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Wrong. The hull was built of white oak. The wood was so strong that enemy shot was indeed observed to bounce off as if she were made of iron; hence the nickname “Ironsides”.

Southern Live Oak, actually. Mostly from Georgia iirc. Much sturdier than White Oak, which was used for her planking, ceilings and other areas.

And it wasn't just the Live Oak: that contributed more to her longevity than survivability in battle. What really mattered when it came to shrugging off cannonballs when going up against other warships was her framing. The five "Humphries" frigates (not counting "sixth"; the poor, lamentable Chesapeake, which was built to a much different design by one of Humphrey's former students turned rival) had very narrow spacing between their frames. The result was what amounted to an armored wall of wood that was at least 2 1/2 feet thick.

Besides our good Georgia Live Oak, the Guerriere guns were indeed strong enough to blast a hole through the Constitution and out the other side.

A properly charged cannon of that era, could shoot 200 yards through the air and then through 4 feet of wood, go through the ship, and then another 4 feet of solid oak.

The problem was that the first shot was undercharged, the idea was to get the shot to go through the nearer side, but, bounce off the far side and ricochet around inside the boat.

The Constitution’s first shot did just that, and more. The Guerriere didn’t stand a chance after that already being out gunned.

“Southern Live Oak, actually. Mostly from Georgia iirc. Much sturdier than White Oak..”

Quercus Virginius (AKA “live oak”) IS a white oak.

During the refurbishment in the 1990s, much of the live oak used came from Texas, where we had lost many trees due to oak blight.