Those of you who follow this blog are familiar with my fondness for museum ships. Yesterday, I was going to pay a visit to my favorite battleship, USS Massachusetts, at Battleship Cove. However, I then remembered that there were two museum ships in Boston that I had never seen—the legendary USS Constitution and the acclaimed USS Cassin Young. Both ships are located in the Charlestown Navy Yard in Boston.

I started with the USS Cassin Young, a Fletcher-class destroyer named after Captain Cassin Young, who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for outstanding heroism during the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. He also served with distinction during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal in 1942 when he was commanding the USS San Francisco and was killed by enemy shells.

The USS Cassin Young served in both World War II and during the Cold War.  She was decommissioned in 1960 and transferred to the National Park Service, and was opened to the public in 1981. The ship is wonderfully preserved and offers both guided and self-guided tours. I highly recommend the guided tour, which takes place a few times a day. The depth of knowledge by our guide was five-star all the way. Also, on the guided tour, they take you to places that are not available if you self-guide.

My next stop was to the historic “Old Ironsides,” the USS Constitution. Nearly as old as the United States itself, this three-masted wooden frigate is the “world’s oldest commissioned naval warship still afloat.”

There is something truly magical about stepping onto her decks. The USS Constitution isn’t a replica like Columbus’s ships, the Nina and Pinta, but the real deal. Of course, she has been rebuilt throughout her time, but the fact that she’s still with us speaks to her importance and place in United States history, with her actions in the War of 1812 being the most notable, with her victory over the HMS Guerriere (a code word I also used in SOS United States).

What, of course, is fascinating to me is that the USS Constitution is still in active service with officers and sailors. The sailors who were on board yesterday were a fountain of knowledge and knew the history of this great ship from the literal bow to the stern.  They confirmed that the USS Constitution will take part in the 250th anniversary celebrations of the United States next year in cooperation with the Sail Boston (tall ships) festivities.

I have always found museum ships to be a wonderful time capsule of history. From the RMS Queen Mary in Long Beach, California, to the USS Massachusetts in Fall River, Massachusetts, each represents a point in time that can be experienced in the present. Remember the saying, “Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.”