"Old Ironsides" Facts-at-a-Glance

Historic Importance

• America's oldest commissioned warship

• 15th site on the Freedom Trail

Construction

• 21-inch thick wooden hull

• 204 feet long

• 43 feet, 6 inches wide

• weighs 2,400 tons

• main mast is 220 feet high

• 36 sails cover 42,710 square feet

Cost

• original construction cost $303,718.84 (in 1797 dollars)

• $12 million restoration completed for Constitution's bicentennial celebration

• restoration included $150,000 fund for new sails raised from school children's pennies

Sailing Stats

• common speed is 13 knots under full sail

• eight miles of running rigging required to handle sails

• 27 miles of standing rigging required to support the three masts

Crew

• 450 in 1797, including 55 Marines and 30 boys

• 60 in 1997

Battle Record

• at sea career from 1797 to 1881

• classified as a 44-gun frigate, but usually armed with 54 cannon

• survived 42 battles

• never defeated; no enemy shot ever even pierced Constitution's sides

• destroyed or captured 32 enemy ships

• only enemy soldiers to board Constitution were prisoners

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