U.S. Frigate Constitution

The stamp was issued on October 21, 1947 to honor the 150th anniversary if the launching of the U.S. Frigate Constitution. "Old Ironsides" as it is known was built in Boston between 1794 and 1797 and launched on October 21, 1797 as a warship. It saw service during the War of 1812 as an invincible ship with "sides of iron." Memorialized in Oliver Wendell Holmes' poem, finally in 1931, after years of neglect she was restored and recommissioned and today is the oldest warship in the world still afloat. She is on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places and is anchored at the Boston Naval Shipyard, in Boston, Massachusetts.