Talk:USS Constitution

Constitution: Oldest commissioned ship?

"HMS Victory is a 104-gun first-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, laid down in 1759 and launched in 1765. She is most famous as Lord Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. She was also Keppel's flagship at Ushant, Howe's flagship at Cape Spartel and Jervis's flagship at Cape St Vincent. After 1824 she served as a harbour ship. In 1922 she was moved to a dry dock at Portsmouth, England, and preserved as a museum ship. She is the flagship of the First Sea Lord and is the oldest naval ship still in commission." --from the Wikipedia entry HMS_Victory. Scutigera (talk) 19:27, 24 November 2012 (UTC)

The topic does not disagree with that. By selectively omitting the end of the sentence, your comment construes a disagreement. TEDickey (talk) 20:01, 24 November 2012 (UTC)

Read the two articles closely. They do make the distinction. No one disputes that Victory is the oldest warship still commissioned. However, Victory is in permanent drydock and cannot sail under her own power, if at all. The USS Constitution is the oldest commissioned warship in the world that is still afloat, which is a major distinction in its own right. Jsc1973 (talk) 08:22, 24 January 2013 (UTC)

Anyone who wants to change the current wording needs a serious course in reading comprehension. The US Navy constantly upholds this claim in just about every news release they make of the ship. It's not a creation that a bunch of fanboys decided to make. So we have reading comprehension, a note, talk pages full of this issue, and it's still not enough. Brad (talk) 16:36, 23 September 2013 (UTC)

She's not the oldest ship afloat anymore - http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/06/09/restoration-work-uss-constitution-begin-tuesday/FIgM2NLk7VlTEn63mnkDZJ/story.html?s_campaign=bostonglobe%3Asocialflow%3Afacebook

Does anyone know what ship has that distinction now? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.98.158.14 (talk) 05:39, 10 June 2015 (UTC)

So... either the USS Constitution isn't the oldest ship afloat anymore, or she has never been the oldest ship afloat. She was, but isn't anymore, or if drydock doesn't count she has never been. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.187.110.118 (talk) 01:05, 12 June 2015 (UTC)

I believe that USS Blue Ridge (LCC-19) is the US Navy's oldest commissioned and deployable ship.[1] --Dual Freq (talk) 01:51, 12 June 2015 (UTC)

Being in drydock obviously doesn't disqualify her from the title of oldest ship afloat. All warships spend some time in drydock for major repairs. Unless there's some sort of accident and she never returns to the water, leave the article the way it is.72.224.230.110 (talk) 22:12, 26 July 2015 (UTC)

Interior pix?

I happened across this entry because its German WP counterpart was an Artikel des Tages (Featured Article of the Day) on German Wiki on 7-22-13. http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Constitution

This is really a fascinating story, with many interesting episodes. My suggestion is, it would be improved by a couple photos of the interior of the ship, to show the reader what being on board was like. Sca (talk) 14:28, 22 July 2013 (UTC)

The Guerriere section has become a little disordered

The section on the battle with the Guerriere has some obvious problems with flow and order and dangling references. Probably this results from previous edits. Someone close to this page shold review and correct. The issues I see are purely editorial, not factual.

This is a current excerpt:

 The battle left Guerriere so badly damaged that she was not worth
 towing to port. The next morning, after transferring the British
 prisoners onto the Constitution, Hull ordered Guerriere burned.[104]

 At 7:30am on August 20, Lt. Read hailed the Constitution and reported
 that there was 5 feet of water in the hold, and the water level was
 rising faster than it could be pumped out, after a failed attempt to
 put the Guerriere under tow, Capt. Hull admitted there was no hope in
 towing the sinking ship into port. Charges were set and slow fuses lit.
 The last crew came aboard the American ship at 3:00pm and the
 Constitution withdrew to a safe distance to watch the "incomparably
 grand and magnificent" explosions that marked her last moments.[105]

 The bodies of Lt. Bush and a British seaman were buried at sea in a
 joint ceremony.

The various glitches include:

- The names of Lt Read and Lt. Bush appear nowhere else in the whole article. The reader cannot know who they were.

- The first paragraph above explains that G was burned, but the second paragraph seems to back up chronologically. Apparently, prior to the decision to burn, a Constitution crew boarded and took command, and British prisoners were kept on the Guerriere. But none of this appears in the article.

75.18.175.13 (talk) 21:27, 12 April 2014 (UTC)

I'm working on it bit by bit. This is what happens when no one watches the article. Brad (talk) 05:53, 9 June 2014 (UTC)

Y'know something ...

... isn't Constitution not merely the oldest commissioned warship afloat, but the oldest ship afloat of any kind? Does anyone know of a reliable source stating so? Ravenswing 05:43, 18 August 2014 (UTC)

Actually, if my mother is to be believed, the oldest ship afloat is "the canoe". According to her, both her parents and her grandparents before her have paddle that thing over many, many generations :) TomStar81 (Talk) 10:33, 18 August 2014 (UTC)

Well, I mean that particular ship. It's pretty much impossible for any canoe built in North America to be more than 200 years old. (grins) Ravenswing 22:47, 18 August 2014 (UTC)

Misleading

This article states: "Until entering dry dock in May 2015, Constitution was the oldest commissioned warship afloat in the world." As Constitution will be back out of dry dock after inspection and repair (just like any active ship), she will be afloat again - by comparison, HMS Victory is never getting back out of dry dock and in fact is a building at this point. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.158.48.14 (talk) 18:50, 21 July 2015 (UTC)