uss frolick
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Bluejacket sells the plans from their 1812-15 Connie Kit separately. The set comes with a book. Lawrence Arnot drew their plans, and it is the official kit of the USS Constitution Museum, so I would trust them for accuracy. -
I found the following letter in the National Archives Microfilm Rolls. Thought it might be of interest ... "Captain Robert Rafine, Esquire USF Essex Salem, Massachusetts Washington, DC Jan 25, 1800, Dear Captain Rafine, As your ship is nearly ready for sea, your are ordered to open a Rendezvous and take on six months provisions, and make all preparations for putting to sea at the earliest opportunity. As the French are active in the southern waters, particularly off the piratical haven called "Delray Beach", or "New Sodom", off the coast of Spanish Florida, you and the Ship Essex under your command are ordered to frustrate their endeavors. Your detailed private orders are thus enclosed. Fail not, Sir, at your peril. Having the the highest confidence in your abilities, I remain, Sir, Your Humble and Obedient Servant, Benjamin Stoddart, Esquire, Secretary of the Navy." ( )
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Don't forget the universal Yankee favorite, Apple! There's also a often planted tree here in FLA called Loquat. Many people cut them down, because they don't want to pick up the fruit. It can be identified by grey bark with clusters of yellow grape sized fruit. It is apple/pear colored and has a very small, tight grain, yet is easily bendable.
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The guy you have to talk to is fellow 'Tampon' Roman Barzana. He used to head up a Tampa shipwright club in the 1990s, and he is the universal expert on all ships Spanish and Spanish Colonial. I haven't spoken to Roman in years, But I did see that he posted here occasionally in the CAD section last year. Go USF, The University of Sun and Fun! The Harvard on the Hillsborough ...
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Let's not forget the infamous scurvy-dog pirate Jose' Gaspar, whose bone-chilling exploits around Tampa Bay are celebrated by the yearly Gasparilla Celebration and booze-fest we see today! Arrrghhh, Matey! Actually, Gaspar was pure fiction invented a century ago by a real estate developer who hoped to make backwater Tampa more exciting ... didn't work.
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Thanks Cookster for posting this gem from the 1980s! You gotta love Portia Takakjian for doing this exercise BY HAND!
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I heard that they found a political campaign flyer on board the CSS Hunley that was still legible. It read: "Re-Elect Strom Thurman." (Old Charleston joke.)
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surname of Nelson's Captain at Trafalgar
uss frolick replied to cnemo's topic in Nautical/Naval History
No doubt later on, he was known below decks as "Kiss-Me 'Ardy" ... -
I have it. It is the best quality ship kit that I have ever inspected (though I have not yet built it). The Brittania fittings are very clean, numerous and precise, and although the kit is a solid hull, the gun-deck is left open so you can fully detail it. The kit shows the 1812 configuration, and the plans and instruction booklet are the best of any in a historical sense, but at only 1/8th inch scale, you had better have a decent pair of glasses! It is also a tad expensive.
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The main issue with the Bellona volume is that, while Brian Lavery is a wonderful historian, he is not a draftsman, and his drawings show it, whereas the late Portia Takakjian (Essex) was an artist, and David White is a naval architect.
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As far as sailing vessels go, the best of the series was the first volume on HMS Diana, by David White. The others are not as good, as general references, and most have major issues, like the Constitution framed as though she came from an English yard! Brian Lavery's Bellona was the worst, IMHO, many drawing being mere small tracings in a sea of white paper. I think the series format is rather dated. Unless you are building a specific ship that is the subject of one of the other volumes, like Bounty or Pandora, they are unnecessary. I would highly recommend the classic "The Construction and Fitting of English Men of War" by Peter Goodwin, as well as Diana book. Alas no centerfold of sweet Diana!
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Where did you get your information on the existence of a contemporary Bon Homme Richard POW bone model? It would be the historical find of the century!
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Converting a kit to a different scale...
uss frolick replied to CharlieZardoz's topic in Wood ship model kits
Charlie, In the case of the Fair American, nobody was sure about what scale the original model is, or the size of the actual ship was. When Model Shipway first offered the popular FA in solid hull form back in the 1950s, they guessed it to be in 3/16th of an inch scale, and so marked their yellow box. When they redid the kit in laser cut bulkhead form in the 1980s, the FA she suddenly became a 1/4th scale model, EVEN THOUGH BOTH KITS AND THEIR FITTINGS WERE THE EXACT SAME SIZE! -
Not many of this particular class fought single ship actions. Blanche was the only one, I think, but she was taken by a mob of French frigates and corvettes afterwards. In terms of fighting history, the most interesting ship of the Euryalus Class was, IMHO, HMS Hebrus. She fought the heavy French Frigate L'Etoile and took her in 1814 after a severe nighttime action, and was one of the British frigates that bombarded Ft McHenry in Baltimore. Then, in 1816, she went on to bombard Algiers with Lord Exmouth's fleet, helping to finally end Christian slavery on the Barbary Coast. But Hebrus was built of fir in 1813, so she would need to have square tuck stern fastened to Euryalus's frame.
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"Mom, what's a magazine?"
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So let me get this straight ... Somebody has carefully - and no doubt beautifully, knowing Ancre - lofted off the frames of the old, generic Boudriot French 74, and then grafted the known carvings of two specific, Joel Sane' designed ships on to the bow and stern. After years of examining NMM draughts of captured French ships, the one thing I know about 'standard' French ships, especially ones built to the prolific Sane' designs, is that, decorations aside, no two look even remotely alike!
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I believe Harold Hahn's 1/4th scale HMS Druid, available from the Lumberyard in POF kit form, started life as an American merchant ship, but was purchased into the RN service, because she was so strongly built. The same applies to Hahn's 1/4th scale Privateer Oliver Cromwell. Both vessels are from the 1770's.
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Keep working the problem, Wes! You are pioneering what future modelers will admiringly call the "Cook Method". Three Cheers: "Huzzah! Huzzah! Huzzah!"
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I can imagine six-figure non-profit public-relations executive salaries getting paid, while the carpenters and sailors get stiffed ...
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Reminds me of the Missus. She too is a little dingy.
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Thanks! What makes this model important, is that while the British took the lines off of the Chesapeake, they didn't bother to record the inboard profile or deck details. (Although there is a deck framing plan in the Fox Papers at the Peabody Museum in Salem.) How did they get that huge model home undamaged from England, back to America, then how did it end up in Hamburg, Germany?
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Were ship figureheads routinely removed?
uss frolick replied to robnbill's topic in Nautical/Naval History
I saw that cage too many years ago. I think it was on a plate in the Jean Boudriot Press reprint of the (French industrial spy) Blase Oliver book, circa 1737. -
Were ship figureheads routinely removed?
uss frolick replied to robnbill's topic in Nautical/Naval History
One rare exception: The Sloop USS Hornet, 1807-1829, had two figureheads. A gilded eagle clutched a starred-and-striped shield in her talons when the Hornet was in port, but when at sea, it was replaced with a simple billethead. This must have been a difficult task, at best, that the crew did not look forward to. -
Thanks 74 Boni !!!!! I'm buying it now.
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