John Samuel Blunt
1798-1835

"Launching of the United States Frigate Washington" - Oil on Canvas- 1832


In the last year of the war of 1812, great huzzahs rang out in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, as the U. S. Frigate Washington slide down wooden stocks and slipped gently into the Piscataqua River.  By the autumn of 1814, when the ship was launched, embargoes and war activities along with several disastrous fires had dried up most commercial activity in Portsmouth.  Building ships for the United States Navy was one of the towns’ few successful enterprises.  The launching of a large, new frigate, therefore, was the occasion for patriotic celebrations and demonstrations of local pride.  The event was recorded in the New Hampshire Gazette on October 4, 1814:

On Saturday last the Washington 74 was launched from the navy yard in this harbor…Salutes were fired from the navy yard, forts in the harbor, and private and armed vessels.

Afterwards the launch was described as “one of the most elegant and perfect ever witnessed.” 

The ship shown on the right of the image is thought to be the frigate Congress, built in Portsmouth in 1799.  Of greater interest is the structure from which the Washington was launched.  This ship house, a new type of building in America, enabled shipbuilders to work through the winter and therefore to build more ships.  This particular ship house was newly built when the Washington was launched and survived in use until late in the nineteenth century. 

Carlisle, Nancy.  Cherished Possessions, A New England Legacy.  Boston: Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (SPNEA), 2003.