The 1797 USS Constitution Ship- A Live Oak Wonder!

[@peterkroneberg5456]

Awesome! Thank you Nathan for taking us along!

[@EricCoop]

I'll chime in as a former crew member (I was XO from Feb 2013 - May 2015). Most of the live oak came from St. Simon's Island, GA. Because all the live oak groves were wiped out from shipbuilding during the 1800s, it's now a protected species. The only legal way to get live oak these days is from a dead tree. Constitution Grove in Crane, IN is white oak, yellow pine, and Douglas fir. The exterior and interior planking are white oak, as is the keel (which has never been replaced. The live oak was mainly structural (i.e., framing). Lastly, the ship gets underway 5 of 6 times a year. The actual turnaround (i.e., when the ship leaves the pier and returns mooring on the opposite side - this evens out the wear on the ship) is around 4 June to commemorate Midway. This is the cruise where we would bring on all the local VIPs (e.g., Governor, Mayor, Fire Chief, et al). The 4 July cruise is the big one because anyone can enter the lottery for a free ride with one guest and 250 lucky winners will show up with their guest. There are typically two underway events in August that are all-Navy (120 CPO-selects are invited from across the Navy and they spend a week "learning the ropes"). The final underway event is on 21 October to commemorate the ship's birthday, which is when she was launched in 1797. Glad you enjoyed visiting America's Ship of State! Let me know if you have any questions. Here's video from the last time I got underway on Old Ironsides in October 2014. kzbin.info/www/bejne/nqmTZIBqftyIg7c

[@nathanlawrence6994]

Thank you Sir for chiming in and adding your expertise to this conversation. Thank you for your service! When my wife and I visited Boston several weeks ago (my first visit), we did a guided tour of the Freedom Trail having no idea it ended at Constitution. At the last minute we discovered this and made our way to the ship. What a glorious way to end a truly remarkable day! Again, thank you.

[@goodnewstreeserviceinc.4394]

Yes, I do have question for which I would grateful to hear your answer. While in the Constitution gift shop, I purchased some souvenirs made from the copper that clad the ship's underwater hull before it was replaced with new copper in the mid-1990s. I am curious to know from which era these copper souvenirs came? That is, when was the copper last replaced prior to this last time? Thank you!

[@richardnosiglia3736]

My son lives in Boston, and I made the trip from Dallas, Oregon out to visit him this past summer. The Constitution was high on my list of sites to see, and she was amazing. Only wish I could have seen the diagonal riders, which were reinstalled in the restoration of the 1990’s. They prevented sagging or ‘hogging’ of the hull by stiffening it. Just an amazing piece of history.

[@sgregg5257]

Also the USS Constitution is the only current commissioned US navel vessel to have sunk an enemy in combat. Many other US ships have sunk enemy ships, but none of them are in commission. They have either been scrapped, or are out of commission as museum ships,