Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The USS Constitution

Episode Date: October 11, 2021

On March 27, 1794, the United States Congress passed the Naval Act. The Naval Act authorized funding for six frigates which would become the basis for the new US Navy. One of those six ships, and the third one built, was the USS Constitution. It was launched in 1797 and saw service in multiple conflicts all around the world. That ship which first set sail 225 years ago, is still in service and operational today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On March 27, 1794, the United States Congress passed the Naval Act. The Naval Act authored funding for six frigates, which would become the basis for the new U.S. Navy. One of those six ships, and the third one built, was the USS Constitution. It was launched in 1797 and saw service in multiple conflicts all over the world. That ship, which first set sail 225 years ago, is still in service and operational today. Learn more about the USS Constitution. The world's oldest ship still afloat on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Do you ever climb into bed ready to sleep only to have your mind start racing the moment your head hits the pillow?

Thoughts bouncing around, replaying the day, or jumping ahead to tomorrow? That is exactly why Catherine Nikolai created Nothing Much Happens. Each episode is a gentle, cozy bedtime story where, well, nothing much happens. No drama, no tension. Nothing you need to follow closely. Just soft narration. calming repetition, and soothing sensory details designed to help your mind slow down and your body relax. It's not about entertainment, it's about rest.

And millions of listeners around the world use it every night to quiet their thoughts and finally fall asleep. If you've ever struggled to shut your brain off at night, this might be exactly what you've been missing. You can listen to Nothing Much Happens wherever you get your podcasts. Episodes are every Monday and Thursday. This episode is sponsored by CuriosityStream. I've talked to you many times before about Curiosity Stream, but if you still haven't gotten a subscription, you really need to consider doing it. CuriosityStream has thousands of educational and documentary programs covering a wide range of subjects. I personally watch CuriosityStream several times a week, and I've used their programs to get ideas for this podcast, as well as doing show research.

You can get an entire year of Curiosity Stream for less than $20. It's so cheap that you almost can't afford to not get it. If you're even remotely curious about the world you live in, go to everything-everywhere.com slash curiosity stream to start your subscription. Once again, that's everything-everywhere.com slash curiosity stream. One of the first orders of business of the brand-new United States was to create a Navy. If this new country was to be taken seriously, it had to have a Navy. Britain, France, Spain were all major powers who could make or break this

new country, and they all had major navies to project their power from Europe. Moreover, soon after the Constitution is ratified, American merchant ships began having problems with Barbary pirates off the coast of Algeria. There wasn't anything the U.S. could do about it because they didn't have a Navy. To create this Navy, the United States Congress passed the Naval Act of 1794. The Act authorized the purchase of six frigates for a price of $68,88,888 and 82. sense. Exactly. These six ships would become the first ships in the new United States Navy. There were ships in the Continental Navy during the Revolutionary War, but they were sold off because they didn't have any money to maintain the Navy. Construction began on the ship soon after

the passage of the Act, but the Naval Act had a provision that should a peace treaty be signed with the Barbary pirates, construction on the ships would halt. And that happened in March of 1796, when the three ships currently being built had their construction halted when the United States signed a treaty with Algiers. However, Congress wanted to see a result for the money that they had already spent, so they agreed to fund three of the six ships that were being constructed. They were the USS United States, the USS Constellation, and the USS Constitution. Eventually, with the XYZ affair, the remaining three ships were approved by Congress and built as well. The ships were designed by American shipbuilder Joshua Humphreys, who was considered,

the father of the American Navy. The Constitution was equipped with 44 guns, and it was built to be larger than most ships of that period. The theory was that because the United States couldn't match any of the navies of that period, if they were to get in a scrap, they needed to at least outgun any one ship that they might come up against. The ship was conducted with 60 acres of trees, mostly pine and southern live oak, which came from St. Simmons, Georgia.

The ship was officially launched and dedicated on September 20th, 1797, in Boston with President John Adams and Massachusetts Governor increased summer in attendance. Wooden ships at this time did not have a very long life expectancy. If a ship were to last 15 or 20 years, that would be considered a good run. There were issues with worms, barnacles, storms, seawater, underwater rocks, and, of course, being blown to smithereens by other ships. The Constitution began its service off the southeastern coast of the United States in 1798 during the quasi-war with France. The French were attacking American merchant ships at the time, and this will be the subject of a future episode. In 1803, it was reassigned to fight the first Barbary War, when the pirates working out of Tripoli were offended that they didn't get as much money as the pirates working out of Algiers. The Constitution served in the Mediterranean as the flagship of the American Squadron and fought at the Second Battle of Tripoli Harbor.

in July 14, 1804. In 1807, the ship returned to Boston for refitting, which took two years, and in 1809 it served as the flagship of the North Atlantic Squadron. The repairs weren't very good, as they didn't replace the copper shielding on the hall, so it went back in 1810, where they cleaned out or reported 10 wagon loads of barnacles and seaweed off of the hall. With the outbreak of war with Britain in 1812, it once again saw combat. Its exploits during the war of 1812 were what made the ship noteworthy. It sunk five British ships. The HMS gharrier, the Java, the Pictou, the cayenne, and the Levant. Its most famous battle was with the guerriere, which took place on August 12, 1812. The two ships spent 20 minutes firing at each other broadside, and this was when

the ship was given its nickname, Old Ironsides, because many of the cannonballs from the guerrier bounced harmlessly off the hull. The exploits of the USS Constitution was one of the major reasons the United States became recognized as a serious naval power. The ship went back again for repairs, which took five years, before being sent back to the Mediterranean to lead the U.S. Mediterranean Squadron again. By this point, the Constitution was well past its expected lifespan. It was over 30 years old, and naval technology was changing fast. In 1830, the ship was once again in Boston for repairs. A rumor began circulating that the ship was going to be scrapped, and on September 14th, an article stating that was

run in the local Boston advertiser newspaper. Two days later, Oliver Wendell-Home Sr., father to the noted Supreme Court Justice, published a poem in the same newspaper titled Old Ironsides. The first verse of the poem reads, quote, I tear her tattered ensign down long as it waved on high, and many an eye has danced to see that banner in the sky. Beneath it rung the battle shout and burst the cannon's roar, the meteor of ocean's air shall sweep the clouds no more. The ship was placed in dry dock, and it was sent out once again in 1835 as the flagship of the Mediterranean Squadron, once again. It was then sent to the Pacific as the flagship for the Pacific Squadron.

In 1844, it set out on a 30-month around-the-world voyage. In the 1850s, its assignment was off the coast of Africa, where it was hunting down slaver ships. In 1857, the purpose of the ship was radically changed. it was putting the dry dock and converted into a training ship for the U.S. Navy. The number of guns on the ship was reduced and classrooms were added. Its role as a training ship was what it did throughout the Civil War. After the war remained docked at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. However, by 1871, the condition of the ship was so bad that it couldn't even be used as a training ship anymore.

By this point, the Constitution's other two sister ships, the United States and the Constellation, had both been retired and dismantled. The Constitution was an old ship by 1871. It was almost 80 years old, which is really old for a wooden vessel. Ships made of iron and powered by steam were now state of the art, and a wooden sailing ship was now obsolete. The plan at this point was to get the ship ready for the centennial celebration of American independence in 1876. But it missed that date because the repairs were so expensive.

It did manage to sail to France for the Paris and exhibition of 1878, but the repairs done years before were of low quality, and the ship was declared unfit for service in 1881, and it was decommissioned by the U.S. Navy. The ship was used as a museum ship in Boston, but by 1905 there was talk of taking the ship out to sea and using it for target practice. A grassroots movement sprung up to save the ship, and Congress authorized a $100,000 budget for yet another restoration. In 1907, it was once again a museum ship that was offering tours to the public. In 1917, it was renamed Old Constitution, so the name could get freed up for a new Lexington class battlecruiser. However, that ship was never actually built, so the name was returned in

1925. By 2025, the ship was once again in bad shape. Water had to be pumped out daily, and the hull was starting to rot. You might notice that this ship has had to undergo a whole lot of restorations. The 1925 restoration had its funds raised mostly privately via a national effort organized by the National Elks Lodge for children to donate pennies. In the end, over $600,000 was raised and Congress tossed in another $300,000. By 1930, it was out of Dry Dock again and it went on a tour of the East Coast of the United States, went through the Panama Canal and up the West Coast. However, it did not sail under its own power. It was towed the entire trip. It was recommissioned into the U.S. Navy in 1931, which it remains today.

The ship remained a museum ship with brief stints during World War II as a brig for officers facing court-martial. By 1970, once again, the ship was in need of repairs. However, they weren't as bad as what was needed in the past, because the 1925 repairs actually did a pretty good job. It was in Dry Dock from 1973 to 1974, and in 1976 for the Bicentennial, it led the parade of tall ships and fired its guns for the first time in over 100 years. However, it still didn't sail under its own power. The 1970s restoration restored the ship to its 1812 state, for which it was most famous, and it also assigned a captain to the ship for the first time in over a century.

They also did something in the 1970s. They established the Constitution Grove, which is a collection of white oak on a 50,000-acre naval facility outside of Bloomington, Indie. Indiana. These trees are specifically grown to provide timber for the USS Constitution when the planks need replacement. In 1991, the idea was floated of doing something for the 200th anniversary of the ship, which had not been done in over a century. Sail the ship under its own power. In addition to yet more repairs to the ship, an entire crew had to be recruited and trained. All of the knowledge of sailing wooden ships, rigging, and sails had been lost

as no ship sailed that way anymore. The new crew had to be trained, according to the 1819 Sailor's Manual. On July 21, 1997, she was towed five miles out of Boston Harbor, where she was let go and sailed under her own power for 40 minutes, reaching speeds up to 12 knots. Today, you can visit the USS Constitution, which sits at its home port in Boston. It'll go out and sail about once a year, and when it does its turnaround, you can follow alongside it in boats.

Before I end, I should mention a paradox from ancient Greece, known as the ship of thesis. It's a thought experiment about a historic ship that has its wood replaced over time as it rots. The question is, if at some point all the wood is replaced, is it still the same original ship? This thought experiment is almost literally true with the Constitution. In the 1925 repairs, 85% of the wood on the ship was replaced. There is only 15% of the ship today, which was there when it was first launched in 1797, including, and most importantly, the keel. The USS Constitution remains the oldest ship in the world which is still afloat and sails. There are older ships in museums and in Dry Dock, but only the 225-year-old USS Constitution can still sail under its own power.

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