Here’s a note worth bringing out of the comments boxes of a previous post: 

Sir-

While doing some research for a book about the Barbary Wars, I had a chance to do some fairly heavy research on Constitution - the legend about the USN wanting to break her up is actaully somewhat misleading. At the time Constitution was laid up ‘in ordinary’(along with a good chunk of the rest of the Navy) and the leadership in Washington ordered her surveyed - along with all the other laid-up vessels - to see how much it would cost to get her back on the line. A Boston reporter took ’surveyed’ to mean the traditional inspection before an item is disposed of, adn wrote his story accordingly, without bothering the check with the USN. The rest, as they say, is history.
FWIW, President and Chesapeake were both captured by the RN, while Congress and Constellation madde it into the 1850s before they were surveyed due to badly deteriorated hulls. (Both ships were broken up but quite a bit of their material was salvaged and added to new material to build new ships with the same names, which has kept historians going nuts for decades.) United States survived capture by the CSN in 1861 but was burned when the Federals recaptured Norfolk, and even with her record Constitution came close to disintegrating on at least three occasions between the 1840s and the 1930s.

Best regards,
Mike Kozlowksi
SSGT, USAF (Ret)

Thank you, SSGT Kozlowski!

So there you have it: A USAF Staff Sergeant (retired, even!) who knows his naval history better than an active naval officer. Is this a great country, or what?