“Old Ironsides”

By Scott Hamilton

It was 1797; our nation was only 21-years-old and barely holding together. Much like today, the nation was drowning in debt, but it was actually worse then, as we were being threatened by European powers that didn’t believe our republic would last another decade. We were a young nation with no Navy and no way to protect our merchant ships. We were losing billions in cargo and no one thought we could defend ourselves at sea.

In the midst of this economic turmoil, we decided to make a bold move and build our first naval fleet. It consisted of six frigates unlike anything the world had ever seen. One of them was the USS Constitution, launched from Boston Harbor on October 21, 1797. President George Washington chose the name of the ship himself. To him it represented more than the wood and canvas. It was meant to show the world that this fragile new republic would last the test of time. However nobody could have predicted the outcomes of this first U.S. warship.

It was August 19, 1812, when the USS Constitution, captained by Isaac Hull, engaged the HMS Guerriere off the coast of Nova Scotia. The British were confident that their “superior” warship, as part of the world’s strongest Navy, would easily defeat this smaller frigate from the new nation. The ships exchanged cannon fire at broadsides from close range, and the British cannonballs slammed into the Constitution’s hull. Sailors on both ships stared in disbelief as the heavy iron cannonballs bounced harmlessly off the hull into the depths of the ocean. One of the American sailors, upon witnessing this seemingly impossible feat, shouted, “Huzzah! Her sides are made of iron!” The nickname “Old Ironsides” was born in that moment.

Old Ironsides went on to defeat the HMS Guerriere that day, then the HMS Java, the Cyane and the Levant. She was undefeated in battle and became the symbol of American naval power. She proved that not only would this young nation survive, but that it could also win. By 1830, the USS Constitution was aging and the Navy was planning on scraping the ship and selling her wood for lumber. A 21-year-old medical student, Oliver Wendel Holmes, Sr., penned a poem titled “Old Ironsides.” The three stanza poem captured something powerful:

“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!

O, 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 thread-bare sail,

And give her to the god of storms,—

The lightning and the gale!

Holmes’ poem spread in local newspapers across the nation and suddenly people who had never heard about the USS Constitution wanted to save her. The public outcry was overwhelming and Congress saved the ship. She was rebuilt and preserved. She has sailed for 228 years, surviving battles, storms, mutinies, neglect and the passage of time that claimed the other five ships from the first Navy. The world’s oldest commissioned naval vessel is still afloat as a symbol of our nation’s strength.

Next week I will write about what made “Old Ironsides” so special from an engineering perspective. Let’s just say our young nation understood material science before the term existed. Until next week, stay safe and learn something new.

Scott Hamilton is an Expert in Emerging Technologies at ATOS and can be reached with questions and comments via email to shamilton@techshepherd.org or through his website at https://www.techshepherd.org.