Large Quarto (ca. 27x24 cm or 10 ¾ x 9 ½ in). With ca. 47 tipped-in and loosely inserted original autograph letters signed or manuscript documents of various size, from ca. 34x21 cm (13 ½ x 8 ¼ in) to ca. 8x19,5 cm (3 x 7 ¾ in). Brown ink or pencil on lined or wove paper; several with official printed letterheads (“Ordnance Office, U.S. Navy Yard,” “Navy Department, Bureau of Equipment and Recruiting,” “U.S. Naval Academy,” &c.) or ink stamps (“Office of Commandant of Midshipmen, U.S. Naval Academy,” “U.S. Navy Yard, New York, Commandant’s Office”). With a tipped-in, hand-drawn “Plan, showing lockers on berth deck, U.S. Ship Constellation,” ca. 19,5x42 cm (7 ¾ x 17 cm) and a tipped-in printed booklet of instructions to the crew of U.S.S. “Colorado” (10 pp.) with Ames’s pencil inscription on the first page. Period dark green quarter sheep letter book with cloth boards; gilt-lettered title “Letters” on the spine. Paper label of “Improved Adhesive Letter and Invoice File, Asa L. Shipman, Manufacturer & Proprietor” attached to the inner side of the front cover. Binding rubbed and scratched, front cover detached from the stub, documents with occasional creases or tears on extremities; overall a good collection of historically significant original documents.

Notebooks: ca. 1856-1860. Two Quarto and one Octavo notebooks, ca. 26x19,5 cm (10 ¼ x 7 ¾ in) and 21x17 cm (8 ¼ x 6 ¾ in). Brown ink and pencil on lined or wove paper; in all over 550 pp. of text; numerous sketches and drafts in text. Ames’s name inscribed on the margins or endpapers. Period brown quarter sheep bindings with marbled papered boards; rubbed and scratched; spines and cracks and losses; front board of one of the notebooks with losses of marbled paper. Overall, good notebooks written in legible hand.

Historically significant collection of original letters and documents, and some period copies, related to the maiden cruise of U.S.S. “Constellation”, as a training ship of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, in June-September 1871. Built in 1854 at the Norfolk shipyard, she became the last sail-only warship designed and built by the U.S. Navy. “Constellation” served in the Mediterranean Squadron (1855-58), was the flagship of the Africa Squadron as a part of the African Slave Trade Patrol (1858-61) and blockaded Confederate vessels in the Mediterranean during the Civil War. In 1871, she became a training ship for the U.S. Naval Academy and served in this capacity for 22 years. She later delivered food and other supplies to Ireland during the 1879 Irish famine, took part in the centennial celebration of the creation of the U.S. national anthem in 1914 and the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence (1926). “Constellation” became a National Historic Landmark (1963) and is now a museum ship, a part of the “Historic Ships in Baltimore” permanent exhibition.  

The letter book provides insight into “Constellation’s” first training cruise as a Naval Academy ship along the east coast of North America in the summer of 1871. Together with the U.S.S. “Saratoga,” she departed Annapolis on June 17 and “visited Halifax, Cape Cod Bay, Portland, Maine, where the citizens gave them a ball, Gardner’s Bay, New London, Long Island Sound, and Newport” (Cruise of the practice ships// The Evening Star. Washington, D.C., August 23, 1871, p. 1). The ships returned to Annapolis on September 27. The letter book was compiled by the ship’s executive officer, Lieutenant Commander Sullivan D. Ames, a Civil War veteran.

Most documents in the collection date back to April-June 1871, the time of the fitting of the ship and preparations for the cruise. Various documents regarding crew members include applications for the positions of “ship’s yeoman” (from “William Farrard, Late Yeoman U.S.S. Delaware,” “Robert Hardie,” “Alfd. Erryl, Seaman”), letters of recommendation of “W. Stanten, one of our bakers who was out the last cruise of the Savannah” (May 26) and a ship’s a blacksmith (June 3), a letter informing of the change of boatswain to “Charles Ogle” (May 26), an application of transfer from “Constellation” to “Saratoga” from “H. Michelson, Cdt. Mdn. 3rd class” (June 5), and a letter to the ship’s Captain, Samuel P. Carter, asking him to “possibly get Willie [William Schurar] anything to do on either of the ships going out. He says he is willing to go in any capacity…” (June 5), with Carter’s note with instructions on verso.

A letter “to the officer of the deck, U.S.S. Constellation” from June 8 is supplemented with a “list of gentlemen” punished for “disobedience of orders,” “using disrespectful language to officer of the day,” and “turning out light in hall after being ordered not to.” A letter from “Theo F. Juvell, Lt. Comdr.” to Captain Carter “respectfully report[s] Cadet Midn. Fithian for smoking in the grounds and Cd. Midn. McCartney for leaving the Academic limits <…> without authority.”

There is also a copy of the order of Commodore John L. Warden, Superintendent of the Academy from May 26, regarding the punishment of “Midn. C.F. Craig for being guilty of the criminal folly of introducing a quantity of gunpowder into the Cadet Midshipmen’s quarters, and of igniting the same, thereby seriously endangering a vast amount of public property” (with an ink stamp of “Office of Commandant of Midshipmen, U.S. Naval Academy”).

The letter book also includes a large group of documents related to ordering various supplies and fitting the ship: letters from “Office of Inspector of Ordnance, U.S. Navy Yard, Norfolk, Va.”; “Lieut. Commr. A.R. McNair, Rigging Loft Navy Yard, Norfolk” (regarding the “tracing of the Midn’s lockers & their numbers,” “the invoice of equipment stores &c. placed on board the Constellation,” &c.); “Ordnance Office, U.S. Navy Yard” (about the number of Constellation’s crew members); “Equipment Office, Ny. Yard, Norfolk” (“the ship has been almost rebuilt and all her boats fittings, &c. will be new. No ship in the Navy will have a finer set of boats…,”); “Bureau of Construction & Repairs, Navy Department” (regarding “automatic ship ventilator, alarm and bilge pump,” &c.); “Bureau of Equipment and Recruiting”; “Equipment Office, Navy Yard, Norfolk” (regarding “two copper hose pipes/nozzles to be exchanged for those previously furnished”), &c. Several documents are inscribed and signed by Commodore John L. Worden, then the Superintendent of the Academy.

There is also a table of “Dimensions of Constellation Boats,” with notes on the “Rig of the above boats,” “Articles furnished to the above boats” and several manuscript comments by Sullivan Ames; a pencil-written proposition about ship’s armament stores (“shell rooms,” “saluting powder apt.,” &c.) and a fine ink-drawn “Plan, showing lockers on berth deck, U.S. Ship Constellation” (marking “steerage,” “carpenter,” “sailmaker,” “issuing room,” “boatswain,” “gunnery,” “dispensary” and “armoury”). The collection also includes a printed booklet of instructions to the crew of “U.S.S. Colorado,” signed “Ames, U.S.N.” in pencil.

Several documents dating back to the ship’s return include receipts for the payments “to wine bill” for U.S.S. “Constellation” from a naval caterer, C.H. Thomson, in July and August 1871 and a letter to S. Ames from W.R. Bridgman, executive officer of U.S.S. “Saratoga,” regarding the belongings of missing crew members (October 11).

Overall an interesting, content-rich original source on the history of training cruises of the U.S. Naval Academy in the 1870s.

“Commander Sullivan Dorr Ames, son of the late Chief-Justice Ames, of Rhode Island <…> was born in Rhode Island July 16, 1840, and entered the Naval Academy in 1856. During the rebellion, having been promoted, first to Master and then to Lieutenant, he did service in the steam sloop Dacotah in the North Atlantic Squadron, and participated in the attack on Sewell’s Point., May 22, 1862. Later he was attached to the European and North Pacific Squadrons. He received his commission as Lieutenant Commander in 1866. From 1869 to 1872 he was at the Naval Academy. In 1873 he was on staff duty on the Wabash, the flagship of the European squadron and served in the same way, the succeeding year on the Franklin. In 1874 he was commissioned as Commander. He acted as Light-house Inspector in 1875, and for the two following years was on ordnance duty at Portsmouth” (Obituary: Sullivan Dorr Ames// The New York Times, 23 November 1880, p. 2).