uss frolick

I wonder which 74-gun ship is in the background of the above St. Mary's photo. If it was taken in Boston, then she may be either the Ohio or the Vermont.

That stern view of the St. Mary's is amazing, for all the details. I am surprised that she still mounted guns in 1874, and I'm even more amazed that they wouldn't have landed them prior to putting her into dry-dock! Look how huge she is, compared to the man crouching on the scaffolding by the rudder! I always tended to think of the class as just "small sloops".

Talos, where are you finding these incredible images?

Both of the above Portsmouth pictures look like they have square sterns. But she was built with a round one. Curious ...

Hey Talos, are your red lines not pointing to the three spaces between the windows, instead of the four windows themselves? The outer pair, I believe, doubled as quarter gallery access ports, as they projected out on a diagonal. That stern view of the Jamestown is fantastic. It clearly shows the stern-board scroll pattern, and notice the central star element between the windows! Above the star is another element that is hidden by the boat. The lower part of an eagle? Notice that light board covering over the quarter-gallery. Was that put over the gallery to protect it from being scraped by the quarter boat, or a stern anchor? The draught of the Jamestown shows that her quarter-gallery was very ornately carved, and thus perhaps worthy of extra protection?

Blue-Jacket already has an attractive, precut POF kit - the two-gun, schooner-rigged Revenue Cutter "Jefferson Davis", based on Chapelle's plan of her class.

Holly Ship, Bob! That deck looks nice!

Stunning!

"... 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!