A Civil War Era Fighting Ship in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor

Location: Baltimore’s Inner Harbor 
Destination: Maryland
Country: United States
Year Taken: 2009

Photographer: Jon Rochetti
Blog: The DC Traveler

The USS Constellation, permanently moored in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor is the last all sail warship in the U.S. Navy.

Fitted with 16 8-inch guns, the ship first patrolled the Mediterranean Sea mostly on diplomatic missions starting in 1855.  In 1859, it was assigned to patrol the areas off the Congo River to intercept illegal slave trade ships.

During the U.S. Civil War, it patrolled the Mediterranean looking for Confederate ships.  After the war, it was assigned as a training ship at the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland,  and was regularly seen sailing on the Chesapeake Bay.

During some of World War II, the Constellation was the Atlantic Fleet’s flag ship, designated so as to allow other more modern ships could be engaged in actual operations.  By 1955 she was decommissioned and in 1999, towed to her now permanent berth in Baltimore.

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