Today in 1797, the launch of the USS Constitution, the oldest active duty ship in the US Navy’s fleet.

And for the last half century or so, a part of keeping the ship known as “Old Ironsides” in operation is a special US Navy forest.

The Constitution was one of the first six ships commissioned for the US Navy.

It was part of the fleet that patrolled the Mediterranean for pirate ships during the Barbary Wars in the early 1800s.

But what made the ship a legend was the War of 1812.

This is a conflict where things rarely went the Americans’ way, like when invading troops burned the White House just after the president fled Washington.

But time after time, the Constitution went to battle and defeated other ships.

During one of these engagements, someone reported seeing a shot hit the side of the Constitution and bounce right off.

They shouted, “Huzzah! Her sides are made of iron!” and the ship won the nickname “Old Ironsides.”

It’s important to note that the ship’s hull was made of seven inch thick planks of wood, not iron.

And while the legend suggests a ship that could shrug off enemy fire like it was nothing, the Constitution actually took a fair bit of damage during its wartime experience.

It would continue its naval service for decades, but every so often it would need repairs and people would wonder if this ship was no longer needed.

Then there would be public outcry, and fundraising campaigns, and the Navy would overhaul the ship.

One of those restorations in the 1920s and 30s used wood brought in from all over the country.

That eventually got people in the Navy thinking: even as the Constitution stopped sailing far from home and essentially became a kind of floating historic site in Boston’s Charlestown Navy Yard, it would still need wood from time to time for restoration work.

So rather than hope that big, thick planks would be available somewhere in the world, the Navy figured, why not grow our own?

In the 1970s, just ahead of the bicentennial, the Navy dedicated a grove of white oak trees on a naval support base in Crane, Indiana as “Constitution Grove.”

Those trees were being grown specifically for future work on the Navy’s oldest ship.

And some of them have been put into service: in 2014, the Navy chose 35 of the trees in Constitution Grove to use in an upcoming restoration of Old Ironsides.

And hopefully that wood keeps the ship afloat for a good long while to come.

This is National Teen Driver Safety Week.

If you’re gearing up to take that road safety test, make sure you do lots of practice and studying.

But if you don’t end up passing, you can always try again; just ask Cha Sa-soon of South Korea.

She set a record by taking her driving test 960 times before she finally passed in 2010.

So take a deep breath and do your best!

The “Wooden Walls” of USS Constitution (USS Constitution Museum)

More than 4 in 10 people fail driving test (CBS News)

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Photo by Dennis Jarvis via Flickr/Creative Commons