Here’s why the USS Nantucket is docked in Charlestown

Local News

The Navy’s newest ship is set to be commissioned on Saturday right beside its oldest — the USS Constitution.

Aboard the USS Nantucket, the soon-to-be newest ship to join the U.S. Navy’s fleet, nods to the ship’s namesake island are everywhere.

Nantucket coins and flags are on display, and the ship’s living quarters are named after different parts of the island.

“It means a lot to us that we were named after Nantucket, and we try to take every opportunity that we can to honor them,” said Auxiliaries Officer Meghana Komarraju, whose room is named for Surfside.

Officers were each tasked with researching and sharing facts about their room’s designated location on Nantucket. 

“It’s basically a fun game for the crew to find a part of the island that they found interesting,” Komarraju said.

The USS Nantucket, a “fast, highly maneuverable, networked surface combat ship,” is 377 feet long, displaces 3,500 metric tons, and can achieve 47 knots, according to the Nantucket Historical Association. Roughly 94 people are expected to be part of the core crew of the ship, which was built at Fincantieri Marinette Marine in Wisconsin.

The ship, which arrived in Boston last Friday, is the 14th Freedom-class littoral combat ship, a new family of surface ships that are designed to operate in coastal waters to “counter growing potential ‘asymmetric’ threats of coastal mines, quiet diesel submarines, … and terrorists on small, fast, armed boats.,” according to the association.

“One thing that’s very unique about our class of ship is that, instead of the traditional rudders that you’ll see utilized on Navy ships, these water jets allow us to be incredibly maneuverable compared to the average vessel, and allow us to drive in a very unique manner,” Komarraju said.

The USS Nantucket’s pilot house includes several combinators that are used to drive the ship.

“It’s been an incredible opportunity on board the ship to get to actually put my hands on the combinators and get to drive the ship,” Komarraju said. “It’s a very cool thing to know that you’re literally in control of where our boat can go.”

The Navy’s newest ship is set to be commissioned on Saturday right beside its oldest — the USS Constitution.

“You have the Navy’s oldest commissioned ship, the Navy’s newest commissioned ship, and their missions are basically the same,” Senior Enlisted Leader Esmelin Villar said. “So many years apart, but we’re still doing the same mission, and protecting the United States.”

The USS Nantucket will be officially commissioned on Saturday, Nov. 16, at 10 a.m. at Charlestown Navy Yard in Boston, the Navy announced, and the ceremony will be livestreamed here.

On the forecastle, the ship’s upper deck, an array of nautical flags, typically used to communicate operations with other ships, are hung in preparation for Saturday’s ceremony.

At the ceremony, Polly Spencer, the wife of the 76th Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer, will give the order to “man our ship and bring her to life!” — a longstanding tradition that precedes the hoisting of the commissioning pennant.

Following its commissioning, the USS Nantucket will sail to its homeport assignment of Naval Station Mayport in Jacksonville, Florida.

“We’re just really excited after three years of the ship being built to be in Boston to celebrate the commissioning on Saturday,” Commanding Officer Kari Yakubisin said.