A USS Constitution crew member prepares for a training event as part of Chief Petty Officer Heritage Week in Boston, Aug. 19, 2019. The week is dedicated to mentoring the Navy’s newest chiefs through history and heritage training aboard its oldest commissioned ship. Also known as Old Ironsides, the USS Constitution is a wooden-hulled, three-masted frigate. She was commissioned in 1797 and named by President George Washington after the U.S. Constitution. Interestingly, Old Ironsides is the world’s oldest commissioned naval vessel still afloat. The British HMS Victory, Admiral Nelson’s flagship in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, is also afloat but out of commission.