uss frolick

The most attractive British 74, was HMS Majestic, circa 1784 me-thinks, and her four sisters, like Nelson's famous HMS Captain, Orion, etc. They were designed by a man named Bately. She has a very grand sweeping Stem and head that is really very attractive. There is a model of one of her sisters in the Annapolis Rogers collection, HMS Canada, which is mis-identified as HMS Triumph.

The best "74", with regard to sailing qualities, is thought by some to have been the USS Ohio, 74, of 1820, a one-off design by Henry Eckford. The British seemed to have liked the captured French Courageux of 1761, since they designed the forty-plus ships of the Surveyors' class around it. As far as history goes, HMS Defense, 74, of 1758 fought in just about every major naval fleet engagement in the age, from the American Revolution to Trafalgar, but was lost with all hands in a storm off Holland in 1811. British notables of the time, like contemporary Naval Historian William James, seemed to like the French La Spartiate, captured by Nelson at the Nile, and used by him at Trafalgar. I've seen her draughts and she looks just lovely! And many more ...

Jason, I'm sure you're aware of "Action of 30 June 1798" (from Wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_of_30_June_1798), where your beautiful Jason is featured prominently: "The Action of 30 June 1798 was a minor naval engagement fought along the Biscay coast of France during the French Revolutionary Wars. The French Navy had been largely driven from the Atlantic Ocean early in the war following heavy losses in a series of failed operations. This had allowed the Royal Navy's Channel Fleet to institute a close blockade on the French naval ports of the Biscay coast, particularly Brest in Brittany. The blockade strategy included a constantly patrolling inshore squadron composed of frigates, tasked with preventing the passage of French ships into or out of the port. In the spring of 1798, several French frigates stationed in the Indian Ocean were sent back to France as the base at Île de France could no longer supply them effectively. One of these ships was the 40-gun frigate Seine, which departed Port Louis laden with 280 soldiers from the garrison. Seine had a rapid passage back to European waters, arriving in the Bay of Biscay on 28 June. Early the following morning, with the Brittany coast in sight, Seine was spotted by the inshore frigate squadron of HMS Jason, HMS Pique and HMS Mermaid. While Mermaid cut Seine off from the coast, Jasonand Pique gave chase as Seine fled southwards. Pique reached Seine at 23:00 that evening and for more than two and a half hours the frigates pounded at one another until Pique fell back. Pique and Jason continued the chase full speed through the night, until suddenly all three frigates crashed headlong into the sandbanks off La Tranche-sur-Mer on the Vendée coast. Even while grounded the frigates continued to fire on one another until Mermaid finally arrived and the outnumbered Seine surrendered. Jason and Seine were badly damaged but successfully refloated, the casualties on the packed decks of the French ship appallingly high, but Pique was an irretrievable wreck: the ship was evacuated and then burnt before the remainder of the squadron returned to Britain with their prize. In the early years of the French Revolutionary Wars, although the French Navy had sought to oppose the Royal Navy at sea from their main base at Brest in Brittany, the Royal Navy had achieved victories at the Glorious First of June and Battle of Groix. The losses inflicted on the French Atlantic fleet in these battles were compounded by large numbers of ships wrecked in storms during the disastrous Croisière du Grand Hiver and Expédition d'Irlande operations.[1] By 1798 the Royal Navy was unopposed in its control of the Atlantic, enforcing its supremacy by a strategy of close blockade, maintaining a battle fleet at sea off Brittany and an inshore squadron of frigates watching the approaches to Brest.[2] In June 1798 the inshore squadron included a detachment comprising the 38-gun HMS Jason under Captain Charles Stirling, the 36-gun HMS Pique under Captain David Milne and 32-gun HMS Mermaid under Captain James Newman-Newman.[3] For French warships oceanic travel was extremely hazardous and ships often travelled in numbers. In the spring of 1796 a squadron commanded by Contre-amiral Pierre César Charles de Sercey had sailed from Rochefort to reinforce French naval forces in the Indian Ocean, based at Port Louis on the Île de France.[4] Sercey's squadron failed to make a significant impression, driven off from the East Indies in an inconclusive action off Sumatra,[5] and then tricked into fleeing from a vulnerable East India Company merchant convoy in the Bali Strait Incident in January 1797.[6] By the end of the year the Colonial Assembly, which were unhappy with plans of the French Directory to abolish slavery, refused to continue supplying the squadron and garrison, forcing Sercey to disperse his ships.[7] First Régénérée and Vertu were ordered back to France, and then in early 1798 the 40-gun Seine was instructed to follow them, carrying 280 soldiers from the garrison no longer supported by the Colonial Assembly. Seine, still commanded by Lieutenant Julien-Gabriel Bigot following the death of Captain Latour off Sumatra in 1796, sailed on 24 March, overcrowded with the stores and dependents accompanying the soldiers.[8][9] Despite the overloading, Seine made a rapid journey to European waters, arriving in the Bay of Biscay just three months later on 28 June. Sailing for Brest with the wind, the Penmarck rocks were visible from Seine at 07:00 on 29 June when three sails appeared to the northeast.[3] This was the inshore squadron under Stirling, and Jason and Piqueimmediately gave chase while Mermaid diverted northwards, cutting Seine off from the Breton coast and the harbour of Lorient and forcing Bigot to turn away, fleeing southwards towards La Rochelle and the Vendée coast instead. Jason and Pique followed under all sail while Mermaid was left far behind.[10] Throughout the day the chase continued, the British frigates gaining slowly on their quarry and as darkness fell Pique closed with the larger French ship. At 23:00 Milne was close enough to open fire on Seine, to which Bigot responded without reducing speed.[11] For the next two and a half hours the frigates exchanged broadsides at full speed as the French coastline rapidly approached ahead. At 01:35 a shot from Seine struck the main topmast on Pique, bringing it crashing down. The consequent loss of speed forced Milne back, Seine pulling away from the smaller ship but unable to escape Jason which was steadily gaining.[12] Stirling was concerned by the proximity of the coast and hailed Pique with orders to anchor before it grounded, but Milne did not hear the order correctly and instead increased sail, lurching ahead of Jason and straight onto a sandbank close to La Tranche-sur-Mer on the Vendée coast.[13] Seine too had struck the shore a little distance ahead, and Stirling was unable to arrest Jason's momentum before his ship too became stuck, lying between Pique and Seine.[10] The French ship had been badly damaged in the crash, all three masts collapsing overboard at impact, but actually lay in a stronger position: Jason blocked Pique's arc of fire and Stirling's ship had swung with the rising tide, leaving its stern exposed.[11] Bigot took advantage of this position to fire several raking broadsides into Jason, during which Stirling was wounded and command passed to Lieutenant Charles Inglis.[12] Inglis responded to the fire by cutting stern gunports to fire chase guns at Seine,[13] and Milne succeeded in dragging his frigate around through the novel expedient of ordering his men to run towards the bows carrying round shot. This sudden shift in weight gently rotated the grounded ship to face Seine and Milne could direct four of his 12-pounder long guns at the French ship.[14] Under fire and with Mermaid finally approaching, Bigot determined that further resistance was hopeless and struck his colours.[10] Dawn on 30 June revealed the three frigates grounded on the sandbar, prompting a response from the French forces in nearby La Rochelle. Two frigates, a brig and a squadron of gunboats were sent to fire on the British ships, but this force was dissuaded from engaging by the arrival of another British blockade squadron comprising HMS Phaeton under Captain Robert Stopford, HMS San Fiorenzo under Captain Sir Harry Neale and HMS Triton under Captain John Gore.[9] Stopford's squadron assisted Stirling's force as Jason was towed off by Mermaid. Pique however was irretrievably stuck with water leaking into the hull. After all efforts to refloat the ship had been exhausted, the frigate was evacuated and stripped of stores before the wreck was set on fire.[12] It took some time for boarding parties to reach Seine and a number of the French crew had taken the delay in seizure of the ship to dive overboard and swim for the beach, making an accounting of casualties difficult. As the day continued, boat parties of French civilians sailed out to the ship and climbed aboard, breaking into the liquor stores leading to drunken confusion on deck. Bigot was allowed to go ashore temporarily, as were four men escorting a lady from Île de France: all five French sailors subsequently returned to captivity voluntarily.[16] Seine was subsequently refloated with jury masts after the guns were thrown overboard to lighten the ship,[12] and the figurehead of Pique was nailed over her own, Seine sailing with the squadron to Portsmouth.[16] Losses on the British ships had been light, with seven killed on Jason, including the second lieutenant, and eleven wounded, including Stirling. Pique lost one killed and another lost overboard and six wounded. French losses were enormous, the effects of concentrated cannon fire on the packed decks producing casualties of approximately 170 killed and 100 wounded, the former including a number who drowned after the ship grounded.[13] Bigot and his crew were brought to Britain as prisoners of war, the commander later exchanged and twice promoted on his return to France in recognition of his resistance during the engagement,[9] although unsubstantiated rumours persisted that he had personally shot some of his men when they abandoned their guns.[16] Milne was complimented for his tenacious pursuit of Seine and after repairs he and his crew were confirmed in possession of the French ship, which served in the Royal Navy under the same name.[17] By the time the prize was commissioned many of its captors were prisoners of war. On 13 October 1798 Jason was patrolling off Brest when a number of French luggers were sighted. Stirling gave chase but Jason ran headlong into a submerged rock near the Pointe du Raz and began to founder. Stirling had no choice but to bring the frigate inshore and land on the French coast as the frigate sank. Stirling and his men were captured, except for twelve sailors who, in groups of six, stole a cutter and a jollyboat and escaped to Plymouth.[18]"

Wasn't Brittany Sloops a popular singer in the 1990's? "Whoops, I did it again ..." Thanks for the interesting links, Dee Dee, especially the Irish one!

No, seven real windows, not counting the fake ones on the back of the quarter galleries. Seven windows and eight transom timbers. There is an unidentified gun deck framing plan in the Fox Papers showing the top-down view of eight counter timbers, which may be either the Chesapeake or the Philadelphia, (both of which he designed). Contemporary stern views of the USF United States (built in Philadelphia as well) also show seven real windows. But is the stern engraving of the Phillie accurate?

Charlie, looks at the wood-cut that Capt Armstrong was kind enough to post above. At first, I saw six windows, but on further study, I see seven, with the starboard-most window being kind of small, because the engraver ran out of room, working from left to right, and so had to smush it.

John Miller writes from his "Early American Ships": "The 16-gun privateer ship Rattlesnake was built in Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1779 or 1780, allegedly to the designs of maverick designer John Peck. She was owned by John Andrews and others of Salem, and her captain was Mark Clark. She mounted anywhere between 14 and 20 carriage guns at various times, and she usually carried about 85 men. The earliest commission found on her is dated June 12, 1781, but she may have been commissioned earlier. One privateer with the name Rattlesnake is reported to have captured more than $1 million of British shipping on a single cruise in the Baltic, but whether it was this Rattlesnake or not, we do not know.. Our Rattlesnake was captured off the American coast in 1781 by the brand new British 44-gun ship Assurance, and was renamed Cormorant. She was taken to England and her lines were drawn ... It took the British bureaucracy a long time to realize that they already had a ship called the Cormorant already in the Royal Navy, so she was renamed Rattlesnake once more in August, 1783, after the war was over. Chapelle says she was sold out of the service in 1784, but British records indicate that she was not sold out until 10 October, 1786." Miller states that the conjectural idea that the Rattlesnake was sold into French service, originated with a European Model kit company. At any rate, a privateer vessel built in haste, during wartime, of rot-prone New England white oak no less, could not have lasted for very long, so it is doubtful that there is any real Privateer Le Tonnant connection, nor would there have been any service life left in her after 1786. [My opinion.] Spelling and grammatical errors corrected!

The ships are the same in name only! Thanks Talos.

She is unusual in that her gun-ports are above the level above the quarter galleries, instead of at that level, which would never have been done in a naval-built vessel, but was seen on paintings of merchant ships at the time. I think that the above "18-gun ship" was a merchantman with good sailing qualities that the navy was considering purchasing. Had they done so, ports would have been cut at the gun deck level, to lower the center of gravity, and those above would have been removed. On many merchant ships, cargo would have been stowed at the level of a naval ship's lower gun-deck. I getting sick of writing 'gundeck' and having auto-correct substitute 'gunlock'!

I always wondered if the above unidentified 20-gunner might not have been the USS Merrimack of 1798, since her body plan and profile kinda resembles the Essex, and William Hackett built both ships a year apart. Few dimensions survive for the Merrimack, if I recall correctly.

You might want to contact the Peabody and Essex Museum in Salem, MA, for additional information about the Adams. They hold the Josiah Fox Papers in their collections, and all of his correspondence has been helpfully typed out, and sorted by individual ship. The vertical beam measurements are usually the larger of the two. 113 feet could have been her length of keel measurement?

1. The list was compiled before the Adams was lengthened, c. 1807, I believe, as she would have been awfully short else wise! The Essex was rebuilt in 1807-9, and the Adams was begun before she was completed, according to the correspondence on the former. 2. This was the width of the gunports, which ought to have corresponded to the 12-pounders she carried early in her career. 3. The 'forward' was the 'forward perpendicular', i.e., the rabbet, as you state, at the level of the gun-deck. 4. The total number of the Adams' beams at that deck level, and each's cross-sectional dimensions. Was the Adams built to a Fox design, or a Humphries design? I always thought the latter, as a possible reduced New York, but I believe the question has not been settled. Wait until Talos wakes up and has had his coffee. He's sure to know, if anyone does.

A ship of 1500 tons would need enough 'spoke-space', if you will, for four men in rough weather, if needed. A single wheel wouldn't give enough purchase for a ship of the USS Constitution's class. She displaced nearly enough water as a British 74. The USS Wasp of 1806, however, is thought to have had a single wheel, but she was only 500 tons.

Still waiting on volume 2 (of 4 planned) of "Vasa: The Archeology of a Swedish Warship of 1628"!

Here is a very nice video tour the cabins of 1853 Constellation, showing some spartan Civil War era furnishings:

This may give you nightmares: God rest their souls ...

Fantastic! Thanks!

Thanks for the review. It is now on my get-once-I-have-money list. Curious: What does Winfield now say about the design and origins of the enigmatic HMS Guerriere, which fought the Constitution in 1812, and which was formerly La Guerriere, launched circa 1799, and captured by HMS Blanch in 1806?

The 1799 indent for stores of the USF Essex listed a 'painted table' for the wardroom (6'4" long) and 12 'fan back' chairs which were 'painted and varnished', four of them with arms, which Portia Takajian kindly drew in her inboard profile plan for her AOTS volume.

The first cutter of the larger Sloop-of-War John Adams, in 1820, was 27 feet, one foot shorter than the Wasp II's with twelve 14 foot oars. There was no '2nd-cutter' listed, per se, but three quarter-boats, one 25 footer, and two identical 24 footers. The 24' boats were 4 inches wider than the 25-footer. The launch was 29' 6" (sixteen 16' oars.). The jolly boat was 20' and the gig was 26'. (From Chapelle, ibid, p.504.)

Found another boat clue for the Wasp II. A receipt dated November 22, 1813: "John Wade made for $224.00 first cutter of 28 feet at $8 per foot." At least I have one of the boats' length, and I know that Boston's John Wade made it. How did they get them safely up the winding coast to Newburyport? From my earlier posting: "1 cutter and 1 stern boat & 24 oars" for $385.60." and "1 cutter & painting boats and oars" for for $256.80." If it was the first cutter mentioned, then $385.60 - $224.00 = $161.60 for the stern boat and the oars. If I knew what an oar cost, then I could find the length of the stern boat. If it was the second reference, then the cost for painting the three boats and all the oars was 256.00 - 224.00 = $32.00. Kind of low, considering that the Frolick's two boats and oars were painted for $51.00. So I think it was the first cutter mentioned. And of course it is logical to assume that the first cutter delivered would be called the "1st cutter"!

I would say three in the waist, and one in the stern davits, if they were available. I suspect Frolick picked up a used boat in the Boston Navy Yard, while the Wasp II could have grabbed one in Portsmouth, NH. (Borrowed pre-existing boats might not have made it onto the sloops's official cost ledger.) When the Wasp defeated HMS Reindeer, Midshipman David Geisinger noted that afterwards they took on board Reindeers gig which had been towing astern. Was this to augment a wartime scarcity omitted when they fitted out in Newburyport, or was one or more of the Wasps boats damaged in that intense and bloody battle?

Fun fact: Very briefly in 1814, Master Commandant Lewis Warrington re-rigged his Sloop-of-War Peacock, while at sea, into a bark, to disguise his identity, confirmed by British Admiralty intel reports.

The Wasp of 1806 had, at least, the following: a 21 foot whaleboat a 20 foot cutter a 25 foot (or possibly 26 foot) launch (Original Research by Herb Ebsen and Russ Aller from the 1980's. From the four part series in Ships and Scale Magazine, from the 1990's.Their sources unknown.) According to an 1814 bill submitted to the navy, the USS Frolick, built in Charlestown, MA, in 1813, had, at least, and certainly more, "2 boats 1st and 2nd cutter & oars [which cost] $417.70." No dimensions given. They paid another contractor $51 and change to paint them. The Frolick (and the Wasp II of 1813) was 13 feet longer, and carried four more guns, than the 1806 Wasp. The 1813 Wasp had at least three boats, dimensions not given, from two bills. "1 cutter and 1 stern boat & 24 oars" for $385.60. and "1 cutter & painting boats and oars" for for $256.80. In 1832, the Sloop-of-War John Adams carried 7 boats. Their complete dimensions are given in the appendices of Chapelle's 'The History of the American Sailing Navy', p.504. JA was 23 longer on deck than the 1806 Wasp. On p.505 he shows the plans for the boats of the new Frigate Potomac, launched 1829, whose lines could be scaled down. Wasp 1806 and Potomac were both built in the Washington Navy Yard. I have the lines drawing, dated Boston, 1816, for a replacement cutter built by John Wade for the Frigate Congress. This I believe is the oldest US Navy ship boat lines drawing. It was misfiled in the National Archives with the plans of the later 1839 Congress!

No quarter davits on sloops of war at this period. Frigates and liners only, but American sloops would get them about the 1820-30's. In a letter written by none other than the the Wasp's victorious 1812 commander, Jacob Jones, after the epic HMS Frolic fight, he reported to the Secretary of the Navy that he saw HMS Poictiers approaching him bow on, and at a distance. He could tell nothing of her force at that time, he explained, but since she carried quarter boats, he had reasoned, she could only have been a frigate or a ship of the line. She was the latter, of course, and she captured the still shattered Wasp. Let me check on those boats ...