uss frolick

"... I would have to do a Chapelle ..." Love that phrase!

It shouldn't be a concern with small pieces. For larger pieces, like small logs a few inches thick, make sure you remove the bark, and then dip the ends in parafin wax, so that the wood dries evenly, and doesn't check or crack.

Apple-wood has a small grain and makes a clean cut. Apple is great for carving too. The heart-wood is darker and good for framing, while the lighter sapwood bends easily and is perfect for planking. It is plentiful and cheap in Rhode Island, and it makes a sweet smell when cut. Google August Crabtree's classic ship models made fifty years ago: They were made solely of apple-wood.

That might be called a frigate-built brig, or perhaps a brigate?

I like the old, solid hull MS kits from the pre-POB laser days (the early 1980's). I have a 3/16" Fair American (exact same size as the new POB 1/4" version!), and the 1/8" Essex. I've always wanted to pick up the Solid Hull 3/16th Rattlesnake, not for investments, just for fun. I've always wanted to try planking over a solid hull. *** Horrible gramatical errors corrected ***

I used to own the 'Delta saw of death' ... it's no good for hobby work, but it's okay for home improvement projects.

The configuration of the Sophie was more like that of the Fair American. The real-life inspiration for her was Lord Cochrane's HMS Speedy, whose plan survives. But Speedy had no poop deck. The cruises and battles of Aubrey's Sophie was a shot for shot retelling of the real career of Cochrane's Speedy. HMS Speedy also took the 34-gun Spanish Xebec frigate Gamo, in the manner exactly described in the climax of the book Master and Commander.

What I would also like to see is a kit in a common universal scale, like 1/64th, or 3/16" = 1 foot. Often, ship model kits are made in some truly frustrating scales. What the companies do, is to first figure out, through marketing, what is the most popular size of a completed ship model, taking into account the average display table size, or fireplace mantel dimensions. Once they come up with that figure, they alter their ship size to fit that space, and as a result, come up with some pretty unhelpful scales to manufacture their kit in. Try finding accurate replacement 12-pounder cannon barrels in 1/76.2-th scale. (Model Shipway's Essex, I'm looking at you. )

The 18-gun, flush-decked American ship-corvettes of 1812 are sadly ignored : the Wasp 1806, Hornet 1807, Wasp 1813, Peacock 1813, and Frolick 1813. Everything is on one deck, the carvings are at a minimum, and they are extremely well documented.

Historical note: The real Stephen Hopkins was governor of Rhode Island during the Revolutionary War, who signed the Declaration of Independence. Hopkins suffered from Cerebral Palsy, and his signature is seen to be large and very shaky on that document, he wrote only "Steph" before he had to move on to his last name. His one great quote was "My hand may tremble, but my heart does not." In the famous painting of the signing, he's the guy in the back wearing the Quaker Oats hat. His brother was Esek Hopkins, the controversial commodore in the Continental Navy. His great, great grandfather - also named Stephen Hopkins - was a passenger on board the Mayflower, and he was also on the Jamestown expedition, and even once survived a shipwreck.

The late modeler Robert Bruckshaw (spelling?) did a really nice boxwood model of the USS Vixen back in the 1980's. Pix appear in P. C. Coker's "Charleston's Maritime Heritage", and I believe that she graced the cover of an 1980's "Ships in Scale" Magazine issue. My wife is both a vixen, and a former model.

We're only going to get so far on this quest, guys. Greater minds than ours have scoured the surviving naval records and have come up empty handed. It was Enterprise's 'bad' luck that HMS Boxer didn't capture her instead of the other way around. If any spar-plan, deck plan or hold plans were ever taken off, then they were probably torched, along with everything else, at the Norfolk Navy Yard in 1861, or at the Washington Navy Yard in 1814. If anyone wishes to model the USS Enterprise, he (or she) will have to make compromises, and base their model on other similar ships. I was encouraged by word of the discovery of the Venice Arsenal plans, supposedly taken off of the Enterprise in 1804, but on inspection, they look way too far off, to be of any use, without major alterations of their own. I personally think the closest anyone will ever get, will be to use the draught of the USS Vixen as a starting point, since she was thought by her contemporaries to have been modeled after her - but not copied - enlarge her to the known dimensions of the USS Enterprise, and use the visual details of the two contemporary paintings of her to flush her out. But that's still a lot to work with. There is even less information on the Bon Homme Richard, but look at how devoted and slavish some modelers have been to building her exactly from her plans - her entirely reconstructed, conjectural plans. Less still the Mayflower, Golden Hind, etc. The Burroughs Family hired a naval architect who realized this, used a different starting point, but ended up with a similarly beautiful result. Either way, you will get a model which will be very close to the real Enterprise. There are many beautiful contemporary Baltimore Clipper type US Navy schooners, detailed plans for which survive in abundance, and with really cool histories that begged to be modeled, like the USS Spark, the USS Grampus, or the stunning privateers the Dominica or Grecian. You will probably not find any plans of the Enterprise. But modelers are stubborn creatures, so get your snorkels, plastic buckets, shovels and water-proof measuring-tape ready, because the real Enterprise wrecked on Little Curacao Island in the West Indies in 1823. ...

The dashed lines generally mean proposed alterations for RN service, and they were usually done, if time permitted. If the alterations had been made before the ship's plan had been been completed, then those lines would have been drawn solid. American, French and privateer internal accommodations were usually not up to Royal Navy standards, especially powder magazines. Siggi's right. If you want to make her the American Privateer with the name "Oliver Cromwell" under her stern windows, she will be a different ship internally, than if you build her as "HMS Beaver's Prize". I don't know about tile magazine flooring, but historian Peter Goodwin reminds us "The doors and bulkheads were often lined with lead, or later with copper, to prevent sparks", in his "Construction and Fitting of the English Man of War". Perhaps the floor was sheathed to. It also prevented water and rat damage. Privateers often didn't have the time, or the extra money, to build such extra niceties.

That's not an apple. She caught one of the Frigate Alliance's round shot. What an excellent job!

I believe that the wreck of HMS Kingfisher is lying in those very same waters.

Alejandro, is the “San Juan Nepomuceno” pamphlet a published book? Is it available to purchase in hard copy? I would buy one, even though I don't read Spanish. If not, I would urge you to do so. I have the NMM admiralty draughts of Lord Cochrane's beautiful HMS Imperieuse. She was formerly the captured Spanish Frigate Fama. (She has all her carvings in special, 1/24th scale drawings ! How rare is that for 1809?) I have always wondered how the Spanish shipwrights constructed their ships. The Spanish shipwrights really liked flat floor timbers. Almost zero dead-rise!

Quite lovely! Well done!

Capt. Jack Aubrey: "Do you see those two weevils doctor?" Dr. Stephen Maturin: "I do." Aubrey: "Which would you choose? " Maturin: "Neither; there is not a scrap a difference between them. They are the same species of Curculio." Aubrey: "If you had to choose. If you were forced to make a choice. If there was no other response... " Maturin: "Well then if you are going to push me, I would choose the right hand weevil; it has significant advantage in both length and breadth." Aubrey: "There, I have you! You're completely dished! Do you not know that in the service, one must always choose the lesser of two weevils!"

Historian John Millar writes about the origins of the Oliver Cromwell, in his "Early American ships", p. 150: 'The late [Historian] Marion Brewington suggested that she had previously been a Philadelphia merchant ship called "Juno", while [author] V.R. Grimwood suggests that she was formerly a Rhode Island ship by the name of "Ye Terrible Creature". The figurehead of the lady could represent either of those former names, the latter being of course the first owner's wife, a joke entirely in keeping with the humor of the colonial period. Our own opinions, and it is no more than that, is that she was built in Providence about 1774. At the end of 1776, the Narragansett bay was occupied by a powerful British garrison and fleet at Newport which would have made it difficult to sail her in or out of Providence, so she was transferred to Philadelphia ownership and renamed "Oliver Cromwell" at that time.'

Awesome job so far, Charlie! I often wondered what the name Sultana referred to.

OK, if you all insist! "USS Barbie hoped to blow him out of the water, settle the affair quickly, but after a long, hard engagement, it was she who got licked in the end."

EDIT: Never mind. Too risque!

You know your history well, Overdale. She was boarded and taken by HMS Ken.

Hire a local art student to pose in costume, while you carve it from boxwood. And take your time.

Beautiful! I can't wait to see what you do with the Pegasus's stern carvings. They are very interesting figures, and for some reason, they were omitted from the TFFM books.