uss frolick

Excepts from the official British court martial (PRO Document: ADMI 5435, page XC 14734) for the loss of HMS Java, 38, to the USS Constitution, 44 . Pretty dry stuff on the whole. The official letter of Lt. Chads (Captain Lambert was killed) is included, which can be found published elsewhere, the decision of the court, and some testimony. Mostly "Do you agree with the contents of Lt. Chads letter", and "Did the men behave bravely", etc.. No bombshells here. The court seemed much interested in whether many of the Java's casualties, upwards of 120 men, were caused by American small arms fire. The court martial was held on board HMS Gladiator in Portsmouth Harbor, April 23, 1813. "Lieutenant James Saunders of the Royal Navy was called and sworn: Q: Did you suffer much on the forecastle from the enemy's musquetry? A: Very much indeed. Q: Were you stationed there? A: Yes. Q: Did you think the Java had a fair chance of succeeding before the end of the bowsprit was shot away? A: Yes. Q: In which period of the action did you suffer most? A: When the bowsprit went. Q: Did the American appear to you to avoid close action at the first part of it? A: Yes. Q: Did the American appear to keep up her fire early in the action, as she did after the bowsprit was carried away? A: She slackened her fore after the first broadside of the Java and appeared to be in confusion. Q: Did you understand that the American lost her wheel? A: I afterwards found that she had lost her wheel by the first broadside from the Java and that four men were killed. Mr. James Humble, late Boatswain of the Java was called and sworn. Q: How long had the action lasted before you were wounded? A: Better than an hour, I believe. Q: Was the Java much disabled before you were wounded? A: Yes, aloft. The fore top, two planks were shot out of it and lodged into the bunt of the fore sail. Q: Did you suffer much from the musquetry on the forecastle? A: Yes, and likewise from round and grape. Q: Did you think you had as good [a chance] in the action as the American before you were wounded? A: They seemed to be very sick upon it. Q: Did you come up again after going below? A: Yes, I was down about an hour and when I got my arm put a little to rights by a tourniquet, being put on it, nothing else. My hand was carried away and my arm wounded about the elbow. I put my arm into the bosom of my shirt and went up again, when I saw the enemy ahead of us repairing his damage. I had my orders from Lt Chads before the action begun, to cheer up the boarders with my pipe, that they might make a clean spring in boarding. Q: Did the Java receive much damage from the enemy before the Java returned any fire at all? A: Yes, we received besides what I have stated, much damage in the rigging. Q: Did you think that the Java had a fair chance of succeeding before you were wounded and went below. A: It appeared to me she would. The second broadside his wheel was carried away, and he got a good touching up about the quarterdeck and forecastle, and he downed fore and main tacks to go a head of us, and when our foremast went, he up courses again, and continued the action. Then I got wounded. John MacDonald, Boatswain's Mate, belonging to the Java, was called in and sworn: Q: Where were you quartered in the action? A: At the fifth gun on the quarterdeck. Q: Did you think that before the Java was disabled that you had a good chance of beating the enemy's ship? A: Yes, I think we had as good as they had. Q: Did the American appear to you to avoid a close action, or not in the early part of the action? A: They kept at long balls, they kept edging away until the Java was disabled. Q: Did you hear Captain Lambert's order the Java to be laid on board the American? A: Yes. Q: What distance was you from the enemy's stern? A: Not quite a cable's length upon our lee beam, the helm was put a weather. Q: Do you remember the [Java's] bow sprit touching the mizen rigging [of the Constitution]. A: Yes, it took the mizen rigging which appeared to me to prevent our boarding that the time. Q: Were the men all ready? A: Yes, they had been called and were all ready for jumping on board, on the forecastle, marines and all. Q: Did you see any of the enemy's men ready to receive the boarders? A: No. I did not see any of them at the time. Q: Did you hang some time by the mizen rigging? A: Not long. Q: Did they get their chasers out then and rake you? A: Yes. Q: When you were about to lay the enemy on board, from your seeing no men on her decks, and from the state of your own ship, did you think that the action would have terminated in your favor had not the foremast been carried away? A: Yes, I think it would. Q: Were you ever in action before? A: Yes. Christopher Speedy, Captain of the forecastle was called in and sworn: Q: Were you on the forecastle during the whole of the action? A:Yes, from the beginning to the last, quartered at the foremost carronade. Q: Before the Java was disabled by losing the end of her bowsprit and foremast, did you think you had a as good of the action as the American? A: Yes, I thought we were going on very well. About the middle of the action I thought that they had had enough of it, and was making off from us. I saw her stern towards us, and came round on the other tack. Q: Did they annoy you much on the forecastle by musquetry? A: More by round and grape [and] double headed. I picked up five bar shot which fell out of the foremast by rolling. I put them in our guns and fired them back again. Q: Did the American appear to avoid close action? A: He did always avoid close action. He kept away when ever the smoke cleared away, we always found him yawing away from us. Q: Do you remember when the Java endeavored to board her. A: Yes. It was just as the foremast fell. Q: Were you all ready for boarding them? A: They were called on the forecastle and gangways, and were all ready, boarders and marines. Q: Did you see many of the enemy ready to oppose the boarders? A: Not many on deck. I saw some men there,but there were a great many in the tops. Q: From the few men you saw on the deck of the enemy's ship,, had captain Lambert's intention succeeded in laying on board, have you reason to believe it would have been successful? A: Yes, I have. Q: Was you ever in action before? A: Yes I have.

I was looking at that photograph of the cannon, supposedly taken from the burned wreck of the Frigate Philadelphia. There seems to be at least two sizes of long guns - 18 and 9 pounders (?), and what looks like at least one carronade in the back of the pile. (What caliber were the spar-deck chase guns?) If true, then notice that the tubes have minimal re-enforcing rings, as one might expect from pieces cast about 1800, and the upside-down 9-pounder's trunnion on the top of the heap is "hung by thirds". These cannon do look like they had been submerged for a while, as denoted by the light, barnical-like coatings on the barrels.

When I say Dahlgrens, I meant Dahlgren type, of which her guns, which you described fit, as opposed to 1775 or 1812 type guns. The 8" and modern 32-pounders which she carried were of the newest type, i.e., bottle shaped with tapering barrels, pre-dahlgrens, if you will. Whenever Buggs Bunny fires a cannon at Elmer Fudd, it's always the Dahlgren shape. Why is that?

In 1941, a pile of heavy, 1840's sloop type Dahlgren cannon, and a couple big anchors, were found on a reef on the south side of Isle de Pines, Cuba, in restricted waters today. WWII started very soon after, and the US Navy lost all interest. Is this the grave of the USS Albany? She was last seen to the south of those waters when the hurricane hit. Did she run aground, and jettison her heavy stores, only to founder later due to her injuries? Or did she wreck there, and smaller artifacts are also there, yet to be discovered, when the Cuban cold war finally ends? Edit: My copies of this information, the contents of a mysterious box in the National Archives labeled only "Albany", were lost due to roof damage, resulting from Hurricane Charley, and had to be thrown out. How Ironic is that !!!??? Anyway, I think I remember there being "twenty guns" found.

Then she's the Receiving Ship USS New Hampshire, ex-Alabama, 74. She was at the Norfolk Yard from 1866 to 1876, according to author Paul Silverstone, in "Warships of the Civil War Navies".

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. ...