Builder: Col. George Claghorn, Edmond Harrt's Shipyard

Service: United States Navy

Displacement: 1,900 tons today. Approximately 2,200 loaded in 1812.

Length: 207 feet on deck from billethead to taffrail on deck / 305 feet overall from bowsprit to spanker boom

Waterline: 175 feet

Beam: 43 feet 6 inches

Draft (aft): 22 feet 6 inches today / 24 feet fully loaded in 1812

Mainmast Height: 172 feet from spar deck to mainmast truck (the very top of the mainmast)

Sail Area: 48 sails (approximately 44,000 square feet)

Propulsion: 42,710 sq. ft. of sail on three masts.

Top Speed: 13+ knot

Old Ironsides

Oliver Wendell Holmes

Ay, tear her tattered ensign down!
Long has it waved on high,
And many an eye has danced to see
That banner in the sky;
Beneath it rung the battle shout,
And burst the cannon’s roar;—
The meteor of the ocean air
Shall sweep the clouds no more.

Her deck, once red with heroes’ blood,
Where knelt the vanquished foe,
When winds were hurrying o’er the flood,
And waves were white below,
No more shall feel the victor’s tread,
Or know the conquered knee;—
The harpies of the shore shall pluck
The eagle of the sea!

Oh, better that her shattered hulk
Should sink beneath the wave;
Her thunders shook the mighty deep,
And there should be her grave;
Nail to the mast her holy flag,
Set every threadbare sail,
And give her to the god of storms,
The lightning and the gale!

Extract of The Boat Forest by Rebecca McCray

Since 1976, the U.S. Navy has relied on white oak trees grown amid more than 50,000 acres of forest on the Naval Support Activity Crane in Crane, Indiana, to maintain the U.S.S. Constitution.

The storied warship is almost always undergoing some kind of repair or maintenance, according to Margherita M. Desy, the ship’s official historian employed by the Naval History & Heritage Command Detachment Boston. That ongoing maintenance requires very specific materials, and is the reason the Navy relies on white oak trees from Indiana.

“The procurement of appropriate wood for historic wooden vessels is actually quite an issue in the maritime world,” said Desy. “We’re all always looking for wood of the dimensions that we need.”

In the case of the Constitution, those dimensions are enormous: To be of use for the ship’s hull, the white oaks have to be at least 40 inches in diameter at their base, and at least 40 feet long from base to crown, according to Desy. They also have to be extremely straight.

When Old Ironsides was undergoing repairs in preparation for its 200th birthday celebration, the naval base sent 78 white oaks to the East Coast for the restoration.

In 2015, when the next restoration took place, the team selected 35 trees for the ship, escorting them to Boston.

Beyond keeping an eye for trees that might be candidates for the Constitution, the team at Crane are charged with an environmental mission - to protect an endangered species: the Indiana bat. During the summer months, these rare little bats roost under the bark of trees like the Shag Bark Hickory, or the shards of bark that loosen on dead trees. The team ensures the hickory are never cut down, and they sometimes intentionally kill damaged trees to create more habitat for the bats. They also refrain from cutting down any trees from April until October, when the bats head into caves to hibernate for the winter.

This delicate management and conservation of habitats and the broader forest ecosystem may not be what springs to mind for most people when they think of the armed forces, but the Department of Defense (DOD) is charged with tending to ecologically diverse landscapes across the country. While environmental conservationists and the military may seem like odd bedfellows, their goals are often intertwined even as their core missions diverge.

Read the full article by Rebecca McCray here