During a sea battle between the USS Constitution and the HMS Guerriere on August 19, 1812, 750 miles east of Boston off the Canadian coast, the Constitution's steering wheel was damaged.
Having won the battle and taking the Guerriere as a prize, the crew commandeered the Guerriere's wheel. In 1877, Captain Elbert Stannard of Port Washington, New York, engaged in salvage, was given the wheel to sail the USS Potomac on her last voyage from Philadelphia to his Long Island Salvage Yard.
The wheel was later donated to the US Merchant Marine Academy by the Stannard family. It was restored to its' present condition at the Academy in 1967.