a few days more wi ll cause them to open and fall off in the same manner as the mussels.2 Three days later, Hull reported that divers sent down to inspect the hull reported that the copper was rough and missing in places and that some of the copper nails were coming loose. They attempted to patch bare spots in the sheathing as best they could while the ship was at anchor. During the nineteenth century, Constitution's copper sheathing was periodically patched and replaced and, with the 1833 dry docking of the ship in the Charlestown N avy Yard, souvenirs were fashioned from the retired copper sheathing, including a m iniat ure kettle.
Petty Officer 3rd Class fo rge Ortiz, assigned to USS Constitution, hammers a copper nail into the new copp er sheets that cover the hull ofthe ship below the waterline.
Miniature kettle made f rom Constitution's copp er sheathing removed du ring the 183334 dry docking.
O ver the cent uries, USS Constitution has had her copper bottom repaired and replaced many times. The first photographs ever taken of the ship capture her on the m arine railway at the Portsmouth Navy Yard in Kittery, Maine, in M ay 1858, and show the new copper sheathing on her hull. USS Constitution's copper sheathing was replaced for the first rime in the twentieth century during the extensive 19271931 rebuilding. The restoration report tallied the copper sheathing and nails used: Ship has been copper sheathed fro m keel to 23' 6" aft and to a height of 21' O" forward-3,400 sheets of copper, 14" x 48" . . . [which equals approximately] 12.5
tons of sheathing copper, [fastened w ith] 1600 pounds [copp er] sheathing nails. 3 For her current res toration (2 015-2017), USS Constitution received 2,200 new sheets of copper to replace the copper installed in the summer of 1995. This is the firs t recoppering of "Old Ironsides" in the twenty-first century and is expected to las t until the ship is dry docked in another twenty years. USS Constitution will be refloared from Dry Dock 1 in the Charlestown Navy Yard at midnight on 23 July 2017. Once afloat,
her upper mas ts, ya rds, and rigging will be reinstalled, as well as her replica guns. Constitution w ill be closed to visitors during the month of August, but her crew will be providing dockside interpretation on the ship's history and performing long-gun and board ing- pike drills in the C harlestown Navy Yard th roughout the summer. To stay up- to-dare with USS Constitution's visiting hours and programming, please visit: www. navy.mil/ local/consrirurion . For more information on other aspects of the 20152017 restoration, please visit: www.usscon srirurionmuseum.org/resrorarion/ blog. ;t,
USS Constitution on a marine railway at the Po rtsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, Maine, 27 May 1858. Note the new copper sheathing on the ships lower hull.
2 Jsaac Hu ll to Pau l Ha milton, 15 Aug 18 10. M l 25, Captains' Letters to the Secretary of the Navy, 1805-61; 1866-85 , NARA. 3 Comma ndant, US Navy Yard, Bosto n, "US Frigate CONSTITUTION (IX2 1)-Research Memora ndum," 1931, 60.
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