"Old Ironsides"/U.S.S. Constitution Turnaround

[Beaglemom3 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Beaglemom3]

Just got back from seeing Old Ironsides turnaround. She turns around every July 4th. This is done so that she will get equal/uniform sun exposure on port and starboard sides.

Late addendum: She is the oldest commissioned warship in the world.

The turnaround starts at 11 am in Charlestown. She comes out into Boston Harbor under her own power accompanied by tugs and boats of all sizes. Two naval ships, not sure, they looked like fast frigates to me, fired a salute to her off of Castle Island/Fort Independence in South Boston. Just after noon, she fired back a 21 gun salute to honor the United States. It was touching to see all of us on shore waving, clapping and tipping hats to her.

I took some digital photos and should have them up shortly. In the meantime, try:
www.ussconstitution.navy.mil/ or http://www.polkcounty.org/timonier/

What a thrill to see her underway !!




Beags

[shaggy Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close shaggy]

WOW !!! Must have been something to see!! shaggy

[ArtsieAng Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close ArtsieAng]

What a beautiful ship.....sounds like an exciting day. I would love to see her one day......

[Carolinian Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Carolinian]

The USS Constitution is indeed a marvelous ship, but she is often incorrectly referred to as the world's oldest commissioned warship. That distinction actually belongs to HMS Victory, Lord Nelson's flagship at Trafalgar, which is at Portsmouth, England. HMS Victory, still on the active list of the Royal Navy, is several decades older than USS Constitution.

Another frequent naval misconception is that the Monitor and Virginia (sometimes incorrectly called the Merrimack) were the world's first ironclads.
Those two ships were both launched in 1862. The first ironclad warship was French, the ironclad frigate Gloire of Napolean III's navy, and launched in 1859, followed by Brittain's HMS Warrior in 1860. HMS Warrior can also be visited at Portsmouth, England, and in addition to being an ironclad was the longest, fastest, and most powerfully armed warship ever built at the time of her launch. Indeed, two other European navies had operational ironclads before the Monitor and Virginia, Italy's ironclad frigate Re d'Italia launched in 1861 (and sunk in the first fleet battle of ironclads, the Battle of Lissa in the Austro-Prussian War in 1866 after being rammed by the Austrian flagship, the panzer-frigate Archduke Ferdinand Karl) and the first of Austria's ironclad panzer-frigates, also launched in 1861. The UK also succesfully tested the world's first armour piercing cannon, a 600 pounder Armstrong gun, on the Thames River in 1861 (it's too bad they didn't sell a few of those to the Confederacy!).

[Beaglemom3 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Beaglemom3]

Carolinian,
You are well versed and I stand corrected (unless otherwise proven).
I will get those photos uploaded at some point.
It was quite a day, yesterday. Seeing Old Ironsides turn around at noon and then watching Discovery lift off at 2:38.


I just posted one photo of USS Constitution today on the photo server. You can see one of my Beagle, Scooter, too. The HMS Beagle I call him as he's gained weight (he is 13 after all).

[bigfrank Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close bigfrank]

I got to board the ship once, I don't recall if it was in Boston or in Inner Harbor Baltimore. Unless I am imagining it, I know that I have seen it in both areas.

[Carolinian Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Carolinian]

In the inner harbor in Baltimore, you were probably on the USS Constellation, an early 19th century warship that is not quite as old as the USS Constitution.

Another frigate of that era that is still around is HMS Tricomalee, which is within driving distance of Sutton Hall timeshare in the UK.

[nursetanya1973 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close nursetanya1973]

According to the navy website, the USS Constitution is the oldest commissioned warship afloat in the world. The fact that she is afloat may make a difference?

Unless the US Navy has it wrong, which is possible.

[bigfrank Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close bigfrank]

In the inner harbor in Baltimore, you were probably on the USS Constellation, an early 19th century warship that is not quite as old as the USS Constitution.

OK then then. I have seen both of them and I recall being on one of them. I remember the canons and if I recall correctly I think it was painted black. I might have even been on both, I just do not remember as good as I used to. I do remember while being in Boston many years ago. That I was on the Boston tea party boat.

Anyone have a picture of the 2 ships?

[Carolinian Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Carolinian]

According to the navy website, the USS Constitution is the oldest commissioned warship afloat in the world. The fact that she is afloat may make a difference?

It may very well. When I visited HMS Victory a few years ago, she was in a drydock.

[Carolinian Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Carolinian]

In the museum at HMS Tricomalee, I learned some interesting things about how the nickname ''Old Ironsides'' came about which are generally not mentioned on this side of the Atlantic.

The early US could not afford building ships-of-the-line, the battleships of the day, so they built a class of heavy frigates which had some of the key characterstics of ships-of-the-line although they were classed as frigates based on the number of guns and arrangement of gun decks. Most importantly, the main battery consisted of heavy guns which in other navies were only mounted on ships-of-the-line instead of the lighter guns used on other frigates, and the hulls were built to the thickness of a ship-of-the-line rather than the thinner hulls used on frigates of other navies.

Naval artillery in the period of the Napoleanic Wars / War of 1812 would not penetrate the thick hulls of ships-of-the-line. It was not until several decades later that the French developed naval guns that would do that.

The Constitution was one of this class of heavy frigates, and as I recall the others were the President and the Congress (the latter was one of the ships sunk by CSS Virginia in 1862). With the thick hull of a ship-of-the-line, they really were ''ironsides'' compared to other frigates. Between that and the heavier guns they had a huge inherent advantage in a battle with a normal frigate. The US navy was the only navy in the world to ever build this class of heavy frigates and we only built a few of them.

The frigate against frigate battles fought by the Constitution were thus not the even fights that I had imagined reading the history books over here. The museum displays also pointed out that in the only battle in the War of 1812 between two frigates built to normal frigate standards, the result was a rather quick British victory in the capture of the USS Chesapeake on her maiden voyage.