p382  XXVI.

The Frigate United States

High on the bow, towering above the housetops of Southwark, the majestic figurehead of the United States — a William Rush masterpiece — drew Philadelphians to Humphreys's shipyard, where in the spring of 1797, John Barry's frigate neared launching date. The skill of the famed wood-carver had reached its apex in a glorious female figure, symbolizing the genius of the young republic. True, it was symbolism to be comprehended only by explanation, but, so commanding was the great figure that visitors stood open-mouthed below, awed by the magnificence of her. Impressiveness was hastened by the incline of the frigate, with stern near water's level and long hull rising across the yard to the adorned head, full •forty feet in air. That figurehead, to which Rush had imparted semblance of motion, was feminine in conception, because where, save in the fair sex, can be found all desirable virtues? But, let one of the more knowing spectators describe her:

Rush had excelled all previous allegorical heights.

One untoward incident occurred during the period sightseers flocked to the shipyard. Benjamin Franklin Bache, grandson of the late Dr. Franklin, with several cronies, selected an April afternoon to inspect the frigate and her vaunted figurehead. Bache, editor of the anti-Federalist news­paper, the Aurora, had given birth some months before to the scurrilous statement: "If ever a nation was debauched by a man, the American nation has been debauched by Washington," and had urged "a jubilee in the United States" on the day the first President retired from office. Humphreys's shipyard was no place for the author of such sentiments. Spirits ran high and words rang loud when the hated editor appeared. John Barry, in the superintendent's office, heard commotion outdoors, but before he reached the scene a lively fracas had ended. Bache had been soundly trounced by young Clement Humphreys, son of the shipbuilder, and was retiring in disorder. "Outrageous," howled the Republican press. "It served him right," retorted the Federalist news­papers. What Barry thought about it, he never said, but his sympathies scarcely lay with the man whose pen had abused Washington, and was constantly fashioning paragraphs of ridicule against the navy.

Interest in the frigate it had required three years to build — a point the Aurora and other violently pro‑French journals seldom overlooked — reached great heights as the day for launching approached. An enormous crowd to witness the ceremony was assured even without the announcement in the Daily Advertiser, on May 3: "We have it on good authority for mentioning that Wednesday next, the 10th inst, is appointed for launching the United States frigate; and that it will take place at 2 o'clock on that day if weather permits."

The weather permitted. A strong northwest wind, which for several days had kept back the full tides in the river, abated the night before. Dawn found John Barry and Joshua Humphreys at the shipyard for last minute preparations. Sunrise disclosed to them the vanguard of spectators already taking possession of all points of vantage in the neighborhood. As the morning wore along, Philadelphia and the surrounding country turned  p384 out enmasse. Some favored hundreds found places within the yard — special reservations or precarious perches atop of stages. The rest of the multitude, variously estimated at from twenty to thirty thousand, crowded every hill and hilltop in the vicinity. The dwellings on Swanson street, abutting the yard, bulged with humanity from window ledge to cornice.

Gaily decorated river craft, laden with ladies of society, too numerous — both craft and ladies — to count, plied the Delaware. Toward noon, the brig Sophia, bearing cabinet heads and other government bigwigs, nosed her way into a favorable position. On board were Timothy Pickering, dour Secretary of State; Oliver Wolcott, suave Secretary of the Treasury, and James McHenry, Secretary of War. But not John Adams. The President had elected that morning to set off northward to meet his wife, who was arriving at the capital from their Massachusetts home. Federalism was gathered for the occasion, sans its titular head. The shore was dense with people, the river jammed, save for a space of open water at the foot of the ways. Within the yard, several uniformed military companies paraded amid much cheering, and a battery of artillery wheeled its pieces into line for the moment when guns might salute.

Proud as a peacock, and rightfully so, John Barry commanded on board. Amid the bright buntings and streamers with which he had dressed the frigate, his tall figure was visible as he passed from point to point on the long deck. His keen eyes scrutinized every preparation, particularly the cables carrying through the hawse-holes to two anchors sunk in the yard ahead of the ship. Upon them would fall the brunt of holding the great vessel in place while the keel blocks were being knocked away beneath. From time to time messages came from Humphreys down in the yard. The launching planks were being removed. Later, the second tier of standing shores were being removed. Then a part of each block was being taken from under the keel to facilitate final removal later. At nine o'clock came word to tighten the bow cables.

"Man the capstan," Barry ordered, and the hands on board responded with a will until the cables stretched tautly away to the straining anchors. Spur shores were braced against the stern, and preparations were completed, with Humphreys ordering  p385 wedges hammered in to take some strain off wales and keel.

For more than three hours, while the multitude hung tense, nothing happened. The builder was awaiting the full of the tide. It was past noon ere he decided to launch. Preliminary to the final operation, he ordered all temporary shores removed. The crowd, sensing the hour was at hand, began to cheer. Above the din rose the crash of carpenters' mallets driving wedges between the blocking fitted to the bottom and the bilgeways — wedges that would force the hull more solidly into position and take some weight off the blocks under the keel.

Humphreys's hand flashed aloft, a signal to Barry above that the moment had arrived. Workmen beneath the ship started pounding away at the keel blocks. Before more than two‑thirds of them had been knocked out, the United States shuddered and began to move. Noting the strain upon the spur shores and sensing danger, the builder shouted a hurried command to remove them. As they were torn away, he remembered that two cables alone held the frigate in place. Failure of one of them would bring tragedy.

John Barry had acted in the crisis. Here was the time for quick thinking and initiative. The Captain was the man for the occasion. Before any order could be received from Humphreys, his quick command, "Cut the cables," rang out. Axes slashed the taut hemp. The severed ends whipped through the hawse-holes and serpentined to the ground, and the frigate, gaining momentum on the well-tallowed ways, started riverward.

Workmen's heads bobbed up from beneath the ways as the bow cleared the spots where they had been hammering out the blocks. Their hats waved, their cheers joined the hoarse, bellowing chorus of the multitude. Those thousands knew not how close had been the margin between a success­ful launch and disaster. But Humphreys knew, and his official report paid tribute to Barry's timely act.

The United States rode handsomely downward into the river. As she slipped into the water, and the long hull rose and fell upon waves of its own making, the artillery volleyed a salute. "It was in the language of the sea faring men," recorded the Daily Advertiser, " 'a fine launch,' " while the Gazette took pride that, "this is, perhaps, the largest and completest frigate  p386 built, and though intended to carry only 44 guns is as large as a 64 gun ship."

While the thousands wended their homeward ways — Front and Second street as far north as Chestnut being choked with people — the ship carpenters were regaled in the yard with a dinner, topped by rum. Barry came ashore to join Humphreys and a few master carpenters in "around of beeff and adrink of punch." Before they ate, however, the superintendent and builder congratulated themselves that the frigate had proved the firmness of her structure by hogging a mere •inch and a quarter in the launching. For the nautically uninitiated, to hog means to twist upwards out of shape amid­ship, and, according to Humphreys, large European ships were said, when launched, to hog as much as •two feet. Be that as it may, the first ship of the new American navy was afloat at last!

* * *

When, six days after the launching of the United States, John Adams addressed both houses of Congress, it was to rattle the war sword in the scabbard. Not against the Barbary powers was his Philippic — continued peace with them had been assured by annual tribute and the humiliating measure of promising the present of a frigate to the Dey of Algiers. No, the menace was France — a France that had just refused to receive a duly appointed minister from the United States; a France that, since 1793, had been seizing and condemning neutral American vessels upon trumped‑up charges of carrying contraband; a France that had proclaimed Yankee seamen captured in British vessels to be pirates. It was not war Adams desired, but armed neutrality — with a navy adequate to support national honor and an enlarged army and militia.

Warfare raged in the press, however, with the pro‑French news­papers calling for Adams's resignation, and the Federalist publications filling their columns with new French "atrocities," including Secretary Pickering's official report, in June, of thirty‑two sail of American vessels taken by French cruisers since the preceding October. And warfare raged in Congress, where a Federalist majority finally forced through every administration measure, including, in July, an appropriation of $200,000 to complete the three frigates, and orders to man and  p387 employ them in the protection of American commerce. 'Twas Adams, however, who moderated war fervor that same month by appointing a commission of three — the famous X, Y, Z mission — to reopen negotiations with the Gallic republic.

Progress on the United States had been rapid, once she was off the ways. By June 16, the bottom had been coppered and the carpenters' work nearly finished. She would soon be readied to receive masts and stores; in fact, "several of the masts, yards and caps are finished, and the remainder are under way." Barry could report that "the ship may be rigged and completed for sea in one month after the guns and lower masts are on board."

Guns! There was the rub. Where to procure an adequate armament was a question the Captain could not answer. In May and again in June, he had visited Samuel Hughes' furnace in Maryland, proving twenty 24‑pounders, but only twelve of them were long guns, which Barry thought "much the properest for a­Ship of War." Also, all twelve were destined for the Constellation at Baltimore.

To this earnest appeal, the dilatory McHenry seems to have paid slight attention.

Meanwhile, Barry and Truxtun, putting their heads together, decided to forestall purely political appointment of subordinate officers, by making their own recommendations. The Captain's list, presented to McHenry on July 3, urged Richard O'Brien, of Massachusetts, for first lieutenant; John Mullowny, of Philadelphia, for second; William Billings, of Boston, for third; Samuel Newell, of Georgia, for fourth, and John Lockwood, of Philadelphia, for sailing-master. Of these but two were appointed. On July 24, Mullowny was named second lieutenant, and Lockwood, sailing-master. O'Brien had been selected to convey the frigate Crescent as a tribute to Algiers.⁠a Of Billings and Newell, the records are blank. Others recommended by Barry at that time subsequently were appointed, namely: William McRea, of Virginia, lieutenant of  p388 marines, George Gillasspy, of New York, surgeon; John Bullus, a student under Dr. Rush, surgeon's mate, and Robert Willson, boatswain. The two latter were Philadelphians.

Of these officers, however, only Mullowny and Lockwood were available during July and August to aid Barry in the task of completing and outfitting the frigate — a task made more difficult by the alarming spread of an epidemic of yellow fever in Philadelphia. For several summers this disease had visited the capital,⁠b but that summer of 1797 its pestilential breath mowed down the inhabitants as never before. Its virulence sent tremors of dread through rich and poor alike. Those who could afford it vacated the plague-ridden city, while thousands camped in tents on the outskirts. Even the physicians, save stalwart Dr. Rush, fled from the horror. John Adams departed for Massachusetts, and government activities were demoralized, with the Secretary of War moving, bag and baggage, to Downingtown, a hamlet •thirty-five miles to the westward.

Until the disease spread beyond control, Barry, Mullowny and Lockwood, seconded by Humphreys and his workmen, accomplished much. By the end of August, the lower masts were in place, and they had completed careening the frigate, a step necessary to repair some damage sustained in launching. Returning to Strawberry Hill for the week‑end of August 26, the Captain was stricken, not with yellow fever, but with a severe attack of the gout, which lodged principally in his legs. From his country home, he reported the situation of the frigate to McHenry on August 28.

While he would, by September 2, be ready to take on board "Men Guns and every other Article to compleat her for Sea," he was none too sanguine about the equipment, as he had "not had to do with procuring the Articles." He was apprehensive they were "far behind hand." He urged upon the Secretary the desirability of signing on by the month some forty or fifty hands to "get things in readiness for sea." Also, he believed  p389 Surgeon Gillasspy, who was awaiting appointment, should be ordered on board, as well as Lieutenant McRea, of the marines, commissioned on August 1, and who had been off recruiting since. The latter had eight men enlisted. They could relieve the soldier guard from Fort Mifflin, "for such another Set of ragamuffins I never had to do with."

McHenry's reply from Downingtown was received at Strawberry Hill on September 1. The Secretary was happy over the progress reported, approved all Barry's suggestions, and agreed that "it will be proper to moor the ship in the stream at a safe distance from the wharves." Then the Captain should take in guns and other articles. If there were things yet to be procured, it was a problem for Tench Francis, the purveyor, not for Mr. McHenry! Still confined to his home, Barry communicated the instructions to Mullowny, requesting an answer by the bearer. Had the rudder been shipped? Were the anchors on board? Had any of the cables been received from the rope walk? Was the rigger at work?

"I am not able to walk on my leg," he concluded, "or I would have seen you this Morning."

Later that day came Mullowny's encouraging reply.

"Our job that was so troublesome is over," the lieutenant wrote jubilantly. "We Shiped the Rudder yesterday afternoon. Our Anchor is stocked, we have the M[ain] & F[ore] Top masts alongside, caps & crosstrees fore & aft also." Fourteen 24‑pounders had arrived in a sloop, he added, but their disposition lay in the hands of Francis, the purveyor. Glad to learn of this, Barry was pessimistic about smaller cannon, which were "not yet cast that I can learn." The 24‑pounders were not then transferred to the United States, for there were no carriages, and Barry ordered Mullowny to move the frigate from the shipyard to a point in the stream a little below Kensington without delay.

With no destroyer Rush available to minister to him — the physician was absorbed in fighting the fever in the city — the Captain's gout mended slowly. By the time he was able to be about, the plague had spread to the frigate, and he was warned, "Do not expose yourself." At Strawberry Hill, for the next sixty days, Barry was, perforce, an idle spectator, keeping in touch by letter with the gallant little, disease-ravaged band on the  p390 United States. Gout and inactivity, no doubt, explains the tartness with which the Captain, on September 4, answered a long letter from Sam Nicholson, wherein the latter described the status of the Constitution, and his plan to launch her "next moon."

Despite Barry's sharp letter, two abortive launching efforts were made before the Constitution finally took the water on October 21.

* * *

The dread yellow fever struck the United States on September 6, less than twenty-four hours after Mullowny had moored her in the stream off Point Pleasant, at the lower end of Kensington. The main and mizzen topmasts had just been up-ended, and a scuttle was being cut in the deck to permit the fore-topmast head to enter the trestletrees, when Sailing-master Lockwood collapsed, and was carried to his berth. That night Lieutenant McRea went down with a violent fever. Outfitting work ceased entirely when a half-dozen seamen and marines were stricken in the morning. Dr. Gillasspy, suffering from a violent cold, tended the sufferers, administering emetics, bleeding them when necessary, and exposing himself recklessly to the disease. One seaman was transferred to a hospital on shore, but the others were too ill to be moved. A marine died on September 9. Three days later, John Lockwood succumbed.

"It is to be regretted," wrote Barry later, "that the Public Service has lost a valuable officer."

There were no more deaths. Lieutenant McRea passed the crisis success­fully. While several more sickened, Surgeon Gillasspy was sufficiently encouraged to go ashore, on September  p391 14, and give Barry a personal report of the situation. The Captain was alarmed at the surgeon's appearance, and noted "his Spirits very low." No amount of urging, however, could keep Gillasspy at Strawberry Hill overnight. His duty, he said simply, was on the ship where there was no one else to look after the sick. Barry sent for Dr. Rush, who could not leave the city, but dispatched a young assistant. The latter visited the United States and reported to the Captain "that every thing had been done for the Sick that was proper or could be done."

Meanwhile, Edward Meade, a Philadelphian, had been appointed acting master to succeed Lockwood, and Gillasspy felt "that we shall soon be free from the violent disease." Both Meade and Gillasspy were distressed by charges made in a public street in the city by Tench Francis, that medicine and provisions had been wasted.

"After venturing my life, &c.," wrote the surgeon to Barry, "if such is to be the compensation, it is poor indeed."

Meade put his finger upon how picayunish was Francis's charge. He supposed the purveyor alluded to giving meat on banyan days, and pointed out that rules governing rations could not be followed when such rations were not on board. Francis, who probably was unnerved by the scourge surrounding him, was informing Barry that "your ship lays in an improper Situation between the Cohocsink Creek and Petty Island and that she ought to change her birth."

Change her berth! Barry snorted. Before him lay Meade's latest report.

"I Labour under some inconvenience At present," wrote the now acting master, "not haveing a Single Seaman left on Board."

Yet there was optimism in a letter from Gillasspy, received by the same messenger: "the Sick on board this morning appear to be all on the recovery, and I hope soon, through the blessings of heaven to be able to report our little crew are in health."

Favorable news continued from the hard-worked surgeon through September, and the valor of his efforts was attested by thirteen of his patients on October 3. They returned "our sincere and most grateful thanks to Doctor George Gillasspy for his humane, generous and kind treatment of us during our late  p392 sickness." That very day Gillasspy was stricken by the fever he had been battling. Surgeon's mate John Bullus had arrived on the frigate a day or two before, fresh from training under Dr. Rush. His ministrations, plus the surgeon's own methods of self-medication, robbed the plague of a victim whose exhausted condition might have made him easy prey.

"Heaven has been kind," Gillasspy informed Barry, on October 11, acknowledging the latter's solicitude, "and I am left tho not yet able to walk my spirits are good as my sufferings are nearly over."

Sufferings of a different nature followed, for, by October 16, the weather had turned bitterly cold. On the frigate, it sent men shivering to the only fire on board, in the caboose. Nor were conditions improved by lack of glazed wardroom widows. Officers shut the port lids to keep out the wind and used candles by day and night. Seamen and marines lay in the dark, glad for warm woolens, and thankful the plague had disappeared from their midst.

* * *

The cold autumn winds that dissipated the yellow fever brought Secretary McHenry back from Downingtown as October ended. And what, he asked of Barry, was the situation of the United States?

"The work of outfitting stopped early in September," the Captain informed him. "The contagion struck the ship then, and numerous tradesmen, making equipment, were also stricken. For example, the cables which were to be ready at the end of August were not completed until two weeks ago, and not delivered yet."

"Is it too late to get the ship in order to meet a winter sea?" McHenry inquired.

The Captain gave him a speculative glance.

Of what use would that be without guns?" he countered.

"Why, your guns are ready," the Secretary spluttered. "Mr. Francis informs me there were fourteen 24‑pounders received in September, and Mr. Hughes's furnace is casting many more.

"Aye, fourteen any received in September," Barry retorted,  p393 "and condemned as unfit for service last week. There are no suitable cannon at Cecil furnace, nor any in this vicinity."

"Most astounding! Indeed, most astounding!" And McHenry paced his office, then, "Have you any suggestions, Captain Barry?" he queried hopefully.

"My recommendation would be to look for guns at New York," was the answer. "My surgeon, who is a New Yorker and is convalescing from the fever, will return to his home on leave as soon as he is able to travel. I could commission him to institute a search."

"Do so! Do so!" exclaimed McHenry, brightening, and dismissing the matter promptly as solved. "Now, Captain, please prepare me an estimate of rations you will require for a six month cruise."

Whereupon, Gillasspy, a shadow of a man, started a homeward journey by easy stages in early November, while Barry turned to figures . . . Bread . . . a pound per day per man . . . 389 rations, 389 pounds . . . seven rations a week, 2,723 pounds . . . twenty‑six weeks, 70,798 pounds . . . Beef . . . similar calculations on three pounds per man per week . . . Pork, Pease or Beans, Rice, Cheese, Potatoes or Turnips, Salt Fish, Flour, Molasses or Butter, Rum — all in capitals and all in detail. The totals in pints, pounds, or ounces, dependent upon the commodity, were ready on November 13. McHenry was delighted. The estimate was filed.

From Gillasspy, later in the month, came encouraging reports. At Governor's island he had inspected twenty‑six 24‑pounders, five the property of the United States, and twenty‑one belonging to New York; all in first class condition, "much better than those at Philadelphia." On Bedloe's island was one 24‑pounder and an 18‑pounder, both heavy ship guns. He had heard of more at Kinder Hook and at Salisbury furnace. Later he learned four more 24‑pounders had been received at Governor's island from the furnace, and eight were laying at Red Hook landing. Barry placed this information in a letter to McHenry who was delighted. The letter was filed.

Barry fumed. Well he might, for, even as McHenry was pigeon-holing reports, Congress was learning from Secretary Pickering that French aggressions were multiplying. On December  p394 27, the house committee received a compendium of additional American vessels carried into ports in France and the French West Indies — a compendium of many pages. The close of 1797 was no time, to Barry's mind, for procrastination. He wanted guns, men, provisions, and McHenry gave him, instead, on January 4, 1798, instructions to make out muster rolls alphabetically and monthly, to requisition provisions on the basis of these rolls, and to be sure to sign personally all requisitions!

* * *

Doubts of the genial McHenry's ability to handle both War Department and navy had arisen with others than John Barry. Members of the House Committee on Naval Affairs considered the subject, and one of them, James Imlay, of New Jersey, consulted with the Captain. Barry's views were placed in letter form in Imlay's hands on January 8. With tact, because the letter might well reach McHenry's eyes, the Captain, in pointing to indifferent management to date, urged "there ought to be some allowance made for beginners." Followed two important recommendations, which, in the light of future development of the navy, indicate clearly his foresightedness. They were:

The establishment of a Navy Department.

The creation of navy yards.

Even his further suggestion, that the department be headed by three commissioners — an experienced captain, a merchant and a shipbuilder — had in it the basis for creation, in later years, of various divisions within the department. It was advanced thinking, and the first public evidence that War Department dominance of naval matters must come to an end.

For supporting proof of the need, we recommend these orders issued in January by McHenry to the War Department store-keeper. Big preparations were on foot! On January 8 — please deliver to Lieutenant McRea eighteen muskets for marines, three dozen flints, and a sergeant's uniform! On January 12 — please deliver to Lieutenant Mullowny five short cartridges for scaling 24‑pounders, and three sticks of port fire! On January 18 — please deliver to Lieutenant Mullowny fifty-five pounds of cannon powder, twenty more sticks of port fire, twenty-five paper cartridges, a powder horn, bit, priming wire,  p395 rammer, sponge, worm and ladle! The United States could have fired one gun — if she had a gun! Considering her complement at that time, even this might have been a feat. She mustered the tremendous total of four officers, two warrant officers, nine seamen and twenty marines.

At Cecil furnace, through the winter, Samuel Hughes had been casting more cannon. He had both 24- and 12‑pounders ready for proving in early February, and urged Barry to come down "as the weather is now moderate and the snow gone." There was one hitch. The 12-pound shot Hughes had cast were too small to prove the 12-pound cannon. Some one had changed gun‑bore specifications without bothering to make a similar change in shot specifications. Under the circumstances, Barry postponed his visit.

Discipline had grown lax on the frigate with the Captain frequently absent at either the War Department or Strawberry Hill. The crew passed ashore as they saw fit, and shore visitors wandered at will over the vessel. It pained Barry, and he gave Mullowny a sharp dressing down, on February 12. He had hoped, he said, to be spared the need "of pointing out the duty or at least part of it" that was requisite of officers. He wanted it understood that either Mullowny or Meade should be on board "and as much as convenient on the quarter deck." Seamen should be employed making roundings for the cables and shroud backstay. Landsmen and marines should keep the ship clean. A sentinel should be at the gangway day and night to stop hands from going ashore and people on shore from coming on board, except by permission of the officer of the deck. Precautions against fire, drill for the marines, and discipline without brutality were also prescribed.

"It is my orders," he declared, "that no officer on any pretense what ever beat or abuse any of the men on board or on Shore when on the Ships duty more than one or two slight strokes to make him jump quick to his work."

Flick him, but don't flay him! Where the offense was serious, put the culprit in irons and prefer charges.

One of the first offenders against this new discipline was John Barry! This particular John Barry, however, was a seaman who had signed on in December, and who had been absent over night without leave. Another namesake had crossed the  p396 Captain's path. A stretch in irons was the punishment for the said Barry. Even a namesake could not violate the Captain's rules with impunity.

The trip to Cecil furnace was further delayed by an asthmatic attack, which confined Barry to Strawberry Hill under Dr. Rush's care, for the latter part of February. Once back on his feet, he resumed his activities in Philadelphia and on the frigate, and, in early March, learned that the remaining commissioned officers had been appointed to the United States.

David Ross, an officer of whom little is known, had been commissioned first lieutenant, on March 9, 1798. His services in the navy would span but a year and three-quarters.

The third lieutenant was James Barron, of Virginia, son of a captain in that state's Revolutionary navy. James Barron! The name conjures up tragedy . . . the affair of the Chesapeake and Leopard . . . the duel at Bladensburg with Decatur!⁠c But those are events lying far in the future. In 1798, Barron was considered an eminently fit and experienced seaman.

For fourth lieutenant, the choice fell upon young Charles Stewart, of Philadelphia. Here, too, is a name to make history — Stewart, who, in the Constitution in 1814, would win a spectacular victory over two British ships-of‑war.⁠d Of the three officers, only Stewart reported immediately for duty, arriving on the frigate on March 14, the day he was commissioned.

Again Barry considered a trip to Cecil furnace, and again there was delay; this time due to discovery that the frigate's seams in "Decks topsides and other ports . . . were much opened." The Captain reported the condition to McHenry, who ordered Humphreys to survey the defects and transmit an estimate of cost of repairs. To facilitate examination, the frigate was brought down river and anchored off Southwark. Here the naval constructor made his survey, and, on March 26, was directed by the Secretary of War to institute repairs "with as little expense as possible."

The "Frigate United States being now Moored in the Stream," Barry instructed Mullowny that day, "you will make every exertion in your power to Keep the few people you have on board Employed in getting things ready for Sea and by Know means neglect Keeping the Ship clean I expect that your Self Mr Steward [Stewart] Mr Meade and Mr MacKray [McRea]  p397 will form your selves into a regular watch so that one of you will be always on deck by day as well as by night."

The Captain was off at last for Maryland. At Cecil furnace, he started proving Samuel Hughes's 12‑pounders. On the first day, six guns burst out of eight tried! Next day, five out of six burst! Of the forty-four guns tested, twelve were accepted, and Barry said flatly to McHenry that he would not have a single one of the twelve placed on the United States.

Before receipt of this emphatic ultimatum, the frantic McHenry had implored Congress to separate the navy from the War Department. John Adams had launched his terrific tirade against France in a message bristling with martial spirit. His envoys had been un­success­ful in conciliatory measures "on terms compatible with the safety, the honor, or the essential interests of the nation." Arm for war, urged the President.

With seams opening unexpectedly on the United States, with guns bursting on proving grounds in Maryland, with Truxtun calling for provisions from Baltimore, with Nicholson bewailing the absence of suitable cannon in Boston, what chance had the flustered Secretary of War to prepare for hostilities? Federalists were howling for action, and French sympathisers could well jibe, with the entire navy — three frigates — still lacking armament, men and part of their outfits. It was high time for a Navy Department.

---

Thayer's Notes:

a Continental Navy officer Richard Henry O'Brien (Kennebec, ME then part of Massachusetts, 1758? – Washington, D. C., 1824) had served as a lieutenant on the Dauphin in 1785 when the ship was captured by the Barbary corsairs, and remained a prisoner in Algiers for ten years, during which time he learned Arabic and gained the trust of the Algerian authorities; once he was freed, the American government made an excellent choice of him as its consul in Algiers, among whose duties was dealing with tribute, American prisoners, etc. He had already been the source of much of the American government's information on Algerian military capabilities, and, not surprisingly, a strong advocate of American naval power. See H. J. Ford, Washington and His Colleagues, pp106‑109. That chapter gives a good summary of the Algerian tribute and the debates in Congress.

b Interesting details on the 1793 epidemic, including a mention of Barry, are given by E. S. Ferguson, Truxtun of the Constellation, pp94‑96.

c Alden, Earle, et al., Makers of Naval Tradition, p61 f.

d G. R. Clark et al., A Short History of the United States Navy, p200 f.

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