The USS Constellation: The Navy's Last Sail-Only Warship

The USS Constellation is a sloop-of-war and the last sail-only warship designed and built by the United States Navy. Built at the Gosport Shipyard between 1853 and 1855, the ship was constructed using live oak timbers that the Navy had accumulated in stockpiles from 1816 to the 1830s. The ship was named for an earlier frigate of the same name that was broken up in 1853.

Constellation entered service in 1855 with the Mediterranean Squadron before being assigned in 1859 as the flagship of the Africa Squadron for the African Slave Trade Patrol. During the American Civil War, she returned to the Mediterranean to patrol for Confederate vessels. In 1871, she was recommissioned as a training ship for midshipmen for twenty-two years. During this period, she transported exhibits to the 1878 Exposition Universelle in Paris and carried food to Ireland during the 1879 famine.

The vessel underwent a period of mistaken identity in the early 20th century, where it was believed she was the same ship as the Constellation launched in 1797. In 1917, she was briefly renamed Old Constellation to free the name for a new battlecruiser, before reverting to her original name in 1925. Research in the 1990s definitively proved that the 1854-launched vessel and the 1797 ship were distinct.

Today, the USS Constellation is a National Historic Landmark and remains open to the public as part of the Historic Ships in Baltimore in the city's Inner Harbor. Located at East Pratt Street, the ship continues to be preserved and maintained through periodic repairs to its rotted wood.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons