What’s more, it had an unblemished combat record since being launched in 1797. ![]() Constitution was the larger frigate, boasting a larger crew, a thicker hull and six more guns. Now, two months later, Constitution and Guerriere, a French ship that had been captured by the Royal Navy in 1806, closed in on each other 400 miles off the coast of Nova Scotia. The same warship that had been notorious for stopping American merchant vessels at sea and impressing their sailors, a practice that partly led to the declaration of war against Great Britain on June 18, 1812. The same frigate that Hull had skillfully eluded a month earlier near New York by taking evasive actions that included dumping 10 tons of drinking water overboard. The newsflash brought the frigate’s commanding officer, Captain Isaac Hull, and his charges “flocking up like pigeons from a net bed,” according to one crewman. ![]() on the afternoon of August 19, 1812, a lookout aboard USS Constitution spied a sail against the cloudy southern horizon.
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