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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.