152 OUR FIRST FRIGATES. 



Congress met again in November, 1797, and in the following month the Secre- 

 tary of War reported that the following additional sums would be necesary to com- 

 plete and equip the frigates for use : 



United States $23,557 



Constitution 26,275 



Constellation 22,319 



Total $72,151 



Balance of last appropriation unexpended $35,554 



Additional appropriation required 3^,597 



This was exclusive of the cost of the military stores and all the maintenance cost of 

 the vessels when placed in commission. 



On March 19, 1798, the President sent to Congress a message dealing with the 

 increasingly strained relations with France and reiterated his recommendations for 

 the adoption of measures for the protection of American commerce. On March 27, 

 1798, Congress appropriated $115,833 to complete and equip for sea the frigates 

 United States, Constitution and Constellation, and $2,200 to defray the salaries of 

 persons having charge of the yards at New York, Norfolk and Portsmouth where 

 the uncompleted ships were lying. On March 8, a committee of the House of Repre- 

 sentatives recommended the creation in the War Department of an office which 

 should be employed in the immediate superintendence of the navy concerns of the 

 United States, the officer in charge to be called The Commissioner of Marine. 



In an interesting and exhaustive report to Congress on March 22 the Secre- 

 tary of War reviews the construction of the ships. He states that various consider- 

 ations, such as the rise in the price of labor and materials, the loss of two cargoes 

 of oak in its passage from Georgia, the loss of hemp by fire in Boston, the cost of 

 an additional wharf to insure the safe launching of the frigate United States, the 

 expense of heaving down the United States to repair an injury done to her false 

 keel and rudder braces by striking the ground in launching, the expense occasioned 

 by repeated trials in attempts to launch the frigate Constitution, the expense of 

 double freight in removing some of the live oak and other timber from one yard to 

 another, were among the causes of the difference between the estimated and the 

 real cost of the armament. He continues : — 



"The frigates are now nearly finished and from the best judgment that can be 

 formed respecting them, promise to prove the most complete of their kind that have 

 appeared on the ocean ; and such as would do credit to the most skillful workmen of 

 countries more experienced in naval architecture than ours * * * jf tj^g United 

 States contemplates an arrangement for properly providing naval protection to their 

 commerce, suitable to the resources of the country and its relative situation to 



