uss frolick

Summary of a letter held in the British National Archives describing a letter written by William Henry Percy, Captain of the Hermes, 20, dated May 8, 1814: "Folios 236-237: William Henry Percy, HMS Hermes, Spithead. Requests the iron guards round the skylights be replaced with copper ones as they interfere with the compasses." USS Frolick and Wasp in the same year had brass guards. So Hermes already had iron ones, presumably cheaper. Copper one would required a lot of cleaning lest they green up. And how strong would copper guards be against a falling spar? Hermes would be destroyed in battle off Mobile, Alabama later that year. Source: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C16901176

Reminds me of the old adage: ”Women: Give them an inch, they’ll think they’re the ruler.”

... or the draftsman sneezed 🤧...

Check out the Admiralty Draught of the 1814 American prize Schooner Grecian: https://prints.rmg.co.uk/products/grecian-1814-j7988?_pos=1&_sid=fea7772ac&_ss=r

First production Panthers, Ausf D’s, we’re grey, but only a handful used for training and evaluation. Afterwards they were dunkelgelb, or dark yellow, with greens and browns applied in the field. Some were painted camo in the factory in 1944. When paint ran out many last ditch panthers were shipped in rust brown primer, on which whatever available paint was used to camouflage it. No grey panthers in the field, although rumors of one painted all green have not been confirmed. The early grey prototypes never made it into the field. Hauptmann Panzerfuehrer Frolick!

So when you say gunwale, you mean cap-rail. I had a copy of Caruana, Volume II, and sold it for a goodly profit. I didn't like it. The cannon barrel drawings were too large, and they all disappeared in the binding of the thick book, making them of little practical utility. There was quite a bit of useful written data, however, showing various individual ship armaments at shapshots in time .

Pussyfooting around? 😹

Romero based his book on Portia’s plans. I knew him. He could sketch and build and carve, but he could not draft. Similarly his Warrior was based on Hahn’s Alfred plans. Portia was a true artist 😍!

My guess is that the carronades had the traditional slide mount carriages. Perhaps the iron port caps were fastened to the timber heads in a similar manner to the hammock net irons? Thats my SWAG (...scientific wild *** guess...)

This horizontal dashed line, above the cap-rail, might be an attempt to gain an extra inch or so in the port, because it was about to receive a carronade which the schooner was not originally designed for. Carronades required extra height, compared to an equivalent weight long gun, due to their bottom ring-trunnion mount. Because at full elevation, the run out carronade had to clear the cap rail. It would have been expensive to rebuilt the vessel with higher timbers, but iron cap-rail height extenders (for lack of a better term), would buy the needed room. I've seen this done before in iron (HMS Princess Charlotte on Lake Ontario in 1814 received a pair of 68 pounder carronades on her quarterdeck!) and even an example, possibly done in wood, on HM Prize Schooner Grecian, which was rearmed with 18-pounder carronades, even though she was built for 12-pounder carronades and long guns. Your schooner may have been designed for four-pounder long guns (or sixes), but would have eventually been rearmed with twelve-pounder carronades. 1800 was a transitional period for naval armament. Cheers!

They apparently hired archeologist Buster Bluth (From "Arrested Development") :

You can use them to build the Frigate Java! 🤣😹😂🤪

While no plans survive of HMS Guerriere, either in French or English archives we do have an idea what she looked likeLa Guerierre was built at Cherbourg to a design of an engineer named La Fosse. We do know that she was begun as a Romaine Class frigate, a smaller 24-pounder type, but lengthened into a standard 18-pounder ship on the stocks. Nine were built and completed to the original design. We know what the original class looked like, because the original French builders draught survives, and two of the class were taken, L'Immortalite and La Desiree', and their draughts survive in the NMM. They all have a very round midship section, required because the initial draught called for a 10" mortar amidships, and a full midship reduces the recoil downward into the water! At length, all were rearmed with twenty-four 24-pounders on the main deck. The last ships of the class were converted by lengthening them by about 15 feet. Plans for two of these survive, HMS Pique, 36, which has an ironic Constitution connection in 1814 under Captain Stewart, and HMS La Furieuse, 38. A coulee others were altered on the stocks later as well. La Furieuse was fitted out "en flute" when captured in 1806, and was used by the French as an armed troop transport mounting twenty heavy guns. She was taken by the 20-gun sloop of war HMS Bonne Citoyenne in an epic day-long battle. Here are her plans. This reflects her as fitted as a transport, without forecastle barricades. Note the beak-head bulkhead which Guerriere did not have. Note also the nine windows across her stern, a large number shared by Pique, Desire, L'Immortalite, and a Roux painting of sister L'Incorruptable. Note the round midship: So if anyone wanted to build La Guerriere, one option would be to start with La Furieuse, add forecastle bulwarks and an armed bridle-port, and put thirty long 18-pounders on the main deck. La Guerriere taken by HMS Blanche in 1806:

I have the full set of plans of Imperiuse. They include that drawing in 1/2 inch scale, and another in the same scale of her stern decorations. She is a very lovely ship. They are marked as taken off following her repair in 1809.

Perhaps our new friend is confusing “clipper ship” with “Baltimore clipper”?

Whisky Tango Foxtrot?

I've noticed that the number of subscribers has jumped to 106 from 66. Surely many of those are from here. Well done lads! I am also delighted to observe that the number of episodes per book is steadily growing too ...

I've gone and done it, now, dang it, I'm all caught up ... I got greedy. Now I have to wait a week (Sunday night) to hear the newest, hour-long episode.

Update: This series is turning out to be really good. There was nearly ten hours on The Surgeon's Mate alone, divided up into nine pats. Great discussions, and many episodes feature special guests, who are experts of specific topics, such as medicine, period formal parties, music, sailing, history, etc.

Thanks Moltinmark, but I'm getting zero results for Hamilton, Scourge or Lord Nelson.

Don’t forget the USS New York, 74. Although unlaunched, she had been completed and was ready to fit out, if required. ... all that beautiful southern live oak, up in 🔥 flames 🔥!

These are not summaries or dramatic readings of the books, but discussions about the characters, plot twists and impacts the series has had on the literary world. They are really well done, and if you need some appropriate background noise, 'whilst you're widdlin', these might be of interest to you. This series started, with Ian and Mike, about six months ago, and there are currently 35, roughly hour-long episodes, yet they are only up to the book, 'The Ionian Mission'. I urge you all to subscribe to their Youtube Channel. There are only 66 subscribers to date, so maybe we swabbies we can do something about that there low number! Here is episode One, Master and Commander, part 1. Enjoy:

Thanks Wayne. Your excerpt of Kopp, Nadine, 2012, “The Influence of the War of 1812 on Great Lakes Shipbuilding.” MA Thesis, East Carolina Univeristy ,gave some very helpful measured dimensions of both schooners for anyone attempting to reconstruct them.

I flatter easily ... 😛 I would recommend both Scourge/Hamilton books, as well as "A Life Before the Mast", by Ned Myers, a Scourge sailor's narrative of the sinking. The Cain book is getting hard to find. Crisman definitely!

Hey Wayne, Can you find any papers or any technical archeological articles on the 1813 Lake Ontario wrecks of the US Schooners Hamilton and Scourge? I mean, other than the books "Ghost Ships" and "Coffins of the Brave", and that National Geographic article from the 1980's?