Talos

I know, I mentioned it in my post.
 
That being said, I wonder if Humphreys' offset book was ever found. Chapelle listed the record number for it at the time (C&R 81-6).

Sorry for the belated reply. Fun start on this thread, the subscription frigates are a fun topic.
 
First attachment is a better version of the side profile from Chapelle. I'll post the rest of it later, I need to stitch it back together.
 
The second is a set of New York plans from Barbary Wars: Register of Officer, Personnel, and Ship's Data. This is the original source of Chapelle's drawing and the only draught he could find. It was drawn by Henry Allen at a later date from offsets. It displays incorrect solid bulwarks and a head and cutwater of a later period frigate. Chapelle backdated the appearance to the "standard" look of American frigates of the era, including partial measurements given by Samuel Humphreys in a memorandum to his offset book, which was missing when Chapelle looked. He also points out that the hawseholes in the plan would be technically impossible where they are. Her only plan that survived, which he used to detail his take on the ship, is an inboard profile. You can see that he opened up the bulwarks, but kept the same lines.
 
The Philadelphia plan is the same (with a sail plan that survived too) and was made at a later date too. I'm attaching that to the post as well.

I'm not a modeler, but having the original should make scratchbuilding more interesting than with other exploration-themed ships.

This past spring, ussfrolic reached out to me about collaborating on a project with the US frigate John Adams. He got me access to a copy of a design draught for her and I duly reconstructed it from there. I’ve been sitting on it for a couple months since then and hadn’t started the proper thread for it. At frolic’s prompting I’m finally getting it started. He’ll fill in more of the background in following posts.
 
I intend to do more with the drawings, including an attempt to illustrate later versions of the ship, including the sloop and jackass frigate years. I also found spar dimensions for her as of the Barbary Wars, so I’ll be drawing a sail plan as well. The bare hull isn't entirely finished yet either, there’s still a few bits here and there missing, but it’s overall complete. I suppose “fitted out” would be a better term…
 
I reconstructed the steps, side lights from a deckplan that showed them, the bridle ports, and the head and waist rails. I’m going to fiddle with a couple different designs for the rails as far as waist and forecastle, but this is a start.

Interesting accounts. Bainbridge was actually a brig, sister ship to the unlucky Somers. Both had excessive rigs and both went down at sea (Bainbridge in 1863).
 
On the other, that same Vincennes was the flagship of the US Exploring Expedition under then-Lieutenant Wilkes (the same guy who did the Trent Affair in the Civil War) in the 1840s. In this captain's case, it's doubly unlucky, since the boat howitzers were designed with breeching rope originally, but it was removed from the final design because the recoil wasn't enough to really need them. Might have saved this one's life.

Before I get into replicating later versions of the ship, I thought I would try out a couple different rail configurations. The top is based on USS Philadelphia and New York, the bottom on Essex and Boston. The original draught only showed the quarterdeck rail, nothing else.

That is the plan.

This past spring, ussfrolic reached out to me about collaborating on a project with the US frigate John Adams. He got me access to a copy of a design draught for her and I duly reconstructed it from there. I’ve been sitting on it for a couple months since then and hadn’t started the proper thread for it. At frolic’s prompting I’m finally getting it started. He’ll fill in more of the background in following posts.
 
I intend to do more with the drawings, including an attempt to illustrate later versions of the ship, including the sloop and jackass frigate years. I also found spar dimensions for her as of the Barbary Wars, so I’ll be drawing a sail plan as well. The bare hull isn't entirely finished yet either, there’s still a few bits here and there missing, but it’s overall complete. I suppose “fitted out” would be a better term…
 
I reconstructed the steps, side lights from a deckplan that showed them, the bridle ports, and the head and waist rails. I’m going to fiddle with a couple different designs for the rails as far as waist and forecastle, but this is a start.

I don't know any others off the top of my head, since she was built down in Charleston. Fox, who was designer but not builder, designed the Philadelphia too, whose railings the second one is mostly inspired by. The third one is the same as the first, but with the addition of forecastle rails and little stub rails at the entryway.

This past spring, ussfrolic reached out to me about collaborating on a project with the US frigate John Adams. He got me access to a copy of a design draught for her and I duly reconstructed it from there. I’ve been sitting on it for a couple months since then and hadn’t started the proper thread for it. At frolic’s prompting I’m finally getting it started. He’ll fill in more of the background in following posts.
 
I intend to do more with the drawings, including an attempt to illustrate later versions of the ship, including the sloop and jackass frigate years. I also found spar dimensions for her as of the Barbary Wars, so I’ll be drawing a sail plan as well. The bare hull isn't entirely finished yet either, there’s still a few bits here and there missing, but it’s overall complete. I suppose “fitted out” would be a better term…
 
I reconstructed the steps, side lights from a deckplan that showed them, the bridle ports, and the head and waist rails. I’m going to fiddle with a couple different designs for the rails as far as waist and forecastle, but this is a start.

Before I get into replicating later versions of the ship, I thought I would try out a couple different rail configurations. The top is based on USS Philadelphia and New York, the bottom on Essex and Boston. The original draught only showed the quarterdeck rail, nothing else.

Before I get into replicating later versions of the ship, I thought I would try out a couple different rail configurations. The top is based on USS Philadelphia and New York, the bottom on Essex and Boston. The original draught only showed the quarterdeck rail, nothing else.

The Corvette first sailed from Baltimore to Hampton Roads on October 25, 1809 under Master Commandant Samuel Evans' with Lieutenant Johnston Blakeley (later the doubly victorious commander of Wasp II) as his first officer, with two senior midshipmen acting as lieutenants, John Pettigrew, as second, and Jessie Duncan Elliott, as third (villain of the Battle of Lake Erie). Her sailing had been delayed for three months due to lack of sailors, and supplies.
 
Samuel Evans wrote the Secretary of the Navy Paul Hamilton two days later, praising the corvette's sailing qualities:
 
"Sir, I have the honor to inform you that I arrived here yesterday morning after a short run of 22 hours from Baltimore. The breeze was so good, and the ship appeared to move so well, I am of the opinion had we been bound out, and carried sail, we could have been at sea in less than eighteen hours, from the time we had made sail ..."
 
While on the subject of her sailing qualities:
 
An unidentified officer wrote of her during her maiden frigate voyage on November 15, 1799:
 
"We are now weighing our anchor and by 8 o'clock expect to be over the bar. She gave a good account of herself yesterday, in coming down from the Roads under mizzen, topsails and jib, she spun out about 7 knots per hour. The Pilot says, he is satisfied she will sail equal to any ship in the navy, he never saw a ship answer her helm so quickly, or slip through the water against the tide so rapidly. She is full, stiff, and we tried her yesterday in the heaviest of the blow ..." (South Carolina State Gazette and Timothy's Daily Advertiser.)
 
From the same source on December 4, 1799:
 
"... the frigate out-sailed every vessel she met with ..."
 
Same source, February 9, 1800:
 
"... Extract of a letter from an officer on board the Frigate John Adams, to his friend in Charleston: ...'I have the pleasure to inform you that the John Adams has been generally more approved of here, than any ship of her force belonging to the United States, that has been at the Island; and the English Captain in particular are much pleased with her. When we sailed from Charleston, the ship was too light, we have since taken in  twenty tons more ballast and completed our water for another cruise, and she now sails much faster, as we had experienced in bearing up from the Old Roads to Basseterre, when we had the opportunity of trying her against the US Schooner Enterprise, reputed to be the fastest sailor on the station, yet she could not gain on us! The John Adams does credit to Charleston.' "
 
Log of John Adams, December 31, 1804: The John Adams, then an armed  store-ship, out-sailed H. B Majesty's Ship Superb, 74: 
 
"... we out-sailed her three miles, under the same sail running to the eastward ..."
 
But Commodore Edward Preble of the Constitution wrote in December, 1805:
 
"...The John Adams, a dull sailor, and too narrow for a man of war, but will make a good merchant ship, and if not wanted as a transport, had better be sold out of the service ..."

Evans was to prepare for an as yet unspecified foreign cruise, but all was not well aboard.
 
Capt. Evans to SecNav Hamilton, November 4, 1809 ("Captains Letters Received, National Archives Microfilm, RG 45):
 
"... you will see that we are greatly deficient  in our compliment of seamen. A number of our ordinary seamen are possible, but much in want of sea exercise, and as we have some prospect of entering seamen here, I am contemplating taking a short cruise about the middle of this month, with a crew we then have, to try the ship and give our men the exercise they so greatly need."
 
His cruise took him up the coast to New York.
 
Again, Evans to Hamilton, November 17, 1809:
 
"Sir, I have the honor to inform you, that agreeable to your instructions of the 6th instant, I left Hampton Roads and arrived here this evening. I am happy to say that in my opinion, the ship sails much better than formerly, but we have a very bad crew, in fact there are not more than fifteen good seamen on board."
 
Hamilton back to Evans, November 20, 1809:
 
"The John Adams being required for foreign service, she must be prepared without delay for such service. To assist you, I have written Captain Chauncey directing him to loan to you, from the [New York Navy] yard, 40 able seamen, if he should have that number. In exchange until your return, you will deliver to him an equal number of ordinary seamen, and on your return, you will restore to him such men, and receive yours back again.
 
Confidential. It has been determined to send in the John Adams, a quantity of specie [gold] which you shall receive from such person as the Secretary of the Treasury may direct to deliver it to you, and you are to deliver such specie agreeably to the directions you will receive. "
 
Evans to Hamilton, November 23, 1809:
 
"Sir , I have ...made immediate application to Captain Chauncey for the 40 seamen you directed him to loan the John Adams. He states that there is not a seaman in the yard, and in fact, there is not, in his opinion, five men in it, who have been beyond Sandy Hook. We have had a Rendezvous open since our arrival, but have not been able to enter one seaman. Tomorrow evening, if the weather is favorable, we shall have completed watering and victualling for three months and will require nothing but seamen to be in a state of readiness for any service. I could wish very much, as the ship is to proceed on foreign service, and acting lieutenant. My reasons for this are the state of Lieutenant Blakeley's health, which frequently renders it impossible for him to attend to duty in bad weather, and in case of accident, we have no midshipmen that I would be willing to entrust to a watch. Should it be agreeable to you, to make an arrangement of that nature, I beg leave to mention Midshipman George Budd as the one I would prefer to any midshipman I am acquainted with in the service."
 
Hamilton replied that he had ordered Commodore Rogers of the President to give Evans all the sailors that he would need, but he couldn't have Mr. Budd, but instead ordered another midshipman, Walter Stewart of Philadelphia, and appoint him acting lieutenant instead. The John Adams was to be a diplomatic shuttle and to carry men and dispatches between the USS, Britain, France and Holland. Curiously, Hamilton asked Evans to give him a assessment of Stewart's abilities following the conclusion of the cruise.
 
The following letter, dated December 2, 1809, makes me think that the corvette had a large poop deck cabin already installed, even though Josiah Fox's spar deck plan does not show one as designed. Two very well-connected wealthy individuals needed a ride to France.
 
"Mr. Thomas Butler of Philadelphia, and his sister Miss Butler, being desirous of going to France in pursuit of health, I am very anxious that they should be accommodated with a passage on board your ship. I therefore request that, if it not materially interfere with the public service, you will receive them and their servants, for that purpose Mr. butler will make the terms agreeably to you. You will have the goodness to write Mr. Butler on the subject at Philadelphia. I need add no more than the respectability and objects of Mr. and Miss Butler, make me very solicitious, that you should accommodate them.
 
I have it in charge of the President of the United States to inform you that it is his desire, that one returning from France to Accommodate Mr. Dupont de Nemours of Paris with passage on board your ship. It is expected that the dispatches, which you are to convey to Europe will be sent by this place by mail on Tuesday. You will therefore hasten to compete your preparations to sail immediately on receipt of them. It may be necessary for me to add, that Mr. Dupont de Nemour the President entertains sentiments very favorable, and consequently, he is recommended to your attention. The President writes to him and you will receive him on such terms as in your discretion shall prescribe."
 
As a carrot to Evans, Hamilton allowed him the take on board $12,000 of private gold for transport to England. A service which would benefit only the captain, as he would receive percentage of the total value as his fee. The perks of command.

That is the plan.

That is the plan.

That is the plan.

OK, back to the John Adams!
 
On May 16th, 1809, the Ship John Adams recommissioned as a corvette. Command of her was given to Master Commandant Samuel Evans. Had she not been cut down, Evans could not have commanded her, frigates being the exclusive domain of the full captains.
 
The next day, Fox wrote the following letter to Evans:
 
"The Frigate John Adams was cut down to a corvette in the latter end of the year 1807, having proved to be improperly constructed, and found to possess too many bad qualities for a frigate. Whilst under repairs, the gun deck beams afore the main hatch were removed, and replaced with new, and the deck raised forward about 3 inches to take out inequalities. . All the berth deck beams were kneed. The wales  and about 4 streaks under, are new, as well as the whole topsides, The overcharging of the stern, shortened and a new rudder of lighter construction made. The frame is of live oak and cedar, and appeared sound. The bottom plank ceiling, keelson and all the beams are of yellow or pitch pine. The pumps are new. The whole of the bottom overhauled and new coppered. The bowsprit mizen mast and fore mast new. Mainmast, new cheeked and repaired. All the other masts, yards, beams, top caps, etc, are new.
 
From an unknown cause, she is wider on the larboard side than on the starboard side, and always tends to list to starboard, from which circumstances I am inclined to believe she will be considerably stiffer on the starboard than on the larboard tack."

Those are interesting choices. I also find the rebuilt Peacock interesting to look at (though far inferior to the original ship, much more extreme hull lines, too sharp to carry as much weight). She was intended to look much like the original ship, but features an updated look, including large carronade ports and a round stern.

Those are interesting choices. I also find the rebuilt Peacock interesting to look at (though far inferior to the original ship, much more extreme hull lines, too sharp to carry as much weight). She was intended to look much like the original ship, but features an updated look, including large carronade ports and a round stern.

What's interesting to me about the Frolic design is the bow. Coming down off the head it's almost a straight line with just a little bit of curve. It also has ports sized for carronades, while Peacock's are smaller.

It's the original construction plan, but things could always be tweaked a bit and ships were never 100% as they were on those plans. Just look at Frolic and Peacock, they were all nominally built ot the same draught. Only a draught "as-built" would be 100% accurate. As a bit of trivia, the construction plan goes to the inside of the planking, while Peacock's as-built probably goes to the outside of the planking. You see something similar with Macedonian, where the original replacement frigate draught goes to the inside, while the draught of the razee is to the outside, so if you overlay them, the sloop of war's plans are slightly bigger in all dimensions.

It's possible Peacock had the galleries added later in a refit at some point, something Wasp obviously couldn't have since she was lost before the end of the war.

It's possible Peacock had the galleries added later in a refit at some point, something Wasp obviously couldn't have since she was lost before the end of the war.

Yeah, Wasp might have been built with galleries, but the original design draught I was talking about shows the badges originally planned there.
 
http://i.imgur.com/gjnTlHr.jpg