Restoring a 218-year-old technological wonder { !" #$" %&'()*'(+ } CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS GETTY IMAGES (TOP); PETER MELKUS/US NAVY 26 B O S T O N I A Fall 2015 26-53_Bostonia_FA15.indd 26 9/30/15 11:16 AM Every 20 years or so, the USS Constitution is hauled into dry dock for restoration. The cur rent project will cost $12 to $15 million. 26-53_Bostonia_FA15.indd 27 9/30/15 11:16 AM The tree trunks arrived at the Charlestown Navy Yard on July 7. White Today, he says, the ship’s most formidable oak, 45 feet long, and weighing about 10,000 enemies are the New England elements and pounds, they had been trucked more than 1,000 Boston Harbor’s burrowing mollusks. For the miles, from a naval base in Crane, Ind., which past two years, it was Kearns’ job, among many maintains a woodland preserve with 150 mature other things, to keep their damage in check trees that have been set aside for the restoration and to prepare the Constitution for the kind of of the USS Constitution. Over the next two years, restoration that’s done every 20 years or so. The 35 such logs will be sawed into planking to replace commander is in charge of a crew of 2 officers and much of the storied hull of the 218-year-old 76 sailors and is also the chief evangelist for the frigate commissioned by George Washington. ship’s mission—to preserve, protect, and promote Sean D. Kearns (ENG’94), who was the com- the Navy’s role in history through education, manding officer of the Constitution from July historic demonstrations, and public events. 2013 until this past August, says the ship’s original Kearns has given tours of the ship to retired hull was its secret weapon of sorts. More than astronaut Buzz Aldrin and Secretary of State John Commanding two feet thick and covered with copper to protect Kerry (Hon.’05) and has overseen the visits of Presence it from wood-borers like crustaceans, it could about two million visitors. r withstand blows from 18-pound iron cannonballs. “The Constitution is, in many aspects, the Sean D. Kearns The hull is the reason the undefeated warship is key historical symbol of the American Navy,” was command- called Old Ironsides. says Brendan McConville, a College of Arts & ing officer of the “Cannonballs would either stick in the side or Sciences professor of history, who specializes Constitution they would bounce off,” says Kearns. “She could in early American history. “Opposing navies for the past two years. go into battle with her huge armament and dish couldn’t believe the Constitution could beat out punishing fire and take a lot of punishment in them in one-on-one combat. It became a potent return without being damaged.” symbol of American naval prowess.” JACKIE RICCIARDI (2) !" BOSTONIA Fall 2015 26-53_Bostonia_FA15.indd 28 9/30/15 11:17 AM In May, after a two-month delay because of propulsion program, then studied mechanical Soon-to-be Boston’s record 2015 snowfall, Kearns directed engineering at BU on a Naval ROTC scholarship. Planks the guidance of the ship into the Charlestown His ROTC class’ commissioning ceremony was r Navy Yard’s granite dry dock, where she will perch held on the deck of the Constitution, as is still White oak logs with an exposed hull and downed sails during the tradition today. were trucked restoration. The $12 to $15 million project will With two master’s degrees from MIT, one in more than 1,000 replace the lower hull planking and caulking, the naval architecture and marine engineering and miles, from Con- copper sheathing, and some deck beams, rigging, one in mechanical engineering, Kearns served stitution Grove upper masts, and yards (the horizontal spars, on ships during Operations Iraqi Freedom and in Indiana. or beams, attached to the mast that sails are Enduring Freedom and was later promoted to hung from). It will also inspect and restore the executive officer of the USS San Antonio. When he cutwater, or protruding curve of the ship’s bow. took over in 2013, he became the 73rd commander of the Constitution. “When my family found out COMMANDER OF THE SHIP I’d gotten this job, they said, ‘You have got to be On a muggy summer morning, Kearns, dressed kidding me,’” he says. “They knew how much I in his blue camouflage Navy Working Uniform, love this ship.” He was married on the Constitution crosses the gangplank and is greeted, as required last summer. by naval custom, with four bells and one last Descending to the ship’s airless lower decks, bell, called a stinger, signifying his rank of Kearns offers up an impromptu history lesson: commanding officer of the ship. For Kearns, after the Revolutionary War, the newly formed Web extra the Constitution is a special place: his naval United States was deep in debt, mainly to France, career began more than 20 years ago with a which had loaned the revolting colonists upwards Watch a video about the restora- commissioning ceremony on the historic ship. of $70 million to fund the almost eight-year-long tion of the USS Kearns grew up near Bangor, Maine, and he war. “We sold off our Continental Navy,” he says, Constitution at can remember family trips to Boston, where “and that money was used to pay the interest bu.edu/bostonia. many afternoons were spent visiting the frigate. toward our debt.” Enamored, he started building Constitution At the same time, we continued trading with models and plastered his bedroom walls with various European powers, some of which were photographs of the ship. warring with one another. The commerce was After high school, Kearns enlisted in the resented, so our ships were harassed by Britain Navy as an electronics technician in the nuclear and France. Worse, our merchant ships were Fall 2015 BOSTONIA !" 26-53_Bostonia_FA15.indd 29 9/30/15 11:17 AM SHIP’S LOG The restoration work on the USS Constitution is being done by a 40-person team, Naval History and Heritage Command Detach- ment Boston. “They’re artisans and craftspeople who know woodworking, ship-smithing, rigging, and sail making, skills that are not common in our modern world,” says Sean D. Kearns (ENG’94), who was the ship’s commanding o! cer from July 2013 to August 2015. The ship’s historian and ship restorers refer to written records, archival photographs, and plans, like the deck plans from the Constitution’s long-gone sister USS President, which was captured by the British in the War of 1812 and disassembled to understand how she was constructed. The work on the Constitution started in spring 2015 and will be completed in 2017. Prep Work Replace Waterways Before the Constitution was The gun deck waterways, which connect the ship’s sides to the deck floated into dry dock, divers and help to eliminate water through scuppers, are being replaced. used large bristled rotating brushes to scrub the hull of mollusks and seaweed, exposing the copper sheath- ing and eliminating excess weight. The ship’s carronades, long guns, upper masts, and yards were also removed. Out of Water The ship entered Dry Dock 1 at the Charlestown Caulk the Navy Yard on May 18, Seams 2015. Its keel (backbone) On the top rests on keel blocks and deck, workers its sides are supported by will pound wooden shores. tarred hemp and cotton batting be- Weight-Testing tween the The riggers will suspend deck planks. heavy weights to test the in- tegrity of the ship’s structure, including the yards—the hor- Trail Boards izontal spars, or beams, that The carved, dec- hold the sails. orative trail boards have been removed from the bow so Check Sails that they can be The Constitu- refurbished. tion’s sails are no longer made of flax Copper Sheathing or cotton, but By late autumn, the from recycled Constitution’s 3,400 polyester yarn copper sheets will made from have been removed discarded to reveal strips of soda bottles. felt on the hull, and While they 30 hull planks will are relatively be replaced. One maintenance- of the last projects free and non- will be the instal- absorbent, lation of new cop- the sails are per sheets to protect preyed on the ship from wood- by squirrels, boring mollusks which chew that can damage through them. the hull. !" BOSTONIA Fall 2015 { !""#$%&'%!()$ by *(+) $. ,-./$ } 26-53_Bostonia_FA15_r1.indd 30 10/6/15 10:29 AM being attacked by North Africa’s Barbary pirates. Humphreys’ design called for a bluff bow Shipshape It was clear that America needed a naval defense (flattened front) and a narrow, long hull for speed, r force, and in 1794 President George Washington matched with an acre’s worth of sails on her three signed the Naval Act, authorizing $600,000 for masts. The Constitution could reach speeds of 13 A worker replaces the gun the construction of six medium-sized warships, knots, or 15 miles an hour, much faster than most deck’s waterway, or frigates. These vessels, it was hoped, would ships her size. That’s the outrun. The outgun is which helps keep the sea-lanes open for commerce and defend visible on both the ship’s spar deck, where she drain water against pirates. carried 2 dozen 32-pound carronade cannons, and from the ship. Official naval constructor Joshua Humphreys her gun deck, with its 30 long guns, each weighing knew that the six frigates he was commissioned 6,000 pounds. to build—the Constitution, the USS Chesapeake, While the Constitution was designed to deliver the USS President, the USS United States, the USS punishing blows, Humphreys wanted to guaran- Congress, and the USS Constellation—would go tee that she wouldn’t be crippled by them.