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- Good afternoon, everyone.

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My name is Boatswain Mate
Second Class Jason Wyatt,

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and you are on board USS Constitution,

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the oldest commissioned warship afloat,

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America's ship of State.

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And welcome to the aft magazine
and powder filling rooms.

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So this is where the powder was stored

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for the ship,

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and where they will fill cartridges

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and run them to the gun teams.

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Now USS Constitution carries
replicas of carronades,

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24 pound long guns

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and that's what we would have used

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in the battles for 200 years ago,

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the Quasi-War, War of 1812,
and so on and so forth.

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Through our 33 engagements
and undefeatedness,

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she would have used this room quite a bit.

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Now, the room behind
us is the filling room,

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you can't really see
it, but that is the room

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where the cartridges would
have been filled of use.

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Three, six and eight pound cartridges,

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and they would have been filled

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in flannel, satchels if you will.

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Now, powder passers would get those

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and then they would, in turn,
transfer them to their cases,

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or cartridges, or satchels to
protect them from the heat.

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The powder that we have is
black powder, very volatile.

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If it encountered any heat,
it would spark, or ignite

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and that's something we did not want.

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So they would transport
them in leather cases.

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And the powder passers that I spoke of,

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those were men and boys

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and they would run the
gunpowder from this area

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to the gun teams on the gun
deck and also on the (mumbles).

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Now, being in this room is lining copper.

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One of the reasons that is lining copper,

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for watertight integrity.

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Another reason, it's
also non-sparking metal,

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non-ferrous metal, copper.

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So that was a dual purpose of this room

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being lined in copper.

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Now, the powder would
also be stored in barrels.

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The barrels would be
rotated every so often

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because they had components.

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The powder had components like sulfur,

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saltpeter and charcoal,

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and they need to be rotated
so it didn't go back.

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So that's what they would do.

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The gunner and his mates
would be down here,

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and they would only be allowed down here

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during live fire exercises,
and during battle.

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So there was not a whole lot
of messing around down here.

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Now, also, this room
would have been very dark

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without the modern day lighting
we have installed down here.

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So how they lit the room
was with a lantern light

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which seems kind of counterproductive

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even though this is powder.

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But the lantern light was
behind a thick glass partition

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had protected the powder from the flame.

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So that would light this room

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so they can do their work down here,

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rotate barrels, fill cartridges,
and so on and so forth.

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As far as for the chief selects
that are going to be here,

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that are gonna be a part of this station,

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mainly what you gonna be doing
is shining the aft magazine

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but that is not just the only
purpose why we're doing this.

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Team building is one,
togetherness is another,

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and getting your gun team
to be a unit, cohesive unit

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is one of the reasons why this
station is very important.

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You might get a little downtime,

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you might be being able
to talk to your mentors,

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and things of that sort.

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And also you'll have the team lead,

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like myself when I was here,

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to also talk about the
constitution, and how it is here,

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and kind of give some mentorship there

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you guys being chief selects
and also the chief mentors.

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So very important station,
the aft magazine station,

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and I hope for you guys get
a lot out of this station.

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Also you get a little bit of mentoring

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in for one of our junior
guys that'll be here.

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Other than that,

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thank you very much for
this portion of the video,

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and I will see you later.