Izard, for other good and sufficient claims, The last Of these officers resigned about six years later, when first lieutenant of the old craft, and we shall have occasion hereafter to speak of Morris's service on board her, in the same character.

Having effected this important preliminary step, Preble set the ship in motion, in good earnest. On the 2d of March she sailed for Malta, arrived on the 3d, and returned on the 17th. On the 20th she sailed again for Tripoli, where she arrived in time to send in a flag on the 27th; a day or two later she sailed for Tunis, encountering a heavy gale on the passage, and anchored in the bay on the 4th of April. She left Tunis on the 7th, it blowing a gale from the northwest at the time, and reached Malta on the 12th; sailed for Syracuse on the 14th, and arrived on the 15th. All these movements were made necessary, in order to keep Tunis quiet, ascertain the state of things at Tripoli and obtain supplies at Malta. Business detained the ship at Syracuse until the 20th, when she was again off. On the 29th the busy craft again touched at Malta, having scoured along the enemy's coast, and on the 2d of May, less than a month from her appearance, the Bey of Tunis had the equivocal gratification of again seeing her in his harbor. War had been menaced, but peace succeeded this demonstration, and next day the ship was off for Naples, where she arrived on the 9th. The slow movements of the Neapolitans kept the active vessel ten days in that magnificent gulf, when away she went for Messina, with an order to get some of the king's gun-boats on board her. On the 25th she was at Messina, and on the 30th she left that place, going round to Syracuse, where she anchored next day. On the 4th of June, the Constitution was away once more for Malta, where she anchored on the 6th, and on the 9th she went to take another look at Tripoli. A flag was sent in on the 13th to know the Bashaw's ultimatum, but that dignitary refusing to accede to the terms offered, the Constitution got her anchor next day, and went to Tunis the third and last time, accompanied by two of the small vessels, as a hint to the Bey to remain quiet. The demonstration succeeded, and having reached Tunis on the 19th, the ship left it on the 22d for Syracuse, touched at Malta on the 24th, and reached her post on the 25th. On the 29th, away the frigate went again for Messina arriving the 1st July, and sailing again on the 9th for Syracuse and getting in the same day.

Here was an activity almost without a parallel. Nor did it end here. On the 14th, the good old craft lifted her anchor and went to sea; was in Malta on the 16th; left Malta on the 21st, and appeared off Tripoli, in company with all the force that had by this time been collected, in readiness to commence the war in earnest. We know very well that Preble's extraordinary energy was at the bottom of all these ceaseless movements; but the good old ship must come in for all that share of the credit, which properly belongs to a most admirably constructed machine. If the reader mill recur to our dates he will find what was really done. Between the 2d March and the 25th July, there are 145 days, or less than five months. Between these dates, Old Ironsides left port eighteen times, without counting visits to different places where she did not anchor. The distances run were necessarily short, in some instances quite so, but the Mediterranean Sea was actually crossed in its entire breadth twice. and several of the passages were hundreds of miles in length. The ship that is in and out of port three times a month—and four times would be nearer the true proportion of the Constitution's movements—cannot be called idle; and our good craft, on all occasions, did her part of the duty admirably well.

It was not favorable weather for anchoring until the 28th, when Preble fetched up with all his squadron, which now consisted of fifteen sail, of one sort and another of fighting craft, with Old Ironsides at their head. The good frigate lay about a league from Tripoli, and the parties had now a good opportunity of looking at each other. The same day, however, a gale came on, and sent every thing out into the offing again; and it was August 3d before Preble brought his force in again.

The 3d August, 1804, will ever be memorable in American naval annals. It was the day on which Preble first attacked the batteries of Tripoli, and on which Decatur made his celebrated hand-to-hand assault on the gun-boats, that had ventured to take up an anchorage outside the rocks. It does not come within the scope of our plan to give the particulars of the whole of this desperate engagement, and we shall confine ourselves principally to the part that was borne in it by the subject of our sketch. The battle itself began at three quarters past two P.M., but it was a little later before Old Ironsides took a part in the fray. It ought to be mentioned here, that this ship had taken on board six long twenty-sixes at Syracuse, which had been mounted in her waist, and which were now manned by the marines, under Captain Hall; musketry being of no account in the service she was on. These six additional guns must have increased her entire armament to _ guns in broadside, and all long; viz., _ twenty-four twenty-fours below, _ twelves on the quarter-deck and forecastle, and the six twenty-sixes just mentioned.

The manner in which the Constitution went into action that day has often been the theme of praise.