USS Constitution

Survived

Type	Frigate
Rate	Fifth rate
Guns	44 guns
Wars	First Barbary War, War of 1812

One of the six heavy frigates of 1794, rated at 44 guns but carrying over fifty, with 24-pounders on her gun deck. She was Commodore Preble's flagship in the attacks on Tripoli in 1804. In July 1812 she outsailed a British squadron off New Jersey in a three-day chase; in August she destroyed Guerriere, earning the name Old Ironsides when British shot seemed to bounce off her oak sides, and in December she destroyed Java off Brazil. In February 1815 she took Cyane and Levant together. She is still afloat at Boston, the oldest commissioned warship in the world.

BOSTON (July 4, 2014) USS Constitution fires a 17-gun salute near U.S. Coast Guard Base Boston during the ship's Independence Day underway demonstration in Boston Harbor. Constitution got underway with more than 300 guests to celebrate America's independence. (U.S. Navy photo by Seaman Matthew R. Fa Photo: (U.S. Navy photo by Seaman Matthew R. Fairchild/Released) 140704-N-OG138-866, Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Armament and specifications

Armament

30 × 24-pounder (11 kg) long gun
22 × 32-pounder (15 kg) carronade
2 × 24-pounder (11 kg) bow chasers

Builder	Edmund Hartt's shipyard
Laid down	1 November 1794
Launched	21 October 1797; 229 years ago (1797-10-21)
Displacement	2,200 tons
Length	304 ft (93 m) bowsprit to spanker or 175 ft (53 m) between perpendiculars, 145 ft (44 m) at the keel 207 ft (63 m) billet head to taffrail 175 ft (53 m) at waterline
Speed	13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph)
Complement	450, including 55 Marines and 30 boys (1797)