The building of the Constitution resulted from the failure of the new United States government to purchase protection from the Algerian pirates. By a majority of two, the House of Representatives voted, in March, 1794, to provide six frigates that “separately would be superior to any European frigate.” The Constitution was one of these. She was designed by Joshua Humphreys of Philadelphia and built at Hartt’s Wharf in Boston, near the present Constitution Wharf. The copper bolts and fittings were supplied by Paul Revere. Construction was all but abandoned after a new treaty was made with the pirates, but the insistence of Presidents Washington and Adams, coupled with the rising difficulties with revolutionary France, finally brought the work to completion. She was launched in October, 1797, and commissioned quickly.

The Constitution was rated as a 44-gun frigate but has carried as many as 55 guns at various times. The present arrangement closely follows that of her early days. The guns on the spar deck are 32-pounder carronades, short, light guns which threw heavy shots a short distance (300 to 400 yards). On the gun deck are long 24-pounders, heavy guns with much greater range but less smashing power than the carronade. In the following table the ranges given are for one degree of elevation. The long gun could attain ranges up to 2,000 yards by greater elevation, the projectile leaving the gun with a velocity of about 1,500 feet per second.