uss frolick

I stand corrected on the deck house, but I cant see it on the photo. What a cool place to live! Share pictures with us! How come you in possession of such a large artifact? Do tell ... Note the quarter galleries as well, even though they were left off the plans.

The type of detailed information you seek, just no longer exists. Navy plans of the period just don't show the detail you need. Not unless you stumble onto something in the National Archives. All naval photos of the period are rare. But there was a book on the history of the US Naval Academy published a few years back that reprinted two photos of what they caption claimed was the spar deck and the gun deck of the training ship USS Constellation in the 1870s. But it was in fact either the Santee or the Sabine, since she had a full spar deck broadside battery (which the Constellation didn't then have) plus pivots, and it showed much of the detail you seek. I don't have the book. There is a large, undated photo of the USS Sabine in very-old oft-reprinted "The Photographic history of the Civil War", "The Navies" Volume, that shows her all black, with no raised quarterdeck and with guns on her gun-deck only, possibly wire rigging, with a thin white line painted above her copper and white painted fiddle-head and scroll work on her trail-boards. There is no fly-bridge or deck house. I would be surprised if there were. It looks to be late civil War or just afterwards

From The Newburyport Herald and Country Gazette (Massachusetts, the port where she was built and crewed): March 7, 1815: 'A Charleston paper of the 18th (February) has a round-about story of the U.S. Sloop Wasp having been captured in November by the English Sloop of War Myrmidon, of 20 guns." Interestingly, HMS Myrmidon was the only remaining ship-sloop in the Royal Navy of the Wasp's exact size and force, her sister the Hermes having been sunk in Mobile Bay in 1814. March 31, 1815: "MASS, BOSTON, March 29, NAVAL INTELLIGENCE - Wasp Sloop of War: Letters from Washington state authentically, that an officer of the Argus had arrived there in a Cartel San Philippi and reported having touched at Santa Cruz (Teneriffe) they there learned correctly, from the crew of an English Brig, prize to the Wasp on the 9th Jan., that the Wasp had on days previous, put into Mogadore (Morocco) for supplies. This accounts for this interesting vessel to be about the end of December. On the 6th March, a lieut. of the British Frigate Severn, off Charleston (SC), reported that the Wasp had been captured in the Britlish Channel by a frigate. (There have been several other vague reports of the capture of the wasp, from British officers on the coast, from Jamaica, etc.)" April 28th, 1815: "(From a) Kingston, Jamaica (newspaper), Feb. 9th. By His Majesty's Ship Medina, which arrived on Tuesday last, we learn that Rear Admiral Durham had received an official letter from Captain Patterson, of the Myrmidon, 20 gun ship, stating the capture by that vessel of the American Ship Wasp, of 22 guns, after an obstinate engagement of two hours during which both vessels suffered severely. (Very doubtful)" May 25, 1815: "A London paper mentions a report that the U.S. Sloop of War Wasp had sunk two British sloops near Maranham." From the New Hampshire Gazette, in Portsmouth: January 31st, 1815: "LATEST FROM THE WASP. We learn from a friend who arrived here yesterday from Beaufort, NC, that a Portuguese brig had arrived at that port, in 14 days from Turk's Island, laden with salt. The Portuguese captain informed us that he was boarded off Turk's Island, by the US Sloop of War Wasp,on a cruise. (It is 32 days since the Wasp boarded the above brig.)" December 22, 1815: "Another report relative to the Wasp. The Norfolk, Va. Beacon of November 22 contains the following paragraph. A young gentleman of this burough, who has a brother a lieutenant on board the [uSS] Guerriere [in Philadelphia], and another, a midshipman on board the Wasp, received a letter from his mother at King's Creek, near Williamsburough, in which she announces a reprint of a letter, from her son a lieutenant on the Guerriere, informing her that he had heard from the wasp, that she was on the coast of the Brazils. (The source where this comes is most respectable, yet it ought perhaps to be received with some caution by anxious friends.)" Note: There were indeed the Brothers Robert and Evan Randolph, both of Virginia, and both were navy officers assigned to the above mentioned ships. The Savannah Republican and Evening Ledger: November 15, 1814: "By a gentleman of the St. Mary's we learn of a neutral vessel having arrived at Amelia Island the 11st instant, the captain of which informed that he was boarded by the United States Ship Wasp on the 7th, and she was in the act of burning an English vessel. There was a report in our town yesterday that the Wasp was off our bar, and was chased off by the [british Frigate] Lacedemonian [38 guns], there being no pilot to bring her in. Why do not the Commissioners of the Pilotage do their duty?"

As all the cool kids know, the USS Wasp (II), built in Newburyport, MA, in 1813, vanished at sea with 173 souls some time in late 1814 or early 1815, and was last seen "officially" of the Azores on September 22, 1814, when she sent in her prize schooner, the Atalanta, formerly the Privateer Baltimore Clipper Siro of Baltimore. Prior to that she enjoyed a very successful cruise in British home waters, taking a dozen merchantmen and winning battles against two English Sloops of War, HMS Reindeer and HMS Avon, becoming the only American ship of war to win two battles while out on a single cruise under the same captain, in this case Johnston Blakeley. Wasp was one of only four ships, along with Constitution, Constellation and Hornet, to defeat two enemies of comparable force. Some long-winded and tedious fellow wrote a book about the Wasp and her captain a few years back, so I'll refer any interested parties to it for further particulars ... There were many accounts of the Wasp's activities after the capture of the Atalanta in the Royal Navy records, and many more in the papers of the day, which I shall try to list here in chronological order. The British vessels referred to here were all cruising the same waters in which the Wasp had last been seen. These waters were rich with valuable English merchantmen and homeward bound Indiamen, the prime hunting ground for an energetic American sloop of war to stalk. Somebody was out there in a ship/corvette/small frigate scaring the heck out of the maritime community. There were also many privateers in those seas, but they were only very rarely ship rigged, they being primarily swift brigs and topsail schooners. First, some official RN logbook entries and official letters. Nov. 3, 1814: Log of Sloop of War HMS Reynard: Position at Noon 41.58 N., 14.48 W, Virgo NE 194 miles. 1300. Saw a sloop of War to leeward, made a private signal to her (She having English Ensign and Pennant flying), which she made a mistake in answering, made all sail from her, supposing her to be an American Sloop of war" 16:00 "Stranger out of sight." Was this the Wasp? Reynard was only a 12-gun sloop, armed with 18-pounder carronades, so she probably was in the right by fleeing. USS Peacock, the only other US sloop at sea at this time, was, at this date, off Brazil, heading north to NY. Nov. 4, 1814: Log of HMS Reynard: Position at noon, 43.32 N, 15.28W Cape Finisterre 230 milles. "1415 saw a strange sail ... 1600 saw a ship of war on the lee quarter and a schooner which was in distress." Oddly, no further mention. January 2, 1815: Log of Elizabeth, 74 guns, flagship of the Gibraltar station, Admiral Fleming: "Letter from the captain of the [32-gun 12-pounder Frigate] Aquilion, dated 16 December, that it was his intentions to put to sea from the Tagus the following day ... A Letter from the Captain of the Jasper, that on the 16th December. off Cape St. Vincent, that he was chased by an enemy's ship, that after a variety of manuveres [sic] he succeeded in getting clear of her, with a transport and merchant vessel under his protection, and that he arrived in the Tagus on the 26th of that month, that he did not conceive it to be prudent to bring her into action having with him a vessel laden with naval stores, but that he was fully resolved to go to the bottom rather than to have struck his colors. " No log entry describes this event on that date. Twice, one month apart, Reynard runs into an American sloop of war, probably the same one, and twice he runs away? January 3, 1813: Log of Elizabeth: "Letter received from the captain of the Reynard, that he arrived in the Tagus on the 14th of December and that he had ... on the 2nd of Nov., in Lat 41.58, Long 14.28, he had fallen in with a corvette, which he thinks was an American, that being within 4 miles of her, he perceived that she carried 20 guns, that point, from the inferior force of the Reynard, he did not feel himself justified in bringing her into action, which she did not seek. From the bad state of her copper, I believe she must be hove down after the next cruise, that at the moment her has completed her provisions, he will resume his station." (Note that Wasp had 22 guns and eleven broadside ports, but English sloops of the Hermes/Myrmidon class carried only 20 guns, even though they also had eleven ports.) January 4, 1814: Log of Elizabeth: "Letter to the Admiralty that the Reynard returned to Gibraltar on the 31st December, that her Captain having been chased off Cape Finisterre by a small frigate of the enemy whose attention being drawn to other objects, he was enabled to escape, [and] that this sloop has lost a great part of her copper and is otherwise in a leaky state." The captain of the Reynard was named Sinclair. It is noteworthy that the "ship of war" has grown into a frigate. Another small 18-pounder, brig-rigged, sloop of war on the station, HMS Jasper, also had a run-in with this mysterious corvette. Again from the Elizabeth log on the same date: "Jasper states his having been chased by a corvette on his passage to Lisbon off Cape St. Vincent, and that he appears to have evinced considerable ability in saving h is convoy." For some reason, the chase was not recorded either in the Jasper's log-book. January 8, 1815: Log of the Frigate HMS Garland: "20:20 hrs, 34.44 N, 15. 28 W Joined convoy and gained information that an American Frigate was a few leagues to the NE." Note France was at peace since the previous summer so the marauding frigate could not have been french. The Constitution, the only American frigate at sea, was not yet in these waters. January 23, 1815, log of Frigate HMS Aquilion: "08:30 38.47N 12.17 W. A strange ship of war bearing down upon us. Made the private signal, cleared for action, hauled down the private signal unanswered, the stranger having hauled to windward. Observed the stranger to be an enemy corvette." Nothing further is mentioned in the log, until the following day, they discovered a vessel on fire burned to the waterline. Her captain was Thomas Burton. Privateers rarely burned prizes, but navy ships commonly did. March 1, 1815: Log of HM Ship Meander, in the Tagus: "... several other privateers have made their appearance occasionally on this coast, but from information being received from neutral vessels, the descriptions differs, accept with respect to the American of twenty guns, ship rigged, which was chased by the Aquilion, and which I have reason to believe was the same which lately pursued the Jasper, this vessel with another ship of the same description [i.e, which twice chased the Reynard!] , has generally been taken for the Wasp. [signed] Admiral Fleming." Next I shall list some contemporary newspaper accounts.

The British built a copy in 1808 of the French La Belle Poule, captured in 1778, as HMS Pyramus. Likewise they built a copy of L'Magicienne in 1807 as HMS Hyperion. Both were 18-pounder 32-gun frigates. There was a fun contemporary newspaper account of the Hyperion having put into Cadiz in 1814 all shot up with 100 casualties, after a running battle off the Azores at night, in a storm, with an American corvette which suddenly vanished. Her officers had allegedly reported that she was the USS Wasp. The latter was in the general area at the time, and she did eventually disappear without a trace. Hyperion's logbook does mention an evening chase, then a night-time storm, then having her stern windows smashed in by a following sea. Who knows? Another version makes it HMS Horatio off Charleston. This was one of many such tall tales that found their way into the papers.

My first thought was that they were davit winches, but the deadeyes are too close for them to turn.

The Triton model I refer to has a square-tuck stern, so she was made of pine, fir or some softer wood.

It is interesting that Chapman would give her only 24 guns broadside, and the forward-most 18-pounder was so very far aft. Her lines must have been very sharp forward, to have done that. Her stem reminds me of the experimental HMS Triton model, an unusual 18-pounder, 32-gun frigate that drew the same draught of water forward as aft.

Awesome research, JohnE. Humbly received. Much to ponder ...

There is (or was) an original pre-1814 onboard profile plan of the New York in the National Archives that Chapelle used to fix Allen's draught. But it has never been published. Note the deck details on the Chapelle draught.

Huzzah! Lovely work.

Chapter 11, of NRG's epic "Ship Modelers Shop Notes", edited by Merritt Edson, deals with contemporary painting and finishing of ships. One of the articles, written by Howard Chapelle, is a collection of contemporary American newspaper accounts from the 1760's of small, un-named, abandoned merchant vessels, brigs and schooners, found floating awash at sea, that describes them to their readers, for identification purposes. They were sometimes brightly painted with red or blue portions of their hulls. This chapter deserves a re-read.

Having just looked at a picture of the Harvey model online, I think you could probably just add an additional pair of ports in the after bulwarks without shifting the others. There seems to be a lot of empty space back there. But don't place the pair so far aft, that the carronades would have interfered with the tiller's running tackle.

Yes. The Ringle was more of a chaser, not a so much a chasee (although the guns could have been run out the stern, if needed) so put them in the forward-most broadside port. The bridle ports were used in the everyday running of the ship, so they needed to be empty most of the time.

You will need to place them in the forward-most broadside port, not pointing directly forward. But I don't know if your Harvey has enough ports in her side to mount them all. If not, then since you are altering her into a fictitious vessel, you might want to be creative, and rearrange the existing ports to be closer together (without shifting the chain-plates around) and add one more pair of ports to her broadside. Leave the forward pointing ports, call bridle ports, empty. The crew would shift a chase gun there, if they needed to. Arming the bridle ports full time would put too much weight in her extremities, and cause her to pitch.

The long guns would be forward, because any Royal Navy tender would be more concerned about chasing, not being chased, if they were of a light caliber, such as six pounders. However, if the long guns were unusually large, (like the USS Spark, 1815, which had ten 18-pounder carronades and two long 18-pounders) they might also be placed amidships, where their weight might push the sharp bow down, badly affecting the trim of the ballast. Any chase would hopefully be to leeward, not necessarily in front of you. The outhouses are called roundhouses, and they probably have been removed for naval service, as they would splinter greatly if struck by shot.

I would say the Bluejacket solid hull Constitution is one of the most challenging. She is very complicated for 1/8th scale, and the sheer number of her "Britania-metal" fittings looks rather daunting.

The USS Maryland, 24 gun subscription-built ship-sloop of war, was built in Baltimore. Since she too was named after the state that built her, we should note that she sports the coat of arms of her state on her central taffrail. The description comes from the Federal Gazette and Baltimore Daily Register, June 4, 1799: "On the Taffrail is the Seal of Maryland, representing the figure of Justice and Peace with proper insignia; It is supported on the right by a Genius with a book and pen preparing to record the honors the ship may confer on her country, while on the left the Genius of Music is ready to strike his lyre in celebration of the rising greatness of America."

I'll cut and paste from an earlier post: The Frigates President, Adams and New York were all building at the same time in New York yards. Stern carvings of the other two survive: USS Adams, 28 gun frigate launched in in New York from the New Hampshire Gazette, June 4, 1799: "On the stern in the centre of the taffrail, are the arms of the U. States, supported by Sybele and Neptune - the latter with his left hand resting on his Trident and his right extended over our "Infant Navy", with some Attributes of Commerce. The former reclining on a sheaf of wheat with a septre in her right hand, in her left is the Key of the Earth and Supporting a Cornucopia ..." USS President, 44-gun frigate, built in New York, from Claypole's American Daily Advertiser, Philadelphia, April 14, 1800. "Stern: In the center of the taffrail, the figure of America the right arm resting on the base of a monument and three books representing the three branches of government; in the right hand a pen, to record the heroic actions of her sons; in her left, the Constitution of the United States; at her feet, the American Fasces erect, supported by the standards of the Army and the Navy. On her right the figure of Wisdom, and the left the figure of Strength, both inclined, and looking to the center; in the right hand of Wisdom, a spear, the left resting against the port, and the bird of vigilence at her feet.; the left hand of Strength resting on a herculean club, the right hand resting against the port as the grand supporters of America ..."

The most heavily decorated ship of the American Navy was the USS President. When launched in 1800, she had a triple figure head, consisting of the bust of George Washington sitting on a rock, supported on either side by two full length female figures, each representing an important virtue.

Boston fought three battles: One against the 24-gun French Corvette Le Berceau (which she captured, but was returned to France) , one against several Tripolitan gunboats, one of which she sank, and finally, she engaged a squadron armed French barges off Haiti, in an all day battle, where she sank one or two of those as well, wherein the Boston actually emptied her shot locker! The real Le Berceau appears in the Patrick O'Brien novel, "HMS Surprise", as one of Admiral Linoirs's squadron. You know Dan, if you wanted to sell copies of your Boston plans, you would have many takers, especially since you have lofted off all the frames. For those of you looking for something unique, there is always the 1799-1814 Frigate USS New York. She was the flagship of Commodore Morris's squadron, and she fought two battles against Tripolitan gunboats and shore batteries. She was a double-banked frigate throughout her whole lifetime. There was a plan to tow her hulk out of Washington and rebuild her in 1813, but she was burned the following year, alongside the Boston, to prevent her falling into the hands of the British. Her lines survive, as does an inboard profile, both of which Chapelle used to reconstruct her. The New York begs to be built. Her stern and carvings need to be reconstructed, but that gives one's imagination a chance to soar !

A hero, eh, Charlie? Well, I guess I'll need a moniker. Nap Man? The Grey Hornet? Flabbio?

Mr. Bruckshaw's model is of the c. 1749 Boston, the earliest known plan of an American-built warship.

Hegner blades are not hard to change,but maybe I'm used to them. But the old Delta's Jack-the-Ripper Stabber-Blades ...

My first cheap scroll saw was a Delta. It shook so hard and broke so many blades, I called it "The Delta Saw of Death." Since then , I picked up a used Hegner Scroll Saw, from Switzerland, or Germany, or somewhere mountainous and cold, I forget. It is very expensive, especially if new, but it was used a lot by jewelers, and it is smooth and almost vibration free. Roman Barzana, the Tampa-based discoverer of Loquat Wood [snap! ], turned me on to the bright-orange Hegner saws.