That looks rad!
I feel like the term afloat is used because it not safe to take out in open water?
Oldest “active” ship in the US (or any) navy, IIRC, they take it out once a year to get rated seaworthy & remain active. Amazing ship. want to feel like a puny, pampered modern person? Read Patrick Obriens 20 volume Master and Commander series…so many unwashed asses on these for so many months in some of the most inhospitable regions of this planet.
Twice a year to turn it around for equal weathering. They raffle tickets for people to ride on it.
They also sailed her under her own power back in the late 1990’s. I was a USCG Auxiliarist back then and was on one of the escort boats that kept the public from getting too close.
They also occasionally do invite-only turnaround cruises. I was lucky enough to be invited on one of those during my USCG days as well.
There’s an aubreyandmaturin community here on sh.itjust.works but it’s pretty inactive.
No, they sail her around all the time. The USS Constitution is a commissioned vessel in the United States Navy, crewed by active duty sailors. They use the term “afloat” because HMS Victory is the oldest commissioned naval vessel, but she is kept as a museum ship in drydock.
That makes sense, appreciate the answer. I’ve just always heard it as “sea-worthy” before, afloat in that sense is a little weird.
Well, knowing the USN, the reason is either a) some extremely long, convoluted line of reasoning formulated through several Senate subcommittee hearings to avoid pissing anyone off or b) someone wrote it that way once 75 years ago, and no one knows enough about why to want to change it.
Nope. Old Ironsides is seaworthy and makes regular trips out to open ocean, usually under tow but she has an incomplete set of sails and can sail under her own power.
The US Navy owns a plot of southern live oak trees in Georgia set aside specifically for maintaining USS Constitution.
Digging all the little details, of course I could have just looked it up, but engagement!
Wouldn’t be very good if they kept a plot of dead oak trees.
Haha I suspect you know this but live oak is a species of oak. It’s not referring to their mortality status.
From what I’ve been able to find, the ships were originally built using live oak trees from Georgia, but the forest the US Navy maintains for the USS Constitution is in Indiana.
https://www.military.com/history/why-us-navy-manages-its-own-private-forest.html
https://ussconstitutionmuseum.org/2015/05/11/the-wooden-walls/
I have a 3ft model of the constitution in a box that I’ve been meaning to put together for about 10 years now… but cats.
Maybe someday I’ll have a spot to put it together in peace.
It’s cooler in Fallout 4. It’s crewed by robots and flies.
Also real life is a downer. Was super cramped, don’t know how they fit 100 dudes in that thing.
Also, since our taxes are keeping it floatable, would it kill them to bring it into armament parity? Swap out the guns with missile tubes, maybe an icbm tower in one of the masts?
I’m guessing she’s having some work done to the rigging? Not a yard on her.
![[OC] The USS Constitution, the oldest naval warship still afloat.(lemmy.world)](https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/d5c9b27d-0ddf-45b3-a533-498edc45252a.jpeg){kind=link}