The Charlestown Navy Yard

Aye, tear her tattered ensign down

Long has it waved on high

And many an eye has danced to see

That banner in the sky.

I memorized these and the other words of Longfellow's poem "Old Ironsides" when I was in ninth grade. The poem was written to honor the USS Constitution nicknamed "Old Ironsides" as, in her first engagement, the enemy's cannon balls quite literally bounced off "as if her side's were made if iron." She won every engagement she was involved in but at the end of the war of 1812 she had no real purpose. She fell into disrepair and was almost a casualty of neglect.

However, luckily, there have been a couple of restorations that ultimately allowed her not only to be viewed as a monument but also as a fully functional sailing ship that is the official national flagship of the navy. And she is a beauty.

I have to confess that I always thought that I understood how much rope was needed for a sailing ship, but I have to say that I had no idea of what it really takes.

In the picture of the gun deck you can see the bundles of the brown hemp rope along the pin rail (where the belaying pins are, just to the side of the carronade.) You can also the black nylon static line arranged on the small stand of pins on the left side of the photo. Directly behind me (unseen) are several large large coils of the static line. It blew my mind how many linear feet of rope there was. Certainly enough to climb Angel's landing a couple of times.

You can't really see it in the above picture but Constitution has two different kind of cannon.

On the left is a carronade and on the right is a cannon. Both fire the same caliber cannonball, but the carronade is shorter and fires a 32 pound ball while the cannon has a long barral and fires a 24 pound ball. As one of the servicemen acting as docent compared them, the carronade is like a shotgun - short range, hard hitting while the cannon is like a rifle - longer-ranged, accurate fire support. Something else in regard to armaments that the companion museum mentioned is when you fire different kinds of shot. Most people are familiar with the standard ball know for punching holes in hulls, deck, and people that they hit. Some are even familiar with chain shot, two balls connected by a length of chain used to tangle the rigging and also good at putting holes of varying sizes in people that get in the way. While I always thought that cannon (or carronade) might specialize in their shots, deliberately aiming at hull or rigging, the best way to aim up was to wait for the ship to roll up. So while I thought the gunners would adjust the cannon to target, they would just wait for the ship to aim for them. The trick would be to figure out when you would be firing (on the up or down roll) and load the right shot. Here's a view of below decks. The guns on top were primarily carronade a while those below were cannon.

The Constitution was rated as a 52 gun frigate and the secret to her success, survivability and nickname comes from her construction material. The builders used a wood called live oak that grows in swamps in the southern states. For a comparison they had three equal sized blocks of fir, white oak, and live oak. Each block measured about 4"x4"x12". The white oak was at least double the weight of the pine, but the live oak felt to be almost double the white oak. That was a block of wood that felt like it sink in water. Interestingly enough, the hull was not made entirely out of live oak, but just the structural parts, the ribs as an example. The hull was white oak and the decking pine. This means that her sides were the same (or very close too the same) as her opponents. It was the inside that was different. I'm sure there is a life lesson there but you can find it for yourself. 

The companion museum had a lot of fun exhibits for adults and children. Fitting as the first restoration effort was funded by children who collected money to that end. The rest of the naval yard includes a modern-era destroyed, the USS Cassin Young, but it was not open for touring that day.

There was also one of the first dry docks built for repairing ships. This enabled Boston to make faster, more complete repairs to ships.

As well as a great view of the harbor. Complete with yellow "duck" 

They use these amphibious craft (originally designed and built for beach assaults) as a main mode for touring Boston. This was the first yellow one I had seen.