uss frolick

During a dinner party discussion concerning Bentinck Shrouds, in the novel, "The Commodore", the podcasters graciously acknowledge MSW members, for their early support of its now three-year long weekly podcast. I listen to them on YouTube, although there are other platforms. This episode is five months old, so I'm not up to date. Skip to 10:38 to hear their acknowledgment:

And the colors reminded the crew which deck they were on ... 🤪

Wow ...

Oh, to go back in time. Excerpt rom Wiki: "Hamburg Atlantic Line (German: Hamburg Atlantik Linie) was an ocean liner and cruise ship operating company established in Hamburg, West Germany in 1958 by Axel Bitsch Christensen and Vernicos Eugenides, the latter being the adopted son of Home Lines' founder Eugen Eugenides. In 1966, the company changed its name to German Atlantic Line (German: Deutsche Atlantik Linie). Liner services were abandoned in 1969, after which the company's ships concentrated solely on cruising. Due to the 1973 oil crisis, German Atlantic Line closed down in December 1973. In 1991 Dirk Moldenhauer, the captain of the last German Atlantic Line ship in service, acquired the rights to the Hamburg/German Atlantic Line logo and established Hanseatic Tours which used the same livery and ship names as the German Atlantic Line. In 1997 Hapag-Lloyd acquired Hanseatic Tours, and their operations were merged to those of Hapag-Lloyd Cruises. The last Hanseatic Tours vessel, MS Hanseatic retained the Hanseatic Tours livery in Hapag-Lloyd service until 2011. History 1958–1966: Hamburg Atlantic Line Hamburg Atlantic Line was the brainchild of Axel Bitsch Christensen, a Dane who had been living in Hamburg since 1952, who wanted to establish a new company to offer liner service from West Germany to New York. Christensen convinced his friend Vernicos Eugenides, the chairman of Home Lines, to invest 6 million DM in the new company, making it possible for Christensen to raise enough loan to purchase a ship. Hamburg Atlantic Line acquired their first ship in January 1958 when they purchased the 1930-built RMS Empress of Scotland from Canadian Pacific Steamships. After substantial rebuilding, the ship re-emerged as the first TS Hanseatic in June 1958, and was placed in service connecting Cuxhaven, Germany to New York, United States via Le Havre (France), Southampton (United Kingdom) and Cobh (Ireland). During the winter season she was also used for cruising out of New York to the Caribbean. Coinciding with Hamburg Atlantic beginning transatlantic service, Home Lines ceased transatlantic service so that the two companies in which Vernicos Eugenides had large investments would not compete with each other. After a good year in the transatlantic service in 1959, passenger numbers begun to drop due to competition from air traffic. By 1965 the Hanseatic made only eight round crossings, spending the rest of the year cruising. Already in 1962 Axel Bitsch Christensen had begun planning for a new ship to replace the Hanseatic. He had trouble securing a loan to fund the new building, but was not discouraged and drew up an unusual plan for gathering funds. A new company, German Atlantic Line, was established; shares of the new company were offered to past Hamburg Atlantic passengers, and enough funds for the new ships were gathered using this method. However, before an order could be placed for the new ship, the Hanseatic caught fire on 6 September 1966 while in New York harbour. There were no casualties, but after the hulk of the ship was towed back to Germany, she was deemed too expensive to repair and was sent to scrappers. An order for the new TS Hamburg was placed with Deutsche Werft during the following month, but the company needed another ship to operate until the new ship would be completed. " In 1966, they would become the German Atlantic Line, and cease operations completely in 1973.

Will this be in purchasable book form?

Where is the modern, definitive, written study of the 1805 HMS Victory configuration?

Was the frigate named after Cleopatra, the most famous of Egyptian women, or the Mediterranean trade wind of the same name? Here's proper music to play while you construct her: "L'Eyptienne", by Debussy – Rameau ...

How about "A Port Wine Sea", by Susan Wenger, a parody of the Patrick O'Brien novels. (Assuming that you read the latter.) From Amazon: "The Port-Wine Sea is a rousing parody of the best historical fiction ever written. It is a story about a British naval captain during the Napoleonic War, and his friend, a naval physician/espionage agent. They set sail once again aboard "H.M.S. Aghast" during the War of 1812 to demonstrate to the upstart Colonies the errors of their ways. The doctor/spy tries to establish liaison with the Creek Indians to create a diversion to the main British assault. Meanwhile the noble Captain is diverted by a teenaged Maryland vixen. Along the way, they encounter a skittish horse, a demure skunk, a whooping crane, and an escaped colony of termites aboard the ship." https://www.amazon.com/Port-Wine-Sea-Parody-Susan-Wenger/dp/1893162001/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3I5WGC02MQKQS&keywords=a+port+wine+sea&qid=1692539646&sprefix=a+port+wine+sea%2Caps%2C123&sr=8-1 Only 1 left in stock - order soon!

I recall reading the Admiralty Court of Enquiry for the loss of HMS Levant, 20, in 1815 when she and HMS Cyane fought the USS Constitution, that the crew was unable to shift their two long nine pounders to the stern chase position, because the sloop was unable to steer with them in place. This was after the Cyane had surrendered, and the shattered Levant was trying to escape.

Seems more likely that they would have cut an additional pair of ports aft the main-chains, than to permanently arm the stern ports.

Seriously. The Cumberland, Boston's "other famous frigate", is very well documented with deck plans, inboard profiles and sail plans as an 1856 corvette-conversion, from the US National Archives (which I do possess.) Even Howard Chapelle called her "magnificent". The last American frigate to go into battle under sail (at Fort Hatteras, 1861), she fought the Ironclad Virginia in March 1862 for forty minutes, and sank with her colors flying and her guns firing. 121 brave sailors lost.

The Civil War sailing frigate/corvette USS Cumberland would be popular.

Amphion, Imperieuse, Bonne Citoyenne ... yummy.

Curious. Is that a "turtledove" in center of the taffrail carvings for "La Tourterelle"? A very sweet name for a man of war ...

Virginia vs. Cumberland, March 8, 1862. An hour well spent:

‘Blakeley and the Wasp: The Cruise of 1814’, NIP, 2001.

I did it too on a 1812-era American sloop of war subject, quite a while back, even though Naval Institute Press was great, and performed all those functions free of charge. But when all was said and done, I made back only about a quarter of all my research costs, even though the book sold out. But it's in most of the major research libraries in the country, so there's immortality for you!

A brief but complete history of the development of the American sloops of war can be found within Chapelle's 'History of the American Sailing Navy'. Ancre's monographs on La Creole, La Cygne and L'Invention contain brief histories of the French sloop/corvette types as well. But what is lacking, strangely enough, is the development of the type in British service.

The Henderson book "Sloops and Brigs" referenced above is about single ship actions during the Napoleonic Wars, and has nothing at all to do with ship designs.

... those found so far. The condition of some of these ships is just amazing.

A lot of nice, rare titles there. Do you ship to Tasmania?

That L'Egyptienne build is just phenomenal!

I'm sad that in the near decade since it was written, there has been no word on a possible second volume, which would have taken us through the American Revolution, the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, the War of 1812, and beyond.

If you think about it, the whole blood thing makes little sense. From the direction that any shot would come, any gory splatterings would be flung back and away from the bulwarks. It would make more sense to paint the deck red, and issue the crews with red clothes, if that was a major concern. In this same way, the crew hammocks, hung above the bulwarks in battle was alleged to have been splinter protection. But given the crew's position, and the direction any fire would come from, that is not possible. It did somewhat hide, and to a small degree protect, the heads of the crew from enemy small arms men.

The reason New England barns are painted red, is so the cows can find their way home in a blizzard. That told to me as a child from an ancient native Vermonter, of somewhat questionable reliability. I recall reading a microfilmed 1812 letter from a captain of the US Frigate Chesapeake, (Evans? Lawrence?) asking if the inside bulwarks could remain in the "slate grey" primer color, following a great repair, as he had apparently preferred it. No answer to him was found.