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seasoned crew put boats over the side to tow their ship out of range. By using kedge anchors to draw the ship forward, and wetting the sails down to take advantage of every breath of wind, Hull slowly made headway against the pursuing British. After two days and nights of toil in the                          relentless July heat, Constitution finally eluded her pursuers.                                            But one month later, she met with one of them again -- the frigate Guerriere. The British ship fired the first shot of the legendary battle; 20 minutes later, Guerriere was a dismasted hulk, so badly damaged that she was not worth towing to port. Hull had used his heavier broadsides and his ship's superior sailing ability, while the British, to their astonishment, saw that their shot seemed to rebound harmlessly off Constitution's hull -- giving her the nickname 'Old Ironsides'.

Under the command of William Bainbridge, 'Old Ironsides', met Java, another British frigate, in December. Their three-hour engagement left Java unfit for repair, so she was burned. Constitution's victories gave the American people a tremendous boost to morale, and raised the United States to the rank of a world-class naval power.     

Despite having to spend many months in port, either under repair or because of blockades, Constitution managed eight more captures, including a British frigate and sloop sailing in company which she fought simultaneously, before peace was declared in 1815. After six years of extensive repairs, she returned to duty as flagship of the Mediterranean Squadron. She sailed back to Boston in 1828.     

An examination in 1830 found her unfit for sea, but the American public expressed great indignation at the recommendation that she be scrapped, especially after publication of Oliver Wendell Holmes' poem 'Old Ironsides'. Congress passed an appropriation for reconstruction and in 1835 she was placed back in commission. She served as flagship in the Mediterranean and the South Pacific and made a 30-month voyage around the world beginning in March 1844.      In the 1850s she patrolled the African coast in search of slavers, and during the Civil War served as a training ship for midshipmen.     

After another period of rebuilding in 1871, she transported goods for the Paris Exposition of 1877 and served once more as a training ship. Decommissioned in 1882, she was used as a receiving ship at Portsmouth, N.H. She returned to Boston to celebrate her centennial in 1897.     In 1905, public sentiment saved her once more from scrapping; in 1925 she was restored, through the donations of schoolchildren and patriotic groups. Recommissioned in 1931, she set out under tow for a tour of 90 port cities along the Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific coasts of the United States.     More than 4,600,000 people visited her during the three-year journey. Having secured her position as an American icon, she returned to her home port of Boston. In 1941, she was placed in permanent commission, and an act of Congress in 1954 made the Secretary of the Navy responsible for her upkeep.  Now the oldest U.S. warship still in commission, Constitution remains a powerful reminder of the nation's earliest steps into dominance of the sea.

What time is it?
Every morning for years, at about 11:30, the telephone
operator in a small Sierra-Nevada town received a call from a man asking the exact time. One day the operator summed up nerve enough to ask him why the regularity.

"I'm foreman of the local sawmill," he explained. "Every day I have to blow the whistle at noon so I call you to get the exact time."

The operator giggled, "That's really funny," she said. "All this time we've been setting our clock by your whistle.

When I was younger I hated going to weddings, it seemed that all of my aunts and the grand motherly types used to come up to me, poking me in the ribs and cackling, telling me, "You're next."    They stopped that after I started doing the same thing to them at funerals.

Timeline USS Constitution
Oct. 21, 1797 USS Constitution launched and christened at Edmond Hartt's Shipyard, Boston.
Aug. 1798 Ordered into action in the Quasi-War with France.
1803-1806 Flagship, Mediterranean Squadron, Tripolitan War.
1812-1815 War with Great Britain.Aug. 18,
1812 Defeats 49-gun British frigate Guerriere. Crew bestows her with 'Old Ironsides' nickname.
Dec. 29, 1812 Captures British frigate Java and five smaller vessels.
1828-1830 Laid up at Boston and condemned by naval commissioners, she was saved by a poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes.March 1844 Begins 30-month voyage around the world.
1931-1934 National cruise takes 'Old Ironsides' to 90 American cities, returns to her place of honor in Boston harbor .
1996-1997 Completes 44-month restoration. Crew prepares for historic sail in July 1997, and 'Old Ironsides' turns 200 Oct. 21, 1997

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