[luigi]

I went "on-board" the last time I was in Boston. Pretty neat glimpse of warfare in the early 1800's.

 

[SteedGun]

Despite living in Utah we are Boston fanatics. Red Sox, Celtics, Pats (sometimes), etc. When you grow up in Utah you need to pick a baseball team and I picked the Red Sox back in the late 60s. We are fortunate enough to have the occasion to travel to Boston almost once a year since the late 80s for business events. I have done multiple tours of Ole Iron Sides. I second the recommendation to tour the Constitution. I believe she is still commissioned as an active ship in the Navy. Also, to keep her fresh they take her out once a year into the bay and then turn her around at dock. I got to see them doing this once with tugs. Water cannons firing all over the place. They use a really long cable that you cannot see in my pics. Really cool.

 

[USN14]

Steed, you almost lost me right away with your team pics( NY’er here) but you made up for after that including some cool pics. 😏
The last time she sailed under her own sails was in 2012 to mark the 200th anniversary of whooping the French ship Guerriere so says the magazine. I remember seeing her sail on the news at that time.

 

[highlandfarmer]

I have been to the New England area many years back in early 90's was last. I just do not care for liberal states anymore. It is sad what has become of MA-

 

[HardingM14]

Navy still own/manage the 50,000 some acre timber tract they use to maintain the USS Constitution?

 

[Arto]

fyi - if you're even up by Boston with your scouts, contact the special events office, your scouts can camp over on Old Ironsides!!
only cost was ~$10 for food at the messdeck.
They got a deluxe tour of the ship, boarding pike & cannon drills & got to help raise & lower & fold the flag too!
So "Wicked Cool!" you can't believe it!

USS CONSTITUTION

www.navy.mil

ps if you need more awesome Naval History across the Hahbah at the old Quincy Shipyahd: Home - USS Salem CA-139 - Quincy, Massachusetts

& you can get coffee nearby at the first Dunkies on Rte 3A

 

[smleenfield]

Here are some shots I took in Sept 1976. Unfortunately the film went bad over the years and I had to recover what I could from the original pictures. The middle picture was from the top of the Bunker Hill monument.

 

[Phil “Murphy” McGrath]

As a kid in school we took a field trip and went aboard, when I was in the Navy I went aboard as party for one of our boats Chief reenlistment ceremony. Was a great day even if we baked our brains in the sun. The wet down after was well worth it…….

 

[pendennis]

We toured in 1987 with both sons. It was my second tour, first was in 1969. It wasn't too difficult to imagine just how hard life was on those ships.

One of the things I found fascinating, was that the ship's wheel came off HMS Java. I had remembered reading that Constitution's own wheel was lost to Java gunfire. But I believed that Java's wheel had been replaced.

 

[bigchuck350]

The big timber tract for maintaining the ship is still part of the Crane Naval warfare base. I remember reading about it a few years ago. They cut and ship big timbers of about 100' length when needed. Must be a very impressive woods where they cut the white oak timbers. Also the operation where the mill these huge timbers.

 

[tomdokulil]

Was stationed in the Hawaiian Islands 69 - 71 with a guy who "crewed" on the Constitution before he got orders to Hawaii. Said he used to give tours of the ship to visitors and even dressed in vintage U.S. Navy Uniforms. Lots of good times!

 

[Cowtownscout]

In 2019 I took a world wind 2 week vacation from Texas to the East Coast that included seeing the USS Constitution. During that trip I a made the following stops in this order:
Harpers Ferry National Historic Site
West Point US Military Acadamy
Springfield Armory National Historic Site
Charlestown Navy Yard - USS Constitution
Boston Freedom Trail Walk
Battleship Cove
Ellis Island
Statue of Liberty
Here is a link to the tread I posted about the trip Scout's Trip to 2019 GCA Convention | M14 Forum and it has MANY photos.

These are a few pics of the USS Constitution, more are included in the linked thread.

 

[USN14]

That’s a heck of a trip you did Cowtownscout, I’m envious.