Launching Day, USS America

From Geoff Hunt’s spectacular series of prints depicting dramatic naval actions associated with the War of Independence and the War of 1812. The first United States battleship: Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 5 November 1782. In November 1776 the Continental Congress ordered the construction of three 74-gun ships. This class of war ship was the state-of-the-art naval weapon of the late eighteenth century, and one of the most complex engineering constructions of its day – a remarkably ambitious project for the fledgling nation. The three would be the biggest ships so far built in North America. Moreover, they were to be larger than their contemporaries in either the British or French navies, and “no pains will be spared to make ? so good a ship as can be built in America.” Due to the circumstances of the war, only one of these impressive units, the America, was completed. She was constructed at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, overseen and launched by her captain-designate John Paul Jones.

The great new ship fell victim to politics and, even before completion, was given to America’s ally France. The launching itself, into the relatively narrow Piscataqua River, was difficult – the citizens of Portsmouth must have wondered if the 182-foot ship would finish up in their parlors – but was accomplished with the same skill and flair that had marked the rest of this outstanding achievement of Continental shipbuilding.

View Artist’s Biography