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Show "Nautical Novelties" Betsy Ross made the first flags and :igna:s for the famous frigate CONSTITUTION. The bolts that fasten the Constitution's timbers were made at the foundry of Paul Revere. The Constitution, which was launched at Boston on October 21, 1797, visited Pacific Coast pores during 1933. There is one vessel in the U. S. Navy older than the Constitution This is the frigate Constellation, which was built at Baltimore and launched on September 7, 1797. The Constellation, which is slightly smaller than the Constitution, is at Newport, Rhode Island. A frigate was ship-ngged and had only one gun deck oeiow the spai deck. The frigate was the "cruiser" at the end of the eighteenth century, cen-tury, because it was speedier than the heavy ship-of-the-line. I The tallest lighthouse in . the world is located at Cape Mendocina, California, and can be seen a distance dis-tance of thirty miles at sea. This lighthouse is 422 feet in height. The battleship "Maryland," commissioned com-missioned in 1921, was trie first ship in the; world to be successfully e-quipped e-quipped with sixteen inch guns. The West Virginia and Colorado also al-so have 16-inch guns. The first airplane flight from a catapult was made by Lieutenant Ellyson at the Washington Navy Yard, 6 October 1912. The largest dry-dock in the world is at the Boston Navy Yard. It is 1162 feet long. The U. S. S. Ramapo on April 30, 1933, using a sonic depth finder, obtained ob-tained a sounding of 34,622 feet -in an unsurveyed portion of Tuscarora Deep about 250 miles southeast of Yokohama, Japan. This depth is the second deepest on record, being exceeded only by one of 35,400 feet obtained off Mindanao, P. I., by the German Cruiser Emden cn April 29, 1927. After the Revolutionary War, when John Paul Jones' services werj no longer usedb y the United States, Jones accepted a commission as Vice-Admiral in the Russian Navy. The Church Pennant is the only flag that is permitted to be flown above .the Stars and Stripes. The pennant is displayed during divine services on board ship. This custom dates back to the earliest days of our Navy. The first steamship to cross the Atlantic was the American ship "Savannah" which sailed from Savannah Sa-vannah and arrived at Liverpool on June 20, 1819, after a voyage o! 25 days. The above "Nautical Novelties" were furnished by the U. S. Navy Recruiting Station, Salt Lake City Utah. |