To get this quest, you first must find the U.S.S. Constitution, which is east of Bunker Hill. As you go near it (which is bound to get some dialog from your companion), you will have a Lookout Mr. Handy approach you, scan you, and then conscript you into the “congressional army” (note that if you are playing a male character, it will note that you were indeed in the army according to the game’s back-story, and if your protagonist is female, it will identify you as a lawyer, which is a nice little touch). The game will then start this quest, tasking you to meet the Captain on board the ship.

To actually get into the ship, head into the bank underneath it. Loot the cash registers here (one has fallen behind the counter) for a good amount of pre-war money, then climb up the rubble to the second floor. You can find a staircase leading up to the third floor up here, so take it up and follow the path south here out of the building and to a hatch at the bottom of the ship to enter the U.S.S. Constitution proper.

U.S.S. Constitution¶

You are at the very bottom of the ship here but need to head to the top. They have closed off the ladders here so you have to travel back and forth, but that’s no big deal really. On the second floor to the north you can find a Steamer Trunk, but taking anything in the ship (even after this quest is long done) is stealing, so be sure you don’t get caught (we don’t want to fail this quest yet!). Once you get to the third floor, you will meet the “First Mate” who will want to kill you! Heh, thankfully the captain tells him no and you can be on our way. Note the [Master] locked door to the north. You can pick it to reach the Captain’s Quarters, which you should do if you can as inside, in the left corner next to a lantern, is a U.S. Covert Operations Manual . You can also interestingly enough sleep in the bed if you wish. Because robots don’t need beds, right? Whatever you do, be sure to come back here once you complete the mission (if you can’t pick the lock) to get the skill magazine. Head outside and continue up to the top deck (“Charlestown”).

Before talking to the Captain, head to the north once you get out here and into the small supply boat, as it has a Duffle Bag, a Wooden Crate and a First Aid Box you can just loot (without stealing, like down below). Go talk to the Captain now and he’ll admit that he needs out help with repairs (while cursing Weatherby Savings & Loan - hilarious!). You can pass an easy speech check here for a small (extra) reward, so you may as well do it (although beware, some companions don’t like you doing this). In the end, Captain Ironsides will ask you to talk to Boson and The Navigator.

Right after you get done talking, the ship will be attacked by Scavengers. You will be told to (optionally) fire the cannons at them, which you can do with the circuit breaker that has an objective marker on it. You want to be extra careful here and do not use explosives (minus the cannons, as those are fine) as if you hurt any robot you fail this quest automatically. Kill off the scavengers as they attack, which shouldn’t be too hard since you have the high ground. You can re-shoot the cannons after a short cool down period, but it’s safer just using your sniper rifle to pick them off for some easy XP.

After fighting off the attack, you can go get our early reward (if you asked for it/got it) from a computer on the south side of the ship (to the right). It will dispense 100 Caps. Not bad, but there’s much more to be made! Let’s start by working with Boson, down in the ship itself, so head back down below deck.

Bosons Busywork¶

Boson is near the Captain’s Room and is quite adamant that he is excited to be part of the crew and not due to re-programming. You can pass an easy speech check here to get him to be honest, but he will ask you to repair three power cables after that. Nearby in a metal box you can find three new cables that you can use, but they are probably not even necessary, as at each power cable station you can also choose to “Jury Rig” the cables as long as you have 3 Intelligence. Go repair all three of them (2 on the second deck, 1 on the third deck) and head back to Boson. Next up Boson will ask you to find or repair a Power Relay Coil. You can repair this (nearby) with 5 Intelligence if you want or you can just give them one of yours (they are extremely common - you can find one in turret remains easily after you destroy them).

Guidance Chip¶

Once you have done these two tasks for Boson, he will tell you to go talk to Mr. Navigator to continue, so head back up to the top deck now. Mr. Navigator will usually be hanging around the south, up by the radar and various other equipment which you are about to help him out with. Go ahead and talk to him and you’ll be asked to find a Guidance Chip, which the nearby Scavengers just happen to have. Well then… head down to the street level (use the ship to the north for an easy trip: it automatically lowers whenever you are near it) and head west down the street a bit and you will find the Scavenger Camp. Approach it and the scavenger leader, Mandy, will apologize for the attack and ask how you got on the ship. You can choose to be honest with her or hide Ironside’s mission as you wish, but in the end Mandy will ask you to come work for them instead of the robots.

Now you have a choice you can make here: agree to side with the Scavengers or kill them off. Now, you can agree to work with the Scavengers to easily get the Guidance Chip, and then continue to work for Ironsides, But unless you wish to actually side with the Scavengers, it’s recommended that you just keep working with Ironsides as the rewards and XP are far better (plus the quest conclusion is far more fulfilling). If you want to choose later, tell the Scavengers you’ll work for them and you can choose between them later. You’ll find details about siding with the Scavengers under the inventively titled header “Siding with the Scavengers” but for now let’s continue assuming you are working with Ironsides.

The Guidance Chip is in the backroom of the broken house here, in a Filing Cabinet. If you plan on working with Ironsides, you can just go on in and steal it (be warned that you may want to dismiss your “good” companion characters like Preston or Piper before you do this, as they will dislike it). This will of course make the Scavengers hostile, so you’ll need to take them out. Unfortunate, perhaps but ultimately it is no big loss (see the “Siding with the Scavengers” section below for why). With the “NX-42 Guidance Chip” in hand, return to the top of the ship (again, you can use the boat to the north for an easy trip) and install it. Talk to Mr. Navigator nearby for a nice 250 Cap bonus and you will then be asked to find or replace another item: the Transmitter.

Poseidon Radar Transmitter¶

Mr. Navigator will ask you to travel to one of two Poseidon locations across the Commonwealth to recover the Poseidon Radar Transmitter; Poseiden Energy Turbine #18-F or Poseidon Reservoir. You’ve been to the former, but if you get sent to the latter, you’ll need to wait until this is covered later on in the guide. Or, if your Intelligence is high (9+) you can jury rig the Guidance Radar. This is quite high, but you can artificially (and temporarily) boost your Intelligence quite a bit by wearing a Lab Coat (+2), using Mentats (+2) and X-Cell (+2). Even rather dumb characters can bypass this objective in this way.

Turbopump Bearings¶

With the Poseidon Radar Transmitter in hand, go ahead and head to the top of the ship and install the transmitter. Talk to Mr. Navigator once again and you will get another reward (250 Caps) and will be told to talk to Captain Ironsides again. Go ahead and talk to the Captain and he will ask you to do him one last chore (sheesh!): find him some Turbopump Bearings. This isn’t something youcan possibly repair, so you’ll need to go find some. Note that if you didn’t pick the lock down below in the ship, you will get the “Captain’s Quarters Key” now in order to open it (we’ll need to get in there to install the Turbopump Bearings later).

This part of the quest takes you to a random locations… yeah another damn radiant quest. This can take you to either the Corvega Assembly Plant, the General Atomics Factory or Fort Hagen. The first two have already been covered, and shouldn’t be much effort to clear again. Fort Hagen, on the other hand, is part of the quest “Reunions” , so you may have to wait until then to continue with this. After you have the “Turbopump Bearings”, your path and choice between the Scavengers and the Robots truly diverges (if you haven’t killed either one yet, of course).

Siding with Ironsides¶

Take the Turbopump Bearings back to the ship and head down into the ship itself. You will need to head into the Captain’s Room in order to install the bearings on the left. Do so and return to Captain Ironsides. After talking to him you will get a “double share” - 500 Caps - for your trouble but youaren’t done yet. The Scavengers will launch another attack here! Go ahead and help defend the ship! You can use the cannons again to great effect, but just like the first time it is recommended to duck and hide by the railings and use your sniper rifle (or other long-range weapon) to take the Scavengers out as they show up. If they breach the ship you’ll need to head below decks to take them out, but again, be wary of collateral damage. Once you have killed off the Scavengers, return to Ironsides and let him know he is safe. As a reward, he will give you the unique weapon “Broadsider” , which fires literal Cannonballs. Wow… How’s that for absurd weaponry?

Captain Ironsides will then ask you to power up the nearby generator in the western Royal Arms apartments to they can blast off. Seriously. Just… wow. Why didn’t he just ask you to build a whole new freakin’ ship at the outset? Head down to the streets now and follow the objective up the ruined apartments to the top floor, where you can head outside to a circuit breaker (loot the Mr. Handy here) and flip the switch to provide the U.S.S. Constitution power. Go ahead and watch what happens next. Just… wow. The comments from Ironsides here are fantastic. And with this, the mission is complete.

Siding with the Scavengers¶

If you wish to side with the Scavengers, you can take the Turbopump Bearings to them, instead. They will sabotage the item and give it back to you, allowing you to continue the mission like normal as they plan to attack once the ship’s defenses are down. Head back to the ship and go down into the Captain’s Room in order to install the bearings on the left. Do so and return to Captain Ironsides. After talking to him you will get a “double share” - 500 Caps - for your trouble and will be told to power up the nearby generator in the western Royal Arms apartments to they can blast off. Head down to the streets now and follow the objective up the ruined apartments to the top floor, where you can head outside to a circuit breaker (loot the Mr. Handy here) and flip the switch to provide the U.S.S. Constitution power.

Instead of powering up the rockets though, the sabotaged pump will flow the rockets (or at least the west rocket) off the ship and take down some of its defenses. The Scavengers will now charge and you will have made enemies of all of the robots on the ship. You will need to enter the ship now just like the first time you did (through the bank) and fight your way through the ship. You will be joined by a number of Scavengers here as you fight your way up, killing the (fairly weak) Protectrons and Turrets. Fight your way up to the top deck and take out Captain Ironsides (which isn’t hard with the 4-5 Scavengers helping you) and you will be told to go talk to Mandy.

Mandy is down on the street, so go talk to her and she will let you know that the Scavengers have not only voted not to split equal shares with you, but to kill you off as well. Oddly enough, once you are done talking with her, she doesn’t turn hostile but the surrounding Scavengers do. Bah, kill her off and any other Scavengers in the area. There is no further reward at this point unless you call looting corpses a reward, but the mission is officially complete at this point. No regrets, right?