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Article: UNLUCKY FRIGATE MAY HAVE HAPPY ENDING AS AN ENGLISH FLOUR MILL.(PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS)
- Article from:
- The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, VA)
- Article date:
- August 15, 1999
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 The Virginian Pilot-Ledger Star. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of the Dialog Corporation by Gale Group. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Alan Flanders
One of the ``unluckiest'' ships in the entire history of the U.S. Navy has to be one of its first warships, the U.S.S. Chesapeake, launched in Portsmouth's Gosport Shipyard in 1799.
First, she was almost never completed as her size and number of guns were reduced as a cost-saving measure by a Congress reluctant to build a navy after peace was made with the Barbary pirates in 1795.
Work on her and five other frigates, that became the first six original warships of the United States, only resumed because of the so-called ``Quasi-War'' with France in 1798.
On a mission in local waters, Chesapeake was stopped and ...