Wars and empires

USS Constitution

Launched in Boston in 1797 on her third attempt, the frigate Old Ironsides still sails under a US Navy crew of about 80 sailors.

21 facts

At a glance

21 October 1797

Launch date, on the third attempt

207 feet

Length on deck

about 44,000 square feet

Sail area under 48 sails

about 450 people

Crew in 1812

about 80 sailors

Enlisted crew today, with 3 officers

On 27 March 1794 President George Washington signed the act authorising six frigates, which created the US Navy.
Constitution was one of those six original frigates.
Her first two launch attempts, on 20 and 22 September 1797, failed. The third, on 21 October 1797, put her into Boston Harbor.
She was built at Edmund Hartt's shipyard in Boston and first sailed on 22 July 1798.

She is 207 feet long on deck and 305 feet overall from bowsprit to spanker boom, with a beam of 43 feet 6 inches.
Her mainmast rises 172 feet from the spar deck to the truck.
She carries 48 sails with about 44,000 square feet of canvas, and her top speed is about 13 knots.
She displaces about 1,900 tons today and displaced about 2,200 tons when loaded in 1812.
Her hull has white oak planking over live oak frames.
She was rated a 44-gun frigate. Her guns include 30 long guns firing 24-pound shot from the gun deck and 24 carronades firing 32-pound shot from the spar deck.

In June 1812 news of the declaration of war on Britain reached Constitution at anchor in the Potomac River off Alexandria, Virginia.
Between 16 and 19 July 1812 she escaped a group of British warships off New Jersey.
On 19 August 1812, in waters southeast of Halifax, Nova Scotia, she fought HMS Guerriere, which was so damaged that it was scuttled the next morning.
The nickname Old Ironsides is tied to this fight, when a sailor reportedly said the ship's sides were made of iron after shot failed to penetrate her hull.
On 29 December 1812 she defeated HMS Java off the coast of Brazil, and Java was too damaged to take to port.
On 20 February 1815, near Madeira, she captured HMS Cyane and HMS Levant under Captain Charles Stewart.

In 1830 the Navy planned to dismantle her, but a published poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes rallied support and the Navy ordered repairs instead.
From 1992 to 1996 she spent three years in dry dock for an overhaul that cost about 12 million dollars.
On 21 July 1997 she sailed under her own power for the first time in 116 years, just outside Marblehead Harbor.
She is a commissioned US Navy warship, still based in Boston.
Her crew today is 3 officers and about 80 enlisted US Navy sailors, compared with about 450 officers, sailors and Marines in 1812.