No, they sail her around all the time. The USS Constitution is a commissioned vessel in the United States Navy, crewed by active duty sailors. They use the term "afloat" because HMS Victory is the oldest commissioned naval vessel, but she is kept as a museum ship in drydock.

[–] schmidtster@lemmy.world 10 points 10 months ago (2 children)

That makes sense, appreciate the answer. I’ve just always heard it as “sea-worthy” before, afloat in that sense is a little weird.

[–] ZapBeebz_@lemmy.world 9 points 10 months ago

Well, knowing the USN, the reason is either a) some extremely long, convoluted line of reasoning formulated through several Senate subcommittee hearings to avoid pissing anyone off or b) someone wrote it that way once 75 years ago, and no one knows enough about why to want to change it.

[–] Radicalized@lemmy.one 5 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I’m in the navy. “Afloat” means “goes to sea”, generally. A museum ship might literally be floating in water, but it can’t go to sea.

[–] ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Fun fact: HMS Victory was actually bombed by the Nazis during WWII, which means she technically saw combat over a span of ~~144~~ 164 years (1778-1941).

Edit: math are hard.