" It must be a little intimidating working on what is basically a part of American history, old iron side."

" It certainly is, but before we begin Bob, I just like to emphasize that this is an inspection and repair and not a remodel."

" We're not changing anything."

" We're not gonna change a thing, we're gonna get this ship back to the people just the way she was when we took her, awfully a bit stronger."

" Now she looks unrecognizable without the masts."

" What we have done, it was necessary to strip the three masts the fore, the main and the mizzen prior to docking the ship."

" Yeah."

" And what we're doing over here, is we're manufacturing a new mizzenmast out of a laminated Douglas-fir."

" So..."

" When we go aboard with them we'll be able to see where this mast steps and rest aboard the ship itself."

" And this is all being made out of Native American stock."

" All the material we're using is Native American stock. Basically, it's White Oak, Live Oak, and Douglas-fir."

" Is that what they're cutting over here, it looks like an oak tree."

" That's exactly what it is Bob. It's a piece of a swollen White Oak, we've keep up in train Indiana, where they have the global material that's still keep in stock [unk] repairs."

" Yeah."

" And this particular piece we'll we used the whole plant."

" Don, is there a model that we can look at, that helps us understand the structure of the ship?"

" Inside Bob, we have an excellent model."

" Great."

" I think it'll gonna have a great deal."

" Now, what's this timber?"

" Bob, this is a White Oak hull plank it's gonna go on the outside of the ship. It's about 40 feet long and 6 inches in thickness."

" Amazing. So that will go somewhere along..."

" Right, it goes along in here Bob."

" The Hull of the boat."

" And this gives us an idea of how old this ship is structured. What are these red members?"

" Those red timbers are diagonals that were part of the original specifications as part of the ship in 1794. But they've been left out and we're thinking of reinstalling them and we're trying to get Washington to look at them and see if they would concur."

" Indeed. That would add a lot of strength."

" A lot of longitudinal strength to it Bob."

" Is the rigging also being replaced?"

" Yup, it's being made in the 3rd floor here Bob in the rigging loft."

" Great."

" How much rigging does a frigate like this require?"

" There's about 27 mile of rigging on the Constitution."

" 27 miles of ropes and lines, etc."

" That's right."

" And what's being done here?"

" What they're doing here is they're hand splicing a thimble into one of the lower Bentinck shrouds. And a Bentinck shrouds are cross bracing on the stand and rigging the -- to go on the floor and the main and help to support it."

" The terminology is almost as impressive as to what we're looking at."

" That's one of the difficulties in getting to learn the job."

" That's great. Can we actually go board ship now?"

" We certainly can. Wow! What is this thing?"

" This is the lower section of the capstan Bob. This is the only thing the sailors had from a mechanical advantage for raising the eight arms and for taking the anchor up and padding it."

" Sure, yeah. So they're gonna stock large pieces of wood in here and a bunch of sailors would've turned this thing around."

" That's exactly right. And to close them all, how to do that, they would've struck all the ladders."

" I'm gonna wear one of these 'cause those sailors were a lot shorter than we are right?"

" I agree."

" The members are pretty low down here. Wow! Look at this thing, this is new right?"

" Yes it is Bob, that's a piece of [unk] and it goes here on top of the wall away, this 2 elevations of it."

" What do you call this joint?"

" That's a scarf joint Bob and we're installing them to give the ships some longitudinal strength. As you can see it locks together with this particular lock on the piece I've already installed."

" Right. So, it kind of acts like the hoop around the barrel."

" Exactly right. It adds a lot of longitudinal strength to the ship."

" How many layers of wood do we have here on the hull?"

" We have 3 separate skins here Bob, we have the outer hull planking which is outside the framing. We have the framing itself and then we have the inside sailing plank. So in this particular area, you have about 21 inches of solid wood."

" No wonder they call it iron side. Can we take a look at the outside of the hull?"

" We certainly can."

" Great."

" So tell us about the dry dock?"

" This is the second oldest dry dock in the country. It was started on the John Quincy Adams and was completed under Andrew Jackson. The dock is about 500 feet long which is twice as long as ship which is just about 208. It's 30 feet deep and..."

" And the ship..."

" Constitution was the first ship in the dry dock."

" The ship projects way above that 300 feet doesn't it."

" Way above the top of the dock."

" Yeah."

" Where at the stern end of the Constitution. Where's the rudder?"

" The rudder was taken off for restoration about 3 years back, we have it all recarpet and ready to go back on Bob."

" Fabulous. Now, is all the bronze that I'm looking at and all of this timber is it original?"

" Most of the timber and probably all of the bronze is original Bob we believe it goes back to the original construction in 1797."

" Now, is it true that the hull was copper clad?"

" Yes it was the copper was on that ship when she was launched and we replaced the copper this time. The original copper was supplied by Paul Revere."

" Really?"

" And the Revere Company is involved in supplying the copper and it's availability as well."

" That's incredible. How is all the planking attached to the rigging of the ship?"

" The planking is attached with copper pins. This is a typical pin, we believe this pin was installed in 1797, you can see some corrosion on it."

" Amazing. And the keel, do you think this is original?"

" We believe the keel and many of the lower streaks and longitudinal ways of planking are original. The keel itself has a four major pieces."

" And we can see a scarf joint here just as we saw in the hull."

" That's right, that's a typical marine joint."

" That's amazing to think that these timbers could've been growing when Columbus discovered America. It could've have been filled when they laid out this keel in 1795 is it?"

" 1794 but I've heard, it's very possible that this timbers would be well over 200 years old before they were cut."