…also known as Old Ironsides, is a wooden-hulled 3-masted heavy frigate of the US Navy & the world's oldest commissioned warship still afloat (launched in 1797). Designed to be one of the young Navy's capital ships, the Constitution & her sister ships (6) were built larger & more heavily armed than standard frigates of the period. First duties were providing protection for American merchant shipping during the “undeclared war” with France & to defeat the Muslim barbary pirates in the 1st barbary war.