Schubert and the Constitution

During the week, Will and I visited the U.S.S. Constitution at the Navy Yard, the world's oldest warship that is both commissioned and afloat.  The H.M.S. Victory is somewhat older but is in dry dock.  It's pretty darned impressive that a ship that is now 213 years old and, despite its monicker "Old Ironsides", made of wood, is still seaworthy.

Since we last visited, there are a lot more security arrangements now (due to 9/11) so it's harder to get a good picture of the ship as a whole.  But here it is (right) in 1997 in Boston Harbor (courtesy of Wikipedia).  Did you know that the ship, one of six frigates ordered by George Washington himself, was about to be sunk by target practice in 1905 before it was rescued by a fund-raising campaign?  And, did you realize that the reason we in Boston have her is that she was built here?  The other five were built at different yards from New Hampshire to Virginia.

The picture at the top was taken (obviously) on the gun deck.  This is a 24-pounder, typically handled by a gun crew of 9-14 men.  Unfortunately, I didn't think to put anything in the frame for scale.  Because we were a small group (only about a dozen of us), we were able to view the ward room and the captain's quarters.  We had particularly wanted to see all this as a result of our particular interest in the Napoleonic era, and my interest in the Patrick O'Brian stories in particular.  The fictional Captain Aubrey, largely based on a real-life naval officer of the time, Lord Cochrane, finds himself in the H.M.S. Java on its fateful encounter with Old Ironsides.  In the story (The Fortune of War) he and Maturin are put under house arrest in Boston when the Constitution finishes its tour.  They are treated extremely well.

There's now a third historic ship at the old Navy Yard (in addition to Old Ironsides and the U.S.S. Cassin Young, a WWII destroyer): the Nantucket (LV-112), a light ship that served on the treacherous Nantucket Shoals after its predecessor was cut in two by the R.M.S. Olympic (sister ship to the Titanic) in 1934.

Meanwhile, I've been preparing a talk on another product of 1797, Franz Schubert.  We will be performing Schubert's Great C Major symphony and the Schumann Piano Concerto.  In the talk, I shall be dissecting the second movement of the symphony in quite some detail.  Our favorite young pianist, 14-year-old George Li, will be back for his fourth appearance with us!