this post was submitted on 10 Nov 2023
488 points (98.4% liked)

pics

19311 readers
42 users here now

Rules:

1.. Please mark original photos with [OC] in the title if you're the photographer

2..Pictures containing a politician from any country or planet are prohibited, this is a community voted on rule.

3.. Image must be a photograph, no AI or digital art.

4.. No NSFW/Cosplay/Spam/Trolling images.

5.. Be civil. No racism or bigotry.

Photo of the Week Rule(s):

1.. On Fridays, the most upvoted original, marked [OC], photo posted between Friday and Thursday will be the next week's banner and featured photo.

2.. The weekly photos will be saved for an end of the year run off.

Weeks 2023

Instance-wide rules always apply. https://mastodon.world/about

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 78 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Fun fact about th USS Constitution, the US Navy maintains an entire white oak forest in Indiana just to use in the maintenance of this one ship.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 10 months ago (1 children)

That actually is a very fun fact.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 35 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 33 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Pfft that's nothing. HMAS Melbourne was the only Australian ship to sink two friendly ships in peacetime 💪

She was just that eager to spill blood.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago

Metal as fuck

[–] [email protected] 31 points 10 months ago (1 children)

It's cooler in Fallout 4. It's crewed by robots and flies.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Also real life is a downer. Was super cramped, don’t know how they fit 100 dudes in that thing.

Also, since our taxes are keeping it floatable, would it kill them to bring it into armament parity? Swap out the guns with missile tubes, maybe an icbm tower in one of the masts?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Are M134 chaser guns too much to ask for?

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 24 points 10 months ago (1 children)

that one unit in Civilization you forgot about and never upgraded in 500 years

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 19 points 10 months ago (2 children)

USS Constitution April 2022

Cool ship, took a tour last year

[–] [email protected] 16 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago

Men only want one thing and it's ~~disgusting~~ beautiful

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I took a tour in June of 1980. Great ship. Fun to see an old sailing vessel up close.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 18 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I have a 3ft model of the constitution in a box that I've been meaning to put together for about 10 years now... but cats.

Maybe someday I'll have a spot to put it together in peace.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

I got a china cabinet at an estate sale and have been putting some Lego sets in there and its been cat proof…….. so far

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 18 points 10 months ago

That looks rad!

[–] [email protected] 17 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Oldest American naval warship still afloat....

[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Or any nation as far as sources I have list.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago

Apparently there is this uge differwncw about where you storage them. The only reason some portugues and British ships aren't the oldest sailing vessels is because we keep them in museums. Yhe but they are still in comission, sooo idk I guess we where both right depending how you frase it.

So, while the USS Constitution is the oldest naval vessel still afloat, the HMS Victory holds the record for the oldest naval vessel still in commission. Both ships are significant historical artifacts and serve as museum ships, commemorating important eras in naval history.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Although HMS victory is the oldest naval vessel in comission, she's got 3 decades on the old girl

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago (5 children)
load more comments (5 replies)
[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago (2 children)

What's the shitter look like?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 10 months ago (2 children)

None to speak of. Poop was slammed off the sides.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago

Both wrong and right

https://ussconstitutionmuseum.org/2014/01/18/head-lines/

Hilarious title, 'Head Lines'

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago
[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago (2 children)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago

So old it's still grayscale

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Does it still sail, tough? I know the French analog, the Hermione, does.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago
[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

I wonder what happened to the USS Charisma

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I'm guessing she's having some work done to the rigging? Not a yard on her.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (3 children)

I feel like the term afloat is used because it not safe to take out in open water?

[–] [email protected] 54 points 10 months ago (2 children)

No, they sail her around all the time. The USS Constitution is a commissioned vessel in the United States Navy, crewed by active duty sailors. They use the term "afloat" because HMS Victory is the oldest commissioned naval vessel, but she is kept as a museum ship in drydock.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago (3 children)

That makes sense, appreciate the answer. I’ve just always heard it as “sea-worthy” before, afloat in that sense is a little weird.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago

Well, knowing the USN, the reason is either a) some extremely long, convoluted line of reasoning formulated through several Senate subcommittee hearings to avoid pissing anyone off or b) someone wrote it that way once 75 years ago, and no one knows enough about why to want to change it.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I’m in the navy. “Afloat” means “goes to sea”, generally. A museum ship might literally be floating in water, but it can’t go to sea.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Fun fact: HMS Victory was actually bombed by the Nazis during WWII, which means she technically saw combat over a span of ~~144~~ 164 years (1778-1941).

Edit: math are hard.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 10 months ago (4 children)

Oldest "active" ship in the US (or any) navy, IIRC, they take it out once a year to get rated seaworthy & remain active. Amazing ship. want to feel like a puny, pampered modern person? Read Patrick Obriens 20 volume Master and Commander series...so many unwashed asses on these for so many months in some of the most inhospitable regions of this planet.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Twice a year to turn it around for equal weathering. They raffle tickets for people to ride on it.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

They also sailed her under her own power back in the late 1990’s. I was a USCG Auxiliarist back then and was on one of the escort boats that kept the public from getting too close.

They also occasionally do invite-only turnaround cruises. I was lucky enough to be invited on one of those during my USCG days as well.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I’m more into space, but I’ll put it on the list…

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago (4 children)

Nope. Old Ironsides is seaworthy and makes regular trips out to open ocean, usually under tow but she has an incomplete set of sails and can sail under her own power.

The US Navy owns a plot of southern live oak trees in Georgia set aside specifically for maintaining USS Constitution.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

From what I've been able to find, the ships were originally built using live oak trees from Georgia, but the forest the US Navy maintains for the USS Constitution is in Indiana.

https://www.military.com/history/why-us-navy-manages-its-own-private-forest.html

https://ussconstitutionmuseum.org/2015/05/11/the-wooden-walls/

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›