Dawn unfurls on a jubilant July morn in Boston harbor. In a boastful blue and lemon luster, the city awakens to host a proud day in American history. In celebration of her 200th birthday, the U.S.S. Constitution will set sail on her own merit for the first time in over 100 years.

Face first; its commanding bow spiring seaward, "Old Ironsides" stands poised to make her historic voyage around Massachusetts Bay. Oliver Wendell Holmes 1830 line.....

"Long has it waved on high,
And many an eye has danced to see
That banner in the sky"

can almost be heard in the gentle, blushful breeze as one by one, sailors climb and cradle her 18th century rigging, preparing to unveil the 20th century lightweight canvas that made this moment possible. Towlines untethered, her escort rests quietly in the distance.

President John F. Kennedy once remarked "the sight of that historic frigate... stirred my imagination and made American history come alive for me." As the world's oldest commissioned warship still afloat - and now navigational - "Old Ironsides" sails this day as the wooden embodiment of the invincible yet renewable American spirit. With the sun soon to rise on the 21st century, Constitution herself has now come alive, to inspire not only a whole new century, but a whole new millennium.

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