If this 224-year-old warship could talk, she’d tell us some fascinating stories.
This remarkable beauty, which currently sits in Dry Dock 1 in Boston Harbor, is the second oldest active warship in the world.
Currently crewed by a team of more than 50, the USS Constitution, also known as “Old Ironsides” was built in Boston and is a part of American history.
The USS Constitution was built in 1794, only five years after the election of America’s first President, George Washington. He was given the honor of naming this beautiful ship and chose to name her after The U.S. Constitution.
She was built to be bigger and faster than any other ship of her day and her design made her the most formidable ship of her day. She was built out of thick, durable oak and pine. She has a sea draft of 23 feet and her masts rise 204 feet into the sky.
A piece of history
Her first real victories came during the War of 1812, when she defeated five British warships, captured several others and fought a 12-hour battle with the British warship Guerriere. Her nickname, “Old Ironsides,” stems from this battle, because the British ship’s cannonballs kept bouncing off her hull.
After this remarkable achievement, the USS Constitution sailed around the world as a training ship during the American Civil War and sailed to the Paris Exhibition of 1878. But she was decommissioned on 1890 and tied to a pier in the naval shipyard in Boston Harbor, where she fell into disrepair.
After a few early unsuccessful attempts to refurbish her, the Secretary of the Navy in the early 1900s proposed sailing her out to sea and using her for target practice and sinking her.
A second life
This angered the locals and one Massachusetts man, Moses Gulesian, offered to buy her, though the Navy refused.
Gulesian then contacted local newspapers and started a national campaign to save her. Then slowly but surely, enough money was raised to restore this Boston beauty.
Since her restoration, she has sailed through the Panama Canal and participated in the Bicentennial of the United States in 1976.
To find out more about this magnificent warship and her history, watch this video:
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Please share this warship’s remarkable American story with your friends and family.
