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Happy New Year! Since the beginning months of USS Constitution‘s 2015-2017 dry docking and restoration project, we have taken the time at the turn of each new year to review the past year’s work and to look ahead to coming projects.  2017 was momentous in the ship’s restoration as it saw the final days of “Old Ironsides” in theRead more

What a busy time the past six months have been for USS Constitution! As readers of “Restoring an Icon” know, the ship’s 26 months in dry dock came to an end in a dramatically lit, late-night refloating on July 23, 2017. Constitution‘s summer at Pier One in the Charlestown Navy Yard included the reinstallation of theRead more

Join us Friday, November 10, 2017 at 8:00 am for Morning Colors in front of “Old Ironsides” on Pier 1, followed by breakfast at the USS Constitution Museum.   Guest Speaker   James Wright   James Wright is President Emeritus and Eleazar Wheelock Professor of History Emeritus at Dartmouth College. He joined the Marine CorpsRead more

USS Constitution will be getting underway for her first turnaround demonstration since October 2014 from Charlestown Navy Yard on Friday, October 20 at 10:00 a.m. in commemoration of the Navy and Constitution’s Birthday.   The ship will be travelling to Fort Independence on Castle Island where she will be firing a 21-gun salute at approximatelyRead more

Two hundred and two years ago, the Washington, D.C. newspaper the National Intelligencer called for the preservation of USS Constitution, “Old Ironsides”: “Let us keep ‘Old Ironsides’ at home. She has…become a Nation’s ship, and should be preserved… [National Intelligencer, May 23, 1815]   Since Constitution‘s 100th anniversary in 1897, with few exceptions, the United StatesRead more

Now that it is October, our thoughts naturally turn to USS Constitution‘s up-coming “birthday”. In honor of her 220th anniversary on the 21st of this month, we take this opportunity to look at the ship’s homeward bound trip to Boston 120 years ago. On September 21, 1897 USS Constitution returned to Boston a month before theRead more

USS Constitution‘s successful undocking on July 23, 2017, from the Charlestown Navy Yard’s Dry Dock 1, marked the end of the first phase of restoration work on the ship. Once in the water, Constitution‘s hull needed several weeks to swell the planks below the waterline. On August 2, 2017 “Old Ironsides” and USS Cassin Young wereRead more

The U.S. Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron, the Blue Angels, flies over USS Constitution during the ship’s annual 4th of July cruise as part of the 2012 Boston Navy Week. Boston’s Long Wharf can be seen on the lower right with crowds and the American flag. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class BillyRead more

The undocking of USS Constitution on July 23, 2017, a grand moment in the 2015 – 2017 restoration, eclipsed an important anniversary in the ship’s history. In this post, we re-visit “Old Ironsides’” historic sail on July 21, 1997. It was on that day that the ship sailed for the first time in 116 years,Read more

USS Constitution, America’s Ship of State, successfully undocked the night of July 23, 2017. Under a partially cloudy sky and then the glow of an orange-tinged sunset, the filling of Dry Dock 1 began at 4:05 p.m. The process of re-floating “Old Ironsides” after the 26-month dry docking was underway. USS Constitution in the CharlestownRead more