USS Constitution - famous heavy frigate. Pride of United States Navy. Named after the Constitution of the United States of America by President George Washington. Oldest commissioned vessel afloat in the world. Constitution, launched in 1797, was one of the six original frigates authorized for construction by the Naval Act of 1794. Joshua Humphreys designed Constitution and her sisters to be larger and more heavily armed and built than the standard frigates of the period. Built in Boston, Massachusetts, at Edmund Hartt's shipyard. Her first duty with the newly formed US Navy was to provide protection for American merchant shipping during the Quasi War with France and to defeat the Barbary pirates in the Mediterranean. Her most famous era of naval warfare was the War of 1812 against Great Britain, when she captured numerous merchant ships and defeated five British warships: HMS Guerriere, HMS Java, HMS Pictou, HMS Cyane and HMS Levant. The battle with Guerriere earned her the nickname of "Old Ironsides" and public adoration that has repeatedly saved her from scrapping. She continued to actively serve the nation as flagship in the Mediterranean and African squadrons and circled the world in the 1840s. During the American Civil War she served as a training ship for the United States Naval Academy and carried artwork and industrial displays to the Paris Exposition of 1878. Retired from active service in 1881, she served as a receiving ship until designated as museum ship in 1907. In 1931 she made a three year 90-port tour of the nation and in 1997 she finally sailed again under her own power for her 200th birthday. Ship was rebuilt and restored many times and today she does not look like she was built or participated in naval battles of 1803 and 1812.