USS Constitution

Constitution, dressed overall, fires a 17-gun salute in Boston Harbor, 4 July 2014.
History
United States
Name:	USS Constitution
Namesake:	United States Constitution
Ordered:	1 March 1794
Builder:	Edmund Hartt's Shipyard
Cost:	$302,718
Laid down:	1 November 1794
Launched:	21 October 1797
Sponsored by:	Naval History & Heritage Command
Maiden voyage:	22 July 1798
Renamed:	Old Constitution 1917 Constitution 1925
Reclassified:	IX-21, 1941 No classification, 1 September 1975
Homeport:	Charlestown Navy Yard
Nickname(s):	"Old Ironsides"
Status:	In active service
Badge:
General characteristics (as built c. 1797)
Type:	44-gun frigate
Tonnage:	1,576
Displacement:	2,200 tons
Length:	304 ft (93 m) bowsprit to spanker 207 ft (63 m) billet head to taffrail 175 ft (53 m) at waterline
Beam:	43 ft 6 in (13.26 m)
Height:	foremast: 198 ft (60 m) mainmast: 220 ft (67 m) mizzenmast: 172.5 ft (52.6 m)
Draft:	21 ft (6.4 m) forward 23 ft (7.0 m) aft
Depth of hold:	14 ft 3 in (4.34 m)
Decks:	Orlop, Berth, Gun, Spar
Propulsion:	Sail (three masts, ship rig)
Sail plan:	42,710 sq ft (3,968 m2) on three masts
Speed:	13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph)
Boats & landing craft carried:	1 × 36 ft (11 m) longboat 2 × 30 ft (9.1 m) cutters 2 × 28 ft (8.5 m) whaleboats 1 × 28 ft (8.5 m) gig 1 × 22 ft (6.7 m) jolly boat 1 × 14 ft (4.3 m) punt
Complement:	450 including 55 Marines and 30 boys (1797)
Armament:	30 × 24-pounder (11 kg) long gun 20 × 32-pounder (15 kg) carronade 2 × 24-pounder (11 kg) bow chasers
USS Constitution (Frigate)
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
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Location	Boston Naval Shipyard, Boston, Massachusetts
Area	less than one acre
Built	1797
Architect	Joshua Humphreys
NRHP Reference #	66000789
Added to NRHP	15 October 1966

USS Constitution is a wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate of the United States Navy, named by President George Washington after the Constitution of the United States of America. She is the world's oldest commissioned naval vessel afloat.Constitution was launched in 1797, one of six original frigates authorized for construction by the Naval Act of 1794 and the third constructed. Joshua Humphreys designed the frigates to be the young Navy's capital ships, and so Constitution and her sisters were larger and more heavily armed and built than standard frigates of the period. Constitution was built in the North End of Boston, Massachusetts at Edmund Hartt's shipyard. Her first duties with the newly formed U.S. Navy were to provide protection for American merchant shipping during the Quasi-War with France and to defeat the Barbary pirates in the First Barbary War.

Constitution is most noted for her actions during the War of 1812 against the United Kingdom, when she captured numerous merchant ships and defeated five British warships: HMS Guerriere, Java, Pictou, Cyane, and Levant. The battle with Guerriere earned her the nickname of "Old Ironsides" and public adoration that has repeatedly saved her from scrapping. She continued to serve as flagship in the Mediterranean and African squadrons, and circled the world in the 1840s. During the American Civil War, she served as a training ship for the United States Naval Academy. She carried American artwork and industrial displays to the Paris Exposition of 1878.