John's Plastic Ships: March 2015

the gun deck looking fwd. The large white structure is a portable generator.

In 2005 I was lucky enough to be invited to the July 4 USS Constitution Turnaround cruise. The ship is towed from dockside to the mouth of Boston Harbor, turned 180 degrees and returned to the dock. This is to keep weathering even. I was one of the first to board so I took the opportunity to take pictures before it got crowded. When everyone was aboard I think there were around 300 people. During the 2 hour cruise the main hatch was the center of attention, with speeches from dignitaries, music from a Navy Band and the swearing in of about two dozen new American Citizens. Throughout the cruise a number of American Flags were ceremonially flown. At the mouth of the harbor gun salutes were exchanged between the ship and the fort at the harbor entrance. One of the forward cannons was loadable from the breach and could be fired by a single gunners mate. The bulwarks are higher then I expected to see so it was necessary look through a gun port to see activity around the ship, but there must have been a hundred small craft traveling in company with us. In Boston this is a really big thing! When I said I was lucky to be invited, I mean that literally. I won the invite through a lottery! At the time I was building a 1/100 scale model of the ship and I was going to the USS Constitution website a lot to view photos of the ship. One of the links was labeled "Lottery", so I clicked it just for curiosity and found invites to the turnaround cruise could be won. So I filled out the form and promptly forgot about it. About a month later a notice arrived by mail (I almost through it out thinking it was junk mail) saying I had won! The day was just about perfect, the weather could not have been better. Something to remember for life.