Constellation - frigate US in the struggle for independence

[Anatol]

The stamp shows a cropped image of the frigate USS “Constellation ” from the work of the artist John W. Schmidt “Scene depicting the engagement, with the “Constellation” (left), firing upon the “L'Insurgente” (right). 1798”.
The inscription: " Constellation " 1854 is a mistake, as "Constellation" 1797 is depicted.
USS Constellation was a nominally rated 38-gun wooden-hulled, three-masted frigate of the United States Navy. It was built under the direction of David Stodder at The Joseph and Samuel Sterett shipyard on Harris Creek in Baltimore's Fell's Point maritime community, and was launched on 7 September 1797. The ship was one of the original six frigates whose construction the Naval Act of 1794 had authorized. The name "Constellation" was among ten names submitted to President George Washington by Secretary of War Timothy Pickering in March 1795 for the frigates that were to be constructed. The Flag Act of 1777 speaks of how the stars in the flag are "representing a new constellation". Joshua Humphreys designed these frigates to be the young Navy's capital ships, and so Constellation and its sisters were larger and more heavily armed and built than standard frigates of the period. The Constellation's first duties with the newly formed US Navy were to provide protection for American merchant shipping during the Quasi-War with France and to defeat the Barbary pirates in the First Barbary War.
The Quasi-War between France and the States came about when after the French Revolution, the United States refused to repay remaining debt to France on the grounds that it had been owed to the previous regime. French outrage led to a series of attacks on American shipping by privateers. Constellation convoyed American merchantmen from June through August 1798 before sailing under the command of Captain Thomas Truxtun for the West Indies in December 1798 to protect the United States's commerce in the Caribbean.
On 9 February 1799, under the command of Truxtun, Constellation fought and captured the frigate L'Insurgente of 36 guns, the fastest ship in the French Navy.[citation needed] The battle started about 18 miles (29 km) NE of the island of Nevis about midday when Constellation spotted L'Insurgente, which hoisted studding sails and attempted to run.
In 1853 Constellation was disassembled at the Gosport Navy Yard in Portsmouth, Virginia. At the same time, the keel was laid for what became known as the sloop-of-war USS Constellation (1854).
After chasing the French ship through a storm, Constellation forced L'Insurgente into an engagement that lasted an hour and fourteen minutes before the French frigate surrendered. The French sustained heavy casualties in the action, while the numbers of American dead and wounded were low.
After the action, L'Insurgente was taken to Saint Kitts and commissioned into the United States Navy as USS Insurgent. With this and later victories, American morale soared, and Truxtun returned home to honor and praise from the American government and the public at large.
See also: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7950.
Grenada 2019; 5$.
Sources: https://dbpedia.org/page/USS_Constellation_(1797), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Const ... Insurgente.