uss frolick

If you're going to all the trouble of scratch building a model, then why not take the extra step of building a contemporary sloop of war other than the recently, much modeled Siren? You could use her same plans and the instructions as a guide toward building, say, the 18 gun brig USS Argus, a sloop with a tremendous history. Her plans, redrawn by Howard Chapelle for his 'History of the American sailing Navy' are available for little more than the cost of the copying. Argus would require no more material than the Siren. There are many flushed deck American ship and brig rigged sloops of war, built in 1813 of only slightly larger dimensions, that rarely ever see the modelers bench: Wasp I, Hornet, Wasp II, Peacock, Frolick, Erie, Ontario, and the Argus II. Their draughts are also available from the Smithsonian. Then there are the similarly sized British Cruiser Class sloops that they fought: HMS Frolick, HMS Peacock, HMS Pelican, HMS Reindeer, HMS Avon, HMS (later USS) Epervier and the HMS Pelican. How about the mighty little 450 ton 20-gun, flushed-decked ship sloop HMS Levant, that fought the USS Constitution? And there are so many more beautiful and larger American sloops build after the war ... All these sloops deserve to be built. Don't limit yourself. If you're going to spent many months, if not years, of your life scratch building a ship, why not make her unique and special?

A real problem in having a model kit in such an odd scale, 5/32", is that you will have a hard time finding replacement twelve and six-pounder cannon in 1:76 scale if the kit guns are done poorly, which apparently they are. Had MS designed the Essex kit in the more common 1:64 scale, the same scale as Portia Takakjian's classic Essex plans and booklet, then you could use a commercial set of 1:64 Essex cannon already available.

When the late great Portia Takajian built her 3/16th scale Essex in the 1980's, she used light colored maple frames. They looked great in her softcover Ships in Scale Monograph. If I remember correctly, she planked in apple and ebony.

Seagull Plans by William Crothers (author of "American Clipper-ships") makes a perfect (and I mean perfect) set of 1/8th inch scale plans for the 74 USS Columbus (1820) that includes a detailed rigging plan. It is THE must have plan for American ships of the line. If you can't find a copy, I may still have a set that you may borrow. He also made great plans for the 1840s corvette USS Germantown, and the sidewheeler steam frigate, USS Mississippi.

But Wait! Color and BW photos of the perfectly preserved wrecks of the Sloops USS Hamilton and the USS Scourge, sunk in 300 feet of water on Lake Ontario in a squall in 1813, show the channels left in natural wood. It is very hard to tell exactly because of the silt sitting on the tops of the channels, but the sides of the channels are natural oiled wood, like most of the hull. They would have had to blacken just the tops, but not the sides, to have been so colored on these two wrecks. Black and blue paint can still be seen on the hull, so there was no universal fading of color. One sloop was British, built before the war, the other American. Perhaps there was no need to blacken ... because of the lack of salt ... ? [Grasping at straws here?] See: "Ghost Ships: Hamilton and Scourge: Historical Treasures of from the War of 1812 " by Emily Cain, 1984, Fountain Press, pp. 93, 105.

Typo Correction! The Chesapeake's chase gun was called "United Tars" not "United Tarts"!

According to"Surgeon of the Seas" by Jonathan M. Foltz, published 1931, at the attack at Quallah Batoo: "Jan. 20th, [1832]. This afternoon the troops to land on Sumatra were exercised in order of the landing - the rear formed by the 'flying artillery', with 'Betsy Baker', the six pounder carronade. The twelve pounder in the launch, commanded by Mr. Gordon, is 'The Bonnets So Blue', and the six pounder in the cutter is 'Polly Hopkins'." William James's "Naval Occurrances Between Great Britain and America", 1816, names all of Chesapeake's guns, including her carronades: 'The Chesapeake's guns all had names, engraven on small squares of copper-plate. To give some idea of American tastes on these matters, here follows the names of her guns upon one broadside: - Main Deck: "Brother Jonathan, True Blue, Yankee Protection, Putnam, Raging Eagle, Viper, General Warren, Mad Anthony, America, Washington, Liberty Fore Ever, Dreadnaught, Defiance, Liberty or Death." Fore Castle: - "United Tarts" the shifting 18-pounder, "Jumping Billy, Rattler", carronades. Quarter Deck: "Bull-dog, Spitfire, Nancy Dawson, Revenge, Bunker's Hill, Pocohantas, Towser, Wilful Murder", carronades; Total 25.' The USS United States even had two all English gun crews, during her fight with HMS Macedonian, who actually named their yankee batteries "Nelson" and "HMS Victory"!

In addition, when the Frigate American Potomac attacked the Sumatran Pirate stronghold at Kuala Batoo in 1829, all three 12-pounder boat Carronades landed with the marines had names, according to her surgeon's memoirs. I remember one was called "Polly Hopkins". I'll check on that too.

It's true! In William James's 'Naval History of Great Briton' (or possibly his earlier work 'Naval Occurances ...') , the author lists all the names applied to the 28 main deck guns of the captured USS Chesapeake in 1813. Each gun and its opposite shared a name selected by its crew. One was "Willfull Murder" was one. "John Bull" was another. Her Carronade names were not recorded, although they surely had them. The Constitution's and United States's crews were known to have done the same, although only a couple names have survived. Chase guns in general were named "Long Tom". I'll look them up tonight and re-post. By the way, during the war of 1812, the American Frigate President flew a huge motto flag from her main truck every time she cleared for battle: "Here is the Haughty President! How do you like her?"

Capt. Audibly's and Dr. Natterling's adventures can be found on Amazon. The full title is "A Port Wine Sea, A Parody" by Susan Wenger.

Let's not forget the infamous PO'B parody, "The Port Wine Sea". In it, Jack and Stephen are cast ashore in the hostile wilderness of North America, after the doctor's pet colony of termites escapes and eats through the botton of their frigate, HMS Aghast ...

That is fastinating. The famous US Frigate John Adams (Charlseton, SC, 1799) was called 'the two sided frigate' because she sailed significantly better on one tack than on the other. Naval Constructor Josiah Fox noted in Washington during a 1808 rebuild/razeeing, that she was several inches wider on one side. Fox believed her live oak hull was well worth retaining in service. One historian speculated that each side must have been built by different contractors, which is of course bunk. Your information was propably the true reason. Her building slip was possibly orientated east/west.

Trippwj: I would be happy to shamelesly plug my book: "Blakeley and the Wasp: The Cruise of 1814." Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD, 2001. It is the biography of Captain Johnston Blakeley, USN, of Pittsboro, NC. Molasses: although William James was definitely an Ameri-phobe, he is acccurate, mostly, with the technical facts. He was good friends with the Shannon's Captain Phillip Brooke after the war. When the War of 1812 Broke out, James was trapped in NY. He soon found himself in jail after shooting his mouth off (he was a lawyer, so what did you expect?) , where he was treated very bady. He escaped, and made it on foot to Canada. His attitude in "Naval Occurances" reflects his experiences!!! He softens his tone a little in his monumental six volume "Naval History of Great Britain". Also, Captain Jones of Wasp (1) specifically deliniates the enemy's force as "sixteen 32-pound carronades, four long twelves and two twelve pound carronades". He obviously mistook the Frolick's chase guns' calibers, but it was dark, and he was very busy. He probably just assumed that the enemy's chase guns were the same size as his, medium 12-pounders; the two sloops being nearly identical, save for the rig. If he was deliberately exaggerating, then he might have increased the number of enemy carronades instead for a greater effect. Four extra guns, none appaently used, and mounted at the extremities, were a disadvantage in those rough seas! HMS Epervier, captured by USS Peacock in 1814, had swapped her two six-pounders out in Halifax for a pair of 18-pounder 'gunnades' to increase her firepower. They may have been carronades with trunion mountings. She landed her 12-pounder carronade then too. HMS Reindeer, which fought the second Wasp, was one of six cruisers built of fir, a less expensive wood, so she sported an old fashioned square-tuck stern. There are seperate plans at the NMM for these six. One square-tucker was built of teak in India, HMS Zebra, me thinks. Reindeer originally had 32-pounder carronades, but was caught up in a storm and had to throw half her battery over the side to right herself. When she returned to Plymouth (or was it Portsmouth?) there were no replacement guns of that caliber available, so she took on board a new battery of 24-pounder carronades. The RN regulations forbade the mixing carronade calibers on a single deck, so Captain Manners had to turn in his remaining 32-pounders. James wrongly states that they swapped the 32's out for lighter 24's because the Reindeer was a tired old sloop. (She was lauched in 1806, and so she was only eight years old when taken.) Whew, I talk too much. Ask Hank.

Hi Molasses, The extra boat gun reference came from a secondary source, possibly James' Naval Occurrences, and the standing stern chasers came from from a letter from "an officer" (an American midshipman, most likely) published in an American newspaper. This was ancillary research that I did twenty years ago for my book about the second Wasp (1813). I don't recall which paper, the date, etc, but I'll look. I saved a lot, but not everything. It wasn't uncommon: HMS Avon had an extra pair of standing stern chasers, as did another, HMS Pelican, I think, and also in 1811 Captain Skeene (?) mounted a pair of private brass 12-pounders on board HMS Guerriere, but took them with him when he turned over command to poor Captain Dacres ... But the passage of time has dulled my brain ... Perhaps I shouldn't have commented without a citable source in hand, but I too questioned captain Jones' official report and was happy to have found a plausible explanation.

The Frolick was unneccesarily overgunned during her engagement with Wasp I. She had two standing stern chasers (possibly brass six pounders, the captains property), and two 12-pounder carronades on the topgallant forecastle deck, instead of the usual single boat gun. The second 12 pounder carronade had just been salvaged from a wreck and was lashed to the deck and not yet serviceable, 22 guns total, but only 18 in proper broadside, there being no extra broadside ports available to receive them. Capt. Jones correctly reported Frolick to be a 22 gun sloop of war.