[Illustration: _U.S.S._ Independence, _built at Charlestown in 1815, was the nation’s first ship-of-the-line. On its maiden voyage the 74-gun vessel served as flagship of the Mediterranean squadron in the Barbary Wars. After the Charlestown yard removed one gun deck in 1835, turning the slow 74 into a fast, powerful frigate (above)_, Independence _served as flagship of the Brazil and Pacific squadrons. The frigate spent the last 60 years of its career as receiving ship (temporary sailors’ quarters) at Mare Island Navy Yard near San Francisco Bay, where it ended a century of service in 1914._] [Illustration: _Ships-of-the-Line were the battleships of their day, carrying 64 to 100 guns or more on two or three gun decks (below the open decks). Ship-rigged (square sails on three masts), these warships took their place in the line of battle in huge fleet actions._] [Illustration: _Frigates had 22 to 44 guns on one gun deck. They were ship-rigged counterparts of today’s cruisers, excelling in single engagements and as commerce destroyers. Frigates also did convoy duty and served as scouts for battle fleets._] [Illustration: _Sloops-of-War had 8 to 24 guns on an open deck and were ship-rigged. Fast and versatile—the destroyers of their day—sloops provided escort protection and harassed enemy shipping. Their shallow draft made them useful in coast defense and in lake squadrons._] [Illustration: _Brigs-of-War had about 20 smaller guns on an open gun deck and carried square sails on two masts. Designed as small, fast cruisers, they served as scouts, blockade runners, commerce raiders, and in anti-piracy and slaveship patrols._] Then, to worsen an already grim situation, the British warships that had blockaded Boston Harbor for over a year became an immediate threat. A raiding party from the frigate _Nymphe_ rowed into the harbor in the early morning darkness of the 21st and burned a small sloop within a mile of the yard. The next day, with the charred remains of the vessel tied up at a Charlestown wharf, the leader of the raid publicly taunted Bainbridge. In an open letter in the _Boston Patriot_, Bainbridge was warned to better defend his “unfledged Independence.” On the afternoon of June 22, under the eye of the Guards, the vessel finally slid down the ways into Boston Harbor. The launching was celebrated by a gun salute from _Constitution_ and cheers from a crowd of 20,000. Bainbridge’s friend, the author Washington Irving, couldn’t attend but wrote Bainbridge that he would drink a “potation bottle ... to the success of your first cruise.” In the same spirit Bainbridge entertained with food and drink 300 mechanics and laborers who had, he said, “worked cheap, and done their work most faithfully.”