USS Constitution
After the American Revolution the United States needed to protect its merchant shipping from the pirates. The result was the Naval act of 1794, passed by Congress on March 27, 1794. The goal of the Naval act of 1794 was to establish a permanent standing Naval Force for the United States of America.Congress ordered 6 frigates to be built in order to help protect the United States of America in readiness for the war with the Barbary States.the USS Constitution,the USS Chesapeake , the USS Constellation , the USS President, the USS United States, and the USS Congress. However peace was reached and Construction halted the construction of the ships. After debate and encouragement by President Washington construction on…show more content… French pirates seizing merchant vessels looking to trade in England with the goal of damaging the British economy. This would cause the Quasi war which would rage from 1797 to 1801. The battle of Puerto Plata Harbor was one of the few land battles of the war. The USS Constitution under the command of Captain Silas Talbot, sailed to Puerto Rico with the goal of harassing French shipping and military vessels. The USS Constitution would capture a French Ship named “Sally” a sloop, and then chased a French Corvette into the port at Puerto Plata. Seeing the Spanish Defenses the Constitution Sailed to a beech out of the defenses range and unloaded marines. The USS Constitution was too large to be able to sail into the harbor so members of the Constitution Manned the captured sloop “Sally”and sailed into the harbor and attacked the corvette from sea while the marines attacked from land. The shocked French put up little resistance and surrendered the ship, The Spanish had been taking pot shots at the Americans since they came into range. Once the Americans captured the corvette they were able to turn their attention to the Spanish and quickly overran them and the Spanish surrendered themselves.The marines spiked the Spanish Cannons and returned to the…show more content… The Constitution scrapped or destroyed with the use for target practice. In the late 1700’s the Constitution was intended to have a service life of 10 to 2o years, by 1827 she was 30 years old and when John Branch Secretary of the Navy ordered an inspection on ships in 1830, she was 33 years old and had an estimated repair cost of 160,000 dollars. Once media learned of this, there was an article published stating that the Navy planned to scrap the Constitution. There was an outbreak of support for the ship and Secretary of the Navy, John J Branch approved the costs while waiting for the dockyard which would repair her to be finished. In 1857 the Constitution would be renovated to train members of the newly created Naval Academy. Once in dry dock one of the first known photographs of the above people, she would remain in drydock from 1857 to 1858. As the US Navy began to switch from sail to steam power the question arose on again what to do with the Constitution well in 1873 the Constitution was brought into drydock to prepare her for the 1876 Centennial of the American Revolution, but costs were higher than expected and delays arose, preventing the Constitution to be ready for Centennial of the American Revolution in Philadelphia. Upon completion the decision was made to use the Constitution as a transport for the Exposition Universelle