Constitution is a famous frigate of the United States Navy. Its popular name is Old Ironsides. The frigate was built at a Boston shipyard between 1794 and 1797. It was 204 feet (62 meters) long. The hull was made of oak from Massachusetts, Maine, and Georgia, and the masts of white pine. It could carry provisions for a crew of 475.
The Constitution was launched on Oct. 21, 1797. It was unharmed in battles with the Barbary powers in 1803 and 1804. In the War of 1812, it won a battle near Cape Race against the Guerriere, an English warship. During this battle, the ship earned its nickname. A sailor is said to have seen shot from the British guns bouncing off the Constitution’s sturdy sides, and exclaimed that the ship had sides of iron. Isaac Hull, an American naval officer, commanded the frigate. Following a number of other battles, the Constitution was condemned in 1830 as unseaworthy and was ordered destroyed.
The poem “Old Ironsides,” by Oliver Wendell Holmes, in which he wrote:
Oh, better that her shattered hulk Should sink beneath the wave,
aroused public sentiment, and the vessel was rebuilt and restored to service in 1833. In 1855, it was put out of commission at Portsmouth Navy Yard and used as a training ship, but was again rebuilt in 1877. In 1897, a hundred years after its launching, the Constitution was turned into a barrack ship in Boston.
Between 1927 and 1931, American children raised money to help repair and restore the vessel so it could be preserved as a memorial. In 1930 Congress appropriated $300,000 to complete the work. On July 31, 1931, Old Ironsides was commissioned into active service. After sailing 22,000 miles (35,400 kilometers), it returned to the Boston Naval Shipyard on May 7, 1934. The Constitution, still in commission, is docked at the Charlestown Navy Yard in Boston. It is the oldest warship afloat in any of the world’s navies.
