Speed:
14 knots ( approx. 14.95 miles per hour, 24 km. per hour)
Crew:
450 including 55 Marines and 30 boys (1797)
Armament:
32 24-pounder long guns
20 32-pounder carronades
two 24-pounder bow chasers
Boats:
one 36-ft. long boat
two 30-ft. cutters
two 28-ft. whaleboats
one 28-ft. gig
one 22-ft. jolly boat
and one 14-ft. punt
Anchors:
two main bowers (5300 lbs.)
one sheet anchor (5400 lbs.)
one stream anchor (1100 lbs.)
two kedge anchors (400 to 700 lbs)
Date Launched: October 21, 1797
Built in Boston to defend the young American nation,
USS CONSTITUTION is nearly as old as the
document for which George Washington and
Congress named her.
Both the document and the ship have proven to be
resilient symbols of America's strength, courage, and liberty.
Made from more than 1,500 trees, with timbers felled from
Maine to Georgia and armed with cannons cast in Rhode Island
and copper fastenings provided by Paul Revere,
the vessel is truly a national ship.
Launched in Boston on October 21, 1797,
she first put to sea in 1798.
Having remained a part of the U.S. Navy since that day,
CONSTITUTION is the oldest commissioned warship afloat in the world.
Her first mission, during the late 1790's, was to guard American
commerce in the Caribbean against French depredations.
In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson sent her to the Mediterranean
to protect American ships and seamen from attack by the Barbary pirates.
With Captain Edward Preble in command, CONSTITUTION and other
ships of the squadron bombarded Tripoli.
Thanks to such determination, a treaty of peace was signed in
June 1805 between the United States and Tripoli aboard CONSTITUTION.
After returning to the United States, CONSTITUTION was named
flagship of the North Atlantic Squadron.
In 1810, her new captain, Isaac Hull, took her to sea.
Two years later she met and defeated HMS GUERRIERE,
the first in a grand succession of victories in the War of 1812.
It was during this ferocious battle that the seamen,
astonished at how the British cannonballs were bouncing off the
Constitution's hull, cried out - "Huzzah, Her sides are made of iron."
Hence, her nickname, "Old Ironsides."
When her war service ended in 1815, the battle scarred
CONSTITUTION was laid up for almost six years for
extensive repairs, whereupon she went on two cruises
to the Mediterranean.
In 1830, she was reported unseaworthy and condemned
to be broken up.
A poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., entitled "Old Ironsides,"
aroused such popular feeling that money was appropriated
for rebuilding her in 1833.
In 1844, under the command of Captain "Mad Jack" Percival,
she began an epic around-the-world cruise.
During the Civil War she was brought to Newport, Rhode Island
to serve as a training ship for Naval Academy midshipmen.
In 1882, she was removed from active service and shortly thereafter
retired to Portsmouth, New Hampshire Naval Shipyard.
In recognition of her centennial, CONSTITUTION was brought
back to Boston in 1897.
Refitted for display and opened to the public in 1905,
she became a national monument.
CONSTITUTION was recommissioned in 1931 for a coast-to-coast
tour of ninety American cities lasting until 1934, when she was returned
to her place of honor in the Boston Harbor at Charlestown Navy Yard.
On the July 21, 1997 she sailed in Massachussets Bay.
This was the first time in 116 years she set sail,
and sailed under her own power.
She remains in Boston as an enduring symbol of the document for
which she is named and of America's determination to defend the Republic
she so long protected.
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