Oct. 13, 2020 – On this day 245 years ago, the Continental Congress approved the construction of two vessels, each with a crew of 80, to intercept shipments of munitions to the British Army in the American colonies. The American Revolution was on. The U.S Navy was born.

From this legislation, the Continental Navy began. The year was 1775, the start of the American Revolution against British rule. The outcome of the daring revolution was anything but certain. American colonists were taking on the British Royal Navy, the most powerful Navy in the world at the time. And the British Army, the Redcoats, were well trained and of course, well outfitted.

Gen. George Washington was the leader of the colonists’ Continental Army. The next six years would be a slow slog to defeat the British. With help from France, Gen. Washington and the colonists were finally victorious when British forces were defeated at Yorktown in 1781.

The Treaty of Paris, signed in 1783, declared the United States of America was a sovereign nation in charge of its own destiny.

In 1787, the young nation adopted its Constitution. It was ratified in 1788 and took effect in 1789. George Washington was unanimously elected president. He took the oath of office on April 30, 1789 at Federal Hall in New York City. He would go on to serve another term as president before retiring to his beloved Mount Vernon estate in Virginia.

The USS Constitution

On March 27, 1794, the U.S. Congress passed The Naval Act of 1794 to authorize the construction of six frigates for the nascent U.S. Navy. The USS Constitution was one of the six ships built. Finished in 1797, the ship is still commissioned. It’s the oldest U.S. Navy ship still afloat.

After Congress passed the law authorizing her construction, the USS Constitution was built at Hartt’s Shipyard in Boston from 1794-1797, according to information from the USS Constitution Museum.

The museum is located in Boston next to the dock where the historic ship resides. Key milestones in the ship’s history include her role in the War of 1812 defeating three British ships, her Centennial in 1897, her designation in 1940 as the symbolic flagship of the U.S. Fleet, and her Bicentennial in 1997. On July 21, 1997, she sailed for the first time in 116 years.

In 2014, the living history ship was taken to dry dock for a three-year renovation to replace the copper sheathing on her keel and to complete general maintenance. The ship’s copper sheathing has a fascinating connection to Paul Revere (1734-1818), a Boston silversmith who took a midnight ride to Lexingotn and Concord on April 18, 1775 warning colonists that the British were coming.

After the war ended and Revere returned to his business, he became interested in copper. He sent his son to England to study the British method of rolling sheets of copper. Copper kept harmful marine life from attaching to ships. In 1801, he formed the Revere Copper Company.

In 1803 when copper sheathing on the USS Constitution needed to be replaced, Paul Revere’s company supplied it.

The USS Constitution is most famous for her role in the War of 1812 when she did not lose a battle against the mighty British Royal Navy. During the Battle of Guerriere, a sailor on the USS Constitution noted with awe that 18-pound cannonballs being fired by the British were bouncing off the ship. He cried out: “Huzza! Her sides are made of iron!” After the battle, the ship was nicknamed “Old Ironsides” even though her sides were not made of iron but of dense live oak with copper sheathing, supplied by Paul Revere, near and below the water line!

She is back on the water now, shipshape and seaworthy. It’s fitting that her home port is still Boston, Massachusetts where she was made and the American colonists began the revolution for freedom.

Review Questions

1. Why was the U.S. Navy formed in 1775?

2. When did the United States of Amerca become a sovereign nation?

3. Who was America’s first president?

4. When was construction of the USS Constitution approved?

5. What did Paul Revere do at the start of the American Revolution?

6. How did Paul Revere learn about making copper sheathing?

7. What is the purpose of copper sheathing on the bottom of ships?

EXTRA! EXTRA! (Link and Inquiry Questions)

1. USS Constitution (U.S. Navy)

2. USS Constitution Museum (Boston)

3. The USS Constitution during the War of 1812 (U.S. Navy history)

4. Copper Sheathing (USS Constitution Mueum)

5. What is the difference between the U.S. Constitution and the USS Constitution?

6. What evidence in the story speaks to the renewed friendship between England and the United States after the American Revolution?