Huzza! Huzzah! Huzza! Shouted navy personal late on Monday night as a low fog rolled into Charlestown Navy yard. From Tobin Bridge the yard looked like a Friday night football game with hundreds of helmeted men and women standing in the yard, but these weren’t football players. They were Navy engineers and support staff on site at Dry Dock #1 in Boston’s historic Charlestown Navy yard. Their purpose, to safely move the USS Constitution from her pier and into the Dry Dock #1 for what will be a three year repair session for the 200+ year old ship.
“We are all observing the dry dock, first because of curiosity and second because it’s a core competency, dry-docking, in becoming an engineering duty officer,” said Charlestown resident Lt. Kerry Boshe. Boshe was on sight with two fellow MIT students who wanted to see the procedure up close. They weren’t alone, hundreds of local residents and media crews were on hand to witness the dry-docking procedure, which for a ship like the Constitution is a delicate process. If they were to damage her, it could be un-repairable.
“The biggest challenge is getting her safely into the dry dock,” said Commander Paul Brawley. The ship was being pulled into dry dock by hand, by men and women with ropes and the help a few tug boats this evening. The process had to start at just exactly the right time when the high tide raised the water level high enough in the dry dock to allow Constitution to slip into her place. The crew of the ship had to remove all the ship’s guns, rigging and sails to lighten her load so she would clear the shelves upon which she will rest on when the water is drained from the dry dock. Constant radio chatter filled the air as crew members, engineers and navy staff communicated to keep the ship moving like a robot, on course and down to the inch. Periodically the ship would stop, the bow line would stop pulling and ropes on either side, the starboard and port, would be moved or changed to adjust for the ships route.
Moving an inch at a time and sometimes slower, navy engineers used lasers with digital transits to bounce off of prisms on the ship to precisely monitor the ships movement. “Divers will go in to check how she lands in the dry dock,” said three star General Willie Hilarides of Comnavsea. “It will be a very bad thing if we have to re-land her.” With that precision, the ship started to be pulled into the dry dock at around 10:20pm and by 12:30 she was in place. Now it was the job of the divers and engineers to make sure she was positioned correctly and balanced safely so that the water of the dry dock could be drained and repairs could start, which will take a few days said Commander Brawley.
Constitution, launched in 1797, is the sole survivor of the original US navy’s first fleet; a group of six frigates designed by Joshua Humphrey, designed to be the fastest, strongest and most heavily armed ships of their day. They were built in response to the constant harassment of US merchant vessels by the British, French and pirates as the US sought to spread its shipping and exportation of goods worldwide. With her three layer oak hull, canon balls bounced off her in the war of 1812 and she was given the name “Old Ironsides”.
“It’s a momentous occasion for the history of the ship,” said Melinda Cheston, senior development officer for the Constitution Museum and also a Charlestown resident. “We can keep her going and continue to tell her story to future generations.”
As part of the repair process, oak planks, the outer copper sheeting and anything is disarray will be repaired or replaced. “The entire bottom of the boat will be re-cocked and sealed, she will be solid,” said Commander Brawley. “The Navy has a grove of white oak trees at a navy base in Indiana, Constitution grove,” said Admiral Hilarides. “We’ll cut trees depending on what hull planks need to be replaced.” Its estimated now that only eight to twelve percent of the boat is the original 1794 parts, including her keel.
“You’ll be able to see her naked like never before,” said Cheston on viewing Constitution out of the water. “Not a lot of people have seen her like that before.” She was last in dry dock in 1992.
The Navy estimates the entire repair process to last three years and cost between $12 and $15 million dollars. During that time the ship, a major tourist attraction for the city, will still be open for visitors. Crew members, which there are 70 of will rotate working in the museum and serving on the ship’s deck while repairs are under way said Cheston. “People will hear her construction story for the next three years. Paul Revere provided copper for her hull!”
For many residents of the city and Charlestown, the Constitution is a part of their daily life, a backdrop to their view of the harbor. “I walk down here all the time, it’s such an asset to our community,” said local resident Chrissy Coughlin. Coughlin was on hand to watch the ships dry-docking, she hired a baby sitter so she could come down at the late time to watch the process. “It’s a very powerful feeling for me to come down here and see people who have dedicated their lives to us. It’s a powerful feeling from my heart (to those that serve now and then).
The ship has been repaired many times before, staring in the mid 1800’s and having a full restoration in 1927. “It’s a constant maintenance that is going on all of the time,” said Commander Brawley. “She is the other woman in my life, and my wife understands that.”
With the sun down, the lights came on and Navy crews got to work.
Two navy engineers keep track of the positioning of the ship with their tracking equipment.
Pulling on the bow lines and rapping them around a mooring was hard grueling work.
The ship was last in dry dock from 1992 to 1995.
Navy workers pull on the bow lines to make sure the boat is properly in hr new resting place.
As the sun sets the constitution rest at the end of dry dock one, waiting for high tide to be ever so delicately moved into the dry dock.