two, and her cannon were heavier than were usually carried
on foreign war ships of her own class. She was twenty feet longer and
about five feet broader than {172} the far-famed thirty-eight-gun
British frigates. In comparison with a modern war ship, she was less
than one half as long as the armed cruiser New York, and not far from
the size of one of our gunboats.

The British naval officers made much sport of these new ships; but
after "Old Ironsides" had destroyed two fine British frigates, and
had outsailed a large British fleet, they went to work and made over
some of their line of battle ships into large frigates.

The Constitution was built of the best material, and with unusual
care. A Boston shipwright was sent South to select live oak, red
cedar, and hard pine. Paul Revere, who made the famous midnight ride
to Concord, received nearly four thousand dollars for the copper
which he furnished for the new frigate.

From the laying of the keel to the final equipment, the Constitution
was kept in the shipyard fully three years. Her live oak timbers,
having had two years to season, were hard as iron.

After many delays, the stanch ship was set afloat at midday, October
21, 1797, "before a numerous and brilliant collection of citizens."

In 1803, a fleet was sent to the north of Africa, to force the
pirates of the Barbary coast to respect the persons and the property
of American citizens. Commodore Preble was made commander, with the
Constitution as his flagship. He had under him the Philadelphia, a
fine new frigate, and five smaller war ships.

{173} Preble was a remarkable man, and his "schoolboy captains," as
he called them, all under twenty-five years of age, were also
remarkable men.

For two years or more, there was plenty of stubborn fighting. Within
forty days, five attacks were made on the forts and the war ships of
Tripoli. In three of these attacks, the Constitution took part; and
once, while supporting the fleet, she silenced more than a hundred
guns behind the forts of the pirate capital.

Even from the first, the new frigate was lucky. She was never
dismasted, or seriously injured, in battle or by weather. In all her
service, not one commanding officer was ever lost, and few of her
crew were ever killed.

On one occasion, six of our gunboats made a savage hand to hand
attack on twenty-one Tripolitan gunboats, and drove them back into
the harbor with great loss.

"There, Commodore Preble," sai