123STA T . 2 4 4 5PUBLIC LA W 111 –8 4 —O CT. 28 , 2 0 0 9(3)theNavys h ould e x e rci se g reater restrai n tonthe ac q uisition p rocess f or ships in order to achieve on - ti m e , on- cost ship b uilding programs
and ( 4 ) C ongress should support the Navy w hen it is acting responsibly to underta k e measures that can help the Navy achieve the requirement for a 3 1 3-ship fleet and maintain a fleet that is adequate to meet the national security needs of the U nited S tates .SEC.102 2. D ES IGNAT I O NO FU .S.S. CONSTITUTION AS A M E R ICA ’ SS H I P OF STATE. (a) FIND IN GS . — Congress makes the following findings
(1) I n the A ct entitled ‘ ‘An Act to P rovide a Naval Armament ’ ’, approved on M arch 27 ,17 9 4(1Stat.3 50 , Chap. X II), the 3rd Congress authori z ed the construction of six frigates as the first ships to be built for the United States Navy. (2) O ne of the six frigates was built in B oston, Massachu- setts, between 1794 and 1797, and is the only one of the original six ships to survive. (3) President G eorge W ashington named this frigate ‘‘Con- stitution’’ to represent the Nation’s founding document. (4) President T homas J efferson, asserting the right of the United States to trade on the high seas, dispatched the frigate Constitution in 1 8 03 as the flagship of the Mediterranean Squadron to end the depredations of the Barbary States against United States ships and shipping, which led to a treaty being signed with the Bashaw of Tripoli in the captain’s cabin aboard the frigate Constitution on June 4, 1805. (5) The frigate Constitution, with her defeat of the H .M.S. Guerriere, secured the first ma j or victory by the young United States Navy against the R oyal Navy during the War of 1812, gaining in the process the nickname ‘‘Old Ironsides’’, which she has proudly carried since. ( 6 ) Congress awarded gold medals to four of the ship’s commanding officers (Preble, Hull, Stewart, and Bainbridge), a record unmatched by any other United States Navy vessel. (7) The frigate Constitution emerged from the War of 1812 undefeated, having secured victories over three additional ships of the Royal Navy. (8) As early as May 1815, the frigate Constitution had already been adopted as a symbol of the young Republic, as attested by the [ Washington ] National Intelligencer which pro- claimed, ‘‘ L et us keep ‘Old Ironsides’ at home. She has, literally become the Nation’s Ship . . . and should thus be preserved . . . in honorable pomp, as a glorious Monument of her own, and our other Naval V ictories.’’. (9) Rumors in 1830 that ‘‘Old Ironsides’’, an aging frigate, was about to be scrapped resulted in a public uproar demanding that the ship be restored and preserved, spurred by Oliver Wendell Holmes’ immortal poem ‘‘Old Ironsides’’. (10) ‘‘Old Ironsides’’ circumnavigated the world between 1844 and 1846, showing the American flag as she searched for future coaling stations that would eventually fuel the steam- powered navy of the United States. (11) The first Pope to set foot on United States sovereign territory was Pius IX onboard the frigate Constitution in 1849.
