We’re skipping the regular Sunday feature to talk about the U.S.S. Constitution, which sailed again today.
Old Ironsides, the world’s oldest commissioned warship, cruised open water today to honor the bicentennial of the battle against the HMS Guerriere in the War of 1812.
These days she is an incredible museum ship. We were there three years ago, almost to the day.
Here are some pictures, including this replica gun:
An estimated 13 percent percent of the original vessel is still in place, all below the waterline. Including, I love this, some of Paul Revere’s nails:
This is where the sailors slept. It wasn’t this well-lit. There was obviously no fire alarm. And it didn’t smell like varnish. (We were there during the latest renovations.) The docents, sailors in the U.S. Navy who said this duty station was a great honor, said 19th century conditions aboard ship were less than ideal:
The anchor capstan was used when the order came to weigh anchor. Sailors walked in a circle, pushing long poles into those square cutouts. Anchor cables wound around the capstan, which could raise or lower anchors up to 5,443 pounds:
One of the salt boxes by the guns. A gun wad is on the left and a felt cartridge is on the right. The plaque says “The origin of the name is lost to history. Each gun was required to have a “salt box” which was to hold the felt cartridges ready for loading into the gun. Only one cartridge at a time was to be kept in the salt box.
“Cartridges were made of felt or foil or lead and were color marked for type and size. Red was close, blue was standard, white was distant. Size was indicated by numbers.”
Here she was in her mooring in 2009. It had been 12 years since she’d last set sail:
And today, for just the second time in more than a century:
Awesome.
