The historic 17 97 frigate USS Constitution is now the only ship in the US Navy to have sunk an enemy ship in action. The only other ship to sh are that title in
recent yea rs, the 30-year-old USS Simpson, which was decommissioned on 30 September. "Old Ironsides" is currently in dry dock in the Charlestown Navy Yard in Boston for a two-year restoration project, estimated to cost between $ 10 and $15 million . USS Simpson was built as an O liver Hazard Perry-class guided missile frigate at Bath Iron Works in Maine and launched in 1984. She saw 30 yea rs of ac tive duty, with service in the Persian Gulf, the Mediterranean, Caribbean, and Adriatic Seas, and the eastern Pacific. In April 1988, USS Simpson fire d missiles
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USS Simpson
and sank an Iranian Navy Vt'.ssel and oil platform. The frigate will enter the State Department's Foreign Military Sales program (FMS). In recent years, other decommissioned US Navy frigates have been sold to Bahrain, Egypt, Poland, Turkey and Pakistan. . .. The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum has launched a five-year plan to renovate and restore its campus along the Miles River on Maryland's Eastern Shore. One of the first structures to get attention is the museum's iconic 1879 screw-pi le lighthouse, which received a coat of ceramic paint designed to last 25 yea rs. Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum
New York, NY www.sail-nyc.com Newport, RI www.sail-newport.com Key West, FL www.sail-keywest.com
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It will get a new copper roof next year. The 1889 Edna Lockwood, a bugeye ketch built on Ti lghman Island and the last of her kind, will be getting some much-needed restoration work. The museum is seeking sources for southern yellow pine logs to replace her log bottom (they need 12 logs, 52 fee t long and 3 to 4 feet in diameter, in case you know of any). In addition to these two projects, other museum buildings, historic structures, and its fleet of historic watercraft will be getting attention as well. The project is expected to cost $10 million, but work has started and is ongoing as funds come in. The St. Michael 's museum celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2015. (213 Norrh Talbot St., St. Michaels, MD 21663; Ph. 410 745 -2916; www.cbmm.org) J,
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