MiamiCubano
El Martillo (My Boxing Name)
As stated elsewhere, I recently finished reading the outstanding book "Six Frigates" by Ian Toll. It was interesting that this day in history is upon us as well:
On this day, October 21, 1797, the 44-gun USN frigate USS Constitution was launched in Boston Harbor. USS Constitution, known as "Old Ironsides," is a wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate of the USN. She is the oldest commissioned ship afloat in the world. The HMS Victory is actually the oldest commissioned warship, but she is permanently drydocked. The Constitution was one of the six original frigates authorized for construction by the Naval Act of 1794 and was launched in 1797. Joshua Humphreys designed them to be the Navy's capital ships and so Constitution and her sisters were larger and more heavily armed than the standard frigates of the period...something that was going to be of great use against the then pesky Barbary pirates...to the shores of Tripoli, Algiers, Tunis, etc., under Captain Edward Preble, and later during the War of 1812, under CO Isaac Hull.
She was built at Edmund Hartt's shipyard in Boston, Massachusetts from 2,000 Southern live oak trees cut and milled at Gascoigne Bluff in St. Simons, Georgia. Her planks were up to seven inches thick. The ship's design was also unique for its time because of a diagonal cross-bracing of the ship's skeleton that contributed considerably to the ship's structural strength. Paul Revere forged the copper spikes and bolts that held the planks in place and the copper sheathing that protected the hull. It took several abortive attempts to launch Her in 1797 before she finally slipped into Boston Harbor.
She saw tremendous service during the Barbary days, the War of 1812, destroying the HMS Guerriere off the coast of Nova Scotia, the HMS Java, and, managed eight more captures under the command of Charles Stewart, including a British frigate, HMS Cyane, and a sloop, HM Sloop Levant. After six years of extensive repairs, she returned to duty as flagship of the Mediterranean Squadron. She sailed back to Boston in 1828. She patrolled the waters of Africa during the 1850s for slavers, used as a training vessell for midshipman during the War of Northern Aggression. She underwent restoration in 1925, setting sail again in 1997.
She is berthed at Pier 1 of the former Charlestown Navy Yard at one end of Boston's Freedom Trail. She is open to the public year round. However, as a commissioned US Navy ship, a visit to "Old Ironsides" is subject to Navy provisions and the fact that she occasionally puts out to sea. The private USS Constitution Museum is nearby, located in a restored shipyard building at the foot of Pier 2. You can find out more info here. It is very much worth a visit to this amazing, historic beauty.
Ay, tear her tattered ensign down!
Long has it waved on high,
And many an eye has danced to see
That banner in the sky;
Beneath it rung the battle shout,
And burst the cannon's roar;
The meteor of the ocean air
Shall sweep the clouds no more.
Her deck, once red with heroes' blood,
Where knelt the vanquished foe,
When winds were hurrying o'er the flood,
And waves were white below,
No more shall feel the victor's tread,
Or know the conquered knee;
The harpies of the shore shall pluck
The eagle of the sea!
Oh, better that her shattered bulk
Should sink beneath the wave;
Her thunders shook the mighty deep,
And there should be her grave;
Nail to the mast her holy flag,
Set every threadbare sail,
And give her to the god of storms,
The lightning and the gale!
-Oliver Wendell Holmes - "Old Ironsides"
On this day, October 21, 1797, the 44-gun USN frigate USS Constitution was launched in Boston Harbor. USS Constitution, known as "Old Ironsides," is a wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate of the USN. She is the oldest commissioned ship afloat in the world. The HMS Victory is actually the oldest commissioned warship, but she is permanently drydocked. The Constitution was one of the six original frigates authorized for construction by the Naval Act of 1794 and was launched in 1797. Joshua Humphreys designed them to be the Navy's capital ships and so Constitution and her sisters were larger and more heavily armed than the standard frigates of the period...something that was going to be of great use against the then pesky Barbary pirates...to the shores of Tripoli, Algiers, Tunis, etc., under Captain Edward Preble, and later during the War of 1812, under CO Isaac Hull.
She was built at Edmund Hartt's shipyard in Boston, Massachusetts from 2,000 Southern live oak trees cut and milled at Gascoigne Bluff in St. Simons, Georgia. Her planks were up to seven inches thick. The ship's design was also unique for its time because of a diagonal cross-bracing of the ship's skeleton that contributed considerably to the ship's structural strength. Paul Revere forged the copper spikes and bolts that held the planks in place and the copper sheathing that protected the hull. It took several abortive attempts to launch Her in 1797 before she finally slipped into Boston Harbor.
She saw tremendous service during the Barbary days, the War of 1812, destroying the HMS Guerriere off the coast of Nova Scotia, the HMS Java, and, managed eight more captures under the command of Charles Stewart, including a British frigate, HMS Cyane, and a sloop, HM Sloop Levant. After six years of extensive repairs, she returned to duty as flagship of the Mediterranean Squadron. She sailed back to Boston in 1828. She patrolled the waters of Africa during the 1850s for slavers, used as a training vessell for midshipman during the War of Northern Aggression. She underwent restoration in 1925, setting sail again in 1997.
She is berthed at Pier 1 of the former Charlestown Navy Yard at one end of Boston's Freedom Trail. She is open to the public year round. However, as a commissioned US Navy ship, a visit to "Old Ironsides" is subject to Navy provisions and the fact that she occasionally puts out to sea. The private USS Constitution Museum is nearby, located in a restored shipyard building at the foot of Pier 2. You can find out more info here. It is very much worth a visit to this amazing, historic beauty.
Ay, tear her tattered ensign down!
Long has it waved on high,
And many an eye has danced to see
That banner in the sky;
Beneath it rung the battle shout,
And burst the cannon's roar;
The meteor of the ocean air
Shall sweep the clouds no more.
Her deck, once red with heroes' blood,
Where knelt the vanquished foe,
When winds were hurrying o'er the flood,
And waves were white below,
No more shall feel the victor's tread,
Or know the conquered knee;
The harpies of the shore shall pluck
The eagle of the sea!
Oh, better that her shattered bulk
Should sink beneath the wave;
Her thunders shook the mighty deep,
And there should be her grave;
Nail to the mast her holy flag,
Set every threadbare sail,
And give her to the god of storms,
The lightning and the gale!
-Oliver Wendell Holmes - "Old Ironsides"
