The USS Constitution also known as Old Ironsides, is a three-masted wooden-hulled heavy frigate. She is the world's oldest commissioned naval warship still afloat and was launched in 1797. Joshua Humphreys designed the frigate and so Constitution and her sister ships were larger and more heavily armed and built than standard frigates of the period. Her first duties were to provide protection for American merchant shipping during the Quasi-War with France and to defeat the pirates in the First Barbary War.

The Constitution is most noted for her actions during the War of 1812 against the United Kingdom, when she captured numerous merchant ships and defeated five British warships: HMS: Guerriere, Java, Pictou, Cyane, and Levant. The fight with the Guerriere earned her the nickname "Old Ironsides" and public adoration that has repeatedly saved her from scrapping. She continued to serve as flagship in the Mediterranean and African squadrons, and she circled the world in the 1840s. During the Civil War, she served as a training ship for the Naval Academy.

The Constitution was built in an era when a ship's expected service life was 10 to 15 years. Secretary of the Navy made a routine order for surveys of ships in the reserve fleet, and commandant of the Charlestown Navy Yard Charles Morris estimated a repair cost of over $157,000 for Constitution about $3,000,000 today! On 14 September 1830, an article appeared which erroneously claimed that the Navy intended to scrap Constitution. Two days later, Oliver Wendell Holmes poem "Old Ironsides" was published in the same paper and later all over the country, igniting public indignation and inciting efforts to save "Old Ironsides" from the scrap yard. Secretary Branch approved the costs, and Constitution began a leisurely repair.

Offered here is a piece of the original 1797 timber used in her original construction and therefore a silent witness to this ship's epic and legendary battles and cruises. Certainly, saved after the refitting's of the 1830s this relic ended up in a New England Museum most likely the Essex Institute in Salem, Massachusetts. In the late 1970s Mr. Norm Flayderman possibly acquired this from them as he did indeed get a host of fine items legally de-accessioned from that museum. In the year 1979 this item was sold to Mr. Eric Vaule of Bridgewater, Connecticut. Vaule sold it to a private collector in whose hands it has been until this year.

In construction the frames, or ribs, were fashioned from live oak cut in Georgia, and the outer hull planking was also made of white oak. White oak is exactly what this 6 inches by 2 inches by 2 3/4 inches is made of. Irregular in shape as you can see it is stable and one stage from petrified. Glued to the face is an old printed, and now discolored label which reads: Piece of wood taken from the "USS CONSTITUTON".  Iconic!  [pe] [ph:L]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

THIS ITEM, AS WITH ALL OTHER ITEMS AVAILABLE ON OUR WEB SITE,

MAY BE PURCHASED THROUGH OUR LAYAWAY PROGRAM.

CLICK HERE FOR OUR POLICIES AND TERMS.

THANK YOU!