trippwj

Captain Blakeley and the Wasp: The Cruise of 1814
 
Stephen W.  H. Duffy
Hardcover: 348 pages including Index, extensive Notes and Bibliography.
Publisher: US Naval Institute Press (2001)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1557501769
 
In celebration of the 200th anniversary of the start of his historic, and ill fated, cruise, it is my honor to present to you a brief review of a narrative of Captain Johnston Blakeley's career in the early American navy, culminating in one of the greatest raiding cruises every undertaken.
 
There are many tales of the accomplishments of America’s young navy during the War of 1812, and several of the most famous names in American Naval History were blazed into the national consciousness during that conflict.  Although the most successful American naval officer of the War of 1812, Johnston Blakely never enjoyed the fame that he had for so long desired.  His fame was posthumous.
 
In Captain Blakeley and the Wasp: The Cruise of 1814, Stephen Duffy tells, in a readable and coherent fashion, the story of Master Commandant Johnston Blakeley and the highly successful cruise of the American sloop of war Wasp in 1814. Duffy draws on archival information from numerous institutions to introduce the reader to the young Blakeley, tracing his youth and formative years through to his early years serving under Thomas Truxton on the President and John Rodgers on the John Adams to his command of the brig Enterprise in 1811. Blakeley’s skills and ambition are rewarded – he is sent to Newburyport, Massachusetts to supervise the construction of the Sloop of War Wasp.
 
Duffy demonstrates his passion for detail and accuracy as he chronicles the building of the Wasp and Blakeley's struggles to outfit and crew his new ship, an effort made more difficult by national politics and by rivalries within the Navy. Designed by Naval Constructor William Doughty as a commerce raider, Wasp was rated at 509 tons and 22 guns with a crew of 173.  Blakeley left port on May 1, 1814, at the helm of the newly commissioned Wasp. 
 
Blakeley captured his first prize on June 2, 1814.  Within the following month, the Wasp captured and burned four more prizes.  Blakeley secured his place in American naval history on June 28, 1814.   Blakeley and his crew chased and brought to battle the Royal Navy’s HMS Reindeer, a Cruizer class brig sloop of 18 guns.  One of the hardest fought battles of the war followed, and when it had concluded, Blakeley’s guns had overpowered and reduced the British vessel to a drifting hulk.  Also damaged, Blakeley sailed to L’Orient, France to offload prisoners and seek repairs.  En route, despite the damage incurred during the battle with the Reindeer, the Wasp still captured two more prizes.
 
The Wasp was back at sea by August 27, and Blakeley set course for Gibraltar.  He continued cruising successfully throughout the fall, even winning a battle over the HMS Avon.  As news of Blakeley’s success filtered back to the United States in October and early November, he became a hero, and Congress promoted him to Captain on November 24.  Meanwhile, the Wasp’s return was long overdue, and rumors swirled concerning the ship’s fate.  The British never made claims to sinking the ship, but the Wasp vanished somewhere on the Atlantic, possibly foundering in a gale.  The last confirmed sighting was by a Swedish crew on the Adonis.  They saw the Wasp on October 9, 1814, some 225 miles southwest of Madeira.
 
Duffy is able to provide a cogent and informative interpretation of the available archival records, and brings Blakeley to life as a tragic hero of his time. Faced with the common constraint imposed on any student of history, Duffy was faced with the paucity of primary source accounts from Blakeley and his close associates, as well as the conflicting accounts in the British and American records.  Duffy was very selective and effective in his use of reasonable speculation about the thoughts of the young officer regarding various situations. Mr. Duffy has succeeded in providing not just a story of a young man who was in the right place with the right ship at the right time, but also presents a well-researched and documented study of a junior officer in the small American navy at the beginning of the 19th Century.
 
 

 

Mark, Dan, thats not sawdust, those are little tiny granules of Retirement Induced Contentment and Happiness! Your R.I.C.H!
And now a question. Are each of your frames made of two layers with the joins off set or one layer with half lapped joints? I enlarged the photo and for the life of me I cant tell.
Sam

Yes, that's the process as I remember it.  I actually learned it from Julia Child.  You take a whole turkey, cut it into 22 pieces, cook it then patch it back together with toothpicks so it looks nice before you slice it.  Same with aeromodeling......screw/glue 850 odd pieces into one big one then put it in a flat spin for the 're-kitting' operation. 
 
Press on, mate......it's getting interesting

Hmmmmmm Sjors It appears Siri cant spell. Nope, I had nothing to do with that at all, not me, no sir!
Sam

Kevin et. al. - thank you for this amazing trek through naval and maritime history.  If I may be allowed, I would like to add an entry for May 1st.
 
200 years ago today, on May 1, 1814, The US Sloop of War WASP sets sail from Newburyport, MA under the command of Master Commandant Johnston Blakeley.  Over the ensuing 5 months, WASP sets a record for commerce raiding and successful naval combat unsurpassed by any other US Captain of the time - and never on a single cruise.  In total, WASP is known to have captured 12 merchant vessels and engaged (and defeated) 3 naval vessels before being lost at sea during October or November of 1814.

Kevin et. al. - thank you for this amazing trek through naval and maritime history.  If I may be allowed, I would like to add an entry for May 1st.
 
200 years ago today, on May 1, 1814, The US Sloop of War WASP sets sail from Newburyport, MA under the command of Master Commandant Johnston Blakeley.  Over the ensuing 5 months, WASP sets a record for commerce raiding and successful naval combat unsurpassed by any other US Captain of the time - and never on a single cruise.  In total, WASP is known to have captured 12 merchant vessels and engaged (and defeated) 3 naval vessels before being lost at sea during October or November of 1814.

Captain Blakeley and the Wasp: The Cruise of 1814
 
Stephen W.  H. Duffy
Hardcover: 348 pages including Index, extensive Notes and Bibliography.
Publisher: US Naval Institute Press (2001)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1557501769
 
In celebration of the 200th anniversary of the start of his historic, and ill fated, cruise, it is my honor to present to you a brief review of a narrative of Captain Johnston Blakeley's career in the early American navy, culminating in one of the greatest raiding cruises every undertaken.
 
There are many tales of the accomplishments of America’s young navy during the War of 1812, and several of the most famous names in American Naval History were blazed into the national consciousness during that conflict.  Although the most successful American naval officer of the War of 1812, Johnston Blakely never enjoyed the fame that he had for so long desired.  His fame was posthumous.
 
In Captain Blakeley and the Wasp: The Cruise of 1814, Stephen Duffy tells, in a readable and coherent fashion, the story of Master Commandant Johnston Blakeley and the highly successful cruise of the American sloop of war Wasp in 1814. Duffy draws on archival information from numerous institutions to introduce the reader to the young Blakeley, tracing his youth and formative years through to his early years serving under Thomas Truxton on the President and John Rodgers on the John Adams to his command of the brig Enterprise in 1811. Blakeley’s skills and ambition are rewarded – he is sent to Newburyport, Massachusetts to supervise the construction of the Sloop of War Wasp.
 
Duffy demonstrates his passion for detail and accuracy as he chronicles the building of the Wasp and Blakeley's struggles to outfit and crew his new ship, an effort made more difficult by national politics and by rivalries within the Navy. Designed by Naval Constructor William Doughty as a commerce raider, Wasp was rated at 509 tons and 22 guns with a crew of 173.  Blakeley left port on May 1, 1814, at the helm of the newly commissioned Wasp. 
 
Blakeley captured his first prize on June 2, 1814.  Within the following month, the Wasp captured and burned four more prizes.  Blakeley secured his place in American naval history on June 28, 1814.   Blakeley and his crew chased and brought to battle the Royal Navy’s HMS Reindeer, a Cruizer class brig sloop of 18 guns.  One of the hardest fought battles of the war followed, and when it had concluded, Blakeley’s guns had overpowered and reduced the British vessel to a drifting hulk.  Also damaged, Blakeley sailed to L’Orient, France to offload prisoners and seek repairs.  En route, despite the damage incurred during the battle with the Reindeer, the Wasp still captured two more prizes.
 
The Wasp was back at sea by August 27, and Blakeley set course for Gibraltar.  He continued cruising successfully throughout the fall, even winning a battle over the HMS Avon.  As news of Blakeley’s success filtered back to the United States in October and early November, he became a hero, and Congress promoted him to Captain on November 24.  Meanwhile, the Wasp’s return was long overdue, and rumors swirled concerning the ship’s fate.  The British never made claims to sinking the ship, but the Wasp vanished somewhere on the Atlantic, possibly foundering in a gale.  The last confirmed sighting was by a Swedish crew on the Adonis.  They saw the Wasp on October 9, 1814, some 225 miles southwest of Madeira.
 
Duffy is able to provide a cogent and informative interpretation of the available archival records, and brings Blakeley to life as a tragic hero of his time. Faced with the common constraint imposed on any student of history, Duffy was faced with the paucity of primary source accounts from Blakeley and his close associates, as well as the conflicting accounts in the British and American records.  Duffy was very selective and effective in his use of reasonable speculation about the thoughts of the young officer regarding various situations. Mr. Duffy has succeeded in providing not just a story of a young man who was in the right place with the right ship at the right time, but also presents a well-researched and documented study of a junior officer in the small American navy at the beginning of the 19th Century.
 
 

 

You may want to take a look at Ships and Science -The Birth of Naval Architecture in the Scientific Revolution, 1600-1800 by Larrie Ferreiro (2006). 
ISBN: 9780262514156 (paperback - 2010)
 
The following is from the Overview posted at MIT Press -
 
"Naval architecture was born in the mountains of Peru, in the mind of a French astronomer named Pierre Bouguer who never built a ship in his life." So writes Larrie Ferreiro at the beginning of this pioneering work on the science of naval architecture. Bouguer's monumental book Traité du navire (Treatise of the Ship) founded a discipline that defined not the rules for building a ship but the theories and tools to predict a ship's characteristics and performance before it was built. In Ships and Science, Ferreiro argues that the birth of naval architecture formed an integral part of the Scientific Revolution. Using Bouguer's work as a cornerstone, Ferreiro traces the intriguing and often unexpected development of this new discipline and describes its practical application to ship design in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Drawing on previously untapped primary-source and archival information, he places the development of naval architecture in the contexts of science, navy, and society, across the major shipbuilding nations of Britain, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, and Italy.
 
Ferreiro describes the formulation of the three major elements of ship theory (the science of explaining the physical behavior of a ship): maneuvering and sail theory, ship resistance and hydrodynamics, and stability theory. He considers the era's influential books on naval architecture and describes the professionalization of ship constructors that is the true legacy of this period. Finally, looking from the viewpoints of both the constructor and the naval administrator, he explains why the development of ship theory was encouraged, financed, and used in naval shipbuilding. A generous selection of rarely seen archival images accompanies the text.
 
While it does not get into the nuts and bolts of ship building, it provides a far ranging survey of the engineering (scientific basis) for ship form and structure. 
 
 

Captain Blakeley and the Wasp: The Cruise of 1814
 
Stephen W.  H. Duffy
Hardcover: 348 pages including Index, extensive Notes and Bibliography.
Publisher: US Naval Institute Press (2001)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1557501769
 
In celebration of the 200th anniversary of the start of his historic, and ill fated, cruise, it is my honor to present to you a brief review of a narrative of Captain Johnston Blakeley's career in the early American navy, culminating in one of the greatest raiding cruises every undertaken.
 
There are many tales of the accomplishments of America’s young navy during the War of 1812, and several of the most famous names in American Naval History were blazed into the national consciousness during that conflict.  Although the most successful American naval officer of the War of 1812, Johnston Blakely never enjoyed the fame that he had for so long desired.  His fame was posthumous.
 
In Captain Blakeley and the Wasp: The Cruise of 1814, Stephen Duffy tells, in a readable and coherent fashion, the story of Master Commandant Johnston Blakeley and the highly successful cruise of the American sloop of war Wasp in 1814. Duffy draws on archival information from numerous institutions to introduce the reader to the young Blakeley, tracing his youth and formative years through to his early years serving under Thomas Truxton on the President and John Rodgers on the John Adams to his command of the brig Enterprise in 1811. Blakeley’s skills and ambition are rewarded – he is sent to Newburyport, Massachusetts to supervise the construction of the Sloop of War Wasp.
 
Duffy demonstrates his passion for detail and accuracy as he chronicles the building of the Wasp and Blakeley's struggles to outfit and crew his new ship, an effort made more difficult by national politics and by rivalries within the Navy. Designed by Naval Constructor William Doughty as a commerce raider, Wasp was rated at 509 tons and 22 guns with a crew of 173.  Blakeley left port on May 1, 1814, at the helm of the newly commissioned Wasp. 
 
Blakeley captured his first prize on June 2, 1814.  Within the following month, the Wasp captured and burned four more prizes.  Blakeley secured his place in American naval history on June 28, 1814.   Blakeley and his crew chased and brought to battle the Royal Navy’s HMS Reindeer, a Cruizer class brig sloop of 18 guns.  One of the hardest fought battles of the war followed, and when it had concluded, Blakeley’s guns had overpowered and reduced the British vessel to a drifting hulk.  Also damaged, Blakeley sailed to L’Orient, France to offload prisoners and seek repairs.  En route, despite the damage incurred during the battle with the Reindeer, the Wasp still captured two more prizes.
 
The Wasp was back at sea by August 27, and Blakeley set course for Gibraltar.  He continued cruising successfully throughout the fall, even winning a battle over the HMS Avon.  As news of Blakeley’s success filtered back to the United States in October and early November, he became a hero, and Congress promoted him to Captain on November 24.  Meanwhile, the Wasp’s return was long overdue, and rumors swirled concerning the ship’s fate.  The British never made claims to sinking the ship, but the Wasp vanished somewhere on the Atlantic, possibly foundering in a gale.  The last confirmed sighting was by a Swedish crew on the Adonis.  They saw the Wasp on October 9, 1814, some 225 miles southwest of Madeira.
 
Duffy is able to provide a cogent and informative interpretation of the available archival records, and brings Blakeley to life as a tragic hero of his time. Faced with the common constraint imposed on any student of history, Duffy was faced with the paucity of primary source accounts from Blakeley and his close associates, as well as the conflicting accounts in the British and American records.  Duffy was very selective and effective in his use of reasonable speculation about the thoughts of the young officer regarding various situations. Mr. Duffy has succeeded in providing not just a story of a young man who was in the right place with the right ship at the right time, but also presents a well-researched and documented study of a junior officer in the small American navy at the beginning of the 19th Century.
 
 

 

thanks Kevin......I haven't done much with them as of late. waiting till the weather get a bit warmer, so I can bring them out to the garage for a complete sanding job. they are going to be singular builds, but under the same subject / theme. one of my ideas though might not be as good as I once thought. I at least want them to be practical, so I threw the skating rink idea out. I do have an idea for the third hull, but it doesn't pertain to the subject. if that happens, this project will become a duo, and I'll save the other hull for that purpose. however this turns out, it will still be fun to do. thanks for looking in

It was a long search but I find my Aggy log again !
Because it's May I will spend some time at her.
The Fonz is at the shelf for a while......
What have I done...
Make the focs'l ( if I wright that right )
Make the roundhouses with the hinges and painted.
Then i have make 3 gun ports with the frames in it.
Maybe it looks not perfect but I have still to paint them and then of course another planking.
So I can hide a lot   
 

 
 
 
 

You may want to take a look at Ships and Science -The Birth of Naval Architecture in the Scientific Revolution, 1600-1800 by Larrie Ferreiro (2006). 
ISBN: 9780262514156 (paperback - 2010)
 
The following is from the Overview posted at MIT Press -
 
"Naval architecture was born in the mountains of Peru, in the mind of a French astronomer named Pierre Bouguer who never built a ship in his life." So writes Larrie Ferreiro at the beginning of this pioneering work on the science of naval architecture. Bouguer's monumental book Traité du navire (Treatise of the Ship) founded a discipline that defined not the rules for building a ship but the theories and tools to predict a ship's characteristics and performance before it was built. In Ships and Science, Ferreiro argues that the birth of naval architecture formed an integral part of the Scientific Revolution. Using Bouguer's work as a cornerstone, Ferreiro traces the intriguing and often unexpected development of this new discipline and describes its practical application to ship design in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Drawing on previously untapped primary-source and archival information, he places the development of naval architecture in the contexts of science, navy, and society, across the major shipbuilding nations of Britain, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, and Italy.
 
Ferreiro describes the formulation of the three major elements of ship theory (the science of explaining the physical behavior of a ship): maneuvering and sail theory, ship resistance and hydrodynamics, and stability theory. He considers the era's influential books on naval architecture and describes the professionalization of ship constructors that is the true legacy of this period. Finally, looking from the viewpoints of both the constructor and the naval administrator, he explains why the development of ship theory was encouraged, financed, and used in naval shipbuilding. A generous selection of rarely seen archival images accompanies the text.
 
While it does not get into the nuts and bolts of ship building, it provides a far ranging survey of the engineering (scientific basis) for ship form and structure. 
 
 

Thanks very much Brian, Frank, Janos, Patrick, Grant, Nils, Mark, Pat, Steve, John (welcome back), Spyglass, Dale and Albert .
 
Good to see you have your Acetone problem sorted Spyglass - thanks for giving him the info Grant, I've been away on one of my extended holidays again .
 
Roughtree Rail
 
The final Rail to be fitted is the Roughtree Rail, also called the Quarter Rail. This rail is bolted to the Swivel Gun Mounts on the Quarterdeck, and also has an iron brace near it's fore end.
 
I made the fore end from a piece of wide stock, cut on the scroll saw. A much easier way than trying to bend it into shape :
 

 

 

 
  Danny

Mike,
If it's just plans showing the internals, etc.,  the "Anatomy of a Ship" books are very good. 
There's also Lavery's "Arming and Fitting of English Ships of War 1600-1815"
 
There's others with some very deep coverage including plans and building instructions such as Antscherl's "The Fully Framed Model: Swan Class Sloops", Ed Tosti's "Naiad" and Yedlinksy's "HMS Euryalus".  Seawatch Books has these and others.
 
For French Ships, there's ANCRE and all their related books.
 
Basically, you spend large piles of money on books....

Augie - Thanks for looking in. Your Confederacy is a really beautiful build.
 
Geoff - I don't know about that. I am just trying to add a little more detail than some. Your Constitution build is a real inspiration for me and was one of the reason I decided to build it. It is fantastic.
 
Tim - thanks and I hope it comes out the way I envision it. A problem I always seem to have is keeping something I had already done from getting messed up by further steps. I am hoping that doesn't happen when I add the rest of the details to the gun deck.
 
A small update. I installed all of the knees on the gun deck walls, with vertical knees under the beam ends and diagonal knees in between. They look a little funny without the carlings in place, but once the spar deck is planked the tops of these knees won't be visible. I put some masking tape on the deck to protect it while gluing up the inside planks and the knees, and I managed not to get any glue on the deck (so far).
 

 
When I removed the masking tape, some stain was lifted from some of the planks, but I was able to restain them and blend it into the rest of them. I painted the inside walls, knees, and inside the gun ports with an off white that I mixed up. I also managed not to get paint on the waterways or deck, at least not any that I was not able to wipe off before it dried. It really helped to paint that bottom plank before installing it. I also gave the deck, hatch coamings and gratings and waterway a coat of Tung oil. I know this may interfere with gluing details to the deck later, like guns, but I plan to pin all those down so they don't come loose later. I will also scrape the glue areas before gluing. Here  is how the gun deck looks so far:
 

 
I have been making up gun carriages as I wait for other things to dry.  I have no idea what color these carriages should be. The carriages on the current ship are a pinkish-red, but I don't think that would have been the case in 1812. They could have been red like the British ships of the time, black, brown, yellow even, but I really don't know. I am open for suggestions from all you Connie experts out there.
 
Thanks so much.

After 10 days of doing hand to hand combat with the great outdoors, the shipyard is once again open (on the summer schedule).  I've begun on the planking of the inner bulwarks starting in the stern.  Still need to do some prep work (fillers, sheaves etc.) before we start on the actual bulwarks.
 
Here's the stern.  The majority of it will be invisible once the upper deck, beams and side planking are in place:
 

 
Good to be back on the job.
 
 

Hi,
 
I received my reviewers copy yesterday and the book looks very promising. This is supposed to be book one of three on the development and history of the British Sloop.  Book one traces the development of small craft into the design and purpose of the sloops that most of us know of as the work horses of the last quarter of the 18th century. This volume ends at 1763.
First glance says this is going to be a very good series. I will have a more in depth review at a later date.
 
Thanks,
 
Bob Friedman

The Constitution museum publishes a blog at http://usscm.blogspot.com/
 
One of the more recent posts (January 2014) discusses the "facilities" available aboard the Connie.  The following is extracted from their blog post:
 
Frigates typically carried two “round houses” forward on the gundeck.  These structures, consisting of wooden half cylindrical screens erected against the ship’s side provided a sheltered place to do one’s business.
 

 
A detail from a ca. 1817-1820 plan of USS United States' decks by Charles Ware.  The red arrow points to the starboard round house.
 
Before Constitution’s battle with HMS Levant and HMS Cyane, the ship’s crew removed the round houses to “afford room to work the forward deck guns in action.”  According to Chaplain Assheton Humphreys the removal of the “spice boxes”, as the crew called them, forced the officers “to make the chains [the narrow platforms on the side of the ship to which the shrouds were attached] the scene of their profane rites,” or stealthily slip into the quarter galleries.

Apparently the crew referred to these as "Spice Boxes" (presumably because they resembled a common household item) and they were commonly included on the larger frigates for the convenience and privacy of the ships officers. It is tough to determine how permanent these were... You'd think they were flimsy screens that were easily removed when clearing for action.  It seems that they might've been more solid fixtures... Captain Stewart ordered them removed prior to the battle with Cyane and Levant to give better clearance for the forward gun crews.  They were not reassembled after the battle - probably because they were removed with an axe. On the cruise home the British officers began to grumble and get very surly about the lack of private facilities for the gentleman.  (Apparently the were used to having these on Guerriere) They felt that it was very undignified to have to relieve themselves using the leeward channels like common sailors.  One of the American Lieutenants finally got fed up and remarked loudly to one of them something to the effect that the prisoners were well positioned to attest that American officers cared more about their gunnery than about their round houses... Presumably that ended the trouble.
 
Here is my representation:
 

 

 
A fun detail that will get buried once my spar deck is in place.
 
Evan

The Guerriere had a pair of these structures fixed just forward of the number-one main deck gun. In order that they could use the bridle port as a chase port without having to tear the closet down every time they cleared for action, the dockyard fitted an extra pair of long French 18-pounders (21-pounders English) to be permanently fixed in the bridle ports. This is how the Guerriere mounted thirty long 18's on her main deck. But there must have been a lot of room between the two ports, since in most French or English frigates, there would not have been enough room to work the guns, without collisions, let alone room for the fixed closets between them.
 
Oh, I wish someone would find the Guerriere draughts!!!

The Constitution museum publishes a blog at http://usscm.blogspot.com/
 
One of the more recent posts (January 2014) discusses the "facilities" available aboard the Connie.  The following is extracted from their blog post:
 
Frigates typically carried two “round houses” forward on the gundeck.  These structures, consisting of wooden half cylindrical screens erected against the ship’s side provided a sheltered place to do one’s business.
 

 
A detail from a ca. 1817-1820 plan of USS United States' decks by Charles Ware.  The red arrow points to the starboard round house.
 
Before Constitution’s battle with HMS Levant and HMS Cyane, the ship’s crew removed the round houses to “afford room to work the forward deck guns in action.”  According to Chaplain Assheton Humphreys the removal of the “spice boxes”, as the crew called them, forced the officers “to make the chains [the narrow platforms on the side of the ship to which the shrouds were attached] the scene of their profane rites,” or stealthily slip into the quarter galleries.

Thanks John, Keith, Mark and Daniel.
 
Keith the scroll saw blade in the pics is a 28 TPI skip tooth blade and it seems to work okay for this. I've got some 46 TPI spiral blades (that cut in any direction) but have found these very difficult to control in the past. I may give them another go for this as some of the smaller frames have REALLY tight curves. I also had a look at Ron's work in his Oneida log, having spotted the reference in your own log earlier today - some might fine work there, but oh to be working at 1:48 instead of 1:90! Next time........
 
Mark - yes, rest assured the new tools have more to do with future builds than ships boats.
 
Daniel - nice to see you back. Always a pleasure to see you here - you were one of the first to encourage me to do better. So, in a way, it's all your fault!

Also the following:
 
"The Republics Private Navy: The American Privateering Business as Practiced by Baltimore during the War of 1812" by Jerome R. Garitee, Mystic Seaport, Wesleyan University Press, 1977.
 
"Tidewater Triumph: The Development and Worldwide Success of the Chesapeake Bay Pilot Schooner." by Goeffrey M. Footner. Tidewater Press Centerville, MD, 1998.
 
As far as plans are concerned, Chapelle's "The Search for Speed Under Sail" is the best.

For more academic reading, there is Carl E. Swanson - Privateering in Early America International Journal of Maritime History December 1989 1: 253-278, http://ijh.sagepub.com/content/1/2/253.citation
 
Dan Conlin - Privateer Entrepot: Commercial Militarization in Liverpool, Nova Scotia, 1793-1805 The Northern Mariner/Le Marin du nord, VIII, No. 2 (April 1998), 21-38. http://www.cnrs-scrn.org/northern_mariner/indices/index_vol_8_e.html
 
 

Hello
 
A must have is the" automatic flying parts catcher" . It's a cross between an NHL Champion goaly and a Frisbee catching dog,the Goaly talents for stopping a part from going off the table and the catching skills of the dog to catch the parts that get thru the first line of defence.
 
OH- and most important is the Bloodhound searching skills to find the parts that get thru the first two lines of Parts Flying Away Defence. And to find them when you need them, and not after you have scratch made a replacement part and already used it in your build.
 
I thought that I had seen the "Automatic Parts Catcher" on Youtube,but cannot find it now. Let me and all other model builders where they can get this valuable addition to the work bench.
 
The real test is for the PE parts that you cut off of the fret, they have a will to fly that is only  challanged by anEagle or Hawk!
 
 
Good luck all.
 
Keith