At precisely 8 a.m., as it does every morning, a single shot rings out into the skies above Charlestown.
The gun on the world’s oldest commissioned war ship still afloat was fired Thursday by one of the U.S. Navy’s newest members, Seaman Apprentice Jacob Harned, just 12 days out of boot camp.
“I wasn’t nervous, I just wasn’t sure about the steps, but it was fun,” he said. “Quite exciting.”
Now, when I say the USS Constitution is old, I mean old. Naval-Act-of-1794 old.
“Congress authorized the building of six brand new ships to really kick off what is known as today’s U.S. Navy,” said Petty Officer 2nd Class Pete Melkus, one of the USS Constitution’s crew.
The Constitution was one of those six original ships and the only one that still survives to this day.
Constructed between 1794 and 1797 right here in Boston, she was initially built to protect US merchant vessels from pirates. But where “Old Ironsides” really made her name – quite literally – was during the war of 1812, in battles against British ships like the HMS Guerriere.
“The cannonballs, the shots coming from the Guerriere, were striking Constitutions’ hull and either harmlessly bouncing back off the hull into the sea or getting embedded into the hull but not passing through,” Melkus said. “They began to yell out, 'Huzzah, her sides are made of iron!’”
During her year career as a warship, the 44-gun frigate became an American legend.
“We are 33-0 in all of our battles and engagements here, so we are Boston’s only remaining undefeated team,” Melkus said.
Following her years as an active warship, the Constitution led quite the varied life. During the Civil War, amidst worries that Annapolis would fall into rebel hands, they loaded everything into Old Ironsides and headed to Newport R.I.
“Where she basically served as a barracks ship, basically a floating Naval Academy to wait out the Civil War,” Melkus said.
Then she sailed around the world in the late 1800s. In 1878 she was loaded up with artwork and industrial wonders — all made in the USA — and set sail to the World Exhibition in Paris.
“She’s kind of seen it all and done it all,” Melkus said.
But by the early 1900s, she’d fallen into disrepair, docked in Portsmouth, N.H. — out of commission.
“The stern of the ship was just about to fall into the water; she was in really bad shape and there were plans for the government to actually just scrap her,” Melkus said.
But word of her imminent demise led to a groundswell of support, and an assist from Boston Congressman John “Honey Fitz” Fizgerald, who ended up proposing to Congress that they relocate Constitution back to Boston for her centennial birthday in 1897.
And so it came to pass this week, more than a century later, Old Ironsides celebrated her 217th birthday with a cruise around Boston Harbor, the last time she’ll be out on the water until 2018.
“About every 20 years, the ship goes back into dry-dock to undergo inspections, restorations and repairs,”.
This March, she goes back in for repairs. The restoration promises to be exhaustive – and laborious. But Melkus says that for the sailors who serve on her, and the half a million people who visit her each year, it’s worth it.
“Boarding the ship, she’s really an awe-inspiring sight,” Melkus said. “She embodies the fighting spirit of an early America. She’s a living piece of the foundation of the U.S. Navy and the last remaining piece of that so a lot of effort is going into ensuring that she can stay around for another 200 years and beyond.”
The USS Constitution — America’s official ship of state, and world’s oldest commissioned warship still afloat. She was officially launched, right here in Boston, 217 years ago this week.
