[OC] The USS Constitution, the oldest naval warship still afloat.

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Fun fact about th USS Constitution, the US Navy maintains an entire white oak forest in Indiana just to use in the maintenance of this one ship.
- That actually is a very fun fact.
  
  It's also a trained forest, essentially using bonsai style techniques to form specific branch points and curves that are needed for specific timbers.
  https://whatsthepont.blog/2018/06/02/planting-oak-trees-to-build-future-ships-churchill-fellowship-post-6/

She's also the only active ship in the United States Navy to sink another enemy ship in combat.
- Pfft that's nothing. HMAS Melbourne was the only Australian ship to sink two friendly ships in peacetime 💪
  She was just that eager to spill blood.
  
  Metal as fuck

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?
  
  Are M134 chaser guns too much to ask for?

that one unit in Civilization you forgot about and never upgraded in 500 years
- You don't intentionally keep a unit museum? You'll see me later Game pretty regularly with my frigate flagship followed by two privateers surrounded by modern naval units. It's kinda fun to dunk on the PC with a fuckin broadside.

Cool ship, took a tour last year
- From the other side
  
  Men only want one thing and it's ~~disgusting~~ beautiful
- I took a tour in June of 1980. Great ship. Fun to see an old sailing vessel up close.
  
  Wow. Must've looked a lot fresher then.

That looks rad!

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.
- I got a china cabinet at an estate sale and have been putting some Lego sets in there and its been cat proof…….. so far
- You could always go for a glass/acrylic case over it but that'd probably be prohibitively expensive

Oldest American naval warship still afloat....
- Or any nation as far as sources I have list.
  
  Apparently there is this uge differwncw about where you storage them. The only reason some portugues and British ships aren't the oldest sailing vessels is because we keep them in museums. Yhe but they are still in comission, sooo idk I guess we where both right depending how you frase it.
  So, while the USS Constitution is the oldest naval vessel still afloat, the HMS Victory holds the record for the oldest naval vessel still in commission. Both ships are significant historical artifacts and serve as museum ships, commemorating important eras in naval history.
  
  Although HMS victory is the oldest naval vessel in comission, she's got 3 decades on the old girl

What's the shitter look like?
- None to speak of. Poop was slammed off the sides.
  
  Both wrong and right
  https://ussconstitutionmuseum.org/2014/01/18/head-lines/
  Hilarious title, 'Head Lines'
  
  It was what now?
- Shit

This: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus
- So...if someone found a nail that was a part of Theseus' ship, and rebuilt it around the nail, would it become the oldest ship afloat?
  
  Yes… or no?

So old it's still grayscale

Does it still sail, tough? I know the French analog, the Hermione, does.
- Yes, at least once, maybe twice a year it sails. Meanwhile it’s docked at its own museum the rest of the year - the ship itself is free, but they charge for the museum. I’ve seen it many times
  Funny anecdote: when I first met my about to become new in-laws, they came from Washington DC to visit me in Boston for the Fourth of July. I was excited to take them to see the Constitution, both boarding at the museum dock and watching it “sail” down Boston harbor. I must have gone on a bit, due to my excitement ….. eventually my about to be new mother-in-law from DC spoke up with not understanding how they could do that with such an historic document, and what would there be to see anyway
- Someone else mentioned that they raffle off tickets to be on it when it does. I remember there were QR codes posted to be entered in the drawing for the July 4th sailing.

I wonder what happened to the USS Charisma

TYPHOON!
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  I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

I'm guessing she's having some work done to the rigging? Not a yard on her.
- https://news.usni.org/2023/08/16/usni-news-video-uss-constitution-is-getting-a-mast-makeover

I feel like the term afloat is used because it not safe to take out in open water?
- 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.
  
  Fun fact: HMS Victory was actually bombed by the Nazis during WWII, which means she technically saw combat over a span of ~~144~~ 164 years (1778-1941).
  Edit: math are hard.
- 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.
  
  I’m more into space, but I’ll put it on the list…
  
  There's an aubreyandmaturin community here on sh.itjust.works but it's pretty inactive.
- 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.
  
  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/
  
  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.

Is that at Fisherman’s Wharf?
- It’s in Boston, at the end of the Freedom Trail.
- Charlestown navy yard, a bit north of downtown. Fish Pier is in South Boston.

Ad apposed to a non-naval warship?

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