bob8888

Don't know if anyone is still paying attn. to the thread, but came across it and thought I'd take a shot... I'm also looking for Crothers' USS Columbus (1820) plans. I have been using the rigging page to restore an old model of HMS Vanguard (1835), 78/80 gun two-decker. I have a set, but the project has been on-hold for a decade plus, and the plans (which I got directly from Crothers in the 80's) have faded terribly and are now hard to read. I fully recognize the different US vs English rigging practices, as well as the 15 year difference in timing, but I find having everything on one (large) page helpful in initially sorting things out; I then consult my "library", mostly Lees' Masting and Rigging, to get it right. So, if anyone has a source, wld appreciate hearing about it. I've tried Taubman's, but get no response Interestingly, the reason I have the plans, in the first place, is that I had an experience much like Frank's. Around 1985, I was at an antique furniture auction at Sotheby's in NYC - and stuck in a corner was a ball of attic dust catalogued as "European ship model". I blew off some of the dust and saw a jumble of a model that looked like it had fallen upside-down, then put away in an open cardboard box in the attic for 50+ yrs. But it looked like the "Constitution" w/ an extra deck (ie, two gun decks and a continuous spar deck). It certainly looked very American to me; and, wiping away more dust, I found "North Carolina" painted on the transom. Not very European. Bought it, I think, for ~$100 (no reserve, no other bidders). The model is quite old, guessing somewhere around the turn of the last century; solid hull beneath the lower gun deck; 1/8" scale. What was strange was the absence of a raised poop (per Chapelle's plans); different hatch/ladderways configuration; and several non-nautical looking structures on the spar deck: a large "clipper ship-looking" deck house and what looks like a "sentry box". In consultation w/ the head of the Smithsonian's ship model dept (forget his name, but he was very interested and helpful), we hypothesized that the model was perhaps built by a former crew member from memory (the measurements are a bit off) and reflecting her last days as a recvng ship in NY harbor; thus, the strange deck configuration. I rebuilt it to an as launched configuration. She is not a fine model - and I did not repaint her - so she is a bit dingy (although that is prbly realistic). I always wanted a ship of the line, but now realize that they are unrealistic models for most residences. The case dimensions for my NC (and I sized the case to the bare minimum) are 44x13x32". That's a lot of furniture. My Vanguard is 3/16", so I know that it will never go into the house; just need to finish it.