A “Perfect” Navy Frigate and the Amesbury Park Bearing Her Name
by Susan Koso
ACM Volunteer Researcher
Have you visited Alliance Park at the edge of the river on Main Street? There are two stories that go with it. One tells of Alliance, a frigate warship built in Amesbury during the Revolutionary War. The other story is about Amesbury’s Alliance Park, commemorating the construction of this renowned ship on the banks of the Merrimack.
Alliance the Ship
Frigate Alliance under sail. (Image courtesy of The Lowell Sun.)
The story of the ship Alliance is full of conflicting facts, apocryphal reporting and wishful thinking. According to Steve Klomps and Dave Sculley, both Amesbury historians, much of what has been printed in newspaper articles and books over various years is inaccurate.
Nevertheless, it’s true that Alliance was built in 1777 and 1778 in what is now Amesbury, near today’s Alliance park and the junction of the Powow and Merrimack rivers. (The location was actually Salisbury in those years, when the Amesbury-Salisbury border was the Powow River.) Alliance was commissioned by the Continental Congress along with several other ships. (There was no United States Navy per se, as there was no United States.) She was launched into the Merrimack on April 18, 1778, and named for the alliance between the French and the Americans.
Alliance was a fast ship of advanced design at the time, designed by William Hackett and built by his cousin, John Hackett, at Daniel Webster’s shipyard on Main Street. (Some sources say she was built by John’s brother, James, but the plaque in Alliance Park says the ship was built by William and John Hackett.) While there may still be some uncertainty about which Hackett built Alliance, it’s known that the Hacketts had long experience designing and building ships. They made Alliance fast by building her longer, narrower, and shallower than most other ships of her type. She was 150 feet long, 36 feet wide and had a capacity of 900 tons. Her three masts were square rigged, meaning that the primary rigging sails were carried on horizontal spars, perpendicular or square to the keel of the vessel.
Alliance was made of oak from New Hampshire, with hard pine for her decking. The ship’s planking was cut and seasoned at sawmills in Amesbury. During her construction, Alliance’s prow overhung Main Street, probably causing some consternation to passing horses.
Numerous articles in Amesbury newspapers claim that Alliance was “the most illustrious Amesbury vessel built” and the Europeans considered her “a perfect piece of Naval architecture.” For the sake of Amesbury pride, let’s consider this to be true.
After launching, Alliance went to Newburyport to get her rigging and then to Boston to receive her guns. The frigate ultimately had 28 18-pounder guns plus 12 9-pounder guns on the quarterdeck. There was room for a crew of 300 but probably no more than 240 were on duty, according to Dave Sculley.
Frigates were (and are) a class of warship built for speed and maneuverability. Speed was their main survival tool. Frigates were used for escort duty and secret missions as well as to take prizes of ships belonging to the enemy (think British). The museum ship USS Constitution, still docked in Charlestown, Mass., is an example of a frigate.
During the Revolutionary War, Alliance had a remarkable career and made several long and perilous voyages. As a compliment to the French, Pierre Landais, a Frenchman, was chosen as her first captain. He requested and received an American commission as a captain through Silas Dean, then one of the American commissioners in France. Unfortunately, both the American and French navies considered Landais to be an unsatisfactory captain.
But Alliance went on to have some illustrious captains from the Continental Navy, including Captain John Paul Jones and Captain John Barry, considered by some the Father of the American Navy. Under the command of Captain Barry, she fought (and won) the last sea battle of the Revolutionary War – five weeks after the Treaty of Paris ended the war. No cell phones informed the Alliance crew that the war was over.
After her post-Revolutionary-War conversion to a merchant ship, Alliance sails out of Philadelphia, bound for Macau and Canton, China. (Print courtesy of Amesbury Public Library.)
Alliance was the last ship in service of the Continental Navy and the only American-built frigate still in service at the end of the war. Fourteen others had been sunk in battle, captured, or destroyed to prevent capture. One lay only partially built at the end of the war, and it was sold unfinished in 1783.
Unlike all the other Continental Navy frigates, Alliance continued a useful and well traveled life after the Revolutionary War. The Continental Navy auctioned her off in 1785, and Philadelphia merchant Robert Morris became her owner. After renovation to suit her new purpose as a merchant ship, she made voyages between Philadelphia and France (1786), Macau and Canton, China (1787), and Cadiz, Spain (1789).
The useful life of Alliance ended in the spring of 1790. She was retired and her reusable components were salvaged, leaving nothing of any value. Her hull was then run aground on Petty Island on the Delaware River near Philadelphia.
But even that was not the end for Alliance. It’s said her remains continued to be visible in the sand until 1904.
Alliance the Park
Alliance Park is today a peaceful green space for the public to enjoy. The land under the park was created in 1891 by filling an area of the Merrimack to expand a Boyd’s Lumber Yard. It was eventually purchased by Augustus Parry and William E. Biddle and donated to the Town Improvement Association for use as a park.
Alliance Park in Amesbury also has a story, although a less dramatic one than its namesake ship’s. The park is located at the confluence of the Merrimack and the Powow rivers, near where Alliance was built. It is a quiet place with benches where you can contemplate the river, the accomplishments of shipbuilders and the glory of the ship for which the park is named.
As natural as this idyllic spot feels, it turns out to be mostly man-made. An 1854 map shows only a few feet of land between Main Street and the river in this location. But in 1891 Boyd’s Lumber Yard filled and extended the narrow strip out onto what was probably a tidal area of the Merrimack, providing more space for its operations and creating most of the land that would someday become the park.
In the early 1900s, the former lumber yard became a coal yard, and in 1918 it was the scene of a huge fire that threatened the church and several homes across the street. In 1926, the land was purchased by prominent Amesbury citizens Augustus Parry and William E. Biddle, who donated it to the Amesbury Improvement Association for use as a park.
Plaque commemorating the dedication of Alliance Park. Photo by Susan Koso.
The park was officially named Alliance Park and dedicated to great fanfare on July 22, 1930, with 1,500 persons attending, according to The Amesbury Daily News. The News described an elaborate ceremony, starting with the arrival of George Washington, portrayed by Massachusetts State Senator J. Bradford Davis. Upon a bugle signal from the Amesbury shore, “President Washington” was ferried across the Merrimack from Newburyport. He then rode on horseback from his landing place to the new park escorted by several prominent citizens, also in colonial costume.
After speeches, prayers and choir performances, the bronze Alliance Park plaque was finally unveiled, and Senator Davis addressed the crowd. In his speech, printed in full in The News the following day, Davis recounted the history of shipbuilding on the Merrimack River and praised the bravery and loyalty of those those in the community who risked so much to build Alliance for the emerging new nation:
We again call to mind the loyalty, unselfishness and valour of countless men and women of this community to the cause of freedom and liberty. They were willing to pledge all they had – their fortunes and very lives, if necessary, for the cause in which they believed.
The dedication ceremony ended, but the festivities continued. Davis was escorted in a parade to the Macy-Colby House for a reception, “where tea was being served to the visitors.” The News reported, “Gen. Washington shook hands with many children and Thomas Macy [portrayed by Arthur True, Jr.] was kept busy receiving guests. Hundreds inspected the house and were served by the ladies.”
A Short Walk to the Actual Shipyard Site
Plaque at the actual shipyard site on Main Street, Amesbury, about 300 feet east of Alliance Park. Photo by Steve Klomps.
To see the exact site of Alliance’s construction, you must leave the park, turn right (east) on Main Street and walk about 300 feet. Here, close to the sidewalk, you’ll find a small bronze plaque marking the actual site of the shipyard where Alliance was built 240 years ago.
Many thanks to Steve Klomps and Dave Sculley who helped with this article.
Bibliography
“USS Alliance, 1778”. Wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Alliance_(1778).
Amesbury and Salisbury Villager. February 26, 1885.
Amesbury Daily News. August 7, 1926. Page 1.
Amesbury Daily News. August 28, 1926.
Amesbury Daily News. July 23, 1930. Pages 1 and 2.
Amesbury Daily News. June 23, 1976. Page 26.
Amesbury Daily News. May 9, 1942. Page 2.
Amesbury Daily News. August 14, 1943. Page 2.
Bartlett Museum Newsletter, Spring 2017.
Cheney, Robert K. Maritime History of the Merrimac. Newburyport Press, 1964.
Clark, Richard (publisher). Map of the Towns of Salisbury & Amesbury. 1854.
Scully, Dave. “Alliance.” Talk sponsored by Lowell Boat Shop. March 11, 2020, Newburyport, Mass.
Strunk, Dirk J. Yankee Science in the Making. Dover Publications, New York. 1991.
About the author: Susan Koso serves on the board of directors of the Amesbury Carriage Museum. She also volunteers as a researcher, enthusiastically shares her extensive knowledge of carriages and transportation-related history, and has supported the ACM for many years.