 Hello shipmates. I'm here at the Navy Yard at the Navy Museum in front of the USS Constitution Fighting Top. The USS Constitution probably our most famous ship through our history. In the war of 1812 she was cutting-edge technology and represented a key factor that makes our Navy great. Her planking was made of the best oak and in fact cannonballs bounced off the side given her the nickname old iron sides cutting-edge technology. She was manned by the most trained the most capable the most proficient crews and that's key to our Navy today. And she was led by bold and accountable commanding officers during her time. The Defense Media Activity presents USS Constitution America's Ship of State. One of my predecessors told me that you know the ship speaks to you and when I first heard that I kind of thought it was a little crazy until I became part of the crew and I spent time on board and she does talk to you and talks to everybody differently and I think you when you step foot on board and you take that history and go wow, this is what it's all about This is where it began for our Navy. This is where the American modern Navy started. Congress had approved the measure to build or buy six frigates and Secretary of War Henry Knox settled on a Pennsylvania shipbuilder named Joshua Humphries to design the ships. It was agreed upon by both men that the nation required a specific type of ship to defend its shores. As our Navy must for a considerable time be inferior in number, we are to consider what size ships will be most formidable and would be an overmatch for those of an enemy. Such frigates as in blowing weather would be an overmatch for double deck ships and in light winds to evade coming to action. Well, she was built here. Her keel was laid by the end of 1795 at the Hart Shipyard, which is less than a mile from where we are in the Boston Navy Yard, Charleston Navy Yard today. She was launched on October 21st 1797. Constitution's first try at launching wasn't an auspicious start. September 20th about noontime with the flood tide. They knocked the blocks out from underneath the ship and she slowly started very slowly down her launchways and she went about 27 feet and that was it. That was as far as she went. When you realize that her keel alone is 150 feet to move 27 feet of 150 foot keel is practically negligible and that was where she stopped. It took two more tries to get the big ship afloat. So USS Constitution at the beginning of her career was not considered one of the fastest of the six frigates and it took several years different captains working on the ship, perfecting the ship to make it perform a little bit better and it was really Isaac Hull, Captain Isaac Hull, who'd been a young lieutenant aboard the ship in the 1790s. He would become captain of Constitution in 1810 and he knew the ship so well when he got to her as captain that he really started to kind of play with the rigging a little bit, move a little bit here, adjust a little bit there and he was able to get her to perform better and better and better. So that she actually became one of the swiftest sailors of the original six frigates she could sail at her top speed in excess of 13 knots, which is over 15 miles an hour, which when you realize that the ship displaces in excess of 1900 tons, it's a tremendously heavy vessel. Speed was one attribute of the six new American frigates, but designer Joshua Humphries had also made them strong. A unique and original aspect of his design was the diagonal rider, internal structures that aided in strengthening and bracing the hull. In addition to diagonal riders, the American frigates were made with southeastern live oak. This hardwood gave them tremendous strength. She's got a long sleek hull painted black and black is one of those kind of evil colors and the white white gun streak makes you look like she's got speed. She's a hefty hull, so she looks like she's got strength. The the mask go up 189 feet above the water and there's all these yards and yards and yards of rigging there and it's a marvelous tracery very delicate looking it isn't but it looks like it and it's just just one of those you know it's like a superb sculpture in a way except it's obviously obvious she's alive. One skipper says the ship talks, another says she's alive. What were the ship's accomplishments that make her so special to all who come bored? Constitution is stunningly spectacularly successful in the war of 1812. She has three successful engagements. She is actually the first frigate in the war of 1812 to engage another Royal Navy frigate and that is on August 19th 1812 about 300 miles off Halifax, Nova Scotia at the end of that 35 minute engagement which is so close the two ships actually collide that Garriere is left completely dismasted and dead in the water and it is during this battle that Constitution gains her nickname Iron Sides. She then goes on to battle HMS Java on December 29th 1812 again victorious in a battle that lasts nearly three hours and then on February 20th 1815 technically after the war was actually over but it was still within the parameters of time frame of getting the intelligence out that the treaty of Ghent had been signed and the war was over Constitution would engage actually two ships at once HMS Cyan and HMS Levant and after a very long battle that actually starts at one o'clock in the afternoon and does not technically get over until 1 a.m. the next morning Constitution is once again victorious. Old Ironsides also proved her medal in the Great Chase. There were five British ships that intercepted the U.S. Constitution. On July 17th 1812 two months after war was declared her lookout spotted sails on the horizon off the coast of Egg Harbor near present-day Atlantic City. When they received no answer to their signal Hull became wary and ordered the crew to quarters. When dawn broke on the 18th the crew of the Constitution faced a terrifying sight. They were being pursued closely by a British squadron consisting of four frigates, a ship with a line, a brig and a schooner. As Hull ordered the ship to make sail the wind suddenly stopped. Boats were lowered to tow the ship to keep her moving. The British imitated the maneuver sending their boats to tow the flagship HMS Shannon. The pursuing ships gained on the Flean Constitution. Then a lieutenant named Charles Morris suggested a new strategy, Kedging. Kedging was a maneuver used by ships for navigating crowded channels. The ship's anchor and cable were rode out as far as possible by boats, dropped into the water and then pulled back using the ship's captain pulling the ship forward. The sailors set to work attaching a length of rope to the anchor cables. The maneuver worked and constitutions slowly moved forward. Chase continued another full day with sailors rowing ahead dropping the anchors and pulling their ship forward. Then a heavy squall passed over Constitution allowing her to disappear from sight and escape the British squadron. She's come to represent our coming of age, our gaining of international respect and she's also brought the various segments of the country together being proud to be Americans. The ship's legacy actually began earlier. During the conflict with the Barbary States, Constitution under Commodore Edward Preble led the task force that redeemed the honor of USS Philadelphia and led the bombardment of Tripoli and the capture of Derna. And it is during the Barbary War that Constitution starts to gain her tremendous reputation. It is also where the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps of course really has some spectacular successes. If you know the Marine Corps hymn, of course the phrase from the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli, that phrase to the shores of Tripoli actually reflects the Marines marching across the desert to capture the city of Derna. Captain, well actually he was a lieutenant, Stephen Decatur, would be the one who would recapture USS Philadelphia with the instructions from Commodore Preble to recapture Philadelphia and it is such a spectacular recapturing and blowing up of this vessel in the harbor of Tripoli right under the walls of the palace at Tripoli. For this action, Lieutenant Stephen Decatur was promoted to captain at the tender age of 25. He is still to this day the youngest naval officer promoted to that rank. Andrew Jackson, seventh president of the United States, hero of the Battle of New Orleans, whose portrait is on the $20 bill, was known as the champion of the common man. During his inauguration he opened the White House and let everybody in and basically threw a large party. The hermitage in Nashville, Tennessee was home to Jackson and his family. He bought it in 1804 and lived there the rest of his life. Old Hickory died in 1845 and the hermitage fell on hard times but the ladies hermitage association assumed ownership in 1889 and over the years they transformed it into one of our nation's most authentically preserved presidential home sites. I want to take this time to sincerely thank you for all that you do in the name of freedom. We welcome you to Nashville and the hermitage, the home of President Andrew Jackson anytime. Learn all about Old Hickory at the hermitage in Nashville, a beautiful American treasure. Constitution is a grand site even under only three sales. After the war of 1812 as the need for a Navy seemed diminished Constitution was laid up in ordinary in active service from 1816 until 1821. She then served in the Mediterranean squadron until 1828 when she returned to Boston. The secretary of the Navy at that time John Branch had sent out a letter to all the Navy yards asking for material status reports on all the ships and how much it would cost to put each of them back in the first class operating condition but somehow it got garbled in the newspaper in Boston that the secretary is getting ready to scrap Constitution. And Oliver Wendell Holmes who was a young medical student at Harvard at the time he was incensed at the idea that Old Ironsides was going to be taken apart and scrapped after all the service that she had given to the country and so he wrote a very very stirring poem that was first published here in Boston and then was picked up by other newspapers in the country and the poem begins I 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 and he basically says in this poem that if she has to depart let her depart in a very glorious way allow her to go out into her native element and sink beneath the waves and he wrote the poem and it very quickly just flashed across the country probably faster than the than the star spangled banner did after he wrote it in 1814 the poem gained fame and the ship wasn't scrapped and the Navy said we were never going to do that we just need to do a tremendous amount of work on the ship and we have to allocate the funds and it took several more years for the funding to come about but partly also too a dry dock was being built here in the Charlestown Navy yard the dry dock was begun in 1827 and it wouldn't be completed until 1833 and so the restoration the rebuilding of constitution was delayed not just because of funding but it was delayed because they actually wanted to use this brand new dry dock here and so us his constitution is the very first ship to ever be brought into dry dock one here in the Charlestown Navy yard a dry dock that would see old ironsides come back as she needed refitting again and again estimates vary to what percentage of the ship is still the original wood but a history of craftsmanship and artisans maintaining this ship has kept it strong and vibrant yeah i mean i grew up in this area and i was first time i was on that ship i was like let's see five years old i think metal man took me there when i was a kid and um so i was always aware of it but the hardware that they would have had which would be stanchions for sure uh any gun carriage hardware yeah i mean it all got made you know you know all the gun locks to fire the guns all that stuff you know you know metal technology you know was very sophisticated really yeah you know people use the word technology today like it it just means something on the internet but technology you know it means much more than that as you you know as we know you know and um but yeah they can make all the equipment they needed so it wasn't crude you know people associate handmade and crude but they aren't constitution kept returning to boston throughout her history for repairs and refitting and a cadre of craftsmen and ship workers kept her seaworthy today in a building next to the dry dock that tradition continues in the loft a sailmaker patches and repairs sails so the ship can continue to move with the wind the ship's full complement of sails could cover a full acre of land and carpenters work to cut and maintain beams that need replacing on the gun deck hatch gratings are stored and maintained and shipboard maintenance goes on one of the ships or stores describes what they're doing right now we're working on gun deck being number 16 which would be put in midship of the gun deck it's a great sense of pride and makes you feel like you're working on a piece of history every day the dry dock period that ended in 1833 allowed the ship to continue in active service in 1844 under the command of captain john mad jack Percival constitution began a three year around the world cruise she searched for coaling stations for a fleet that was turning to steam the ship had america's first adventure in vietnam then went on to rick and order pearl harbor in 1849 back in the mediterranean sea the first pope to set foot on us sovereign territory was pious the ninth as he visited old ironsides next was the african station with constitution interdicting slavers the ship continued in first line active service till 1855 58 years since her commissioning decommissioned and at ports with naval yard the ship sat until 1857 when she was overhauled to be a classroom ship recommissioned in 1860 the constitution was moved to the united states naval academy at anapolis maryland classified as a second rate ship she continued in that role until 1871 inactive again and now at the philadelphia naval shipyard in 1875 repairs were begun to get the ship ready for the 1876 centennial repairs were not complete for the centennial but she was made ready as a ship to transport the american exhibits to the paris exposition of 1878 after her return to the united states she became an apprentice training ship and while sailing off fort munroe virginia in 1881 private hendrickson of battery a third regiment u.s. army took the only known photograph of constitution under sail just a few months later constitution was out of service again and at the ports with naval yard she was outfitted with a barn and began a period as a receiving ship what the government had decided to do this the constitution as far as using air as a barracks when i first saw those pictures i can honestly say i was shocked that it came to that point to take a wonderful ship such as this and user for that purpose uh as a barracks as a i was a bit perplexed they brought her back down to boston the 1897 to celebrate her 100th birthday and at that point in time people started getting interested not everyone thought she should be restored i think one of the funniest things was around 1903 secretary of the navy charles bonaparte yeah of that family said oh she'd make a good target for the new battleships target for battleships president roosevelt had charles bonaparte made attorney general and she would sit here in the charlestown navy yard for 10 years nearly 10 years with that barn still on her and in 1906 there would be a kind of superficial restoration carried out on the ship the barn was removed a sailing rig was put back on board and then um in 1927 would be the really significant extremely um thorough restoration actually really rebuilding of the ship that would take place here in the charlestown navy yard the oliver wendell home's poem was brought back to the public at this time and the s os save our ship campaign with school children collecting pennies and nickels for the restoration was begun a million dollars was spent with about 154 000 being raised by school children and the ship was taken then to the country on the national cruise where she was towed around the three coasts of the country to thank the citizens of the country and 4.6 million men women and children came out to visit constitution after world war two constitution set pier side with not much going on it wasn't until uh 1969 when when uh the local commandant got concerned and had another survey and said hey she needs work and got the the restoration period of the 70s and then during the course of that the cno's attention was drawn to things and since then it's been sliding uphill 1976 and our nation's bicentennial saw a refurbished constitution welcome the queen of england to her decks people's first sight of her is awesome there were times when i had command i used to go out and stand on the on the pier nearby and look at the approaching visitors i didn't look at the ship i looked at them and the expressions on their faces said to me they are seeing her with a full set of sails glistening white in the sunshine i mean it's just an awesome sight since 1976 constitution has become larger and larger i think in the minds of the visiting public to boston neither the charleston navy or nor u.s.s constitution have anything to do with the american revolution and yet in linking historic sites with the history of boston with the history of new england with the history of the country the import of constitution and the navy telling the story of the ship has just grown larger and larger and larger as far as the people of boston are concerned in massachusetts this is their ship uh she's not going anywhere this is her home port and the interesting thing about this is back in the 1950s the speaker of the house john mccormick who was a massachusetts democrat persuaded congress to pass a law to make the navy make sure that this was constitution's home port forever and on july 21st 1997 uss constitution was taken from boston harbour up to marble head which is about 20 miles north of boston and on july 21st uh 1997 at exactly noontime the ship set six sails and she sailed under her own power for one hour for the first time in 116 years so u.s.s constitution on that day became the oldest sailing vessel anywhere in the world whether it's a merchant vessel or a naval vessel that could still sail under its own power and that's a pretty remarkable feat the national cryptology museum was instituted in 1993 to help people understand the critical role that cryptology has played throughout human history uh since mankind was able to think and reason there has always been a necessity to protect critical information i'm patrick weeden and i'm a curator of the national cryptologic museum we have perhaps one of the rarest artifacts from the 18th century the jefferson cypher device our most popular exhibit at the museum is the german enigma device it was an amazing encryption machine for its time it was nearly impossible to do any kind of a brute force operation which meant that you would never be able to find the key we have an actual working german enigma device here at the museum you can put it through its paces we have people who come from all over the world to actually see what it's like to operate the german enigma device i'd like to give a shout out to all the servicemen and women out there thank you for your service to our nation and most importantly please be safe when they look around and they think about 450 sailors and marines living and working on this ship going out traveling fighting battles protecting our nation they are just absolutely in awe i think probably one of my my most favorite reactions was following the ship sailing on august 19th of this year watching the reaction of the people on shore looking at the ship there were tears in their eyes they were emotional because she is absolutely beautiful and absolutely is the symbol of our navy and the greatness of our country on august 19th 2012 uss constitution again set sail and for a brief time cruised under the power of the wind this was in honor of the 200th anniversary of her battle against hms gary air it's sheer size uh you know she's not as long as uh as our modern warships but when you look at that sail area and you look at the how massive she really is the two foot sides it's impressive i mean it's it's this is where our service warfare legacy began and uh it's it's just so impressive to be here and be part of constitution it was simply just amazing uh to feel the ship under sail on her own power uh and to kind of envision what it must have been like for her wartime captains isa call and charles stewart and william bainbridge uh to take her into battle to sail her uh she's a great handling ship i mean you look at this design of you know she's almost 215 years old now uh and just what a remarkable design i mean she was designed to be fast hit hard um she's the epitome of what some of our modern ships are i think when when people come aboard you know at first they look at it as just like some other artifact or museum that you go to uh but then you're great but you know you're greeted by an activity sailor and he starts telling you this story and uh and you're kind of immersed in it i was part of the damage control team for the ship but uh i can tell you when i disconnected the fireman for the protection of the ship and uh at that point the isa constitution was completely on her own uh for approximately 15 minutes and to pull away from the ship and to look at it from that view as her sails dropped and she puffed off on her own and all is the best way i can describe it constitution is unique as a historic ship because she's still in the water and because she still goes out under sail constitution is devoted to everybody all the people that served in her from the most senior to the most junior and they all contributed and you get that sense you get it today when you go aboard with today's crew and listen to them and watch them and that's part of why she's so special because when you think about this ship she is one of the original six vessels authorized for the united states navy you know she has fought in the quasi war the barberry wars the war of 1812 was on anti slavery patrol she did everything she carried out the missions that we still carry out today anti piracy keeping the sea lanes open fighting wars landing marines in trouble spots and because she's had this long heritage what other ship is better than this designated america's ship of state constitution was given this title by congress on october 28th 2009 us's constitution is the only ship of state anywhere in the world i think it defines uh you know this is the flagship of the united states navy i mean i'm sure there's some people who may take a disagreement with that but i think this is where our navy began i mean we were formed during the revolutionary war but this is really where our navy took off in the war of 1812 and i think you know it represents what the navy stands for what america stands for is that we've kept the seas free not just for ourselves but for everybody we take the fight to the enemy and that's you know constitution serve that role both as with force or diplomacy whatever the case needed and so to have us's constitution designated as america's ship of state is extremely beautiful because you would then think back what is she named for she's named for the document the governing document of this country the constitution of the united states of america which begins with the preamble we the people then again that union that grouped together we the people of the united states in order to form a more perfect union establish justice ensure domestic tranquility provide for the common defense and promote the general welfare to secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity do ordain and establish this constitution of the united states of america it's a wonderful wonderful bringing together of the preamble the name of the ship and america's ship of state hey shipmates i hope you enjoyed the video of the uss constitution old iron sides our ship of state and now we'd like to present to you a word from one of her great commanding officers common or bainbridge the ship never has she failed us never has her crew failed in showing their allegiance and belief in the country they served or the honor they felt in belonging to the ship that sheltered them and on whose decks they fought where many gave their lives to have commanded constitution is a signal honor to have been one of her compliment and no matter how humble a capacity is an equal one her name is an inspiration not only do the deeds belong to our naval record she is herself possessed of a brave personality in light weathers in storm or hurricane or amid the smoke of battle she responded with alacrity and obedience and seemed ever eager to answer the will of her commander may the citizens of this country in gratitude see that she like her namesake and prototype will never be forgotten her commanders in the future as in the past will see to it that her flag never shall be lowered she was conceived in patriotism gloriously she has shown her valor let her depart in glory if the fate so decreed but let her not sink into decay and oblivion the ship