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USS Constitution
Living the Legend
©1998 Anchors
Aweigh Productions
Video: approx 55 min.
America has few symbols as enduring as "Old Ironsides."
Restored to her original splendor by skilled craftspeople and children
across the nation who contributed pennies for her new sails,
constitution reaffirms America's dreams as her crew sails into the
next millennium. |
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Oct. 21, 1797
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Boston Sea Party.
USS constitution launched and christened at Edmond Hartt's
Shipyard, Boston.
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Aug. 1798
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Ordered into action in the Quasi-War with France.
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Saw a Strange sail . . .
exercised the great guns
(journal of James Pity, Aug. 21).
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1803-1806
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Flagship, Mediterranean Squadron, Tripolitan War.
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1812-1815
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War with Great Britain.
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A Wonderful Life
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Without constitution's victory over guerriere,
heavily anti-Federalist Masschusetts might well have seceded from the Union,
and
James Madison possibly would not have been president for a second term.
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Aug. 18, 1812
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Defeats 49-gun British frigate guerriere.
Crew nicknames her "Old Ironsides."
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Dec. 29, 1812
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Java Surrenders!
Captures British frigate Java and five smaller vessels.
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1828-1830
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Eagle of the Sea 1
Harpies of the Shore 0.
Laid up at Boston and condemned by naval commissioners,
she was saved by a poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes.
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Mar. 1844
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1001 Nights.
Begins 30-month voyage around the world.
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1931-1934
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National cruise takes "Old Ironsides" to 91 American cities,
including New York, Detroit, Duluth, and Seattle.
Returns to her place of honor in Boston harbor.
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Mar. 1996-1997
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Completes 44-month restoration.
Crew prepares for historic sail in July 1997.
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Oct. 21, 1997
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Celebrates 200th birthday.
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jan. 1, 2000 |
"Old Ironsides" sails into the next millennium.
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