Urban Myths: Part 1

This was sent to me from a friend awhile back, so it's not the first time I've read the text accompanying the photo of 'Old Ironsides". It was an interesting read about a real ship, and one that is still afloat today. More on that later, but for now, give it a read and see what you think and read my comments afterwards.

U.S.S. Constitution a.k.a. Old Ironsides

The U. S. S.. Constitution (Old Ironsides), as a combat vessel, carried 
48,600 gallons of fresh water for her crew of 475 officers and men.
This was sufficient to last six months of sustained operations at sea. 
She carried no evaporators (i.e. fresh water distillers).
However, let it be noted that according to her ship's log, 
"On July 27, 1798, the U.S.S. Constitution sailed from Boston with a full complement of 475 officers and men, 48,600 gallons of fresh water, 
7,400 cannon shot, 
11,600 pounds of black powder and 
79,400 gallons of rum."
Her mission: "To destroy and harass English shipping."
Making Jamaica on 6 October, she took on 
826 pounds of flour and 68,300 gallons of rum. 
Then she headed for the Azores , arriving there 12 November.. 
She provisioned with 550 pounds of beef and 64,300 gallons of Portuguese wine.
On 18 November, she set sail for England . 
In the ensuing days she defeated five British men-of-war ships,
and captured and scuttled 12 English merchant ships, 
salvaging only the rum aboard each.
By 26 January, her powder and shot were exhausted. 
Nevertheless, although unarmed she made a night raid up the Firth of Clyde in Scotland . 
Her landing party captured a whisky distillery and transferred 
40,000 gallons of single malt Scotch aboard by dawn. 
Then she headed home.
The U. S. S. Constitution arrived in Boston on 20 February 1799, 
with no cannon shot, 
no food, 
no powder,
no rum, 
no wine, 
no whisky, 
and 38,600 gallons of water. 



GO NAVY !
So, the ship is the real deal and is the oldest commissioned naval vessel still afloat. She got her name from George Washington himself but the nickname "Old Ironsides" came from a sailor who, after witnessing shot being deflected off the ships hull during a battle, claimed the ship's sides were made of iron!
As for the tales of her massive stores of rum, wine and whiskey, I had to think b.s., simply based on the size of the ship and the weight of all that liquid, not to mention the volume of all that stuff. Water weighs about 2.2  kg per litre (8.5 lbs per gallon), so all the booze must be about the same, meaning there would be in excess of 450,000 kg (1 million lbs) of additional weight on the ship, if you include the necessary water in the calculations. And, where would they put it all? I mean, the ship is 92 m (304 ft) long and 4.2 m (14 ft) deep in the hull, so not much room when considering you have all those men and all the other supplies required to survive at sea for that time period.
So, I looked into it a bit more and sure enough, came across plenty of discussion forums and websites that all pretty much agreed that this 'article' was a myth. Many of the sites that I read talked mostly about the historical discrepancies, be it the fact that at that time the U.S. was not at war with the British ( it was a quasi-war with the French actually) and that the ship's log does not support much of the locations and destinations as claimed in the article.
And lastly, if you consider the amount of alcohol that would have had to be consumed in the amount of time claimed by the article, they were either bathing in the stuff or using it to swab the decks. For a crew of 475 men to consume 300,561 litres ( 79, 400 gal) in 71 days would mean that each man was consuming about 8.7 litres ( 2.3 gallons) of liquor per day. That would be about 11 standard bottles of rum in a day and pretty much impossible, even for a well seasoned sailor.
Bang bang...shot that one down pretty quick!! Now, I am on the hunt for more of the same sorts of stories that seem to circulate on the internet on a regular basis. Look for my future post titled "Urban Myths: Part 2" where we look at the one wing plane landing!!