uss frolick

I felt sorry for the poor critters in the burning barn! Hank-borg, we will expect a full film review from you ! Here's an interesting, detailed documentary on the loss of the Blucher: And you'll have to get this one too!

It looks very good! But its not all naval. Here's a well done land battle scene, as seen through the unfortunate eyes of a young Norwegian soldier.

A clip from the 2016 Norwegian movie "The King's Choice" where the Oscarsborg Fortress sinks the German cruiser Blücher in the opening hours of the invasion of Norway in april 1940. English subtitles can be turned on for this clip. "No warning, no hesitation. These are enemies". "What if we're wrong"? "At my command ... Fire". The German ship was only four days old. Colonel Birger Eriksen, commander at Oskarborg fortress, was the personification of Leadership!

Just to confuse things more, in peace time, the French liked to disarm the quarterdeck and forecastle of their frigates to save weight, expense, manpower and wear on the lighter pieces. French 12-pounder frigates sailed with just their 26 main deck guns between the wars. The lovely La Belle Poule carried her ten six pounders when she valiantly fought HMS Nonsuch, 64 (!!!), but accounts vary of her total armament during her earlier famous battle with Arethusa, as hostilities had just broken out. (Can you believe she fought a 64?)

In 1812, American cannon balls were locally cast in sand molds, and the results were unsatisfactory. Many of our shot were underweight, and I saw a letter printed in the papers complaining that the Constitution's 24-pound shot actually weighed closer to 22 pounds, while Purer Charles Ludlow reported that the French 18-pounder cannon and shot (Guerriere and Java were both French prizes) were original French issue. This calibrated to French pounds, is about 20 pounds English equivalent. Thus this diminishes the famous, old 24 vs. 18 pounder cannon fairness argument considerably! The US navy vessels carried 100 round shot for every gun onboard. I don't recall if this was for every gun mounted or rated. Many famous engagements did not fire as many shot as we suppose that they did. We are used to Patrick O'Brien's fictional accounts of the famed 'three broadsides in five minutes' ability of Captain Aubrey's commands, but this was rarely done in real life. The bloodiest battle of the War-of-1812 occurred between the Shannon and the Chesapeake, an engagement that lasted, at very most, 15 minutes. The Chesapeake fired only three broadsides, according to the court of enquiry testimony of the midshipman belonging to the second division, while the first division fired only twice before her guns were out of view of their target. Remembering that each side began at moment zero with loaded guns, this makes, on average, one broadside every seven and a half minutes. The report of the damage inflicted on the Chesapeake, drawn up by the British in Halifax, notes that hundreds of projectiles were embedded in, or passed through, the American's port side. While this sounds amazing at first, this report actually counted every individual grape shot! Actually, the Shannon reportedly fired, alternating, one round and one grape - and then two round shot - from her 18-pounders at each discharge, and that her carronades fired one round and one grape/cannister at each discharge. The shots were inflicted at point black range, so few could have missed, and so counting specifically the round shot that stuck in, or passed through, the Chesapeake 's hull, (I don't have the numbers readily available) - then again we have three broadsides only into the Chesapeake's side. (I know that there was a destructive stern rake at the end of the fight - I'm simplifying.) But that was enough to kill or wound 170 Americans, including most officers on deck and nearly every marine. Shannon was the best gunnery ship in the RN! Worse still was the USS Constellation/La Vengeance fight of 1800. The French captain reported later that he fired about 780 (if I remember correctly) projectiles that night, of which 400, he specified, were round shot. This seems like a lot, until one does the math. Assume that the 380 grape and canister were all double-shotted with a single round shot - and that none of the round shot were double shotted. La Vengeance mounted 52 carriage guns that night, two of them being standing stern chase 18-pounders on the main deck. That's 25 guns per broadside. The battle lasted on and off for four hours, or 'all night' according to one account. That means the Frenchman fired, on average, 400/25 = 16 equivalent broadsides in 4 hours. That's one broadside every 15 minutes - and that excludes the opening phases when the Vengeance opened up on the Constellation with her stern chasers for about an hour. The battle was described as a furious night time engagement, that ended in a draw, when both ships were partially dismasted and drifted out of sight. Not exactly HMS Surprise rates of fire! In addition to the shot on deck, in garlands along the hatches and/or bulwarks, wooden boxes of grape and canister were brought up before the battle, probably hoisted up through the hatches. After the Chesapeake fight, according to one local paper, a wooden box was fished out of Boston Harbor by a spectator, that was marked "Chesapeake, Cannister Shot, Fourth Division". In addition, the Constitution had shot wooden trays with nine 32-pounder round shot in arranged them 3 X 3. There are contemporary accounts of Sunday services, given on board ship, where the crew reportedly sits on capsten bars that were lain across "shot boxes". Click the image in the link below to scroll through the five pictures to see what the trays looked like and the painting of Captain Hull which contains them: https://www.model-monkey.com/product-page/1-96-shot-trays-and-shot-for-32-pounder-carronades

That is a very interesting document. Thanks for sharing! The text is very technical and wonky. Sadly for history, none of those ships described ever saw major action, it being the start of the era known as Pax Brittania. I wonder who the author's audience was for something so specialized?

William James's early works are now considered by modern historians to be some of the first true, modern-type histories, since the author consulted primary source documents (logbooks), interviewed participants (friends with Philip Broke, for example) and included footnotes, graphs and appendixes. If you can look past his Anglophilic and Ameri-phobic snarks, you can still used his information today. His six volume series on the history of the British Navy during the Napoleonic period cannot be much improved upon, and many subsequent historians either quote or plagiarizes James's work. It is very scholarly work given it's early date.

Shannon? Shannon who? 🙄

Volume 4 of Jean Boudroit's "The 74-Gun Ship" has a large section on the crew of a 74 circa 1780, with many color plates. I don't think that below-deck fashions would have changed much in 10-20 years, except for the officers.

In case anyone is interested, here's Part II of the Cochrane video:

Here's a great introductory video about Cochrane and HMS Speedy! (Hope you don't mind, Chris.)

I had seen contemporary reference to a strong netting affixed somehow over the top of the shot garlands to keep the shot in place.

Lieutenant Bradley Pitt is with the Royal Winnipeg Rifles of Canada, serving with the 3rd Canadian Division in Northern France, in late July, 1944: It's a 50/50 mishmash of purchased commercial gear and scratch built components. 0 by Stephen Duffy, on Flickr 0-2 by Stephen Duffy, on Flickr 0-3 by Stephen Duffy, on Flickr 0 by Stephen Duffy, on Flickr 0-6 by Stephen Duffy, on Flickr 0-5 by Stephen Duffy, on Flickr His full story can be seen here on the Sixth Division Board, a site devoted to WWII in 1/6th scale. Alone and afraid, he must fight for his very survival! His harrowing vignette is here: https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/onesixthnet/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=24895&p=161279#p161279

That looks great! You could host a formal dance in there, there is so much room. 😜 (Me so Jealous!) Reminds me of the classic Monty Python sketch, "Arthur Two-Sheds Jackson".

The above link was deleted, so here's the deleted scenes again from another Youtube channel:

I posted it about five years ago. I saw an excerpt of it in The Frigate Essex Papers and ordered a complete copy from the Peabody Museum in Salem. It was part of the Fox Papers collections.

For a great history, get a copy of “Millions for Defense :the subscription warships of 1798” by Fred Lenier. It’s all about the history of the subscription frigates and the Boston chapter is great. Nothing graphical for the modelers tho.

For a great history, get a copy of “Millions for Defense :the subscription warships of 1798” by Fred Lenier. It’s all about the history of the subscription frigates and the Boston chapter is great. Nothing graphical for the modelers tho.

Thank you for the timely translation Gerard! One question: Might not the mysterious "57-pounder" guns found on board L'Egyptienne by the British actually be 64-pounder English carronades, similar to those two smashers on HMS Victory. It seems that perhaps 64 'English pounds' might be the equivalent to 57 'French pounds'? Similarly, the French 36-pounder and the English 42-pounder fired same shot. Also, since the 64-pounder had a bore of about 8 inches, might these mysterious guns be short 8 inch brass howitzers, that fired an English 64 pound/French 57 pound solid shot? This was a common land weapon. The US Navy mounted an undetermined number of 8-inch brass howitzers, "mounted on the French Fashion", in their heavy frigates during in 1798-99, and one was still retained on the US Frigate President, as a shifting gun, when she was captured in 1815. They rarely fired solid shot, because of the small powder charge, but they could, and when they did, the ball would have weighted 64 American/English pounds. They normally dumped grape and canister shot into the enemy's rigging. What do you think?

You will want to get a copy of the "Modeling the Brig of War Irene" book, based on the Cruiser Class brig HMS Grasshopper, if you're serious: https://www.amazon.com/Modelling-Brig-War-Irene-Ship-Models/dp/B0006C7NRA

Enjoy!

Good thing Napoleon didn't subscribe to The Naval Chronicle, or that Trafalgar thingy might have turned out differently!

It is my theory that the Forte was Joshua Humphries "French Influence" inspiration for designing the Constitution Class 44's, not, as Howard Chapelle states, the French designed, Dutch-built Continental Frigate South Carolina.

Hi Chris! I have the complete set for Imperious. PM me your email, and I'll take photos tomorrow and send them to you. I have to find the right roll in my plan-closet first! As for American subjects, the large flush decked ship-sloops of 1812-war beg to be made into kits: Wasp, Hornet, Peacock, Frolic, Wasp II, Saratoga. They are well documented, have battle credits, their carvings are at a tasteful minimum, and the wheel, boats, bitts, fife-rails, guns, etc., are on one open, easily accessible deck.

That Speedy looks lovely. Returning to Indefatigable, note that according to historian William James, a contemporary source to be trusted, she mounted eighteen 42-pounders plus two long twelves on her spar deck when she engaged the Virginie . This would have affected the shapes of the ports and might have necessitated a planking up of the forecastle bulwarks. A very complete set of plans survives of Cochranes HMS Imperious, 38, as fitted , which includes detailed drawings of her bust-head and her stern carvings in 1/2 inch scale.