Your tour brings you to the world's oldest commissioned warship still afloat. USS Constitution was launched in Boston in 1797, one of the original six frigates authorized by Congress to form the nucleus of the United States Navy. She was built of live oak from Georgia and southern pine, with copper bolts and sheathing provided by Paul Revere's foundry.
Her first great test came in the War of 1812, when she faced HMS Guerriere in August 1812 and defeated her in 35 minutes. When a sailor saw British cannonballs bouncing off her thick oak hull, he cried: her sides are made of iron! The nickname Old Ironsides was born.
The ship won six major engagements without a loss. When the Navy proposed scrapping her in 1830, Oliver Wendell Holmes published the poem Old Ironsides in protest, and public outrage saved her. She was restored and is today a fully commissioned US Navy vessel, manned by active-duty sailors who give tours and fire her cannon every morning and evening for Colors.
She still sails under her own power on her birthday each August. Walk the gun decks and look at the rigging; she is 227 years old and still seaworthy.