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A Quaker by birth, Joshua Humphreys was trained as a shipwright in Philadelphia, and because his master died before the end of his apprenticeship, he ended up running a shipyard when he was only 20 years old. Despite his pacifist Quaker background, Humphreys was an ardent Whig during the Revolutionary War (1775-83), and he outfitted at least a dozen privateers and supervised the construction of the Continental frigate Randolph. During the 1780s and 1790s, he was one of the most successful shipwrights in the United States.

When the federal government determined to build the U.S. Navy in 1794 to meet the threat posed by the seizure of several merchant ships by Algiers (see Barbary Wars), Humphreys designed a dramatic way to build frigates that was, after some debate, adopted by the government. Humphreys plan was for a super frigate that would be faster and more powerful than any other in the world and that would be a match in rough waters for small ships of the line. His ships weighed more than 1,000 tons and were longer and lower in the water than contemporary frigates; the basic model was 147 feet on the keel and 43 feet of beam. The frigates were designed to carry 44 guns, including 30 24-pounders on the gun deck and 10 carronades on the upper deck for close-in fighting.

Impressed with this revolutionary approach to shipbuilding, President George Washington named Humphreys chief naval constructor. Because Washington wanted the frigates built in different ports, Humphreys's own shipyard constructed only the USS United States, but his plans formed the basis of six frigates, including the USS Constitution and USS Constellation. Although the Algerian crisis was settled without naval action in 1795, and the final completion of the six frigates was delayed, the first of the ships came off the blocks just as the Quasi-War (1798-1800) broke out. They quickly proved a success and became the mainstay of the navy through the War of 1812 (1812-15). Humphreys continued to build ships well into the 19th century and became active in a variety of business enterprises in Philadelphia. He died on January 12, 1838.

Bibliography:

Ian W. Toll, Six Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of the U.S. Navy (New York: Norton, 2006).

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