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Original six frigates of the United States Navy

First six ships of the United States Navy

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 22, 2026
Entity authoritySource title only
Source-derived summary

The United States Congress authorized the original six frigates of the United States Navy with the Naval Act of 1794 on March 27, 1794, at a total cost of $688,888.82. These ships were built during the formative years of the United States Navy, on the recommendation of designer Joshua Humphreys for a fleet of frigates powerful enough to engage any frigates of the French or British navies, yet fast enough to evade any ship of the line.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Original six frigates of the United States Navy” as first six ships of the United States Navy. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1794—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Original, frigates and United can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as first six ships of the United States Navy. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 22, 2026. The first chronological checks are 1794.

Critical limits

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Original six frigates of the United States Navy” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.