What it’s like setting sail aboard the only remaining US Navy ship to have sunk an enemy warship in battle

The Constitution, known as America’s Ship of State, needed a tugboat’s assistance for the entirety of an hours-long underway in the Boston Harbor to honor women veterans of the US armed forces. When it sets sail, the tall ship moves slowly, escorted by police boats and the Coast Guard and helicopters circling overhead.

Aboard are hundreds of people — veterans, active-duty personnel, and their family members.

As the warship sailed the harbor, a 21-gun salute — blanks fired from two of the many heavy cannons — rang out, filling the lower deck with smoke that reeked of something like sulfur, an element of gunpowder. People cheered and filmed the celebratory occasion. The Constitution may be old, but it can still put on a show.

The heavy frigate was launched in 1797 shortly after President George Washington authorized the creation of a Navy. During the War of 1812, the Constitution earned the nickname “Old Ironsides” because British cannonballs seemingly could not penetrate the ship’s wooden hull.

It is the oldest commissioned warship in the world that’s still afloat, and after the much newer guided-missile frigate USS Simpson was decommissioned in 2015, Old Ironsides became the only remaining vessel in the Navy to have sunk an enemy warship in battle — a feat carried over from the War of 1812 against the British.

“Over her 226 years, she’s seen a lot,” Lt. Cdr. Robert Dreitz, the ship’s executive officer, told Business Insider during the underway. “But she is currently, in our fleet, the only ship that has had actual ship-to-ship engagement. Everything else has been over-the-horizon.”

A love for history

The Constitution was retired from active service in 1881 after a storied career, but naval officers and crew still serve aboard the ship — now a museum that occasionally sets sail — at the Charlestown Navy Yard in Boston.

Back in 1812, there were around 450 officers, sailors, and Marines aboard the Constitution. Today, it consists of three officers and around 80 enlisted Navy sailors — a mix of fleet returnees, meaning they’ve done previous tours, and individuals straight from boot camp.

Col. Taona Enriquez, a commander at nearby Hanscom Air Force Base, where some Constitution crewmembers live, said sailors come to work on the ship because of its historical significance.

“History is what we came from,” Enriquez said. “Much like we stand on shoulders of our veterans before us, the new destroyers are standing on the shoulders of the USS Constitution.”

The sailors tend to agree with this sentiment, but it’s not easy to get here. Dreitz said it’s “extremely competitive” for sailors to work on the Constitution. They have to apply, and then they’re screened and later interviewed to make sure they’re a good fit.

“I do very much so enjoy history, so I thought this would be a great place to continue to grow in my Navy career,” said HM Andre Flamini.

Flamini has worked as a medic during his three years with the old warship, but he also does pretty much anything else needed. Tasks can range from training crew members to working the cannons.

He applied to work on the Constitution during the Covid-19 pandemic, when order selection for sea duty wasn’t great. He thought this looked like a “cool and interesting” opportunity to pursue.

“I think the history and heritage of the Navy is important to a lot of us here — should be important to every single one of us, actually,” Flamini said, adding that “being able to see where we come from, and where the Navy’s going, has always interested me and everyone else on board.”

Unlike Flamini, who’s a fleet returnee, SN Alec Morris applied to join the Constitution right from boot camp. A recruit division commander had told him at the time that if he planned on spending time in the military, the ship was a great place to be.

“It’s a huge resume-builder — you’re going to learn a lot, you’re going to get a lot of mentorship,” Morris said, reflecting on what the commander told him over two-and-a-half years ago. “And everything he said was absolutely correct.”

Bridging ‘the old and the new’

The history and legacy of the Constitution don’t just stay confined to the ship. They’re reflected in Navy operations today.

Dreitz said the missions that the Constitution performed more than 200 years ago — protecting the freedom of navigation — are similar to those in which the Navy is currently engaged.

His remarks specifically alluded to the turbulent waters of the Middle East, thousands of miles away from Boston, where US ships have spent some eight months defending the shipping lanes in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden from relentless attacks by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.

Back in its prime, the Constitution defended American shipping in a tense period of at-sea confrontations with France and against the infamous Barbary pirates.

The circumstances and technology are obviously different; the Houthis, for instance, are firing missiles and drones instead of cannons, and the American warships are significantly more modern and advanced than the Constitution.

However, for the Navy, the goal of protecting merchant vessels overseas has remained a constant through the years.

“She bridges the gap between the old and the new,” Dreitz said of the Constitution.