Virtual Ship Tour: USS Constellation

Hop on board USS Constellation, the last all-sail ship built by the US Navy for a tour of all four decks, and learn what life was like for the sailors and officers who sailed her.
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Our Mission:
The mission of Historic Ships in Baltimore is to honor and perpetuate the legacy of dedicated service given by the U.S. Sloop-of-War Constellation, U.S. Coast Guard Cutter 37, U.S. Submarine Torsk, Lightship 116 Chesapeake, Seven Foot Knoll Lighthouse and their respective crews. The Museum achieves this mission through the historical interpretation, restoration and preservation of these revered symbols of our maritime heritage while acting as a cultural and educational resource for the community.
Historic Ships in Baltimore is supported by Living Classrooms Foundation. Livingclassrooms.org

[@KazehareRaiden]

I do not know why I am watching this as I was on the USS constellation today

[@historicshipsinbaltimore4577]

That's great! We hope you enjoyed your visit!

[@brianbaird1503]

Constellation was not designed and built by the United States Navy, but in fact FOR the Navy at Gosport Navy Yard in Portsmouth, Va, now Norfolk Naval Shipyard. The USS is used in official documents to identify a commissioned ship of the Navy, and applies to a ship while she is in commission. Before commissioning, or after decommissioning, she is referred to by name, with no prefix. 😉

[@johnradzewicz4388]

The band playing the sea shantys is tge 97th regimental string band they used to perform at the civil war reenactments in Florida. I was really good friends with rick the singer and bass player untill he passed away a couple of years ago

[@garyruark9506]

As a Baltimorian so proud of the preservation of this ship. I have 2 coins struck from it. Although they are in error as to their original identity I treasure them.

[@Brickswol]

In error how?

[@pauloneil8531]

@@Brickswol They call the ship the 1797 Frigate. This CONSTELLATION was built in 1854, the frigate being broken up as unfit.

[@pauloneil8531]

I have that coin as well as updated coins with the ship identified as 1854 construction.

[@GusCraft460]

@@pauloneil8531 yeah, now they correctly identify it as the 1854 Constellation.

[@pauloneil8531]

Two corrections. The solid shot guns on the gun deck are 32 pound guns. The narrator confused the guns on the frigate which were 18 pound guns. Second the Sloop of War is not the last all sail ship built and commissioned for the USN. Further research after her major 1990s rebuild, found that the navy had 2 all sail ships that were halted mid construction, and finished after the CONSTELLAION was launched. This latter mistake is a good example of "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."

[@Ken-fh4jc]

Great virtual tour but they were only able to scratch the surface. I highly recommend visiting Constellation if you are in or near Baltimore.

[@kshitizsaxena9993]

Just went on the tour... amazing ship!!!

[@rp1645]

Thank you for your great sailing ship tour. I wish a millionaire would build one of these great ships of the Line again. Charter it out so people could Pay to be part of this life at Sea. Replace the gun (cannon areas) with quarters for guests. They would have to sleep on swinging hammock So interesting about the young males that went to the sea.

[@Ken-fh4jc]

USS Constellation is a sloop of war not a ship of the line. A ship of the line would be much larger.

[@kreitmeierwalter617]

Like to see this great Ship next year, was on Board the USS Constitution some years ago. It was a pleasure to see this Video as a first vew for my next trip to Amerika. Many thanks for that. With best regards. Walter Kreitmeier

[@HG-ru3nr]

In the European context is the USS Constellation a frigate. Not a Sloop of War. A Ship of the Line has 2 completely Gundecks. Decks, they are open, are not numbered. The HMS Victory for example is a ship, that is first ratet. A ship with 74 guns is a third ratet ship. In the time of Napoleon.

[@pauloneil8531]

No. In the context of the day a Sloop of war was a 3 masted ship that carried between 14 and 22 guns. A frigate between 28 and 44 guns. (Note by the late 1790s it was usually 32 or 36 guns)

[@ryann6067]

And yet she was purpose built in 1854 as a Sloop-of-War. She is not a Frigate. Her 1797-built predecessor (now gone) was built as a frigate.

[@sirboomsalot4902]

No, Constellation would have been considered a sloop of war in most European navies at the time as well. It doesn’t matter how many gun decks they have, just how many guns they have. It just happens that more guns correlates to more gun decks.

[@davidprosser7278]

If she came under fire from shell firing guns; she'd be matchwood in short order wouldn't she?

[@samylsneh6186]

Do you get to see the entire ship like the bottom too?

[@bobbycv64]

Yes, you can go through the entire ship. I was on a tour years ago.

[@Kane-ib5sn]

wait a second, the USS Constellation was a frigate, not a sloop. sloops belong to the pirates - who can't afford real warships.

[@cleverusername9369]

Wait a second... Literally everything you said is incorrect. 1) The first USS _Constellation_ was a 38 gun frigate, that's not this ship. *Going forward, when I parenthetically say how many guns a ship had, that's what she was nominally rated for. USS _Constitution_ , for example, is rated as a 44, but she would carry up to 56, possibly even 60 guns during her service, depending on the captain's choice. 2) The first _Constellation_ was launched in 1797, one of the original 6 frigates of the US Navy designed by Joshua Humphreys and commissioned by George Washington, along with _Constitution_ , _President_ , and _United_ _States_ (44) and _Congress_ and _Chesapeake_ (38). She was broken up in 1853. 3) _This_ USS _Constellation_ (22) was launched in 1854, and is indeed a sloop-of-war. The US Navy has a tradition of re-using historically significant names of ships, eg, _Enterprise_ , _Wasp_ , _Hornet_ , _Bonhomme_ _Richard_ , etc. 4) A sloop-of-war in the 18th and 19th centuries was any warship, two or three masted, with a single gun deck carrying *up* *to* or between 18-22 guns, depending on country and year. An example of a ship of this type would be the HMS _Hotspur_ (20) in the Horatio Hornblower series. Even a cursory knowledge of history would inform you that a great number of American sloops-of-war were very successful during the war of 1812, including several named both USS _Hornet_ (10) and USS _Wasp_ (16), among others. Look up the naval battles on the Great Lakes during the War of 1812. Look up John Paul Jones and the USS _Ranger_ (18), a sloop-of-war, during the American Revolution. Look up Thomas Cochrane and his sloop-of-war HMS _Speedy_ (14) and her successful action against the much heavier Spanish xebec frigate _El Gamo_ (32) in 1801. 5) Successful pirates were fantastically wealthy and often had entire fleets of vessels; Edward Teach (Blackbeard) owned at least four ships at once during his short career, including a frigate called _Queen Anne's Revenge_ (40). Henry Every's ship _The_ _Fancy_ was a 4th rate ship of the line of 60-odd guns. Chinese pirate Zheng Yi Sao commanded a fleet of hundreds of ships and tens of thousands of men and was a woman. 6) Pirates typically chose to use smaller vessels because they were faster, more maneuverable, harder to hit, and more easily hidden. Not because pirates "couldn't afford real warships" the whole point of piracy is not paying for things. 7) Why would a pirate worry about being able to afford "real warships"? The literal definition of piracy is "the practice of attacking and robbing and/or stealing ships at sea, that's generally how pirates got their ships, by attacking and commandeering them, not by buying them. Like, that's _literally the whole entire point_ . Yes, some of them would have bought ships, but to assume that all pirates didn't buy larger vessels simply because they couldn't afford them is just missing the point entirely, piracy is quite literally the opposite of caring of you can afford something. 8) Can you explain what you mean by "real warship"? A warship can be defined as any armed vessel built or modified to be used in a combatant capacity. A sloop-of-war such as USS _Constellation_ here is no less a "real warship" than HMS _Victory_ (104) or USS _Gerald R Ford_ ; they're just designed, built, and utilized for different missions. There are many books on the subject, try opening even one.

[@lellbarnes346]

Jesus, you don’t need to write a whole essay about it, the reason why he is saying this is because sloops usually have one mast instead of two or three ok.

[@pauloneil8531]

@@lellbarnes346 As a museum educator on the ship, I was constantly explaining the difference between a sloop and a Sloop of War. Cleaver user name also has a few errors in his comments. If a ship was had only 2 square rigged masts she was a Brig, not a Sloop of War being one that jumps out to me.

[@brianbaird1503]

@@cleverusername9369 try removing the footnotes before you paste that shit

[@sirboomsalot4902]

@@brianbaird1503Those aren’t footnotes, those are how many guns the ship he mentioned carried

[@luisrivera3056]

Knowing the history of Baltimore and then seeing Baltimore today, no words. kzbin.info/www/bejne/kF6anYuAn8SpZtU

[@brianbaird1503]

sum gritty shit bro