Famous ship’s forgotten connections to the Pacific Northwest
May 9, 2018, 6:22 AM | Updated: May 10, 2018, 12:26 pm
O, better that her shattered hulk should sink beneath the wave;
Her thunders shook the mighty deep, and there should be her grave;
Nail to the mast her holy flag, set every thread-bare sail,
And give her to the god of storms . . . the lightning and the gale!
That’s the final stanza of the famous poem “Old Ironsides” by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. that was written in 1830.
Its deep reverence is given some of the credit for helping fuel the national sentiment that saved the frigate Constitution – one of the first vessels built for the US Navy in the 1790s – as a monument, rather than see the warship scrapped or scuttled nearly 200 years ago.
Constitution tour
And this national sentiment was on vigorous display in the Pacific Northwest beginning 85 years ago this week when Constitution spent nearly three months visiting ports all over Washington and Oregon as part of a national thank-you tour for American school children.
The landmark ship was launched in 1797 in the heyday of sail power, but she didn’t rely on canvas and a breeze to get around 85 years ago. On her national tour in the 1930s, Constitution was towed by a US Navy minesweeper called the USS Grebe.
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The reason the ship came here — the reason Constitution toured all over the coastal United States from 1931 to 1934 — was to thank the millions of school kids who, in the late 1920s, donated millions of pennies to help fund a major restoration of the historic ship.
It was a huge deal to have Constitution in Northwest waters that long-ago spring and summer, and it’s hard to fully comprehend the impact the visit had way back in 1933.
The ship’s historical impact is perhaps easier to appreciate, as is the mood during the time she came when the country was in the depths of the Great Depression. Constitution was something of a morale booster in the 1930s, and it was a role she had played some 120 years before.
In the Northwest, hundreds of thousands of people of all ages turned out to see the ship as she visited Astoria, Oregon; Grays Harbor; Port Angeles; Seattle (spending two weeks in Smith Cove at Pier 41 in Interbay); Tacoma; Olympia; Bremerton; Anacortes, Everett; Port Townsend and Bellingham before heading west out the Strait of Juan de Fuca and turning south for Portland in early August.
Why did so many people visit the ship? And what is it that makes Constitution such a significant vessel in the first place?
Keeping Constitution around
Tyrone G. Martin lives in North Carolina and has written a number of books about the ship. He’s 88 years old, and a Commander, US Navy, Retired. In the 1970s, he served as the 49th captain of Constitution. He was in charge of the ship during the Bicentennial, and even welcomed Queen Elizabeth aboard.
“[Constitution] fits near the top because during the War of 1812 she fought in a number of battles and won them all,” Martin said from his home last week. “And during the course of which she got the nickname ‘Old Ironsides’ because, although she didn’t have iron sides, the enemy cannonballs were seen to bounce off her heavy oak hull.”
This winning battle record captured the imagination of the citizens of the young country, and somehow, the decision was made to keep Constitution around.
“By the end of the war, it was being publicly proposed that she be preserved forever,” Martin said. “[And] we’re still trying,” he said, chuckling about the challenges – and the expenses – of keeping a vintage vessel in ship-shape.
Constitution is, of course, a wooden ship, so preservation and restoration is an almost constant battle against rot and decay. Nowadays, the ship doesn’t really leave the dock in Boston much anymore, though she did sail in Boston Harbor in 1997 to celebrate her 200th birthday.
USS Constitution Museum
Alongside the ship is the USS Constitution Museum, where Sarah Watkins is Vice President for Visitor Experience.
Watkins has worked at the museum for 23 years and knows more about Constitution than just about anybody.
“Constitution did test her mettle during the fight against Barbary corsairs in North Africa, but really she earned her nickname and all her laurels during the War of 1812, which was known at the time as the Second War for Independence,” Watkins said earlier this week.
“[The war] was against Great Britain . . . [and] we as a fledgling country wanted to be taken seriously and assert our independence.”
Watkins says it wasn’t that Constitution’s victories necessarily turned the tide of the war – but they did contribute to how people felt on the homefront.
“In terms of the morale of the country, to show that we could stand up on this large stage against this formidable foe . . . ” Watkins said, “It meant psychologically a lot to the country and the citizens, and immediately she became a national icon.”
A typical warship 200 years ago would have been scrapped after 30 years or so at the most. But Constitution wasn’t typical. She was a beloved icon in the earliest years of America’s history. So the Navy kept her around, and she was adapted for various non-combat uses, including serving as a training vessel.
Watkins says Constitution underwent a major restoration in the early 20th century, but just a few decades later, there were already serious problems with the ship.
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“In 1924 and 1925, the ship was in a sinking condition,” Watkins said. “It was taking on a huge amount of water, a huge amount of rot.”
Navy sees great potential
Watkins says that the Secretary of the Navy in those years was a man named Curtis Wilbur. In the plight of Constitution, the secretary saw great potential.
“Wilbur saw the ship’s condition as an opportunity to teach about the ship, the United States Navy, and the War of 1812 to school children across the country,” Watkins said.
It was one of the earliest examples of “crowdfunding,” and similar to how money had been raised to build the pedestal for the Statue of Liberty 40 years earlier.
“[Secretary Wilbur] started a ‘pennies campaign,’ a ‘Save Old Ironsides’ campaign which kicked off in October of 1925, where school kids across the country donated their pennies to save Constitution,” Watkins said. “They learned about the history, they memorized Oliver Wendell Holmes’ poem ‘Old Ironsides,’ and they even wrote essays about why she must be preserved.”
“Together, kids from all over the country donated about $154,000 toward the restoration,” Watkins said, toward a total cost of around $1 million (or about $14 million in 2018).
Watkins knows her U.S. history and her 18th and 19th century artifacts, but what she clearly values most are the human connections that an icon such as Constitution can inspire, from the million or so visitors who come to the ship in Boston each year, to the 4.5 million who visited during her national thank-you tour 85 years ago.
“I love this period in the ship’s history. The outpouring of the citizens of the country for Constitution, this is also still during the Great Depression,” Watkins said. “Constitution is something to feel good about, a symbol of strength and perseverance.”
“I think it’s really meaningful at that time, that the ship went and thanked the citizens, and they felt so connected to Constitution,” Watkins said.
Constitution and the Pacific Northwest
Watkins also knows about a surprising number of connections between Constitution and the Pacific Northwest.
“During the 1920s when the ship was being restored, she actually had Douglas fir coming from the state of Washington,” Watkins said. “There was a big deal made when the Douglas fir came from Washington on trains. There’d be signs on the train cars, ‘Wood for Old Ironsides,’ and a big deal was made of it when it actually arrived here at the Naval Shipyards for Constitution’s restoration.”
A check of old newspaper clippings from the Seattle Times archives shows that the West Coast Lumbermen’s Association offered Douglas fir logs to the US Navy in 1926 for spars and masts for Constitution.
“The Navy Department accepts with great pleasure the patriotic offer of the West Coast Lumbermen’s Association to donate the masts needed in rebuilding the historic frigate Constitution,” read a telegram from Navy Secretary Wilbur, sent to the association.
In the same clipping, it’s speculated that some of the lumber for Constitution might be harvested from Bainbridge Island, but it’s unclear if this ultimately came to pass. Bainbridge Island, the nautical-know-it-alls will point out, was named on May 10, 1841 by the Wilkes Expedition for Commodore William Bainbridge, captain of Constitution during the War of 1812.
In 1929, the West Coast Lumbermen’s Association formally presented five railroad carloads of Douglas fir timber to the US Navy in Seattle, including several logs at least 109 feet in length. A ceremony was held in the old King Street freight yards (site of what’s now CenturyLink Field) with great fanfare and many dignitaries on hand to watch the rail cars depart for Boston.
Donating timber was good for business, but some of Constitution’s connections to the Pacific Northwest were downright personal.
Many years ago, Sarah Watkins actually interviewed several members of the crew who went on the national thank-you tour, and who had vivid memories of visiting the Northwest.
“They felt like rock stars,” Watkins said. “Every port they stopped at, including Seattle, the warm welcome from each town and city was immense and the crowds were huge. They were treated to dinners and concerts. There was a welcoming committee set up in Seattle as with other towns and cities around the coast to make sure the visit was a successful one.”
All those she interviewed have since passed away, but one crewmember in particular who still stands out in Sarah Watkins’ memory is a member of the US Marine Corps named Otto Campsen.
Watkins says that a life-changing moment happened to Otto Campsen right there at the gangway of Constitution – one afternoon while the ship was visiting Everett almost exactly 85 years ago.
“As a Marine, [Otto] had a wonderful uniform, and he’d stand at the gangway,” Watkins said, to welcome visitors to the ship.
“There was a church group that came to visit, and a little girl came up to Otto, who was counting people in and welcoming people aboard, and she said, ‘May I have your autograph?’ because these were rock stars,” Watkins said.
Constitution love story
“And Otto said ‘Sure, if you tell me who that beautiful young lady is.’ And the little girl replied, ‘That’s easy. That’s my sister.’”
The older sister was named Blanche. She had brought her little sister’s Sunday School class to tour Constitution.
“So Blanche, from Everett, Washington [and Otto] fell in love within the time that the ship was visiting there, and then they were married a month later,” Watkins said. “And they were together for about 70 years.”
Otto and Blanche Campsen settled on the East Coast, but in the late 1930s they moved to Belfair in Mason County and Otto worked at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. The couple lived in Belfair for about 50 years and then moved to Florida in the early 1990s; both have since passed away.
Sarah Watkins says that beyond love stories like Otto and Blanche, Constitution’s visit to the Northwest made deep impressions on countless numbers of people who she’s heard from again and again.
“Over my time here, I’ve met so many people that were little boys and girls during this national cruise, including people from Washington, who say ‘I saw Constitution, Old Ironsides, when I was young, in Washington state, and I wanted to come back and see the ship today,’” Watkins said.
Sarah Watkins also says that there’s at least one more fascinating Northwest connection to Constitution that came about because of the visit here 85 years ago.
When the ship was in Grays Harbor in 1933 sometime between May 16 and May 27, a local person in Aberdeen — who remains unidentified — presented the crew with a black bear cub as a gift. The minesweeper Grebe already had a monkey aboard, so a bear cub maybe wasn’t a big deal to add to the mix.
Commodore Scrappy
Someone, perhaps the donor or maybe a member of the crew, named the bear cub “Commodore Scrappy.” Sarah Watkins says that Scrappy loved condensed milk, loved taking long naps on the sunny deck, and loved to swim.
And remember Otto Campsen? It turns out that Otto and Scrappy were particularly close.
“Otto told us he used to like to spar with Scrappy, and Scrappy never hurt him,” Watkins said. “But of course, the little bear cub is going to continue to grow. And so as the cub turned into [an adult] bear, he became stronger. Then, in sparring with one of the officers of the Grebe, the bear ended up taking a swipe out of the officer.”
Fortunately, Constitution and the Grebe were docked in San Diego at the time.
“The bear cub was actually given to the San Diego Zoo,” Watkins said.
Commodore Scrappy nowadays sounds like a bit of a prequel to the two famous (infamous?) gorillas who lived around here beginning back in the 1950s – Bobo at Woodland Park Zoo and then MOHAI, and Ivan at the B&I shopping center and then the Zoo Atlanta.
The fates of those two primates are well-known by people who pay attention to these sorts of things. But whatever became of Commodore Scrappy?
KIRO Radio contacted the San Diego Zoo multiple times over the past few days, but they have yet to respond. Scrappy comes up in a few newspaper archive searches, but he’s apparently nowhere to be found on the Internet.
Docked in Boston
And in this Internet age, the 221-year old Constitution is not likely to go on tour again, but she is open to the public – with unbeatable free admission – in Boston.
For a little taste of the ship closer to home, Evergreen-Washelli Cemetery in North Seattle has two 24-pound guns from Constitution on display at its Veterans Cemetery, not far from the famous Doughboy statue.
The particular guns on display in Seattle aren’t originals; they were cast in 1906 for decorative purposes and installed on Constitution until they were removed in the mid 1920s and sold off to support the big restoration project. Numerous parks and cemeteries around the US are home to similar reproduction guns, and the USS Constitution Museum is working to compile a complete list of every location.
Meanwhile, at last check, there’s no monument to Commodore Scrappy in Aberdeen, San Diego, Boston or anywhere else.
