A sailor from Bend is celebrating America’s 242nd year of independence on Wednesday as part of the elite crew of a Navy ship that was fighting for his country before the first white settlers made their mark along the Deschutes River.

Seaman Recruit Dominick Cox, a 2017 Bend High School graduate, cooks for the crew of the 220-year-old wooden-hulled heavy frigate USS Constitution, the Boston-based U.S. Navy ship that received its name from President George Washington.

Three times during the War of 1812, the Constitution pounded away with cannons on British ships sailing the Atlantic. When the war broke out, the United States had 22 fighting ships, mostly smaller frigates. The British had nearly four times that number in American waters alone.

The Constitution defeated the HMS Guerriere in a battle of close-range broadsides on the high seas off Nova Scotia at the beginning of the war. It was during this fight that a crew member saw a British cannonball hit the wooden side of the Constitution and drop into the sea. “Huzzah, her sides are made of iron!” the crewman is said to have shouted.

The name “Old Ironsides” stuck with the ship thereafter.

The defeat of a ship of the mighty Royal Navy resounded around the United States — all 18 of them.

The victory was so famous that it helped keep the USS Constitution on the active Navy rolls as a symbol of American naval power for two centuries.

Though named after the initial year of the conflict between Britain and the United States, the War of 1812 actually lasted until 1815. The Constitution was involved in fights with three more British ships before the conflict ended.

The Constitution already had an illustrious history by 1813, when trappers are believed to have carved the numbers of the year on a rock near present-day Bend.

Cox said he was honored to have been selected as part of the crew of the historic fighting ship. He is part of the team that cooks for the 25-member unit that is assigned to the ship’s barrack on the pier.

Cox is officially a “culinary specialist” on the Constitution. But all sailors are expected to have knowledge of the ship, from crow’s-nest to keel.

“I’ve also seen others overcome their fear of heights because we have to climb up to the fighting top of the ship,” Cox said in an email.

Over the decades, the Constitution served to protect American merchants in the Atlantic, Caribbean, Mediterranean and Pacific. It has sailed around the world and visited most major ports in the nation.

Cox is not only on duty, but in the public eye. The Constitution’s main role is to be a museum of American naval history.

Streams of school groups and other tourists visit the ship, which is part of The Freedom Trail.

Visitors often combine a stop in between a tour of Paul Revere’s house in the North End of Boston and a climb up Bunker Hill, site of a key early Revolutionary War battle.

“I enjoy communicating with the public and getting to know other people through ship tours,” Cox said.

Navy Cmdr. Nathaniel R. Shick, commanding officer of the Constitution, said Cox and his crewmates are front and center in representing the Navy to 500,000 visitors each year.

“Each sailor is hand selected for this command, undergoing a rigorous college level curriculum studying American Naval History in the Age of Sail and building confidence through daily public communication before reporting aboard the Constitution,” Shick said.

While preparing for duty on the Constitution, Cox earned the “hard-charger award” at the Navy’s cooking school in Fort Lee, Virginia, in 2017.

The honor was not just for his own hard work, but his penchant for aiding other sailors in excelling during training.

Cox credits his teachers in Bend for whatever poise he brings to the job.

“I learned how to communicate with others and the importance of doing what you need to get the job done,” Cox said.

While his duties are unique for the Navy, Cox said that he knows he is part of a worldwide force above, on and below the seas that when necessary calls on its members to put their lives on the line for the nation.

“Serving in the Navy means that we’re part of a shield serving as a first line of defense stopping our enemies from getting to those we care about the most,” added Cox.

—Reporter: 541-640-2750, gwarner@bendbulletin.com