On 23 August
1779, the
USS Constitution, a 251 foot
Battle Frigate set sail from
Boston loaded with 475
officers and men, 46,800
gallons of water, 74,000
cannon shot, 11,500
pounds of
black powder and 79,400 gallons of
rum. Her mission: to destroy and harass
English shipping.
On 6 October, she made
Jamaica, took on 826 pounds of
flour and 68,300 gallons of rum. Three weeks later the Constitution reached the
Azores, where she provisioned with 550 pounds of beef and 6,300 gallons of
Portuguese wine.
On 18 November, the ship set sail for
England where her crew captured and
scuttled 12 English merchant vessels and took aboard their rum.
But the Constitution had run out of shot. Nevertheless, she made her way unarmed up the
Firth of Clyde for a night raid. Here her landing party captured a
whiskey distillery, transferred 40,000 gallons aboard and headed for home.
On 20 February
1780, the Constitution arrived in Boston with no cannon shot, no food, no powder, no rum, no whiskey.
Just 46,800 gallons of water.
Courtesy of:
U.S. Navy - Atlantic Command
Joint Training, Analysis and Simulation Center
Quantitative Analysis:
Length of cruise - 181 days
Alcohol consumption - 2.26 gallons
per MAN per day (plus whatever they rescued from the 12 English merchant ships)
Guestimated re-enlistment rate - 100%
Probable award for water conservation