uss frolick

USS John Adams Chronology (From one of my earlier posts): 1799: Frigate with twenty-four long twelve pounders on the gun deck and two twelves, bow chasers, and six 24-pound carronades on her spar deck. She retained this form when she fought with Commodore Morris Squadron, bombarding Tripoli, firing at gunboats, and engaging and destroying the 26-gun Lateen rigged Frigate Meshuda fighting alongside the USS Enterprize. She did a lot of fighting during this service. She had a bust figurehead carved by William Rush of Philadelphia. She was the first US Navy ship to carry carronades. 1804: converted to a store ship when she joined Preble's squadron off Tripoli. Gun deck full of cargo with eight long six-pounders on her quarterdeck and six long twelve pounders in the Waste of her spar deck! This would have required her having been converted to a mini-double-banked frigate! The rest of her guns were in the hold, but her carriages were scattered among other ships. 1807-09: Converted to a 24-gun flush decked corvette carrying twenty-two 42-pounder carronades and two long twelve pounders. No poop deck. Fox wrote in a letter stating that he intended to replace the bust with a scrolled fiddle head. The watercolor appears to show this. At some unknown point in her history, she received a bust head of John Adams again. Her replacement ship had one. 1811-12: Reverted back to a frigate in j.a.c.k.a.s.s frigate form in Boston, carrying thirty lighter carronades and two chase guns. No forcastle! 1813-14 Converted back to a corvette of 22 guns: armament varied in port, but they settled on 42-pounder carronades again by her 1814 sailing. Differed from 1809 version by having a 17-foot long quarterdeck (poop) cabin with a flush roof. This appears the ship shown in the watercolor. Note the sailor dudes on it. Retained this form until her breaking up and replacement in 1829.

A Quick Note: The above plan was reconstructed from two plans, both in the Peabody and Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, in the Josiah Fox papers. 1. Outboard Profile/Inboard Profile (partial) of the frigate as designed and sent to the Frigate Committee in Charleston, SC, in 1799. 2. All Decks drawn atop one another circa 1807, 1/8th scale, as a razee, but showing main deck port positions, the addition of the bridle ports, all mast positions, hatch locations, iron ballast placement, and the five foot hull length added in Charleston, as reported. I'll add more data when I can. Thanks Talos !!!!!!!!!! AIN'T SHE PURDY? Another quick note: I should also point out that the body plan of the lines exists somewhere in the National Archives, but it was published in P.C. Coker's most-excellent book "Charleston's Maritime Heritage, 1670-1865". Since all other lines are derived from the body plan, that is all one would need, in addition to the above two plans, to reconstruct the frigate. And of course the stacked deck plan shows the shape of the hull as an added check, in showing the general shape of the waterlines.

Applewood!

Mark, I suspect that this ship will be modeled much.

From Wikipedia: "La Hermione was built in eleven months at Rochefort, by the shipwright Henri Chevillard as a light (French: légère) frigate, fast and maneuverable. Between May and December 1779 she underwent successful sea trials in the Gulf of Gascony under the command of Lieutenant de Latouche. General La Fayette embarked at Rochefort on 11 March 1780 and arrived in Boston on 28 April carrying the secret news that he had secured French reinforcements (5,500 men and 5 frigates) for George Washington. After the dramatic failure of the Penobscot Expedition, a large military expedition to dislodge the British from their new stronghold at the confluence of the Bagaduce and the Penobscot River on the east bank of Penobscot Bay in Maine (an area later known as Castine), the revolutionary council of Massachusetts asked Latouche if he would be willing to sail to Penobscot Bay for a quick military intelligence-gathering cruise, checking on the strength of the British garrison at Fort George. The Hermione then made the week-long voyage in mid-May, after which the frigate sailed to Rhode Island.[2] Next, she got underway again on 2 June and suffered serious damage in the fierce but indecisive Action of 7 June 1780 against the 32-gun HMS Iris, under James Hawker. Hermione received the American Congress on board in May 1781. She fought several times in company with the Astrée, commanded by Lapérouse, especially at the Naval battle of Louisbourg on 21 July 1781. After the end of the American Revolutionary War, Hermione returned to France in February 1782. She then formed part of a squadron sent to India to help Suffren against the British. However peace was declared and the ship returned to Rochefort in April 1784." Interestingly, she fought HMS Iris of 32-guns, which had been earlier taken from the Continental Navy, and was formerly the US frigate Hancock.

I've always thought that the small, ship-rigged corvette was the most beautiful type of man-of-war.

Hot Damn, the Alabam! I'll be watching in a comfy chair with a cool sweet tea, and a bag of Oreos!

"Which I'm coming, ain't I? Spilled the whole bloody bottle, Mark did - whole thing wasted, never a drop tasted! Poor Ol' Killick's gotta clean the mess, again."

Mark, How'd I miss this? Looks quite lovely, especially the long guns! In the words of Jack Aubrey: "Killick! Killick there! Able Seaman Taylor gets an extra grog ration tonight!"

One unusual thing about the Alliance: Late in the war, she was able to replace her 12-pounders with the guns that had been ordered to be cast for the lower deck of the Bon Homme Richard, had the latter survived - twenty-eight long French 18-pounders. No other contemporary American frigate could carry that many guns on their main deck, except the Confederacy! So the Alliance had some special characteristics of many other ships. But from the few contemporary paintings that do survive of her, every one conveniently sketched in John Millar's book, and unlike the Confederacy, the Alliance appears to carry a round modern bow, not a beak-head bulkhead.

One theory about the Alliance in "The Frigate Essex Papers" is that, since she was built by the same Hackett family that would go on to make the Essex 20 years later, both frigates were built to the same general model, with slightly differing dimensions.

A used copy of Michael Feather's Frigate Amphion book just appeared on Amazon. Softcover, 80 pages, only $113 plus shipping. Such a deal ! Too rich for me ... Is it really that good, or is it just very rare, or both?

I have the book too. It is fun to read! They are mostly reconstructions, but they are best guesses given what little information survives. Ex: The reconstruction of the Continental Frigates Providence and Warren based on the lines of the Privateer Oliver Cromwell, because the latter might have been built by the Brown Brothers of Rhode Island, who we know built the former two! Hey, why not? Could-da happened!

The Barbados was the Scourge. Just as well, since the term Scourge is often associated with marauding native americans, the figurehead might have been an Indian warrior like the Rattlesnake's, whereas Rhodes is associated with Greece (an island, I believe). An Indian figurehead trumps an allegorical Greek God in my book any day.

... Except the Rhodes is not the Rhodes! This according to author Miller in his 'Early American Ships' (1976), pp. 186-7. She was taken the same afternoon alongside another privateer called the Scourge by HMS Prothee. Both privateers were taken into the Royal Navy but only the slightly larger Scourge had her lines taken off. Chapelle mixed up the two ships in 'The Search For Speed Under Sail' (1967), since the Admiralty draught is of her after she was renamed, HMS Barbados. The surveys of both ships were printed in the letter-book of Lord Rodney, which allowed Miller to correct Chapelle. Makes little difference, however, except maybe for someone trying to reconstruct the figurehead.

Johann, I sure hope that you are planning to publish a book someday about your Creole build!

Eric Cartman is my hero: "Respect Mah Authori-tah!"

The Chatham series is outstanding! So many paintings, portraits, sketches and NMM plans packed into six volumes. Very informative text too. They were also published through Naval Institute Press here in the US. Well worth the cost if you are a RN history buff.

Probably. She was by then a "modern", nearly new vessel armed with carronades like the Syren.

I prefer the look too. A normal sized one is fine for the Enterprize's 1813 appearance, like the one on the Syren, or the later Grampus, but not one of those Confederacy-sized monsters on the Venice draught!

What was the function of the beak head anyway, other than fashion? Is it just to have something really strong to gammon the bowsprit to? Do square rigged vessels have more stress on the bowsprit than fore and aft rigged vessels?

Fantastic subject and model! In 1819, the Columbus carried 42-pounder carronades, and only 32-pounder long guns on her lower two decks. This should account for the additional height. In 1845, her second commission, she instead carried 32-pounder carronades on her spar deck. She didn't get any 8" shell guns until 1845 either. Are you working with William Crothers' "Seagull" plans? He reconstructs the stern carvings based on a letter written by ship-carver William Rush.

You 'splain things better.

Square rigged ships were reportedly less prone to roll with the wind abeam than for and aft vessels, which seems kind of counter-intuitive but it was so described in another officer's letter, and a brig was harder to dismantle in time of action than a schooner, primarily because there was so much more sail, spars and standing rigging aloft to begin with.

All Feldman's numbers are guesses, made either by him, or the curator at the time of the Naval Academy. If you don't know the scale of the original model, and you don't know a single dimension of the real brig, then all you have to play with, is proportions, and you have to guess. The conversion specifically of the Enterprize, at least, from a schooner into a brig, is shown in the correspondence of the time to have been made by her 1811-13 commander, the soon-to-be-famous Lieutenant Johnston Blakeley, over the objections of Tingey and others. As Blakeley explained to the Secretary of the Navy Paul Hamilton, wanted a more stable gun platform. In this, he was successful. At this point, I must make a shameless plug for my book, "Blakeley and the Wasp", Naval Institute Press, 2001. I have two chapters on the Enterprize when JB had her.