CONSTITUTION Update
January 2nd, 2009 From
>Date: Wed, 09 Jul 1997 00:02:55 -0500
>From: Brooks A Rowlett
>Reply-To: brooksar@indy.net
>Organization: nonexistent
>X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.01Gold (Macintosh; I; PPC)
>To: Mahan Naval History Mailing List
>Subject: CONSTITUTION Update
>Precendence: bulk
>Sender: mahan-owner@microworks.net
>
> > Subject:
> > USS Constitution Sails Again.
> > Date:
> > Tue, 8 Jul 1997 21:49:27 -0400 (EDT)
> > From:
> > Andrew Toppan
> > To:
> > Sandy McClearn
> > Chris Cavas
> > Larry Jewell
> >
> >
> >
> > History was made today — USS Constitution sailed for the first time since
> > 1881. She was towed out into Massachusetts Bay for “sea trials”, all 6
> > sails (3 tops’ls, spanker, 2 jibs) were set, and all but one of the tugs
> > were released. For a bit more than 4 miles she sailed under her own
> > power, with the towlines hanging slack. Her top speed was 6.5 knots with
> > about 12 knots of wind. Total underway time was 8.5 hours, total distance
> > covered under tow and sail was 35 miles.
> >
> > Officially this is not considered her “first sail since 1881” because the
> > tug’s lines were not released, but she clearly was under her own power, so
> > everybody is ignoring the Navy’s semantics over the “tow vs. sail”. The
> > local newsmedia was aboard, but they did an excellent job of not leaking
> > the story beforehand — we heard absolutely nothing in the local news
> > before the event took place.
> >
> > All results from the trials were excellent — absolutely no problems were
> > found; everything worked perfectly. Her official “first sail” will be
> > July 21st, with a guided missile destroyer, guided missile frigate and the
> > Blue Angels in attendance.
> >
> > —
> > Andrew Toppan — elmer@wpi.edu
> > Rail, Sea and Air InfoPages and FAQ Archive (Military & TC FAQs)
> > [http://www.membrane.com/~elmer/] mirror [http://www.announce.com/~elmer/]
> > “Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine”
> >