Nathaniel Coverly (American, ca. 1775–1824)
The Launch or Huzza for the New Seventy-Four, 1814
Boston, Massachusetts
Woodcut
Lent by the Chipstone Foundation, 1971.9

This broadside or posted public announcement commemorates the U.S.S. Independence, a seventy-four-gun ship commissioned on June 22, 1814 at the height of the War of 1812. The verses of the musical “huzza” or cheer were meant to be sung to the tune of a popular song. The taunting refrain warned the British: “you must keep from our shore / Or you’ll get a Broadside from our new SEVENTY-FOUR.” The word “broadside” is a play on words because it also means the simultaneous discharge of all the guns on one side of a warship.