USS CONSTITUTION

The USS Constitution is the oldest warship still afloat in the world. She was built in 1798 by the U.S. Navy following the Naval Act of 1794, which aimed to provide naval armament for the fledgling United States, which had been recognized as independent by Great Britain ten years earlier. Congress authorized the construction of six large warships. Today, they are considered the "original frigates of the United States Navy". TheUSS Constitution was the third to be built, and is the only one not to have been destroyed.

The frigate was christened by George Washington, the first President of the United States, and commissioned in July 1798. Equipped with 44 cannons, her first mission was to protect the country's coastline. Then, when the period of conflict often referred to as the Quasi-War with the French Republic began, theUSS Constitution 's mission was to protect American merchant ships against French attacks, and to ferret out enemy vessels. She also played a key role in the War of 1812, when the Americans and Great Britain engaged in a bitter maritime conflict. The frigate captured eleven enemy ships and destroyed five. The British, irritated that their guns failed to damage the ship's hull, nicknamed her "Old Ironsides".

While the original frigates were successively destroyed by the U.S. Navy from 1818 onwards, the Constitution enjoyed the support of the local population, who opposed her destruction. In 1833, she entered dry dock to undergo her first renovation. She went on to become a flagship, and when her military career came to an end in 1855, she was used as a training ship in Annapolis during the American Civil War. In 1907, the Constitution officially became a museum. As a state ship, she now occasionally participates in official ceremonies and events.

In July 2015, the ship was placed in dry dock to undergo its first major restoration of the 21st^century . The restoration cost over $12 million. In July 2017, after 26 months in dry dock, the ship made her grand return to Boston waters and is set to remain there for the next twenty years.

On your tour of theUSS Constitution, you'll meet trained marines to answer your questions about the ship's history. Don't miss the museum adjacent to the ship to learn more about life on a warship in the ^19th century.