INCOMPARABLE
MARITIME AMERICANA

SHIP'S GANGWAY DOOR
American
Mahogany & Copper

Gang plank door from the Constellation, the FIRST WARSHIP COMMISSIONED BY THE U.S. GOVERNMENT (one ship of the six ordered by George Washington and the U.S. Congress in 1796.)

This door hung as one of a pair (it's partner is in a museum) at the boarding entrance on the first U.S. ship to sink an engaged vessel in combat (the French frigate Insurgente) in the spring of 1799. This encounter in the Caribbean established America as a new world power. The figurehead and important woodwork on the ship was commissioned from William Rush, the pre-eminent American sculptor of the colonial period (and the father of prominent physician Benjamin Rush.)

Fine condition retaining its protective copper strapping around the outside edge.  Inquiry