uss frolick

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.

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.

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.

Hi Guys, 
So I’ve been developing HMS Portland for about two years now and I plan to offer it as a kit, it will be sold in parts or sections so you can build at whatever speed you wish or only purchase what you want and scratch build the rest. The project will
be in 1:48 scale and will be offered mainly in Alaskan yellow cedar and other various woods including boxwood for select parts and I’m leaning towards MDF structure but I will have to see how the initial prototype builds.
As a Winnie builder, I was inspired and blown away by Chucks incredible design work and flawless representation of the Winchelsea, so much that I purchased a laser machine and started designing. My aim is to offer a model as detailed and accurate as possible.
The model is designed to represent the dockyard style model of Portland as depicted in the Joseph Marshal paintings of 1774, as seen below. 
There are enough early drawings of Portland available to accurately represent her as initially designed, these drawings also match up well with the paintings of the contemporary model, she does differ from her closest sister, Bristol but the model could be modified to represent Bristol if desired. 

It will have all decks built and exposed down to the main gun deck showing all frames, guns and fittings.



currently the model is in its final stages of design/development, I will begin assembling the hull and proving the design as I go, I don’t plan to offer parts of the kit until I’m very very far into the build. Currently the sculptures are being finalized with the figurehead of Artemis, the Greek goddess of hunting already being produced, I should be able to post updates on the stern carvings in a couple months.


I am going to try and offer both resin and boxwood sculptures for this project, I haven’t been able to determine the cost of the full set yet but it shouldn’t be outrageous.
 
At 1:48 the model comes in just under 43” long and about 10.5” in beam. So it’s not unmanageable,
unless of course you decide to rig it.



The design prototype shows half the model with exposed frames, as the contemporary model was built, I may offer a version like this but it will be very expensive and tricky to build, it will be a hybrid POF/POB if released. I will likely start a test portion of this alongside the prototype build.
 
Currently I have set up my new laser machine and I’m cutting some parts just for testing purposes, I took some photos next to my Winnie to give an idea of scale. I think the two will look great sitting next to eachother.
 
 

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.

By chance, I am currently reading Fox, J. (2021): The World According to Colour - A Cultural History.- Penguin, and have just finished the chapter on RED. I am still debating with my self, whether the book will provide much added value or whether it is just a string of sort of anecdotes. Anyway, a general observation is that in many non-European languages red = colour = beautiful and often the languages use the same word, where we are more discerning. Actually, in Russian also 'red' (красный) and 'beautiful' (красивый) seem to share the same root, so no wonder that the 'Reds' chose 'red' as their colour. So perhaps in a time when there were fewer choices of pigments/colours people just chose red because it was readily available in many parts of the world and because it was coloured it then was beautiful.
 
So the inside of the bulwarks were 'beautified', while the hull on the outside remained largely utilitarian.  

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.

I found these very interesting old videos on how they built a 1:1 replica of the Götheborg, a trading ship built by the company East Indiaman in Sweden.

The Götheborg wrecked just outside of Götheborg harbour in 1745.
 
Construction of the replica started in 1995 and the completion in 2003.
 
I absolutely loved these videos so I thought I’d share with anyone who hasn’t seen them.

part 1
 
Part 2
 
Part3
 
 
some additional info and history 
https://www.gotheborg.se/about-gotheborg/the-ship-s-history/
 
 

Preordered Vol 3 of Grant Walker just now. This next month will pass slowly, I fear ...

Preordered Vol 3 of Grant Walker just now. This next month will pass slowly, I fear ...

Preordered Vol 3 of Grant Walker just now. This next month will pass slowly, I fear ...

Preordered Vol 3 of Grant Walker just now. This next month will pass slowly, I fear ...

If the subjects of volume III are the small cruisers, then what will Volume IV be? Fourth Rates?

For the French system, I can refer to the works of Jean Boudoit, with Le Cygne (the Swan) in particular, for the carronade rigging. 
 
The US method comes for contemporary sources, primarily British Courts Martial detailing the losses of British sloops of war in 1812-15. Add to this archeological evidence from Great Lakes and Lake Champlain shipwrecks, and long discussions with Dr. Kevin Chrisman at the North Texas State Archeology program.

The French also had an unusual way of rigging their iron 24 and 36 pounder carronades after about 1805. The breach rope was one continuous loop that ran outside the hull through special scuppers and sat in a lead trough that ran below the outside bottom of the port cill. Odd. It must have evened-out the recoil when the carronade was trained at an angle, but it made the breach rope vulnerable to enemy fire. The US Navy carronades of the period were double breached for extra security. But one of the breaches ran through the hull in lead scuppers and ended in a knot or a fid, while the other was secured on the inside to a ringbolt in a British fashion. I'm not sure which was the main breach, and which was the backup, or preventer breach.

That's the French method of rigging the gun tackle.

For the French system, I can refer to the works of Jean Boudoit, with Le Cygne (the Swan) in particular, for the carronade rigging. 
 
The US method comes for contemporary sources, primarily British Courts Martial detailing the losses of British sloops of war in 1812-15. Add to this archeological evidence from Great Lakes and Lake Champlain shipwrecks, and long discussions with Dr. Kevin Chrisman at the North Texas State Archeology program.

The French also had an unusual way of rigging their iron 24 and 36 pounder carronades after about 1805. The breach rope was one continuous loop that ran outside the hull through special scuppers and sat in a lead trough that ran below the outside bottom of the port cill. Odd. It must have evened-out the recoil when the carronade was trained at an angle, but it made the breach rope vulnerable to enemy fire. The US Navy carronades of the period were double breached for extra security. But one of the breaches ran through the hull in lead scuppers and ended in a knot or a fid, while the other was secured on the inside to a ringbolt in a British fashion. I'm not sure which was the main breach, and which was the backup, or preventer breach.

For the French system, I can refer to the works of Jean Boudoit, with Le Cygne (the Swan) in particular, for the carronade rigging. 
 
The US method comes for contemporary sources, primarily British Courts Martial detailing the losses of British sloops of war in 1812-15. Add to this archeological evidence from Great Lakes and Lake Champlain shipwrecks, and long discussions with Dr. Kevin Chrisman at the North Texas State Archeology program.

For the French system, I can refer to the works of Jean Boudoit, with Le Cygne (the Swan) in particular, for the carronade rigging. 
 
The US method comes for contemporary sources, primarily British Courts Martial detailing the losses of British sloops of war in 1812-15. Add to this archeological evidence from Great Lakes and Lake Champlain shipwrecks, and long discussions with Dr. Kevin Chrisman at the North Texas State Archeology program.

The French also had an unusual way of rigging their iron 24 and 36 pounder carronades after about 1805. The breach rope was one continuous loop that ran outside the hull through special scuppers and sat in a lead trough that ran below the outside bottom of the port cill. Odd. It must have evened-out the recoil when the carronade was trained at an angle, but it made the breach rope vulnerable to enemy fire. The US Navy carronades of the period were double breached for extra security. But one of the breaches ran through the hull in lead scuppers and ended in a knot or a fid, while the other was secured on the inside to a ringbolt in a British fashion. I'm not sure which was the main breach, and which was the backup, or preventer breach.

That's the French method of rigging the gun tackle.

The French also had an unusual way of rigging their iron 24 and 36 pounder carronades after about 1805. The breach rope was one continuous loop that ran outside the hull through special scuppers and sat in a lead trough that ran below the outside bottom of the port cill. Odd. It must have evened-out the recoil when the carronade was trained at an angle, but it made the breach rope vulnerable to enemy fire. The US Navy carronades of the period were double breached for extra security. But one of the breaches ran through the hull in lead scuppers and ended in a knot or a fid, while the other was secured on the inside to a ringbolt in a British fashion. I'm not sure which was the main breach, and which was the backup, or preventer breach.

That's the French method of rigging the gun tackle.

The French also had an unusual way of rigging their iron 24 and 36 pounder carronades after about 1805. The breach rope was one continuous loop that ran outside the hull through special scuppers and sat in a lead trough that ran below the outside bottom of the port cill. Odd. It must have evened-out the recoil when the carronade was trained at an angle, but it made the breach rope vulnerable to enemy fire. The US Navy carronades of the period were double breached for extra security. But one of the breaches ran through the hull in lead scuppers and ended in a knot or a fid, while the other was secured on the inside to a ringbolt in a British fashion. I'm not sure which was the main breach, and which was the backup, or preventer breach.