VETERAN PASSES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 278, 24 November 1936, Page 7

VETERAN PASSES

LAST SURVIVOR OF “OLD IRONSIDES’ ” CREW PATERSON (New Jersey, Nov. 21. William Plumb, aged 73, the last surviving veteran member of the crew of “Old Ironsides,” the United States frigate Constitution, died of heart failure when presenting a picture of the vessel to the Paterson preparatory school, as students cheered the finish of a speech celebrating the Federal Constitution Week. The Constitution, a United States frigate familiarly known as “Old Ironsides," is the most famous ship in the annals of the American Navy. She

was one of the first three vessels built by the United States, was launched in 1797, and in the following year was first commissioned and placed in service against the French privateers then infesting American waters. She served in the war against the pirates of Tripoli in 1804-05, and in 1812, when the moral of the country was at a low ebb she won a victory over the British frigate Guerriere. This was followed by numerous other victories hardly less notable, including the destruction of the Java and the capture of two other ships. It was dur.ng the Constitution’s engagement with the Guerriere that the Ameripan sailors, seeing the British shot bounding oft the solid oak sides of the frigate, named her "Old Ironsides." She has been several times reconstructed, and a large part of the funds for this work has been raised by schoolchildren.