Chesapeake was a 38-gun wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate of the United States Navy. She was one of the original six frigates whose construction was authorized by the Naval Act of 1794. Chesapeake began her career during the Quasi-War with France and later saw service in the First Barbary War. On 22 June 1807 she was fired upon by HMS Leopard of the Royal Navy for refusing to allow a search for deserters.
About USS Chesapeake (1799) in brief
Chesapeake was a 38-gun wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate of the United States Navy. She was one of the original six frigates whose construction was authorized by the Naval Act of 1794. Chesapeake began her career during the Quasi-War with France and later saw service in the First Barbary War. On 22 June 1807 she was fired upon by HMS Leopard of the Royal Navy for refusing to allow a search for deserters. The event, now known as the Chesapeake–Leopard affair, angered the American public and government and was a precipitating factor that led to the War of 1812. The Royal Navy took her into their service as HMS Chescape, where she served until she was broken up and her timbers sold in 1819. The ship remained unnamed for several years before being named after President George Washington, after Chesapeake Bay, in Virginia. She is not named after a United States president, nor after a U.S. Navy ship of the line, but after the Constitution’s nominal rating of “D” (for “Congress”). She was the second-most expensive frigate at USD 220,677, the least expensive was Congress at USD 197,246. The final cost of her construction was USD 200,000, and she was launched on 20 June 1799. During construction, a sloop named Chesapeake was launched between 10 and 14 October 1799 but was renamed Patapsco on 10 October.
She had a length of 152. 8 ft between perpendiculars and 41. 3 ft of beam contrasted with her closest sisters, Congress and Constellation, which were built to 164 ft in length and 41 ft ft of beam. The second-to-last frigate to be named after George Washington is the USS Chesapeake, which was not named by President Washington, nor by Congress, until he was informed by Secretary of the Navy Benjamin Stoddert that the name Chesapeake had been given to him by the President. The name was changed to Chesapeake in 1811. The last frigate named by George Washington was the USS Patapsco, who was launched in 1813 and was named after the U. S. Navy’s second-highest rating, “D”, for “Congress”. The ship was decommissioned in 1815 and sold for $1,500,000 (US$1,600,000) in 1820. She has been preserved in the Norfolk Navy Yard in Norfolk, Virginia, and is now part of the Chesaine Mill in Wickham, England. The frigate was originally designed as a 44-gun frigate, but builder Josiah Fox changed her design to 38 guns. The design incorporated a diagonal scantling scheme to limit hogging and included extremely heavy planking. When construction finished, Chesapeake has the smallest dimensions of the six frigate, a length of152. 8 ft between perpendiculars and 41.3 ft of beam.
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