CHAPTER XXV

BIRTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE U. S. NAVY

In 1794 Mr. Carroll had retired as a Senator from the State of Maryland. Undoubtedly he would have been a member of Washington's cabinet but for the necessity of his remaining at least for a while in the United States Senate. Congress had passed a law preventing a man from holding two offices at the same time and Mr. Carroll had given up his position as a member of the United States Senate in order that he might be able to more advantageously support the President in the councils of his State. Already the party that was opposing the President in many things had secured a majority in the House of Representatives and it was with this condition of things that Washington consulted Mr. Carroll in regard to re-establishing the United State Navy. An act of Congress had been passed providing for the building and operating of a navy under the direction of Secretary of War.

The navy of the Colonies had been permitted to dwindle away. Some of the boats had become too old and decayed to be of use and the others were sold as there seemed to be no further need for a navy. But French spoliation had shown the necessity for a navy, and Congress had authorized the work to be undertaken. The Secretary of War was not very anxious for this addition to the duties and responsibilities of his office. Washington, as was his custom, sent for Senator Carroll and they talked the matter over. The two men best fitted for the work according to Senator Carroll's opinion, were Andrew Ellicott and Commodore Jack Barry. The two latter were sent for and

General Knox, Secretary of War, suggested calling Joshua Fox. So General Washington, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Jack Barry, Andrew Ellicott and Joshua Fox formed the committee that outlined the first plans for a United States Navy, and they were men admirably fitted for the work at hand. Ellicott was the son and nephew of the two great mill owners that Mr. Carroll had induced to come from Bucks County to Maryland when he determined to divert a large percentage of Maryland planters from tobacco raisers to growers of grain. The Ellicotts had purchased great tracts of land near Mr. Carroll's estate and had founded Ellicotts Mills, now Ellicott City. Andrew Ellicott was a civil engineer of great ability and his talents were well known both to President Washington and Mr. Carroll. Barry, known as the "Commodore " was living the life of a gentleman of means in Philadelphia. He believed that his days of activity were over. But the passage of the law providing for a United States Navy, infused new life into him and he became deeply interested in the effort. Both Barry and Ellicott, as well as Washington and Carroll knew of the ability of Joshua Fox, as a constructor of ships.

The great-granddaughter of Fox, Elizabeth Brandon Stanton, now or very lately living at Windy Hill Manor, Haldez, Miss., tells the story of her ancestor's connection with the beginning of the navy as shown by the records and her account agrees precisely with that given by Mr. Carroll in his letters.

Miss Stanton says:

When the bill was pending in Congress in the session of 1793 and 1794, there was an English Naval constructor visiting in the United States -Josiah Fox, born at Falmouth, England, October 9, 1763. He came to this country to see

his relatives, and, as he was about to return home, he received an invitation from General Knox, the Secretary of War, to call at the the War Office, General Knox having heard from Commodores Barry and Decatur that Josiah Fox was very skilled in naval architecture. Andrew Ellicott of West Point, the surveyor-general, introduced his kinsman, Fox, personally to Knox and Washington, and they discussed the project of building a navy.

Fox was a master shipbuilder, who had served his apprenticeship under the best ship architects and shipbuilders of that period in England, and the English navy was recognized as the finest of the world. He was offered inducements by those in authority to give his knowledge and skill to serving of the young republic. Those in authority were not satisfied with the constructors in their employ, they being unacquainted with the latest methods and improvements in shipbuilding; and, not to be despised on the high seas, the nation's war vessels must be drafted, molded and constructed after the world's foremost maritime power. Fox was a graduate of the English School of Navy Architecture, and was at once employed. Miss Stanton from her family papers, then goes on to give a most interesting but succinct account of the work of beginning and developing the new navy. She says that following his introduction to those in authority, Josiah Fox underwent a satisfactory examination as to his qualification in the art of naval architecture before the Secretary of War and Commodore Barry, the latter of whom he had known from his youth up. The principal mast shipbuilders of Philadelphia also bore testimony to his skill in naval architecture. He was thereupon received into the public service as a clerk in the Department of War, until suitable provision could be otherwise made for him. At that time his advice and assistance were required on naval subjects and he confidently asserts that his models, formed to combine buoy

ance and capacity with fast-sailing, met the general approbation of those professional men to whom the Secretary of War submitted them.

After the models had been decided on, he was employed the remainder of the year in laying down the draughts in the model loft and superintending making the molds. The four ships which he drafted were the "United States," "Constitution," "Constellation," and the one intended to have been built at Norfolk, the work on which finally fell to him.

Barry was made Superintendent of Naval construction and Fox Naval Constructor. It can be said without fear of successful contradiction that no group of vessels designed by any one man in the world's naval history ever achieved the remarkable and lasting pre-eminence of the frigates and sloops of war which were the creations of Josiah Fox. Among them were these historic fighting ships:

and a greater part of the numerous gunboats.

The old "Constitution" also is a monument to the first American naval constructor. It was finished in 1798 and saw service under Commodore Barry against the French in 1799. Of the old ship's many sea fights, the most renowned was her engagement with the British man-of-war "Guerrier," commanded by Captain Dacres. To

avenge the insults hurled at his brave ship, Captain Isaac Hull sailed in search of the "Guerrier," August 12, and seven days later came in range. The mizen mast of the "Guerrier" was shot away; her mast was inslings and her hull, spars and sails were torn to threads by the gunners of "Old Ironsides "— approbiously clept by the old English press: "A bundle of pineboards sailing under a bit of striped bunting." Those boasted broadsides from English walls did not drive the paltry "striped bunting" from the high seas: Captain Dacres struck his flag to intrepid Captain Isaac Hull and the Stars and Stripes of the Baby Republic waved triumphantly over the British Lions. Hull only lost seven men killed; Dacres counted seventy killed and wounded on his bloody deck.

In the "Constellation "Captain Tuxton went to sea in the war against France, and in 1799, he captured "L'Isurgente," "thirty-six guns for which deed Congress awarded him a gold medal.

The action of the "Constellation" with "La Vengeance" has always been considered one of the warmest combats between frigates on record. The result of this engagement produced great exultation in America and was very gratifying to the national pride. It was claimed as a victory of 38 over 34. The country proclaimed the new marine was equal to any on the seas.

Captain John Barry was familiarly known as the Commodore, a title frequently given by courtesy but not known in the American Navy till 1862. It was given by courtesy to men in civil life, who had attained fame in marine matters as in the case of Commodore Vanderbilt of New York and Commodore Hooper of Baltimore. Barry received commission No. 1 in the new United States Navy, as he had in the navy of the United Colonies, but his work on the seas in the Federal navy was not of long duration as he died not long after hoisting his flag as "Commodore of the Constitution," the first ship to be finished.