USS Constitution (wallpaper 4) Ship Gallery | OceanShooter

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USS Constitution (wallpaper 4). USS Constitution ship images wallpaper gallery 4. USS Constitution ship pictures and images collection 4. Built in an era when a wooden ship had an expected service life of ten to fifteen years, Constitution was now thirty-one years old. A routine order for surveys of ships held in ordinary was requested by the Secretary of the Navy John Branch; the commandant of the Charlestown Navy Yard, Charles Morris, estimated a repair cost of over $157,000. On 14 September 1830, an article appeared in the Boston Advertiser that erroneously claimed the Navy intended to scrap Constitution. Two days later, Oliver Wendell Holmes' poem "Old Ironsides" was published in the same paper and later all over the country, igniting public indignation and inciting efforts to save "Old Ironsides" from the scrap yard. Secretary Branch approved the costs, and she began a leisurely repair period while awaiting completion of the dry dock then under construction at the yard. USS Constitution (wallpaper 4). USS Constitution ship images wallpaper gallery 4. USS Constitution ship pictures and images collection 4. In contrast to the efforts to save Constitution, another round of surveys in 1834 found her sister ship Congress unfit for repair; she was unceremoniously broken up in 1835. CONSTITUTION, Commodore William Bainbridge, stood out from Boston on 26 October. On 29 December 1812 she added to her conquest the British 38-gun frigate JAVA whom she engaged off the coast of Brazil. Despite loss of her wheel early in the fighting, CONSTITUTION fought well. Her superior gunnery shattered the enemy's rigging, eventually dismasting JAVA, and mortally wounding her captain. JAVA was so badly damaged that she, too, had to be burned. The seemingly invincible "OLD IRONSIDES" returned to Boston late in February for refitting and her wounded commander was relieved by Captain Charles Stewart. CONSTITUTION departed on 31 December for a cruise in the Windward Islands. On 15 February she seized and destroyed the schooner PICTOU and 9 days later chased the schooner PIQUE who escaped. She also captured three small merchantmen on this cruise, characteristically successful despite a close pursuit by two British frigates along the coast of Massachusetts. CONSTITUTION moored safely at Boston only to be bottled up for nearly 9 months by the vigorous British blockade. USS Constitution (wallpaper 4). USS Constitution ship images wallpaper gallery 4. USS Constitution ship pictures and images collection 4.