USS Constitution, "Old Ironsides" #1 (bow)

View of the bow of the USS Constitution, or "Old Ironsides", the world's oldest commissioned floating warship. (HMS Victory is 30 years older, but in permanent drydock. Constitution still floats, a distinction the guides make a point of being clear about.)

 

 

As an active-duty ship, Constitution is staffed by Navy personnel at the Charlestown Navy Yard national park. Tours of the ship are free & open to the public.

 

We used to go see the ship during field trips when I was a kid. I can now attest that two year olds love it, too :-)

 

Complementary views of the ship: bow & stern.

 

Treating this as a dry-run for another version I'll do later in the summer, if I get a chance. I had a hard time lining up all the lines in the edges -- all those ropes & chains & walkways & rigging lines. More importantly, the ship is being renovated right now, so the tops of the masts are missing, there's a temporary roof over the main deck, etc.

 

It will be much prettier over the summer after the construction work is over.

 

At the left here behind Constitution you can catch a glimpse of the mast of the USS Taylor (FFG-50), an Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigate that was visiting at the time. You can make out more of it in these two montages taken from the stern of the USS Cassin Young nearby.

 

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I took a series of these panoramas the same day:

 

* Tobin Bridge #1 (under the tollbooths)

* Tobin Bridge #2 (over Little Mystic Channel)

* USS Constitution #1 (bow)

* USS Constitution #2 (stern)

* USS Cassin Young #1 (split panorama)

* USS Cassin Young #2 (full panorama)

* USS Cassin Young #3 (bow)

 

Plus, of course, the other photomontages I've been putting up over the last few months.

 

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Bostonist, Bite Size News, October 19, 2009: Old Ironsides & Bunker Hill Edition

Done