USS Constitution

The USS Constitution — 'Old Ironsides' — is the oldest commissioned warship in the world still afloat. Launched in Boston in 1797 as one of the young United States Navy's first frigates, she won a string of victories in the War of 1812 that made her a national symbol, most famously when British shot seemed to bounce off her thick oak hull. More than two centuries later she is still a commissioned U.S. Navy vessel, crewed by active-duty sailors and berthed in Boston Harbor.

The Constitution was one of six frigates authorized by the Naval Act of 1794 to create a permanent U.S. Navy, and George Washington chose her name. Designed by Joshua Humphreys to be faster and more powerful than typical frigates, she was built in Boston with a hull of tough southern live oak and launched on October 21, 1797. Her early service included action against Barbary corsairs in the Mediterranean.

She earned lasting fame in the War of 1812. On August 19, 1812, in a duel with the British frigate HMS Guerriere, sailors watched enemy cannonballs seem to bounce off her hull, and a crewman is said to have cried out that her sides were made of iron — giving rise to the nickname 'Old Ironsides.' Constitution went on to defeat HMS Java and other British warships, handing the young nation morale-lifting victories at sea and never losing a battle.

By 1830 the aging ship was slated for scrapping until Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.'s poem 'Old Ironsides' rallied the public to save her. Restored repeatedly over the following two centuries, she remains a commissioned warship of the U.S. Navy, berthed at the Charlestown Navy Yard as part of Boston National Historical Park. Crewed by active-duty sailors, she still puts to sea on special occasions.