Marcus.K.

I love to read frequently your posts, @Force9 .. what´s your beauty doing? And even more important: how are you doing? Hope all sails are up and flying?? Concerning your conclusion from data: "The data suggests that each gun shot @10 times in 30 minutes. " wouldn´t in a single ship combat the 10 shot´s per gun and 30 min. mean that they shot in fact 20 times per 30 min?.. or maybe double shots for short range maximized damage? .. ... since there would not be any sense in using both sides the same time - but sequentially?

Next are gratings and the "floor" And then the rails.. left and right side: Followed by the benches (in top you see the frame which helps to position the supporting pillow vs. the keel) Result: The final Hull - after "paint" with my "blackened" casein glue (I did not have other paint with me in that vacation. Missing now: the oars, the rudder, masts and other details. .. But that was now delayed due to the "snowwhite sleep" up to today.. The russian beauty awaits a prince to kiss her back to life ... Hope you like her appearance .. Its my very first effort with the material "wood" ... but the quality of that kit is good enough to prevent me from getting major issues. If you want to start with wood, these kits would be a very good starter! Not much tooling, but you begin to learn how to work with wetted planks, etc. . .

Frank, dear Viewers, I have to appologize, life rolled over my in a way ... so many things happeing. The russian beauty progressed of course - but after finsihing the hull it fell in a .. in German we say - "snowwhite sleep".. do you have a comparable expression? What has happened so far: Removed the frames along the lasered "predetermende breaking points" .. resulting in a nice hull with 1/2 of the framing: The next step is inserting the wetted and "softened" second half of the ribs: And this is then the result after cutting the ends.

Impressive!!! THANKS for SHARING this wonderful findings in this way!

Hello Ben, thanks for you comment. Your Viking ship had the same scale - and it´s a beauty! Thanks for watching - and thanks for the thumbs to everone! The kit is fun and I like it a lot. You will see... The very next thing to do is to add the first frame - on in this case better "rib" They need wetting - a procedure I never did before and I was suprised how soft the wood would become. Really amazing. Here you can see the first three ribs - I started in the center, since their radius is the widest and bending would not have that much risk. I have to say: Falkonet did a great job with the kit. There are almost double the number of ribs the kit needs. That may give beginners a chance to test and play and destroy some of them. My wetting was a success from the start. I used to work with paper models, in which you can pre-shape a bit flat paper into something 3D with soft pressure. That experience may have been a help. And I learned meanwhile that drying often causes issues if the wood then is shrinking. For example while doing the planking. The shrinking then may lead to "straight" segments between the frames where the wet plank fitted perfect before. In this case there wasn´t such problem since the ribs sits on top of that "construction"-frame. This photo shows the foremost ribs - and since they sit in an angle vs. the longitudinal direction the ribs are split in half and also have those triangle "flag" at their bottom end - which helps a) to find the correct angle and b) generate a support for the later planking. They "fill" the step on the very first parts - those filling pieces at the bow. Of course it is important to not insert the first of the 2 ribs too deep into that slot, so that the second rib from the other side still has room in that slot in the keel. The last rib - one piece again - which has to be placed into that framing. Even that kink (is that the correct word?) in the keel slot was simple to generate. The wood did not break there as I expected. So I did not need any of the spare ribs up to now ("spare ribs" - a new meaning for a common word 😁). The result seems to please - at least to my eye Next step is planking - starting with that beatiful laser-ornamented upper plank - above that side-stabilizing strip you see in the picure above:W You see on top of that picture the plate with all planks - and the very right one is seperated (3 cuts usually are needed) and glued to the framing. You may see it at its rear end under the rubber band - and in the front forced in place by the clothespin - glued to that filling piece on the stem. In this picture you see a bit more of the rear end, its ornament and also the other sides plank still in that board. Then flollows that planking process, in which - due to my habit to start from front end (most tricky alignment of the bow end of each plank into that "curve" which - in real ships would be shaped by a rabbit - while the rear end is just longer than the boat and will be cut later on. Also I use to glue first one side - and until the glue is fixed sufficiently I work on the other sides plank. By that the process is faster and I have a symetrical approach ot avoid unsymetrical load and distortion in the hull. All this generates this nice "trilobitic"-like appearance. And at the end, the planking is ready: The planks I needed wetting only in the bow area and the lower ones also in the rear a bit - for that needed distortion to align with the stern. The midsection did not need wetting. Since this is my very first wooden carvel-planking I had to learn some things (the real purpose of this build!). I did for example miss to press the planks harder together to each other. As a result some of the gaps are really wide and you can even look through. I would not want to be in need of a boat like this - it probably would sink really quick! Another effect I did not work hard enough against is that the planks sometimes do not align good enough with the contour of the frames. That effect is even more obvious due to the fact that I did not sand the lasered (and dark) sides of each plank). So if you look at the next picture you may notice some "clinker-like" steps. A problem which I could work on by sanding the hull and getting the surfaces more uniformly. Although I have to admit: there is one plank which got thin as paper by this process and I was close to have the plank rasped away! Also you see the rear side - on which I have to shorten the planks. But after filing and sanding the hull is in pretty good shape: The curve of the planks front is not as bad as it cold be - and I am happy that I had those pre-shaped planks in that kit. I can only imagine how hard it must be to use straight planks to try to fit such a complex shape of a water going vessel. You would not only need to bend over the planks "thickness", but also to bend "upright" .. do you know what I mean? But that is a load for that plank which would make it real hard to avoid breaking I guess. And then you in addition need to shape the front edge of the plank to fit to that stem. Here in that kit everything is prepared and its just a matter of how precise you glue it into position. Almost like a 3D puzzle. The rear - with cutted and sanded planks.. of course not yet ready. Now the preperation of seperation of hull and the "slide" has to be done - first: cutting the ribs: The ribs are glued into the keel and at the top edge of the frames in this picture. To be able to move out the slide they need a cut. Also the very first front frames (which had been glued to not get lost) have to be cutted - while all the parallel frames are not glued. Then a careful seperation must be done.. fore and back, up and down again - to generate more game in the joints and find a smooth way outl. Starting ... A bit of air already ... And done! The next step is kind of tricky. Since I did - against the instructions adivce (since I did NOT read it in time!!) - I glude the frames not only in keel level but also vs. those fixation stripes, I now have to face the fact that I need to seperate them without damage at those stripes! A tricky surgery.... .. will I succeed? ..... will that russian beauty survive? stay tuned and turn on again next time ...

Ahoy there! What´s up, doc? Vacation with my family. My kids all in the age of puperty used to sleep until the first half of MY day is wasted. So I decided to make use of this quiet time and take a kit with me: the Falkonet 6-oared boat. Its a very nice kit and due to recent experience with a Shipyard Alert with klinkered hull I dared to try this one. My working place was like this: Southern France, Atlantik Coast (Biskaya), you could hear the sea crashing into the beaches (a surfer-paradise nothern Biarritz and Capbreton) - a cool breeze even when the sun burned hot. The start was more tricky than I expected. The plan showed this: But the part A14R uand A14L was available 2 times each!!??? And my russian is not good enought to understand the text. And even the sketch confused me, since the direction of the milling seems not plausible!? It was clear: those two filling pieces support the connection of stem post and keel - and also provide gluing surface for the planking in the bow area. But .. why then a step there? .. and why two pairs of them in the set? An Englisch Pool-technician (thanks Willliam!) gave me the hint: use your smartphones google-browser to translate. You can even translate graphics via hte smartphones camera!!! .. and you can "share" and save that picture: Ups.. sorry, now this translation is in German - which fits well for me.. But although its just a google translation its getting clearer than cyrillic russian texts for me. But still it left me with the question: why in heaven are the two sets of this filling pieces - and even on different thick sheets? I decided to ignore this question and just start with the thicker ones! Milled them in shape according to the lines (ignoring the misunderstandable sketch in the plan - et voila! The filling pieces in place beside the division line of keel and stem post. Aligned so the slot beneth it would not be covered by the step of the filling pieces. Next step is preparing the slade (correct wording?): These where the first parts I needed to file a a bit so that the tongues fitted into the openings. But in general there is not much rework to be done in this laser cut set. Just sanding the cutting area.. and maybe getting rid of the burned edge if you don´t like the dark appearance (which I did not do). Then the frames had to be set loosly into the slade. Only the 4 front ones were allowed to glue together to each other so they don´t get lost. Added the Keel (onto which I already glued the transom and the rear bulkhead) .. Those two rails had to be added too .. And the small kit slowly became looking like a boat ...

What a great collection of information - thanks Tony! I wondered about 2 things: 1. I do not see any opening for oars. Wouldn´t those small crafts not be moved by oars every now and then - especially in harbours? [Edit] I was wrong: Trial seem to have additional openings between the gun ports.. small squard openings a bit above the deck level. May those have been for oars? Is a square opening usefull for such an operation? [Edit End] 2. I see only in 2 models very small scuttles - close to the pumps and very likely to be connected with a tube when pumping is needed. They seem to be much too small to deal with green water on deck. Only Smokey Joe seemed to show wider bigger scuttles - but with a closer look I see: its not at all scuttles - its in fact an open reling .. Which would fit much more to my expectation for such a vessel .. "Working" mainly in the English Channel, the Irish Sea and the North Sea those vessels would have to deal with rough weather and a lot of waves - wouldn´t they need wide scuttles or even a more open bulkward to get rid of green water? Anyone with ideas for this?

The Conquerer - reminds me a bit on Sean Connery as "Man who would be King" Well - only a bit ..

Today I want to present you a historical excurse which has nothing to do with my model build - except its about another story in my subject Old Ironsides history: U.S. Frigate Constitution was in Annapolis when 1861 the war was starting. I just found an image which immetiatly caught my attention - mainly because of a technical feature I noticed before I recognized the story told in that picture: The title is: "The Eighth Massachusetts Regiment taking possession of U.S. ship Constitution at Annapolis" The picture is from "Frank Leslie's illustrated newspaper, vol. 11, no. 285 (1861 May 4), p. 385" and its done after a description by "our special artist". source: https://www.loc.gov/resource/cph.3b15950/ There are 2 problems with this picture: 1. the ship visible in this scene can not really be US Frigate Constitution. We see an extra deck - quarter- or foredeck - but Old Ironsides never had any extra deck. She always had a flush Spar- or Weather Deck. Also the size / width of that deck seems to be much wider than what we would expect from the - I admit: big - frigate. 2. This event seems to be not real. Some days later the officiers of Old Ironsides seemed to see the need of clarification which they did by an article in the New York Times: Source: https://www.nytimes.com/1861/05/06/archives/the-constitution-at-annapolis-official-statement-of-facts-in-regard.html Here the relevant quote: I have no idea by now who invented this thrilling story about a capture and re-capture - but what I noticed was another interesting detail - and that was, what was caught my eye in the beginning: On deck fixed to the rigging is a strange "feature" I once saw in models I observed in Lissabon´s (Portugal) marine museum years ago. There some models showed this "chimney" done out of sails - a technology obviously used to force air movement in the lower decks and by that cooling them. A simple "air conditioning"-system. So here it is again: known and used in US Navy. Does anyone has any information about that steamer "General Butler" mentioned by the ships crew? It is not the one which sank in the great lakes (since that General Butler isn´t a steamer 🙂 ). Just curious.

That is amazing work!!! Really great! I very much like what modern technology (CAD & 3D printing) is generating in our days - a new type of ship model building. And especially for the steel ships its a really great way to come to very impressive and beautiful models. Even more since you even may simulate the segmented builds of many of those ships. In a german forum someone is building U-boats in that segmented way - really cool. In wooden sailing ships model builds that approach is starting to generate some very interesting details which may be hard or time consuming to do in wood. The "composite" builds done in that segment of model ship building - the combination of injection molded parts of kits, styren sheets and strips,, resin molds, classical wood and by now 3D printed parts is changing the way models are done. Of course there will be always purists building very artistic and very beautiful pure wooden beauties. And those models are and will ever be high points of modelism. But as soon as painting and even ageing is required to gain another effect on your model 3D print is an addional effective way to get to the result. Your ships here are - in my humble opinion - up to now another coronation of another, new segment of modelism. Very cool ships - beautiful redesigned and build ! Did I miss photos of floated models? .. will check again the previous pages.

Cosmic energy. Now I know whats missing on my side!!! 🤣 They are indeed very very nice! Wonderful, very cool appearance!!! A bit I doubt, that there would be a hoop in the center position in those barrels. Don' t you fear that a slight contact on them would possibly move them into a position beside the center and since that would be a bit smaller in diameter the hoop would come loose?

They are in fact very nice ! But - maybe I am too impatient and you already plan to do them - or - maybe it´s because I just don´t know enough about old barrels and their technique is differing from barrels I know - .. .. but wouldn´t you need some hoops on those barrles to keep them tight?

Spectacular ! In my point of view this kit seems to be nice 2-decker too .. Cool conversion! Excellen!

Concerning using such a Wheel Barrow on softer ground: I remember my father having used a wheelbarrow during the build of our house and car port on very soft, wet ground with very heavy load in it (wet ground!) by having wooden planks along the way he needed to go - as a pathway for the wheelbarrow. Anyone using this wheelbarrow-gun-thing on (soft) land would need wooden planks and of course a lot of helping hands.. Concering steel around the wheels: This is a 6-pounder gun and its carriage produced in furnace hope - the same foundary where US Frigate Constitution got some of her guns from. Those wheels have steel bands around them. Of course: those are not very heavy compared to the 24 pounders.. maybe in this case the load was acceptable for the decks. It might be different with more heavy guns of course - but I believe: steel may have been needed to keep the wheels in shape under the load.. To sum up: I think such a design may be useful and possible

Hey Rob, I know I am late, sorry to pull this up by now (in fact: I am not sorry at all 🙂) .. and I sure saw that thread before.. but now I really have to express my admiration for this so interesting work. I LOVE to see the ships used and as in real life. And Cutty Sark as Ferreira of course is a so cool subject. Having all those photos in that interesting book. Thanks for showing and sharing this admirable work!

Thanks Druxey, just stepped across this interesting thread and that very nice insight in Cutty Sark´s figure heads actual and past history. Some months (years by now?) ago I started digging into the "theme" carving (just theoretically by now) since I would like to reconstruct the appearance of my favorite subject, the US Frigate Constitution in hear earlier years. I collected photos of works of William Rush and the Skillin Family who DID the design Rush was proposing. And I try to learn about the Allegories used in the Washington, Adams and Jefferson Administration for decorating ships - since there are at least 2 more figures (if not more) to be represented beside Lady Liberty and Lady Justice (the two only written mentioned ones we know about by now). If only my Art and History teachers would know how much I am attracted by this subject today, since they just knew that ignorant boy who´s only intellectual interest was natural science and astronautics .. they would be so much surprised! .. and how poor their efforts have been to attract my attention for this interesting fields.. But boy, how frustrated they must have been with such a bunch of ignorants in front of them :-))) Does someone of this carving-addicted here has an idea where I may learn more about American Allegories and ship carvings on the early American Ships? Of course I am aware of @uss frolick´s very interesting posts for the "stern view" on different ships (thanks here for that by the way). And my Brewington ("Shipcarvers of North America") of course I got and studied long time ago ... 🙂 But I am looking for any help, book, posts, souces about this very special subject and appreciate every hint. And I LOVE the way those british shipkeepers deal with their Nanny! Thanks for sharing!

Hy Rock, a very, very nice and interesting Model. And a very interesting representation! Cool build! Love it! What scale is it? .. and .. how realiable are the plans for that model? How much of the original plans has been available? I guess Korea had to fight with loss of ancient knowledge and written papers / letters due to war damages during the centuries as much as the area which is by now Germany. For example: my mother was able to re-construct our relatives up to about the 30-years war - and before there is nothing written available due to Wallenstein and Gustav Adolf (and others) way of warfare. I would think, Korea had a comparable history with Japanese and Chinese and maybe also other conquerers "passing" the Korean peninsule frequently, right? Due to your interesting post I am about to learn more about Yi Sun-Sin and that part of history. Thanks for that! I noticed a while ago that history as described in "western world" is just ignoring history in far east. For example: we name the "battle of Leipzig" (1813 - Napoleon Wars) as "battle of nations" (which may be o.k.) but very often it is claimed to be the "biggest battle in history up to then" .. while there have been much bigger battles in far east even in ancient times and we just ignor them here in "western world". Same for ship building - those turtles and other eastern ship types are just known by a few. Its cool you show such models! Thanks for presenting this here - and good luck and a lot of fun with your future builds!

Sir, this is a beautiful and so interesting building log of a so beautiful model and ship! Excellent work perfect presented!

Concering the meaning of "quarters" .. I found this interesting little summary: Source: https://www.dailywritingtips.com/the-many-meanings-of-quarter/ First idea: does McHenry mean with Quarters : "left and right" .. in the meaning of "west and east" .. but that´s may too thin soup.. Second idea: the therm "Quarter" seems in ships to be refered to the "sides of the stern". ... Well, why that? Why would the SIDE of the stern be a quarter? .. Maybe because this is the classical area where the officiers and captains had their "quarters", their cabins? Then McHenry´s remark would really fit with Basses positioning of the two ladies. While I struggled with that postion - thinking the quarters are the stern side of the quarter galleries. By now I learned that - yes - there are quarter GALLERIES - but they are mounted to the Quarters as it seems! So the ladies sketched so nice by Billy Bass are exactly where the cabins of the captain and the commodore (or first officer) would have been - left and right of the after cabin. Well not exactly maybe in the case of our big frigates. The deck plan of US Frigate United States shows the cabins being at the sides - but not being connected to the stern. That was remaining only for the after cabin which was the common cabin for captain and squadrons commodore - if on board - or first officer if no commodore was on board. If someone wonders why I do such thinking: I learned by now that very often we misinterpret things because we "think" we know the meaning. But very often - especially in historical or in special fields the modern understanding of things may differ - and even in old time, meaning did change sometimes and we are not aware of all possible meanings.

Dear Ladies, Gentlemen, I have a question to the community. Since I am too far away and will not (at least not in next future) be able to examinate the beautiful Corné-Paintings.. So to everyone who had a chance to see them: Can you pls. tell me, if you look / had a look the real paintings: ARE THERE MORE THAN 2 PERSONS/FIGURES on that Corné-Stern visible? I know - there are 2 Paintings by Corné about that "siege of Tripolis": a wide one, painted in 1805 ordered and accepted by Cmd. Preble - who needed to show his action to the pubic since there was so much interest in the deeds of the new hero: And there is the smaller one, done in 1807 - in which according to William Bass in his above mentioned book - the ships, being arranged much more close to each other - are painted in about 5:4 size compared to the very first picture. I was trying to find out where which painting is right now represented to the public ... but I can right now not recollect my findings. Does someone of you know? I tried to see in a zoomed copy of the 1807 painting - but its hard to tell: William Bass saw there the 2 Figures - representing Justice and Freedom - as described by Secretary of War, James McHenry in a paper defining the intended Stern decoration of all six frigates "the stern of all six original frigates "should be all alike to show they belong to one family and represented by an Eagle in the center with constellations around him, suported on each Quarter by the figures of Liberty and Justice" - found in M. V. Brewingeons book: Shipcarvers of North America. William Basses reconstuction is reprinted in K.-H. Marquardts AotS "Constitution": see the top right represenation I guess, Bass arranged the two mentioned ladies between the cabins windows and the "windows" at the stern side of the galleries.. since that may best fit to the statement: ".. supported on each quarter ..". But I wondered: does that position really fit to the statement? Is with "quarter" really the area of the quartergalleries meant? I would think a "support" is much better done by that two ladies directly left and right of the center figure (the presumed eagle). ARE those two big ladies (which Bass did cut their arms) at "the quarter"? And even if: who may then be the two ladies which are at the edge of the gallery looking outwards? Tyrone Martin saw there crossed cannons and balls above the eagle. Does anyone have seen evidence for such interpretation in the real painting? The Eagle: I found the following description of the United States Seal - and I think one can see that scroll (in white) swung right and left side of the eagles head ... Source: https://statesymbolsusa.org/symbol-official-item/national-us/state-seal/united-states-seal I think this seal of 1782 would represent pretty good, what I would expect on the ships stern: Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Seal_of_the_United_States I see in that round area in the center top that mentioned cloud .. so that the eagles head and the scroll must be below .. and that is where I see that white serpentine line .. So to summarize: Would you be able to help me understanding what is REALLY visible in the two paintings by Corné? Anyone who had a chance to really SEE these drawings? I know that @Force9 had done pictures - but the copy he kindly did send to me is not as clear as that online-zoom you see in the beginning of this post. So do you see the figures, where Bass saw them? Are there cherubs outside of those two "minor" sitting ladies next to the eagle? Are there sitting ladies next to that eagle? Did someone see cannons and balls on top of the eagle? Are the big blotches between the galleries stern windows REALLY figures ? I am curious to hear your opinion and know-how in this.

1. Constitution - Superfrigate of the many Faces - A tribute to the Basses Years ago I got this nice book by William Bass and his wife in which they describe their findings and their reconstruction of US Frigate Constitutions "Second Phase" as they called it. The years after launch and Quasi War with France - and before the War 1812 - the times of Preble and the Barbary War. Since I saw this beautiful book which was published privatly and therefor did not get the audience it deserves, I did fall in love with this beautiful ship! The Basses based their reconstruction mainly on Felice Corné´s paintings done in 1803 (Side view) 1805 (?) and 1807 (Battle of Tripolis). This one for shure you all know very well. Its - as far as we know by today - the very first visual description of Old Ironsides - done by Felice Corné in Summer 1803 most likely. The Basses did brief investigations even on which viewing angle the artist must have had for his sketches and they could prove that Corné did do really intensive studies of his object. But isn´t the ship a beauty here? Ochre gun strike, no bulkward on foredeck, single dolphin striker, open galion and - that impressive Hercules. Nevertheless, as we will see later: this interpretation causes headaches (at least in my little brain). Here now one of the Tripolis Paintings: Source: https://www.mainememory.net/artifact/6155 You can increase the image if you click on the picture on the Maine Historical Societies Homepage (link). Look at that beautiful lines, the two yellow stripes above the gun deck - and note the position of the channels on the lower of those lines: and here the beautiful Stern of the ship in its early phase: She was a beauty in ochre and black, some white, yellow and maybe a bit gold? .. and a thrilling sight with all that guns! In my eyes the ships earlier appearance is of much more grace and elegance than in her later designs. Fortunatly the real ship is getting closer and closer to that design again with the restorations since Tyrone Martin started that process. But maybe the most beautiful sight she must have been as she was planned: with complete open bulkwards - just as Humphrey intented her to be: Nevertheless: my plan is to rework and pimp the beautiful Revell kit which is ment to show her 1812-15 configuration - but which has some "errors" in it and which does not totally fit to her 1803 appearance. And this 1803-4 appearance - before leaving to the Mediterean Sea - that is my goal. I imagine by now a situation in which the ship is about to be fitted out for sea - maybe some weeks before the above shown departure of the ship takes place. Still with only long guns on the quarder deck... This build will be the very first for me since about 35 years. I was doing a Cutty Sark 1/144 (without proper rigging and bad painting) and a very nice Spanish Men of War in 1/72 - this time with Revell instructed but fully rigging (boy was I proud !) .. So I need to re-learn during the build all the needed techniques. Oh, I was mistaken: I started some years ago the build of the Revell Charles W. Morgan - but the "rush hour of life" did stop that efforts. Now, in times of Corona and possible loss of job I believe I need a time out for some hours a week from crazy daily hectic .. and "if not now, then when?" shall I start with this beauty. I hope you join me in my efforts and I am open for any advice and hint. Thanks for watching me.

Very interesting discussion! Thanks for that, gentlemen. Does anyone know when that habbit to store the hammocks on the bulkwards top started? Are there any hints in texts, paintings or models? .. and if: especially for American Navy?

In my humble opinion: the very best source with lowest chance for historical mistakes are all the books of Cmd. Tyrone Martin who was the ships commanding captain during her 1970ies refits and who started his own research. His books are based on decates of investigation and research. He regulary reworks his books and did eliminate previously done mistakes. "A most fortunate ship" being the best known and his bestseller. His other books had to be published in a less professional manner .. which is sad. They deserve a wider publicity! T. Martin was (is?) selling a ringbinder he named "A Close up". I got a version and its full with information - mostly chronolocical statements out of logs concerning the ships appearance or outfitting - all of them sorted by subject (decks, guns, etc.). Very good primary sources! But of course written only and with room for interpretation.. He too added some copies of drawings and sketches. Unfortunatly when I recieved my version the copy-quality was not as good as today´s internet source are sometimes. But.. you can find many of those graphical information by now in internet if you know what to look for. I am not sure if it is still available... pls. Check his page "captains ckerk" http://captainsclerk.info/ By the way: this page is also a great source for information as it presents parts of what is written in the Close Up or in his books. A wonderful book to read if you are interested in the life on board: Martin, Tyrone G. "The Constitution's Finest Fight, 1815." Its the written report of a crew member in 1815. William Bass' wonderful book "USS Constitution - Superfrigate of the many faces" too had to be published private. Its a nice research about the ships appearance in about 1803, based on inspection of the early Felice Corne paintings. He did have discussions with T. Martin and I think it is a very interesting work and very helpful if you are intersted in the ships earlier and very nice appearance. But as mentioned above: hard to find. Then there is Olof Eriksens "All sails up and flying" - a wonderful study of the rigging in 1814 based on the Isaac Hull Model ins PEM in Salem, the oldest known model done by crewmembers and presented to Captain Hull in 1812. He did compare Bradys Handbook for midshipmens with notes by a real mifshipman of Old Ironsides he recieved by Cmd. Martin and did tryouts on his huge model to find the most likely solutions. He too, as Mr. Bass, had exchanged information with T. Martin and later recomments this book too .. although its a bit hard to "read" (Mr. Eriksen loves repetitions). But the drawings will be a perfect guideline for the rigging. Those books and collections deserve much more publicity and also a more professional publishing. To my surprise even T. Martin could only publish some of his books with a classical publisher. W. Bass had to print his book in private and therefore there are not many available. Eriksens book is much too small. He provides dozens of drawings which for themself would require a wider format. But I learned the publisher wasn´t willing to invest in that. Brady´s "the Kedge Anchor" is a kind of a primary source. Its a "handbook" for Midshipmen and describes important features and processes on a ship of that age. Usually you will find editions from after the 1840s or reprints of those time. .and of course things have changed from 1800, 1812 to the 1840´s. But: I would guess about 95% was still the same - and therefore you can´t be much wrong. Brady describes the American way of marine issues. Don´t follow Steel and Lever as they describe the British Fashion. Eriksen did a comparision about different rigging styles and compared them with the Isaac Hull Model - and his finding is: Constitution was rigged - what a surprise - in American style! Marquardt by the way did drawings based on British. Of course: I would guess about 85-90% is very compareable and only experts in the field of rigging would notice the difference.. so it depends on whom do you want to impress .. or what do you expect from yourself. All those books should come in a classical leather binder with golden letters on them. All of them are really interesting and valuable for modelist and enthusiats. Gillmers nice book "Old Ironsides - raise, decline ..." is also very interesting, but I believe, Mr. Martin mentioned that there are mistakes, and also I believe he did not much like parts of the ships restoration done with Mr. Gillmers help. The art of Gilkerson inside the book is of course really beatiful and a lot of information in the book is worth reading it. A. Tolls "Six frigates" is a very nice reading about the ships background history and destroys a lot of glorification and myths around many contributer of the ship. Mr. Martin onced explained to me it would be full of historical mistakes, but he admitted: its a good reading. K.H. Marquardts AotS book "the 44-gun Frigate USS Constitution" is of course also a beautiful and professional published collection of drawings and information. Unfortunatly it seems to be done in a hurry since the author obviously did not refer to the - I have to admit: sometimes disputed - Isaac Hull model. He also seems to not look too precisly into the ships hull´s design - since his design is very much influenced by british or european ship building tradtions. Also his rigging is not american style. His reconstructions of the ships stern in different times I very much doubt. He is in fact a respected expert in design, function and history of ships of Age of Sail - but this book is not his masterpiece I think. It is very good to be inspired and fascinated - but be careful to take over details. I have seen and read many others.. there are of coures more nice books out there ... I did not yet mention Howard Chappelles works. They are by now "classics" .. but in this is the danger. They are old by now - and just because something was new and sensational some years ago it must not be true: I learned to start mistrusting the "capacities" and "authorities" - since they often begin to ignore new findings and stop progress by the weight of their expertise. Nevertheless: his books are remarkable sources of know how about the American Navy´s.. Those are my main books as source for the ships design. You may notice that I am a "fan" of Tyrone Martin - although I believe he too may have wrong understanding in this and that. I had the luck to have - years ago - a nice converstion via several emails with him. I have the impression that his studies have been really gone deep over a professional life span now - and he has gained the best overview about all issues concerning the ships design and history. Since in my understanding many questions will not been answered with certainty - so its best to try to have the best "statistically" answers. Having - if not proof - then at least a good evidence by comparing several independ sources. Primary sources are best of course - and Cmd. Martin did his lessons. I guess there are only a few persons in the world who may have read as much primary source about Old Ironsides as Cmd. Martin. .. if at all. Thats why I try to study beside the books - photos of the Isaac Hull Model in PEM Salem MA for the ships appearance in 1812 - paintings by Felice Corne (1803 side view, 1804 Tripolis and the 1812 battle paintings) - paintings and engravings of Roux or Baugean and others about US Frigate President and United States - NMM drawings of US Frigate President (as they are available in Internet) - deck plans of US Frigate United States by .. was it Ware? - the USS Constitutions Museums Blog - many, many photo´s and pictures in internet.. Hope this is helpful and wish you a lot of fun with that beautiful and impressive subject "Old Ironsides".

Ahoy there, whats up, doc? Last night I was re-reading this wonderful log... and tonight I re-checked my conversations I had with many experienced people... one of them Cmd Tyrone Martin who was so nice to share some lines. I forgot so much. But this here reminded me on your build, @Force9so I have to share it: [Quote] When at sea, the only anchors to be seen topside were the stream and sheet anchors stowed out board of hull near amidships. Both bower anchors were taken in (and usually broken down) for stowage on deck, often on the gun deck benath the boat towage. The anchor cables were all struck below. The hawse holes in the bows were covered with "bucklers," covers that were held in place by plugs that extended inboard and had strongbacks extending to either side of the inner edges of the holes to insure they stayed in place.[/quote] T. Martin in an email. Seems your anchor is stored correct, Sir! Hope you are all doing well in these crazy times.

Ahooy there! What´s up, Doc? thrilling news from Constitutions Log lines - engravings of early US Frigate United States found - go and see: https://ussconstitutionmuseum.org/2016/06/14/federal-frigate-early-views-united-states/ Have fun! But as usually: engravings and paintings have to be "read" with care. They are no photos. Their purpose is not to show the "real" thing 100% accurate. As I pointed out in my comment I doubt that Thomas Clarke was able to see the ship in fully rigging before he had to finalize his edgeing. Also the 16 guns per side - not really realistic? On the other hand: would an Artist be THAT inaccurate? With the most important issue of a war-ship - its armament? Where is the dolphin striker? I am curious about your thinking ...