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uss frolick

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  1. uss frolick
    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?
  2. uss frolick
    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.
  3. uss frolick
    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.)
  4. uss frolick
    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"!
  5. uss frolick
    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?
  6. uss frolick
    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.
  7. uss frolick
    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!
  8. uss frolick
    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 ...
  9. uss frolick
    Would a flattened arch be called a "flarch"?
  10. uss frolick
    I nominate Talos for the "Best Naval Historical Find Of The Year Award"! Huzzah!
  11. uss frolick
    ... And the circa 1820 W.A.K. Martin watercolor of her profile, showing the revised positions of her ten broadside ports.
  12. uss frolick
    I'm beginning to think they all were, at least before the war broke out, but that the detail was too fine to reproduce on 1/4th inch scale plans. I suspect a whole bunch of similar drawings went up in flames in 1814 in Washington, and again in Norfolk in 1861.
  13. uss frolick
    By the way, there is a contemporary drawing of Hornets eagle figurehead and tail-boards, not as beautifully drawn. The eagle looks about the same, but if I recall correctly, there is a drum in the trail-board. What is the significance of 17 stars? How many states were there in 1811? That is a Nautilus tucked into end, and doesn't the shape of Hornet's stern board remind you of the Chesapeake's?
  14. uss frolick
    Wow great view of Hornet's stern, Talos!! 1811 was when Hornet was completely rebuilt, (as opposed to a fanciful post-war rebuild) so she must have wore those carvings during her battles. I survived Irma, btw. Still no power, but I do have a working generator.
  15. uss frolick
    I made naval-pattern deadlights after Charlie for all my windows. Reinforced plywood, they fit into the cills, and attached with multiple barrel-bolts. Over the years I have painted them on both sides, and cut small light/vision ports in them using a door-knob cutter. Even if the house blows away, they will still stay in place. The larger windows have naval upper and lower half-lid-and-bucklers-style ports, just like Constitution had. The only issues are storage, warpage, and their great weight, especially with the upstairs shutters.
  16. uss frolick
    Hal, tell us what Rush wanted for the Congress! I haven't blown out to sea yet, and I still have power and the inter-webby.
  17. uss frolick
    I'm going to be signing off soon. Hurricane Irma is coming right at us!
  18. uss frolick
    Here is a copy of a post I made in 2014, regarding the America: "I found this xerox of a letter reprinted in an old book, "The History of the Navy Yard at Portsmouth, NH", page 15. I failed to preserve the author's name. Sorry. It is unclear whether John Paul Jones wrote the following or Capt. Robert Morris did later on, describing Jones's modifications to the America. Anyway, it describes in many ways the later Franklin/Washington Class 74's of 1813. "It had been intended to make the waste shallow with narrow gangways; the quarterdeck and forecastle to be short, with a large stern gallery. Instead of this, the quarterdeck was made to project four feet before the main mast. The forecastle was also long, the waste deep, and the gangways broad, and of equal height with the forecastle and quarterdeck. There was just room for the boats on the gangways. A breastwork pierced with gun ports, but of suitable height for musketry, and of the same strength and nature as the sides of the ship, ran all around the quarterdeck, gangway and forecastles, so that all the cannon on the quarterdeck and forecastles,could have been fought on one side, an advantage possessed by no other ship of her time. Above the breastwork, the poop stood on pillars 18 inches long, and projected eight feet before the mizen mast.. Round the poop a folding breastwork was made of light material, and of a strength to resist grape shot; it was made to fold down on deck, and could be raised in a minute, so it was impossible to perceive that the America had a poop at a distance of a quarter mile. There were only single quarter galleries, and no stern gallery." We know that Jones made many modifications to the Bon Homme Richard, but the number and nature were not recorded. I wonder if one or more of these mods had been made earlier to to the BHR. I will admit that I was never fully satisfied with Jean Boudriot's reconstruction. I think she looks too much like the pretty Indiaman Duc de Duras than Jones's deadly all- black-painted commerce raider. But I digress ... Jones continues: "The plan projected for the sculpture expressed dignity and simplicity. The head was a female figure crowned with laurels, the right arm raised, with forefinger pointing to heaven, as appealing to that high tribunal for the justice of the American cause. On the left arm was a a buckler with a blue ground and thirteen stars. The legs and feet of the figure were covered here and there with wreathes of smoke, to represent the dangers and difficulties of war. On the stern, under the windows of the great cabin, appeared two large figures in bas relief, representing Tyranny and Oppression, bound and biting the ground with the cap of liberty on a pole above their heads. On the back of the starboard quarter gallery, a large figure of Neptune, and on the larboard gallery, a large figure of Mars. Over the window of the great cabin, on the highest part of the stern, was a large medallion, on which was a figure representing Wisdom surrounded by danger With the bird of Athens over her head." The book's author added, probably correctly: "The danger surrounding Wisdom, was probably emblematically expressed by flashes of lightening." Addendum: This could be the only WRITTEN description of a Continental Navy ship's carvings, aside from the drawings of the Frigates Raleigh, Hancock, etc. I just love the description of Tyranny and Oppression "biting the ground"! "
  19. uss frolick
    Very little visually on the Do-Nothing-Congress of 1799. Perhaps there is tabular data in the Josiah Fox Papers at the Peabody And Essex Museum in Salem, Ma. You might want to check microfilms of Portsmouth newspapers, and with the Portsmouth Anthineum/ Portsmouth Marine Society. There is a ton of information on the replacement-Congress of 1839, also built in Portsmouth, but with battle honors in Mexico in 1846 and against CSS Virginia in 1862. There is a beautiful Roux painting of the Portsmouth built USS Washington, 1815. Ditto USS Portsmouth, 1844, etc.
  20. uss frolick
    In the old Time-Life book series on 'The Seafarers, there is a volume called 'The Frigates'. On page 160, a Algerian Artist had painted a beautiful tapestry about the capture of the Algerian flagship, the Frigate Mashuda, in 1815. She is here realistically portrayed dismasted, surrounded by Commodore Decatur's squadron. There is a stern view of the USS Guerierre shown firing into Mashuda. The artist must have actually seen the ships. Decatur's frigate, although small, shows interesting detail. The Guerierre has the three windows design, with two large white greek columns surrounding the center window, and two roses in the quarters. It looks like there is heavy, white lattice work, simulating a gallery, running across all three windows and the roses, beneath the stern boat. A shallower white lattice work runs beneath the windows, et al. Carved white rope work lines the outer edges of the counter all the way around. There may be other detail between the windows and the columns ... ? If anyone has this book and a working scanner ...
  21. uss frolick
    Do it!
  22. uss frolick
    The Connie's stern is a bit different. On Guerriere, the three gun-deck windows are as spread out as they can possibly be, to make 'room' to work three theoretical cannon, but on Connie's current stern, they are spaced close together, as though it was a five windowed stern with the outmost two windows planked over.
  23. uss frolick
    One old book I read was "The wood carver of Salem; Samuel Mcintire, his life and work", by Frank Cousins, from 1916. It is nearly all about his house carvings. Here is a free ebook: The pics are small, but look at the fireplace mantel photo before page 91. A good McIntire eagle is on a building before p. 143. The big coat of arms is the plate before p.141. https://archive.org/details/woodcarverofsale00cous There is a newer McIntire book out, but it is an expensive coffee table book.
  24. uss frolick
    The carvings on Chapelle's Essex are a close copy of a very rough ink sketch by Samuel McIntire (the Salem man who carved the Essex's figurehead, etc.) of the stern of an unknown merchant ship, currently held in the Peabody Museum of Salem. The sketch shows no windows. Another McIntire sketch, equally small, unidentified and rough, shows an official seal over a stack of flags/arms in the center, with cornucopias on either side, surrounded with a lot of vinery or "flora-nonspecificus". McIntire used an "eagle, wings pointed downward, on top of a seal, over a stack-of-arms" motif on many surviving fireplace mantels in the city. I suspect a version this is what Essex bore on the center of her taffrail. What very little that survives of McIntire's ship-carving ideas, shows that he didn't put any human figures on the taffrails. McIntire is known today for his carved eagles. One of the few actual carved items of his that survive, is a detailed seal of the state of Massachusetts, that hung in an open public place. The Indian in the center of the seal looks like the Essex's figurehead in the famous portrait. Books on McIntire's works (mostly house-carvings) show these examples. Five windows was probably just Chapelle's guess, based perhaps on the Chesapeake.
  25. uss frolick
    Essex has no stern drawings. If the Admiralty took off any plan it has not survived. Portia reconstructs only the 1799 stern with her original six windows, and seven counter timbers, in AOTS. In her earlier book (pamphlet actually) the Essex has five windows, with six counter timbers.

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