(USS CONSTELLATION) Manuscript journal kept by Midshipman Jo

Sale 1916 - Lot 354

Price Realized: $ 3,450

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500

SAILED WITH RAPHAEL SEMMES(U.S.S. CONSTELLATION.) Manuscript journal kept by Midshipman John O. Wilson and Signed by Commodore Alexander James Dallas three times, comprised of daily entries for a 5 month cruise in the West Indies, mostly containing routine information such as location, weather, provisions, and other ships encountered, but also with one mention of pirates and the receipt of the news of the outbreak of the Texas Revolution. Also contains a roster of the ships officers which includes Sailing Master Raphael Semmes. Small 4to, contemporary 1/2 dyed calf, worn; scattered uneven toning from floral samples laid in. With a contemporary custom lithographed title page.<\t>West Indies, 8 October 1835 to 29 February 1836

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The U.S.S. Constellation was the first frigate built by the U. S. Navy in 1797 and participated in the Barbary Wars and the War of 1812. In the 1820s and 30s, the frigate cruised the Caribbean fighting pirate ships and looking for illegal slavers. The ship was decommissioned and dismantled in 1853, but a new sloop of war was immediately named in its honor. Ironically, during the Civil War, the second U.S.S. Constellation spent a fair amount of time chasing Raphael Semmes's Confederate ship the Alabama.<