Barbara Long, age 10, of Springfield, Mass., for her question:
WHEN WAS 'OLD IRONSIDES' BUILT?
Old Ironsides is the popular name of the Constitution, perhaps the most famous frigate of the United States Navy. It was built at a Boston shipyard between 1794 and 1797.
Old Ironsides was 204 feet long. The hull was made from oak that was obtained in Massachusetts, Maine and Georgia. The tall masts of the frigate were made of white pine. The ship could carry provisions for a crew of 475.
On October 21, 1797, old Ironsides was launched. It went unharmed in battles with the Barbary powers in 1803 and 1804.
In the War of 1812, the Constitution won a battle near Cape Race against the Guerriere, an English warship. And it was during this battle that the ship earned its nickname. After the battle, sailors reported that they had seen shot from the British guns bouncing off the Constitution's sturdy sides, and exclaimed that the ship had to have sides of iron.
During its days of glory, an American naval officer named Isaac Hull commanded the Constitution. In 1830, after a number of other battles, the frigate was condemned as unseaworthy and was ordered destroyed.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, a famous poet of the time, wrote a poem called "Old Ironsides" in which he said: "Oh, better that her shattered hulk/Should sink beneath the wave..."
The poem aroused public sentiment. The American people would not hear of the famous ship being destroyed. And as a result of the public response, the Constitution was restored to service in 1833.
In 1855, the ship was put out of commission at Portsmouth Navy Yard and used as a training ship, but it was again rebuilt in 1877.
Then in 1897, 100 years after it was launched, the Constitution was finally drydocked and repaired, to be preserved as a permanent memorial.
Thirty years after it went to drydock, American children raised money to recondition the vessel for a tour of United States ports.
In 1930, Congress appropriated $300,000 to complete the work of recondition. Then on July 31, 1931, Old Ironsides was commissioned into active service.
After sailing 22,000 miles, the famous ship returned to the Boston Naval Shipyard on May 7, 1934. The Constitution, still in commission, is docked on the Charles River near Boston. It is the oldest warship afloat in any of the world's navies.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, the writer who won fame for his essays and poems and who wrote the poem "Old Ironsides" that helped save the ship, was also a physician who taught at Harvard Medical School for many years. One of his sons, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., became a famous associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.