Huzza for the Constitution. On Sunday April 17 [1814], arrived in this harbour, the U.S. frigate Constitution She has captured four prizes during her cruize ...

The headpiece tells the facts about this song, “Huzza for the Constitution”:

On Sunday April 17 [1814], arrived in this Harbour, the U.S. Frigate Constitution. She has captured four Prizes during her cruize, viz. The Pictou, a British government sch’r (destroyed); ship lovely Ann, sent into Barbadoes with prisoners, after taking out part of her cargo; a brig and packet sch’r destroyed.

Commander Martin fills in the details:

USS Constitution’s third cruise of the war ended [officially] on April 17, 1814. In fact, it had ended two weeks earlier when the frigate, returning to Boston because of a damaged mainmast, eluded two British blockading frigates (not a ‘fleet’ as stated in the broadside) by dashing into Salem harbor. Unfamiliar with those coastal waters, the pursuers, HMS Junon and Tenedos, remained offshore, hoping Captain Charles Stewart would come out. Eventually tiring of the wait, they hauled off; that was when Stewart charged into Boston.

The big frigate’s cruise was supposed to have lasted at least six months and taken her on a great sweep of the North Atlantic basin, taking and destroying as much British merchant shipping as possible and sustaining herself on stores taken from her captures. Stewart’s opening swing into the Caribbean netted him the four small captures listed. He was in the vicinity of Bermuda, on his way to the western approaches to the English Channel, when his mainmast was found to be splitting. He decided to run into Boston, the nearest major friendly port, for quick repairs before continuing on. Unfortunately, the British blockade had grown even tighter in his three-month absence and he very nearly was taken at entry.

Once back in port, Stewart found he still had to fight off enemies, for the senior officer of the station, Commodore William Bainbridge, proposed that he be court-martialed for having terminated his cruise prematurely. When the preliminary court of inquiry in May 1814 began to accumulate evidence that less-than-adequate repairs may have been made by the Boston Navy Yard, under Bainbridge’s direct command, and may have been responsible for the cruise’s outcome, the business was quickly ended without court-martial.

Of particular interest in this broadside is the line in the second stanza, ‘Makes Britain fear her iron sides.’ This is a clear reference, and one of the earliest, to the popular nickname ‘Old Ironsides’ that came to be associated with Constitution in the wake of her earlier successes. Only a mention of the specific phrase in a private letter the previous summer is earlier evidence of its existence. (Martin, Most Fortunate Ship; N. Price)

This short song is in the meter that would fit New England’s most famous hymn, “Old Hundred” (see Order of Performances), although nothing in the text suggests such a combination. It is an outspoken taunt of Britain, and a solid promotional for Constitution.