USS Constitution

Well, this blog has nothing to do with my "Bucket Trip," but it is sailing related and I wanted to share it.

I had the opportunity to go to Boston last week to visit Linda, who has been working up there most of the time that I was on my trip. I wanted to see her apartment there and meet her co-workers, who have been nice and welcoming to her.

While there, I wanted to go visit the USS Constitution since I had read the great book, "Six Frigates," last spring. The book is about the formation of the US Navy in 1794 when the new country discovered that it was going to have to protect its merchant ships from Barbary (now Somolia) pirates. (Nothing has changed!) The book is about the politics of the decision as much as it is about the naval construction and warfare of the times...obviously the perfect book for me. I highly recommend it to readers with similar interests.


I have seen the outside of the famous ship several times when in Boston, but I had never timed my visit right to get a tour of her interior. This time, with Linda's help, we got it right.

So, first of all, stop and think about a wooden ship, built 214 years ago, that is still floating! And not only is she floating, she is capable of sailing under her own rig -- which she did as recently as 1997 on her 200th birthday. Now, obviously, she has been rebuilt several times. Several of these rebuilds occurred after battles which severely damaged her. And other rebuilds occurred to erase the ravages of time that all floating ships endure.


So you might think she is like the proverbial hatchet that belonged to George Washington -- where the handle and the head have both replaced. It occupies the same space, but nothing is original. But that is not the case with the Constitution. I think I read that the keel is original, as well as many other key parts.

Every schoolboy knows that she got her nickname "Old Ironsides" during her first encounter with a British frigate when a British sailor observed cannonballs bouncing off her sides. Since her sides were painted black, they may have actually wondered if she was plated with iron.


In fact, her tremendous strength came from the live oak lumber, procured from coastal South Carolina and Georgia, that is five times harder than ordinary oak. Procurement of this lumber greatly slowed down her construction because the Yankee shipwrights got sick in the southern swamps, probably from mesquite-borne illnesses.


Constitution's prowess came as much from the ability of her crew as it did from her design and construction -- like so many other stories in early American history. Her crew could fire her immense guns and reload and fire again in 90 seconds whereas it took their British opponents two minutes or more. This all added up to a lifetime record of 33 victories and zero defeats. Most importantly, she was the first American ship to ever defeat a British warship. Her victory meant more to the morale of the young country than it did to naval strategy. She became a propaganda tool and is still a huge morale builder to the US Navy.


Constitution was a huge ship in 1797 when she was launched. But she looks small today at 204 feet in length...only six times longer than Agaliha. I could hardly imagine her teeming with a crew of 450. It had to be a pretty miserable existence. No wonder they passed out a pint of watered-down whiskey to the crew every afternoon. Wait, this is starting to sound like a cruise with Captain Ron!

The technology of her design and construction made her the equivalent of a Space Shuttle of her day. She was one of six frigates ordered by Congress in 1794, at a total appropriation of one million dollars. Constitution had cost overruns that swelled her total cost to $300,000, Like I said, some things haven't changed. Thomas Jefferson argued against building a navy, citing the financial burden it would place on American farmers and citizens -- an argument that continues to this day.

But it sure made me feel connected to those days to walk on her decks. Technologically, she is a far cry from a modern nuclear aircraft carrier. But many of the same issues and concerns have not changed much and we still need political leadership to balance those issues against our domestic needs.

I'll stop before the Tea Party gives me a call to run for office. If you get the chance, go walk the decks of "Old Ironsides.". It won't cost you anything (other than what you have already paid in taxes)!



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