1794: March 27 - President George Washington signs "an act to provide a naval armament." By authorizing the construction of six frigates (what we would call "cruisers" today) the Third Congress in effect creates the U.S. Navy. The immediate issue is the need to protect the large American merchant fleet from continuous and increasing attacks by the North African "Barbary pirate" states of Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli-as well as from aggressive high-seas practices of the British. The ships are designed by Mr. Joshua Humphreys, a Philadelphia Quaker and an innovative naval architect, and are to be built at six different cities. The contract for one of these ships, to be named the CONSTITUTION, is given to Edmund Hartt's shipyard in Boston, Massachusetts.
--- From the USS Constitution's website
Ah, the irony! :)
Wonder if they had lunatics running around back then screaming "No blood for (olive) oil!"