High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The second Trumbull was a three-masted, wooden-hulled sailing frigate and was one of the first 13 frigates authorized by the Continental Congress on 13 December 1775 and were superior in design and construction to the same class of European vessels in their day. It`s keel was laid down in March or April 1776 at Chatham, Connecticut, by John Cotton and was launched on 5 September 1776.