1797 Frigate USS. Constitution launched.

USS Constitution. Us uses

For similarly named ships, principles of government, and other uses, see Constitution (disambiguation).

USS Constitution

Constitution under sail in August 2012.
Career (U.S.)
Name:	USS Constitution
Namesake:	United States Constitution.
Ordered:	1 March 1794
Builder:	Edmund Hartt's Shipyard
Cost:	$302,718 (1797.
Laid down:	1 November 1794
Launched:	21 October 1797
Maiden voyage:	22 July 1798.
Renamed:	Old Constitution 1917 Constitution 1925
Reclassified:	IX-21, 1941 No classification, 1 September 1975
Homeport:	Charlestown Navy Yard.
Nickname:	"Old Ironsides"
Status:	In active service
Badge:
General characteristics (As built ca. 1797)
Type:	44-gun frigate
Tonnage:	1,576.
Displacement:	2,200 tons.
Length:	304 ft (93 m) bowspirit to spanker. 207 ft (63 m) billet head to taffrail. 175 ft (53 m) at waterline.
Beam:	43 ft 6 in (13.26 m)
Height:	foremast: 198 ft (60 m) mainmast: 220 ft (67 m) mizzenmast:172.5 ft (52.6 m).
Draft:	21 ft (6.4 m) forward 23 ft (7.0 m) aft.
Depth of hold:	14 ft 3 in (4.34 m).
Decks:	Orlop, Berth, Gun, Spar
Propulsion:	Sail (three masts, ship rig)
Sail plan:	42,710 sq ft (3,968 m2) on three masts.
Speed:	13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph).
Boats & landing craft carried:	1 × 36 ft (11 m) longboat 2 × 30 ft (9.1 m) cutters 2 × 28 ft (8.5 m) whaleboats 1 × 28 ft (8.5 m) gig 1 × 22 ft (6.7 m) jolly boat 1 × 14 ft (4.3 m) punt.
Complement:	450 including 55 Marines and 30 boys (1797).
Armament:	30 × 24-pounder (11 kg) long gun 20 × 32-pounder (15 kg) carronade 2 × 24-pounder (11 kg) bow chasers.
USS Constitution
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
Location	Boston Naval Shipyard, Boston, Massachusetts
Area	less than one acre
Built	1797
Governing body	Federal
NRHP Reference #	66000789.
Added to NRHP	15 October 1966

USS Constitution is a wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigateof the United States Navy. Named by President George Washington-after the Constitution of the United States of America, she is the world's oldest commissioned naval vessel afloat.Launched in 1797, Constitutionwas one of six original frigatesauthorized for construction by the Naval Act of 1794 and the third constructed. Joshua Humphreys designed the frigates to be the young Navy's capital ships, and so Constitution and her sisters were larger and more heavily armed and built than standard frigates of the period. Built 
in Boston, Massachusetts, atEdmund Hartt's shipyard, her first duties with the newly formed United States Navy were to provide protection for American merchant shipping during the Quasi-War with France and to defeat the Barbary pirates in the First Barbary War.