On
December 29, following, the Constitu-
tion had an engagement with the
British frigate Java, and, after a hot
contest, took her as a prize. The fol-
lowing year, on a cruise on the coast
of Guinea and among the Windward
Islands, she captured the British sloop-
of-war Picton, a letter of marque, and
several merchant vessels. She barely
escaped being captured by a British
fleet in 1814 by taking refuge in the
harbor of Salem, Mass. On February
20, 1815, during another cruise, she
captured, after an action of forty min-
utes at night, the British frigate Cyane and
the British sloop Levant. The latter
was recaptured by a British squadron
off the harbor of Porto Praya, and
Captain Stewart, of the Constitution,
fearing that the neutrality of the port
would not be observed, ran away with
his other prize. The Cyane arrived at
New York in April, 1815, and the con-
stitution a month later. During the
administration of President Jackson,
while the constitution was moored in
New York harbor, a curious incident
occurred. A figurehead of President
Jackson had been put on the prow.
and the circumstance arousing the in-
dignation of a lieutenant, he deter-
mined that "Jackson should not go
before the constitution." He there-
fore beheaded the figure. The head
was recovered and replaced by Com-
modore Elliott. It remained on the
prow until the vessel was repaired for
centennial duty, when the effigy
was removed and placed on a pedestal, on
the grounds of the Annapolis Naval
Academy. In 1878 the Constitution
was for a time laid up in ordinary, and
in 1876 she was docked and over-
hauled. Her last previous voyage was
to France, at the time of the Paris ex-
position.