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Where to begin with such an astounding accomplishment of a book?  Though I try to read quite often, particularly in the fields of maritime and naval history, it is a rarity that I find a book as fulfilling and inspiring as this one.  From the author’s own website: “Ian W. Toll has been a Wall Street analyst, a Federal Reserve financial analyst, and a political aide and speechwriter. Six Frigates is his first book.” First, I must say congratulations to you, Mr. Toll.  For a first book, or any book for that matter, this one was truly enjoyable, educational, and exciting!

Beginning in the aftermath of the American Revolution, Toll moves us quickly through the Washington and Adams administrations of the 1790s, and into the era during which the Founding Fathers set about crafting a new country.  Their agenda included the call for and construction of the original six frigates that comprised the bulk of the infant American Navy.  A point of contention in the early days of the burgeoning republic, the crafting of a navy was seen by many Republicans (different than the Republicans of today) as an extraneous expense, while the opposing faction, the Federalists, generally saw the navy as a necessity to defend the sovereignty that the States had fought so hard to achieve in the Revolution of 1776.  There was no question at that point whether the Americans would even try to compete with the maritime might of the British Empire.  In fact, as Toll notes, many Americans clamored for neutrality in the ongoing struggle in Europe between Great Britain and Napoleon.  In their minds, a navy could only jeopardize the United States’ status as a neutral power With both Britain and France needing large quantities of food, provisions and war materiel, the Americans were well-positioned and did indeed prosper as they supplied both France and Britain with goods and materiel.  Simply put, neutrality allowed the Americans to reap the benefits of a booming war time trade.  Toll does an excellent job explaining just how important neutrality was for the United States: the nation did what it did in order to survive what were a set of difficult and highly perilous early years.  However, “no one had any illusions.  Business was booming because Europe was at war, and for no other reason.  Peace would bring an end to the boom; so would an end to American neutrality.”  A markedly different America than that of today!

This was not to last, of course, as any increase in wealth makes one a much more enticing target.  Toll transports us to the Mediterranean, outside the realm of continental Europe, to the lands of the Barbary corsairs of North Africa.  Unlike civilized Europe, these pirate nations survived by preying off the shipping and commerce of the wealthier nations.  The Algerian Crisis of 1793, in which 110 American sailors from 10 vessels were captured and held hostage for ransom by the Dey of Algiers, was the turning point in American policy.  The Americans and merchants in particular needed to protect themselves if they were simply to survive.  The United States had, in these early years, yet to gain any respect from the rest of the world.  But the creation of an American navy was a very controversial matter, highly unpopular in many parts of the country.  Toll highlights this point of contention to great effect.  He writes that, “Madison and the Republicans argued that a navy was hopelessly unaffordable…a navy would become a self-feeding organism, demanding greater and greater sums as it grew.”  The Federalists took a different, pro-naval tack, citing that, “protecting the sea-lanes…was in the entire nation’s interest.”  And the Federalists’ second thrust was “an arousing appeal to national honor…Didn’t the Republicans have any national pride?  Hadn’t America recently won a war against the most powerful nation on earth?”  It was a rousing statement, and one that eventually won the day.  Toll does a wonderful job of highlighting these chaotic congressional sessions and contrasting the positions of both Federalists and Republicans.  Can a nation built on the tenets of free will and morality justify taking a step into the world of “aggressive powers?”  You feel as if you were there with the delegates as they fought tooth-and-nail to uphold their positions.

But who was to build the six newly-appropriated frigates?  This task fell upon a lesser-known character, the Quaker, Joshua Humphreys.  Out of duty to his country, Humphreys put aside his Quaker Pacifist beliefs and took up the call to construct plans for the first frigates of the American Navy.  It is a testament to Toll’s ability to spin a yarn that we learn and come to wholly appreciate the heart behind these wooden walls.  Humphreys proposed, “…to build exceptionally large, heavily armed, fast-sailing frigates—ships weighing well over 1,000 tons, with a deck of not less than 175 feet, mounting a battery of thirty 24-pounder long guns on the gun deck and a smaller battery carronades on the upper deck.”  Humphrey’s blueprints were for an invention never before seen in the maritime world.  The American frigates would be larger and more powerful than their British cousins, capable of out-gunning the British frigates and out-running their ships-of-the-line.  He was supported in his novel approach by Secretary of War Henry Knox, who “advocated building frigates based on the Humphreys design” as he felt they “would combine such qualities of strength, durability, swiftness of sailing and…render them equal, if not superior, to any frigate belonging to any of the European powers.”  Thus the plans were laid for the original six frigates, The USS Constitution, USS Congress, USS President, USS United States, USS Constellation, and the later-christened USS Chesapeake. Toll brings to life the quest to find the live oak, widely regarded as the strongest and most durable of all shipbuilding materials, bringing men to the far reaches of the vast forests of St. Simon, off the Georgia coast, where many men succumbed to malaria in the bogs and dense forests of the island.

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In masterful style, Toll weaves a detailed description of the resounding American support for the French Revolution, as it came into full swing.  You are there in the streets of America, as the Tricolore is raised alongside the Stars and Stripes, and you hear the talk of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizens alongside that of the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights.  You can feel the jubilation of Americans as they see the French people overthrow their own king and, much as the Americans had done in 1776, establish a republic of their own.  All was to change, however, when the French revolution turned violent and news of the execution of King Louis XVI and the ensuing French Terror reached the ears of United States government officials.   What would happen if chaos and anarchy spread stateside?  Shivers of fear ran down the spines of American Congressmen who were desperate to avoid any possibility that radicals, riding this wave of revolution, might disrupt the stability of their green nation.  

The signing of the highly unpopular Jay’s Treaty did guarantee a continuation of peace with Great Britain as the United States all but bowed down before and recognized Britain’s superior military and commercial might.  The French, who had been the major factor in deciding the American Revolution on the side of the United States, were outraged.  So began the deterioration of Franco-American relations, spurred on by the notorious “XYZ Affair”.  The two nations ended up unofficially at war in what became known as the Quasi-War.  Mr. Toll’s writing conveys the disgust felt by the French for this perceived betrayal.  Then President John Adams sought to avoid war and not succumb to jingoist popular sentiment.  Toll goes to great lengths to highlight the second president’s interest in building a navy, and his understanding of why a naval force was a necessity.

In 1775, the Continental Congress appointed a “Marine Committee” to commence planning and organizing the country’s navy.  The Committee met on the second floor of a tavern, not far from the Philadelphia waterfront, with the yells of drunken patrons rising through the floorboards.  John Adams, then thirty-nine years old, remembered the meetings fondly, but was perplexed that the individuals present should be making decisions regarding the new navy.  “It is very odd that I, who have…never thought much of the old ocean, or the dominion of it, should be necessitated to make such inquiries…but it is my fate and my duty, and therefore I must attempt it.”  When Adams took the reins as the second President of the United States, the impending conflict with France solidified his conviction that the building of a naval force would be necessary to combat the growing aggression of their once-ally.  As he wrote to his son, John Quincy Adams, “Dragon’s teeth have been sown in France and will come up as monsters.”  Unlike his Vice-President, Thomas Jefferson, who was a devout Francophile, Adams “felt little affection for the French and no confidence in their revolution.”  He pushed vigorously for the construction of the frigates, which he felt had been overlooked after the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783.  Adams was so adamant in his call for the frigates that many consider him to be the father of the American Navy.

The undeclared Quasi-War with France brought to light the necessity of American frigates.  After much deliberation and argument, Congress approved Adams’ proposal and appropriated the necessary funds were appropriated and construction began.  The process of building the ships was arduous at best.  Toll highlights the foibles and mishaps that were pervasive in the construction and fitting-out of the frigates.  The USS United States managed to badly damage her keel upon her launch in Philadelphia.  Such a large ship had never before been launched in that port, and thus the estimates of how deeply she would plunge upon sliding off the launch ways proved unreliable.  The USS Constitution was not even able to make it all the way down the inclined launch ways, becoming stuck about halfway down in an awkward display; this took place with President Adams present as a spectator, no less.  Yellow fever and disease, cold weather, a shortage of parts, and, most importantly, a shortage of funds also contributed to unplanned disruptions in construction.  This “labor of love” for Joshua Humphreys had gained an accent on the labor.  We, as spectators, feel the disappointment and agony of such delays, and cringe at the failure to launch, in grand fashion, such massive and novel ships.

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During the Quasi-War, Toll’s description of the action between the French 36-gun frigate, L’Insurgente, and the Constellation, is action-packed and telling of his ability to relate naval encounters on the high seas with gusto and flare.  ”The American gun crews fired their cannon in the English fashion, directly into L’Insurgente’s hull…killing or wounding perhaps a score of Frenchmen in the first half-minute of the engagement.”  ”L’Insurgente at once responded with a broadside of her own…the fore topmast was struck just above the cap, and seemed to teeter on the verge of coming down.  An eighteen-year-old midshipman named David Porter…climbed up and cut away the slings…removing pressure from the injured mast, which was saved.”  So well told!  Naval battles are dramatic events, and Toll brings to life the excitement of such encounters.  When the French frigate finally surrendered, Lieutenant Rodgers of the Constellation was ordered to assemble a prize crew and to commandeer the tattered French ship.  He later wrote Secretary of the Navy Benjamin Stoddert, about what he saw.  ”Although I would not have you think me bloody minded…I must confess the most gratifying sight my eyes ever beheld was seventy French pirates…wallowing in their gore…”  In response to the French Captain Michel-Pierre Barreaut’s statement that he had caused a war with France, Captain Thomas Truxtun wrote Stoddert saying, “If so I am glad of it, for I detest Things being done by Halves.”

Later, when Napoleon Bonaparte took command of France, he passed off the three-year Quasi-War as a “family quarrel.”  As Toll points out, this was of no greater relief to anyone than President John Adams.  He had “preserved American neutrality and restored peace…pulled the country back from the brink of dissolution and civil war.”  Unfortunately for the aging and weary president, he had also “sacrificed his hopes of reelection.” War would have been the more popular course of action but Adams sacrificed his own popularity to pursue what he felt was the right decision, the decision to negotiate a peace with France.  Under Adams, the United States “had built a small but respectable fleet of warships and a shore-based infrastructure to keep them at sea.  The 44-gun frigates United States, Constitution, and President were the most powerful ships of their class in any navy in the world.”