Quote Originally Posted by dazza View Post
Thanks Chris, interesting link. And great photo of the 18" & 36" pounders ... it helps put some persepective on what any vessel would be up against if they entered the port of Liverpool. Also, Baltimore looks like it benefited from some high ground to mount their defenses on. One of John Stobart's painting's of Baltimore here: http://ep.yimg.com/ca/I/framingfox_2178_146562927


The USS Constellation looks like an interesting ship - presumably it's open to the public?
Hi Daz

The hill you see in that painting is Federal Hill which looks down on Baltimore's Inner Harbor. It is further in toward downtown Baltimore but on the same peninsula as Fort McHenry which commands the approach as vessels come up the Patapsco from the Chesapeake Bay. The hill was used by Union Troops to train their artillery on downtown Baltimore when Federal troops on their way to Washington, D.C. were attacked by a mob of southern sympathizers on April 19, 1861.

The USS Constellation as we see it today was built in Norfolk, Virginia, in 1854, and replaces a frigate of the same name launched in Canton, Baltimore, in 1797. When the ship was brought back to Baltimore in 1955, the people in charge of it tried to pretend it was the original frigate and gussied it up with gold ornamentation on the stern in emulation of HMS Victory and other earlier period warships. I have been on board the ship on numerous occasions. See here for an article I wrote on the controversy, "Unravelling the Story of a Storied Ship."

All the best

Chris