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Saving Old Ironsides

September 12, 2012

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Profile America -- Wednesday, September 12th. One of the nation's historical treasures is the wooden frigate USS Constitution, better known as "Old Ironsides." Launched in 1797, the ship became famous in the War of 1812. In September 1830, it was reported that the fabled vessel was to be scrapped. This led young law student Oliver Wendell Holmes to publish a poem in the ship's defense in a Boston newspaper. The result was a national uproar, and Congress voted to restore the ship, which to this day proudly floats in Boston Harbor as the oldest war ship in the world still in commission. Today, from destroyers to nuclear aircraft carriers, there are 103,000 men and women of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps serving aboard navy ships. Profile America is in its 16th year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau.

Sources: Chase's Calendar of Events 2012, p. 455
Statistical Abstract of the United States 2012, t. 509
http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2012edition.html