Ships Archives - Lost New England

USS Constitution, Boston (2)

February 12, 2025 by Derek Strahan

The USS Constitution at Charlestown Navy Yard in Boston, around 1905. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

The Constitution at the same dock in 2022:

As explained in more detail in the previous post, the frigate USS Constitution has a long history with Boston, dating back to its construction in the North End in 1797. The ship served with distinction in many American conflicts, most notably in the War of 1812, when it captured or sank five British warships and earned the nickname “Old Ironsides.”

The Constitution remained in active service for nearly a century, but by the end of the 19th century it had been converted into a receiving ship, with a large barracks structure that was constructed atop its deck, as shown in the top photo. In this role, the ship served as temporary housing for new recruits and other sailors who were not currently assigned to a crew. It was in use as a receiving ship at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in the late 19th century, before being moved to the Charlestown Navy Yard in Boston in time for its centennial in 1897.

When the top photo was taken, its future was uncertain. it was in need of major repairs, and there was a possibility that the navy might choose to sink it for target practice. However, it was ultimately restored, including the removal of the barracks, and it became a museum ship. It underwent several other major restorations over the course of the 20th century, and also embarked on a three-year tour of the country, including visiting ports along the Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific coasts.

Another ship is also visible in the top photo, on the right side. It is the passenger liner SS Arabic of the White Star Line, the same company that would later construct the Titanic. The Arabic was built in 1903, so it was only a few years old in the top photo, providing a dramatic contrast to the Constitution. Ironically, though, despite being more than a century older, the Constitution would outlive the Arabic by more than a century. The Arabic was ultimately torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine in 1915 during World War I, in an incident that caused a diplomatic crisis similar to the sinking of the Lusitania several months earlier.

Today, the Constitution is still moored at the same dock in Charlestown Navy Yard, although it now much more closely resembles its appearance in its fighting days, when compared to its appearance in the top photo. It remains a commissioned United States warship with its own officers and crew, and it is the oldest commissioned warship afloat in the world. Only Britain’s HMS Victory is older, although it has been in drydock since 1922.

USS Constitution, Boston

February 12, 2025 by Derek Strahan

The USS Constitution at the Charlestown Navy Yard in Boston, around 1905. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

The Constitution at the same dock in 2022:

These two photos show the USS Constitution, the oldest commissioned warship afloat in the world. Constructed across the harbor in Boston at Edmund Hartt’s shipyard, the Constitution was one of six frigates that were authorized by the Naval Act of 1794. Prior to this act, the United States did not have a standing navy, with the earlier Continental Navy having been disbanded after the end of the American Revolution. The initial motivation for constructing these ships was to protect American shipping from Barbary pirates in North Africa, but they would also see extensive service in the Quasi War against France and in the War of 1812 against Britain.

The Constitution was launched in 1797 and departed on its first patrol in 1798, during the Quasi War. It later served in the First Barbary War, but the Constitution would earn its fame for its role in the War of 1812. Over the course of the war, it sank or captured five British warships, and it earned the nickname of “Old Ironsides” after its August 19, 1812 defeat of the HMS Guerriere. The ship was later further immortalized by Oliver Wendell Holmes’s 1830 poem “Old Ironsides,” which was written in response to a news article that the navy was planning to scrap the Constitution.

The ship would remain in active service throughout most of the 19th century, including being used as a training ship during and after the Civil War. However, by 1881 it was in poor condition, and it was brought to Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and converted into a receiving ship for housing sailors who were not currently assigned to a crew. This conversion included the construction of barracks on the deck of the ship, as shown in the top photo.

In 1897, the Constitution was moved back to Boston, just in time for the centennial of its launch. The top photo was taken about 8 years later, showing the ship moored on the western side of the Charlestown Navy Yard. At this point, the fate of the famous ship was still very uncertain. That year, the secretary of the navy proposed sinking it as a target ship, but it prompted an outcry similar to that which had prompted Holmes’s poem some 75 years earlier.

This sentiment led to the restoration of the ship, including removal of the barracks structure, and it was subsequently opened to the public as a museum ship. However, within a few decades it once again needed significant repairs due to rot. This prompted a campaign in which schoolchildren across the country contributed pennies to raise money to save the ship. The restoration work began in 1927, and it took nearly three years to complete. During this time, about 85% of the ship’s wood was replaced. The Constitution then embarked on a three-year tour of the country, including transiting the Panama Canal and visiting ports on the Pacific coast. However, while the ship was seaworthy enough to make the voyage, it did not actually sail, but was instead towed from port to port.

The Constitution ended up needing additional repairs in the 1970s, and then another major overhaul in the mid-1990s. The latter was completed in time for the ship’s 200th anniversary, which was celebrated with a trip from Boston to Marblehead. Along the way, the Constitution sailed unassisted for part of the voyage, marking the first time that it had done so since before it was retired from active duty in 1881.

Today, more than a century after the top photo was taken, the Constitution is still moored at the same wharf at the former Charlestown Navy Yard, which is now part of the Boston National Historical Park. The ship is still a commissioned warship of the United States Navy, with officers and crew members who are assigned to it. Thanks to the many restorations over the years, the ship now looks much more like its historic appearance than it did when the first photo was taken. The Constitution is one of the many famous historic landmarks along Boston’s Freedom Trail, and it is open to the public for tours.

Providence River from Crawford Street Bridge, Providence, RI

December 21, 2016 by Derek Strahan

Looking downstream on the Providence River from the Crawford Street Bridge, around 1906. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

The river from the same spot in 2016:

These photos show the same scene as the ones in an earlier post, just from a different angle. The “then” photos in these two photos were probably taken on the same day, too, because the same ships are docked here, in the same spots. As mentioned in another previous post, the Crawford Street Bridge was a very wide bridge that virtually buried the Providence River, hiding it from much of downtown. South of the bridge, though, the river was open, and as the 1906 photo here shows, it was filled with steamboats.

From left to right, the steamers in the photo are the Warwick, the Squantum, and the What Cheer. They were among the many that plied the waters of Narragansett Bay and beyond, providing excursion trips to Newport, Block Island, Long Island, and other destinations. By the time the first photo was taken, the steamers were already fairly old. The What Cheer was built in 1873, and the similar-looking Squantum probably dates to around the same time. The Warwick is even older; this side-wheel steamer was built in 1867. Information is scarce on the Squantum, but the other two boats operated until the early 1920s, when they were in such poor condition that the Warwick sank at the dock in 1920, and the What Cheer did the same two years later.

Today, steamboats are long gone from the waters of the Providence River, and today the only watercraft visible is a Venetian-style gondola, in the lower left center of the photo. The bridge is also gone, having been replaced by much smaller bridges that have opened up the river through downtown Providence. There are also no longer any signs warning pedestrians of the $20 fine for spitting on the sidewalk, which would have been a substantial sum of money at the time, equal to over $500 today. The only building left from the first photo is the warehouse for the Oakdale Manufacturing Company, the six-story red brick building on the left side of both photos. Built in 1854 and significantly expanded in 1894, it was home to a butter and margarine company until 1916, and later had several other industrial tenants. Today, it is part of the College Hill Historic District, and is owned by the Rhode Island School of Design.

Providence River, Providence, RI

November 18, 2016 by Derek Strahan

Looking upstream on the Providence River, with downtown Providence in the background, around 1906. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

The river in 2016:

This view is just downstream of the one in the previous post, and shows some of the same features, including the 1896 Banigan Building and the Crawford Street Bridge. At the time, the bridge was the head of navigation for the Providence River, so the first photo shows several steamboats docked here. These boats were a common sight at the turn of the 20th century, providing excursion trips to vacation destinations such as Newport, Block Island, and other destinations in Narragansett Bay, Long Island, and beyond.

Two of the three steamers in the first photo are identifiable. The one on the right is the Warwick, which had been built in 1873 and was in service for nearly 50 years until 1920. En route to Newport in January, the old boat sprung a leak, and later sank at its dock in Newport. Likewise, the What Cheer on the far left of the first photo also fell victim to old age around the same time. Built in New Jersey in 1867, the What Cheer operated in Narragansett Bay for many years before being sold to a New York company. Two years later, the old sidewheel steamer sank at the pier at Glen Island, and was deemed to be beyond repair.

Today, very little is left from the first photo. The only readily identifiable building in both photos is the Banigan Building, although the Customshouse, seen just to the left of it in the 2016 scene, would have also been standing in the first photo. Otherwise, not much remains. The industrial buildings to the left are gone, including the one with the lettering that reads “Phenix and US Club Ginger Ale.” There are no longer any coastal steamers on the river, although, as mentioned in the previous post, the river itself has seen great improvement. In the first photo, most of it in the distance was hidden under the Crawford Street Bridge, which was probably just as well at the time, considering how polluted it was with sewage and industrial waste. Today, the nearly quarter-mile wide bridge is gone, the river is cleaner, and it is now an integral part of downtown Providence’s cityscape.

State Street from Commerce Street, Hartford, Connecticut

August 30, 2016 by Derek Strahan

Looking east on State Street toward the Connecticut River, from the corner of Commerce Street, on November 19, 1905. Image courtesy of the Connecticut State Library.

The scene in 2016:

It was hard to pinpoint the exact location of this photo, because Interstate 91 has completely obliterated the old street layout along the Connecticut River. The highway now runs directly through the 1905 scene here, but the present-day photo was taken from the plaza above the highway. So, it is the same spot as the first photo, just elevated probably about 20-30 feet.

Today, State Street extends across the Founders Bridge into East Hartford, and is a major thoroughfare in and out of the city. However, at the turn of the last century it ended here at the river, in much more humble surroundings than the busy commercial center just a few block away at the other end of the street. In the foreground is a bridge for the railroad tracks that ran along the Connecticut River, and just beyond it, in the center of the photo, was a warehouse for the Hartford & New York Transportation Company, a steamboat line that operated on the river. One of the boats is partially visible in the distance at the foot of State Street, at the city’s steamboat landing.

Steamboats have long since disappeared from the Connecticut River, along with all of the buildings here. Some were probably damaged or destroyed in the major floods of the 1930s, but any that did survive would have been gone by the 1960s, when I-91 was built through here. Today, this plaza above the highway provides riverfront access for pedestrians, and also connects to the walkway on the Founders Bridge. The only surviving remnant from the first photo is the railroad, which is still active but now mostly hidden beneath the highway.

Lost New England Goes West: Ferry Building, San Francisco

February 9, 2018April 28, 2016 by Derek Strahan

Author’s note: Although the main focus of this blog is New England and the northeast, I sometimes include photos from other parts of the country. This is the first in a series of then and now photos of California that I took this past winter.

The San Francisco Ferry Building in the aftermath of the April 18, 1906 earthquake. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

The Ferry Building in 2015:

San Francisco is not an island, but for most transportation purposes it might as well be. Except for those traveling from the south, any approach to the city requires crossing either the San Francisco Bay on the eastern side of the city, or Golden Gate to the north. Prior to the construction of these bridges in the 1930s, the only way to do this was by ferry, and as a result this building was once among the busiest ferry terminals in the world.

The ferry terminal was built at the foot of Market Street along the present-day Embarcadero, and opened in 1898. Just a few years later, its durability was put to the test by the disastrous April 18, 1906 earthquake that, along with the resulting fires, destroyed much of the city. The first photo was probably taken only days after the earthquake, and it shows that, in contrast to the rubble and charred telephones in the foreground, the building survived with minimal damage. Interestingly, the first photo shows a makeshift barbershop on the far right side amidst the debris. The hand-written message on the side of the tent reads “Shaving 15¢” and, in smaller lettering, almost as an afterthought, is “Hair Cut 25¢.”

In the years following the earthquake, the terminal continued to be a vital part of the city’s transportation system until the completion of the Bay Bridge in 1936 and the Golden Gate Bridge the following year. Some ferries continued to operate out of here, but much of the interior was altered as passenger traffic declined. Another major change came in the 1950s, when the Embarcadero Freeway was built through here. Much like the Central Artery in Boston, this elevated highway cut off the city from the waterfront, and the ferry terminal was largely isolated.

The building survived another major earthquake in 1989, but the Embarcadero Freeway did not. It was heavily damaged in the earthquake, and was demolished in 1991 and replaced with light rail tracks that are visible in the distance of the second photo. At the same time, restoration work also began on the ferry terminal. Today, some ferries still depart from here, but the historic building is also used for office space and as a marketplace, and a year-round farmers’ market is held in front of the building three times a week.