SOME STORIES OF OLD IRONSIDES _By_ Commander Holloway H. Frost, U. S. Navy Author of _We Build a Navy_ [Illustration: Medallion] U. S. NAVAL INSTITUTE ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND {Copyright 1931 · United States Naval Institute} DESIGNED AND PRINTED BY GEORGE BANTA PUBLISHING COMPANY MENASHA, WISCONSIN LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS _Facing_ Preble’s First Attack on Tripoli 4 Old Ironsides 5 Chase of the _Constitution_ 12 Edward Preble 13 _Constitution_ and _Guerriere_ 20 Capture of the British Frigate _Java_ 21 The Night Battle Between the U.S.S. _Constitution_ and H. M. Ships _Cyane_ and _Levant_ 28 Stephen Decatur 29 [Illustration: Bowsprit] [Illustration: _From a painting by M. Carne_ Preble’s First Attack on Tripoli The _Constitution_ (large ship right center foreground) leading the attack on Tripoli, August 3, 1804.] [Illustration: _From a painting by C. R. Patterson_ “Old Ironsides”] ACT I _In the Mediterranean_ SCENE I. ENTER THE “CONSTITUTION” On a September day in 1803 an American frigate bowled along the rocky Spanish coast toward Gibraltar. From her bluff bows curled back a foamy wave. Above the blue waters rose a gracefully proportioned black hull. Around it, halfway up from the water line, ran a broad white stripe. This was broken at regular intervals by the dark squares of the gun ports. Spars tapered aloft. White rectangles of billowing canvas completed a picture of beauty unsurpassed on the Seven Seas. Such was the United States ship _Constitution_. Joshua Humphreys, naval constructor, had done his work well.