‘Old Ironsides’ Readied for Seagoing Birthday

BOSTON — Navy Cmdr. Michael Beck is studying his orders.

“The ship, perceiving danger to windward, puts the helm to port, hauls up the mizzen, down the mizzen staysail and shivers the mizzen topsail by letting go the lee brace and hauling in the weather one,” he reads.

Shivers the mizzen? The lee brace?

It’s not your standard naval manual. But, after all, this involves the oldest commissioned warship in the world, the 200-year-old USS Constitution.

Beck’s crew is training to do what no one has done in 116 years: take the ship to sea under sail. He says that won’t be as hard as the lingo might suggest.

“There was great logic and simplicity to this,” he says. “They weren’t brain surgeons in the Navy 200 years ago, they were sailors.”

But all the sailing hasn’t been, well, smooth.

On their fourth day of training, the crew attempted a port tack but turned the yardarms at steep angles to each other rather than in tandem. Had this been done at sea with the sails unfurled, it would have put “Old Ironsides” in irons--stalled it, in other words.

Beck has plenty of time to iron out the flubs. The Navy’s oldest ship is due to sail into Boston Harbor on July 21 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of its launching.

“On July 21, when we go on a port tack, we’d better go on a port tack,” grumbled Bob Burbank, a civilian from the Naval Historical Detachment helping prepare the ship to sail.

Says Beck, who relies on an 1819 sailing guide: “That was an important mistake to make, because they were very embarrassed and I’m sure they will not make that mistake again.”

The ship, which earned its nickname in the War of 1812, is one of six frigates ordered built by Congress in 1794.

The 204-foot, three-masted ship traditionally has ventured from its dock only once a year: on the Fourth of July, when it is turned around so it will weather evenly.

This summer, it will sail under its own power for the first time since 1881, thanks to a four-year, $3.7-million renovation that replaced copper plating, strengthened the keel and replaced rotting planks and broken pegs. Six sails will be unfurled; fully rigged, the Constitution could raise 36 sails.

Beck pledged to take the ship out under sail--and to do the job right--almost as soon as he took command.

“It’s going to look like a ballet,” he said. “Nobody will have to say anything. You’ll get up on the rail and move smoothly to the top. It will look like ants on all three masts doing the job at the same time.”

The rigging was worked up with the help of 1920s-era photographs, and crew members wear hard hats and use safety harnesses. But the procedures are the same.

“I had no idea that I was going to be climbing shrouds and furling sails,” said Petty Officer Kathleen Rouge, 24, whose previous assignment was aboard amphibious assault boats in the Mediterranean. “But we’re making history. I feel honored.”