Distinguished as the first U.S. navy vessel put to
sea, and the first to engage and defeat an enemy ship, the USS Constellation set
out on her maiden voyage, September 1, 1797.
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| Navy History and Heritage Command PD-USGOV-MILITARY-NAVY. |
After years of faithful service, she was
decommissioned in the year 1853, and broken up for scrap material. But this was
hardly the end of her life. In 1854, the navy constructed a new ship, possibly
using bits and pieces of the old, and again christened her the USS
Constellation. If nothing else, the name lived on. Under the command of Charles
H. Bell, the navy launched this powerfully armed sloop-of-war on the 26th of
August, 1854. The Constellation served in various capacities for a full
century, until her final decommission on the 15th of August, 1955, when at long
last, the navy removed her from the rolls.
Again, not the end of her life, though. You see,
once removed from the naval rolls, the ship found a permanent berth in what is
known as Constellation Dock, Inner Harbor at Pier 1 in Baltimore, Maryland. She
was designated a National Historic Landmark and placed on the National Register
of Historic Places in 1966. She also has the distinction of being the last
existing naval vessel from the American Civil War that remains intact.
Fully restored in 1999, the Constellation made her
first trip out of Baltimore's Inner Harbor since 1955. In October of 2004, she
set sail for the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis and this six day voyage marked
her first trip to the city in 111 years.
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| PD-USGOV-MILITARY-NAVY. |
All fine and good, but is it haunted?
