Note 139 — POEMS OF PHILIP FRENEAU (continued 2)
Reading edition
From the Time-Piece, October 31, 1797. The following account of the launch is given in the same issue:
"Boston, October 23, The Launch! On Saturday last at fifteen minutes P. M. the frigate Constitution was launched into the adjacent element, on which she now rides an elegant and superb specimen of American naval architecture, combining the unity of wisdom, strength, and beauty. On a signal being given from on board, her ordnance, on shore, announced to the neighboring Country, that the Constitution was secure."