In the War of 1812, during the British blockade of the east coast, two British frigates, HMS Junon and HMS Tenedos, chased the USS Constitution into Marblehead Harbor and the safety of Fort Sewall.
"When the USS Constitution, 'Old Ironsides,' was preparing for its 200th anniversary in 1997, the crew from Ralph W. Stanley was called in to help determine if it was seaworthy. So Ralph, Richard and his brother-in-law, Tim Goodwin, went to Boston to conduct a survey of the old warship.
'I went all over that ship,' Richard Stanley said. 'She was really in good shape. She could have sailed.'
They made some suggestions, although he said he didn't know what the Navy did with the ship. It did sail again, he added." - from 'Stanley Boat Leaving Southwest Harbor' by Rich Hewitt, Bangor Daily News, August 24, 2009.
July 1997, in honor of the 200th anniversary of USS Constitution, "Old Ironsides," commissioning, Capt. William Harland Kelley was chosen to sail the famous 204', 3-masted wooden frigate out of Boston, into Marblehead Harbor and back to Boston. This was her first independent sail in 116 years.
