uss frolick

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.

That sketch was reproduced in David Lyon's "The Sailing Navy List".

The Frigate Aquilion, the only British frigate that we know, for sure, actually chased an "American corvette", was a Hermione Class, 12-pounder frigate, designed by John Hunt, and launched in 1786. She mounted 26 twelve-pounder long guns on her main deck, with a mixture of six pounder long guns and 24-pounder carronades (mostly) on her upper works. This was probably her final cruise, as she was broken up in 1816. (Info from The Sailing Navy List, David Lyon, Conway Publishing.) Dr. Johnson wrote about the Horatio's career, "ever since her return to England, she has been laid up in ordinary, as completely lost to the service as the Wasp." The Frigate Horatio actually enjoyed a long and interesting career, but this statement holds true about the Aquilion.

I will now discuss Talos's question, 'who was the frigate?'. I believe the story is an amalgam of four incidents, involving four separate British frigates: Aquilion, Hyperion, Horatio, and Lacedaemonian. Dr. Johnson was of the stubborn belief that both the Charleston, SC, battle sightings and the Cadiz accounts were true, and that after fighting off Charleston, the damaged ship sailed across the Atlantic and put into Cadiz, instead of Halifax or Bermuda. He then states, without citing any sources, that: "Since these events, we have been informed that it was H.M. Frigate Horatio, which sunk that Wasp." He then goes on to wrongly describe her as a 44-gun frigate with 24-pounders on her main deck and "43" pounder carronades. Actually, there was a frigate called Horatio, but she was a Lively Class ship with 18-pounders, and was rated at 38 guns. But Horatio was indeed on the American Station prior to the action, and in Portuguese waters afterwards, and she was "damaged" en route, so her history fits his criteria nicely. He explains: "We then recapitulate, that when the Wasp boarded the Swedish Brig Adonis on the 19th October [the last true confirmed sighting of her], in Lat 18.35, and half across the Atlantic, she probably continued to run as far as the East Indies, then turned northward, and was first reported off the Turks Island about the 1st November, then was off Amelia Island, on the south side of the St. Mary's River, about the 10th of November; - then off Tybee, the entrance of the Savannah River on the 12th. There, meeting with the Lacedaemonian Frigate she was chased off, but having escaped, as reported by the crew of that frigate, she then tried to obey her orders and get into a southern port. That she made land midway between Port Royal and Charleston on the morning of the 21st, aiming to reach the latter port, but was cut off from it by the Frigate Horatio, which had just reached her station, and was seen the evening before off Charleston lighthouse. That the engagement between them ensued, which was heard in Charleston, and seen at St. Helena's Inlet, both vessels sailing off the coast and fighting as long as they cold be seen or heard. From that time, the Wasp was missing; and from that time, the British frigate was missing from her station on the southern coast, and never returned to it. About a month after that naval engagement, "a British frigate of the largest class" put into Cadiz, very much cut to pieces, having lost 104 of her men, reporting that she had been engaged with an American Frigate, and had sunk her.. No other American ship of war, but the Wasp, could have been so engaged, no other could, therefore have beaten off this first rate frigate." The general wanderings of HMS Horatio from April 1814 - Jan. 1815, as far as I am able to determine, were as follows: At Portsmouth, on 4 Apr 1814: Ordered To sail on following Wednesday for Newfoundland. At Portsmouth, 6 Apr 1814: Sailed for Newfoundland. Circa, 11 Jun 1814 departed Halifax with the HMS Hamadryad for Newfoundland. At Plymouth, 9 Aug 1814 Arrived from Newfoundland. Portsmouth, 10 Aug 1814 Arrived at Portsmouth, having accompanied HMS Victorious, after having struck a sunken rock near Disko Island, and being leaky. 18 Aug 1814, departed Plymouth for Cork. 21 Aug 1814, arrived at Cork, from Plymouth and hoisted the convoy signal for America. 3 Nov 1814, arrived Halifax, the brig Forth, from Cork, under convoy of the Horatio. At Newfoundland, 23 Dec 1814, Sailed with a convoy for Portugal and Spain &c. At Lisbon, 10 Jan 1815, In the Tagus. I could see how Dr. Johnson could identify HMS Horatio as the suspect, since she was on the North American station, then she sailed to Portugal, among other places, and was damaged en route (by a rock), but her log mentions no action. But another Frigate did put into the Cadiz Station very badly damaged at that time. I had hired English researcher extraordinaire, Mr. Graham Salt, years ago, to look through the various ships logs for me in preparation for my book, and he was able to identify another surprise suspect, the British Frigate Hyperion, of 32 guns. (Mr. Salt used advertises in the NRJ, and I highly recommend him.) The Hyperion had been sailing in company with the British Sloop Icarus when they encountered a severe storm. Hyperion became partially dismasted and had her windows smashed in by a following sea, and she was just barely able to limp into Cadiz. Hyperion lost sight of the little Icarus, and all aboard her feared that she had foundered. But the Icarus miraculously limped into Cadiz a few days later, completely dismasted. This incident, I believe, was responsible for the part of the story where a frigate loses sight of a damaged sloop of war at night. I think that Dr. Johnson confused Hyperion with Horatio - each name begins with an "H" - has four syllables - and both were 18-pounder ships launched in 1807. She sailed at night in company with a sloop which was also damaged. But neither Horatio's nor Hyperion's log mentions any battle. Any engagement with such a high casualty rate would certainly have been. Here's what I think might have happened, based only on the information found so far, barring any new discoveries: The US Sloop-of-War Wasp stayed in the waters between Teneriffe and Africa, not too very far from Cadiz, because those seas were rich with English prizes. The Wasp chased many more merchantmen, took several, possibly burned at least one, according to the Aquilion's log, and she briefly chased the British Sloops Jasper and Sloop Reynard (twice), and she in turn was chased by the British Frigate Aquilion, or at least the British Admiral Fleming on board HMS Elizabeth thought so. If there had been an actual action between the Aquilion and the Wasp, it was a running one, at distance, and must necessarily have caused few or no casualties on the British ship, for the incident to have stayed out of the press, and out of the naval history books. It wouldn't have been the first time that a running fight went unmentioned in a ship's log-book. But Aquilion's captain did mention in the log that he was chasing an American corvette. This information quickly made it's way back to shore, and soon merged in the public mind, with the appearance in Cadiz of the damaged Frigate Hyperion, and the damaged Sloop Icarus which temporarily having gone missing at night, and also the American account of the apparent battle, or at least the extended great gun exercise, on board the Frigate Lacedaemonian, along with the Sloop Dotteral, off Charleston. These three stories melted into the one, and that new convoluted tale, based on true, but disparate facts, is what finally appeared in all the papers. The Wasp's rigging had been badly damaged in an hour long fight with the Sloop Avon, and she even took a full 32-pounder carronade broadside from the Sloop Castillion through her rigging during her escape, and all those damages had been repaired at sea. Prior to that, the Wasp had fought the Sloop Reindeer, and had taken a 24-pound ball right through the center of her fore mast. The mast was taken out and repaired in L'Orient, France, but not replaced. The bottom line is that her rigging was weak and vulnerable. The Wasp could possibly have sunk in the storm that almost sank the Hyperion, or driven her ashore on the African coast ... But the Sloop Wasp could also have made it to the US coast - there were those two sightings of her off Tybee and Turk's Island, after all - but that would necessarily mean the four British sightings, at roughly the same time, far away off Tenerife, would have had to have been another ship, perhaps a rare, ship-rigged American privateer. But then, what happened to her? A storm? A frigate? We'll probably never know for sure.