As she stood down to range along the rocks and batteries, and a harbor filled with armed craft, her people were aloft rolling up the light canvas as coolly as if about to come to in peaceable times, nor was a gun fired until as near the rocks as was deemed prudent, when she let the Turks have her larboard broadside, sending the shot home as far as the Bashaw's Castle. That was the first shotted broadside that Old Ironsides ever discharged at an enemy. As she was launched Sept. 20th, 1797, it follows that the good craft was just six years, ten months, and fourteen days old, ere she fired what may be called a shot in anger. No occasion had occurred on her previous service to bring the vessel herself alongside of an enemy, and here she was now commencing the brilliant part of her career: on the coast of Barbary, the very service for which she had been originally designed, though against a different prince. The ship kept ranging along the rocks, mole and batteries, often as near as within two cables’ length of the first, and three of the last, silencing every thing that she could get fairly under her guns, so long as she lay opposed to it. The flotilla within the rocks, in particular, was the object of her attentions, and she made great havoc among its people by means of grape. It was when tacking or wearing, that the Constitution was most exposed, having no vessel of any size to cover her. It will be remembered that Tripoli mounted one hundred and forty-five pieces of heavy ordnance, behind stone walls, in addition to a large number of guns she had afloat, many of which were of as heavy calibre as any possessed by the Americans. At half-past four, the smaller vessels began to retire, covered by a blazing fire from the Constitution; and a quarter of an hour later, the frigate herself hauled off the land, and went out of action. In this, which may be termed her debut in active warfare, our favorite ship escaped singularly well, considering the odds with which she had to contend, and the circumstances under which she fought. In all that service before Tripoli, she fought at great disadvantage, being held at precisely the distance that batteries wish to keep ships, by the rocks, within which it would have been madness for a single frigate to enter. The nearer a vessel can get to batteries the better; not only on account of the greater effect of their shot on walls, but on account of the advantage it gives by placing them within her range of fewer guns.

Although Old Ironsides was two full hours under fire, on the 3d August, time enough to have cut her into splinters, at the distance at which she was fought, and the number of guns that were brought to bear on her, had the Turkish gunnery been better than it was, she suffered very little, and not at all in her hull. One twenty-four pound shot passed through the center of her mainmast, thirty feet above the deck; her main-royal-yard was shot away altogether; two lower shrouds and two back-stays were also shot away; and the running rigging, and sails generally, were a good deal cut. One heavy shot, supposed to have been a thirty-two, entered a stern port as the ship was wearing, and when she was most exposed, passed quite near to Preble, some accounts say actually beneath his leg, as he stood with it raised on the port sill, struck the breech of one of the quarter-deck twelves, which it damaged materially, and broke into fragments, that flew forward into the waist, along a deck crowded with men, of whom only one was injured. Here was the old ship's luck!—a good fortune or a providential care, as men may choose to regard the spirit of providential interferences,that has more or less attended the craft in all her subsequent battles and adventures. The man who was first wounded in battle, on the deck of Old Ironsides, deserves to have his name recorded. It was Charles Young, a marine, who had his elbow shattered by one of the fragments of the shot just mentioned. On this occasion, both Mr. Dent and Mr. Robinson were out of the ship. The former had been transferred to the Scourge, but commanded one of the bomb-ketches in the attacks; while the other, who had succeeded, as acting-captain of the frigate, commanded the other. Charles Gordon was now the first lieutenant, and did duty as such in the action, while Jumping Billy handled Old Ironsides under fire as he would have handled her in an American port.

The Constitution herself had no particuLar agency in the affairs which occurred between the 3d and the 28th August, though many of her officers and people were engaged. On the 7th, she lifted her anchor and stood in with an intention to mingle in the combat, but the wind coming out from the northward, it was thought imprudent to carry her as near the rocks as would be necessary to render her fire efficient, since the loss of a mast might have thrown her ashore. The 7th was the day on which Caldwell was blown up. Although the ship herself did not find a shot that day, many of her people were in the thickest of the fight. The gun-boats and ketches received crews from the other vessels whenever they went into action, and that day, besides having her boats out in numbers, the Constitution put Mr. Wadsworth in No. 6, Trippe's boat, as her commander. The lateen yard of this boat was shot away in the action.