USS Constitution – Virtual Tour

The USS Constitution is a wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate of the United States Navy. She is the world’s oldest commissioned naval vessel still afloat.

Launched in 1797, her name “Constitution” was among ten names submitted to President George Washington by the USA Secretary of War in 1795 for the frigates that were being constructed.

She was built at the shipyards in the North End of Boston, Massachusetts. Her first duties 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.

The USS Constitution was designed to be one of the USA Navy’s capital ships. So the USS Constitution and her sister ships were more substantial and heavily armed than standard frigates of the period. 

She is most noted for her actions during the War of 1812 against the United Kingdom when she captured numerous merchant ships and defeated five British warships.

USS Constitution in Boston Harbor with The Bunker Hill Monument in the background

In one of these battles, she earned her the nickname “Old Ironsides” and she continued to serve as flagship in the Mediterranean and African squadrons, and she circled the world in the 1840s.

During the American Civil War, she served as a training ship for the United States Naval Academy. Constitution was retired from active service in 1881 and was designated a museum ship in 1907.

As a fully commissioned Navy ship, her crew of 60 officers and sailors participate in ceremonies, community programs, and events while keeping her open to visitors and provide free tours. 

The USS Constitution is berthed at Pier 1 of the former Charlestown Navy Yard at one end of Boston’s Freedom Trail.

USS Constitution – Virtual Tour

• Name:                   USS Constitution – Virtual Tour
• Namesake:            United States Constitution
• Nickname:             Old Ironsides
• City:                       Boston
• Launched:             1797
• Type:                     Ship Museum
• Type:                     44-gun United States-class frigate
• Length:                 304 ft (93 m) bowsprit to spanker
• Height:                 Mainmast: 220 ft (67 m)
• Propulsion:           Sails – three masts, ship rig
• Complement:       450 including 55 Marines and 30 boys (1797)
• Location:              Building 22, Charlestown Navy Yard, Charlestown, United States

USS Constitution – Virtual Tour Map

USS Constitution – Virtual Tour – 360 Views

USS Constitution – Virtual Tour – 360 Views

USS Constitution – Virtual Tour – 360 Views

USS Constitution – Virtual Tour – 360 Views

USS Constitution – Virtual Tour

USS Constitution’s Orlop Deck and Ship’s Hold

A Tour of American Museums

• New York Museums

  • The Metropolitan Museum of Art or MET
  • Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)
  • Intrepid, Sea, Air & Space Museum
  • Neue Galerie New York
  • The Cloisters
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
  • American Museum of Natural History
  • Museum of the City of New York
  • New-York Historical Society
  • Frick Collection
  • Met Breuer
  • Rubin Museum of Art
  • Brooklyn Museum

USS Constitution’s Captain’s Cabins

The USS Constitution Old Ironsides

• Washington, D.C. Museums

  • National Gallery of Art
  • National Museum of American History
  • National Air and Space Museum
  • National Museum of African American History and Culture
  • National Museum of Natural History
  • National Portrait Gallery
  • Smithsonian American Art Museum
  • The Phillips Collection
  • Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
  • International Spy Museum

Gun Drill aboard USS Constitution

Tour of USS Constitution

• Boston Museums

  • Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
  • Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
  • Harvard Art Museums
  • Freedom Trail
  • John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum

• Top 100 Museums in America

5 Things You Don’t Know About: The USS Constitution

Restoring the USS Constitution

USS Constitution – That Good or Just Lucky?

USS Constitution under sail

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“I understand a ship to be made for the carrying and preservation of the cargo,
and so long as the ship can be saved, with the cargo, it should never be abandoned.
This Union likewise should never be abandoned unless it fails
and the possibility of its preservation shall cease to exist,
without throwing passengers and cargo overboard.”
– Abraham Lincoln

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Photo Credit: Yuhan Zhang / CC BY-SA (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0); Beyond My Ken / CC BY-SA (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0); Abujoy / CC BY (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)