Building a Wooden Ship
The creation of a wooden warship began in the mold loft. There carpenters translated specifications from standard plans for each class of vessel into full-sized wooden patterns. These were used to fashion hull members, for which white oak or live oak were the favored woods. (Some 2,000 trees were required for a 74-gun ship-of-the-line.) On the slightly inclined building ways, joiners first laid the keel, the great spine of the ship running along the bottom of the hull. Then they attached the stem and the stern post to the keel and raised the frames—the vessel’s ribs. The frames formed the contours of the hull and, together with horizontal deck beams and vertical stanchions beneath the beams, provided a strong skeleton. After 1829, iron and copper bolts and spikes replaced many of the wooden “treenails” that secured the structural members and fastened the deck and hull planking. The rudder was hung, the hull caulked and sheathed with copper to protect it from teredo worms, and the ship was launched. Riggers then “stepped” masts to the keelson, a lengthwise beam bolted to the keel (see [page 19]). After they rigged the horizontal spars, cordage, and sails, the new warship was ready for outfitting.
Expanding U.S. interests in the Pacific spurred Congress in 1825 to authorize a new class of sloop-of-war to protect those interests. Charlestown Navy Yard constructed three of them between 1825 and 1827.
1 Building ways 2 “Shears”: hoisted heavy pieces 3 Keel 4 Stern post 5 Frames 6 Deck beams 7 Planking 8 Drag chains: arrested ship after launch 9 Shiphouse
The Workforce in 1835 138 Carpenters 56 Ropemakers 40 Laborers 37 Joiners 34 Blacksmiths 25 Sailmakers 19 Riggers 18 Coopers 17 Plumbers 16 Boatbuilders 14 Sparmakers 12 Blockmakers 11 Painters 6 Caulkers 6 Masons 6 Sawyers
The Frigate Constitution
The first three warships ordered for the infant U.S. Navy in 1794—one of them the Boston-built Constitution—were frigates unlike any others. Naval strategists knew the nation could afford to build only a few vessels, so they had to be formidable warships. They were inspired by French “razees,” ships-of-the-line (see [page 14]) that had one gun deck removed, transforming them into large, heavily armed frigates. The sharp lines of Constitution’s hull gave it a frigate’s speed, but in size and stoutness it was comparable to a small ship-of-the-line. (Its heavy oak frames, spaced close together and sheathed with thick planking, proved virtually impenetrable in battle—hence the name “Old Ironsides.”) The theory was that Constitution would be powerful enough to fight any frigate, quick enough to flee anything bigger. The British, though, scorned the new frigates, asserting that they lacked the tactical strengths of either frigates or ships-of-the-line: too slow to engage the former, too weak to stand up to the latter. But Constitution more than lived up to U.S. expectations in the War of 1812, when it bested two British frigates in separate battles, escaped two more, and captured a frigate and a sloop-of-war in a third engagement. Constitution fought no more battles, but served honorably for another 40 years. Throughout its career Constitution has been closely associated with the Charlestown Navy Yard, undergoing several overhauls there. The first was in 1833, when the frigate inaugurated the yard’s dry dock. In 1992-95 it was serviced in the same dock. Since 1897 the yard has been home port for Constitution, the Navy’s oldest commissioned warship.
The 24-Pounder Long Gun