uss frolick

If you play the Movie 'Titanic' backwards, it's about a magic ship that saves people ...

If you play the Movie 'Titanic' backwards, it's about a magic ship that saves people ...

Just over 100 years ago the RMS Titanic sank in the North Atlantic with great loss of life. Since then the world has taken a much safer approach towards seagoing travel, shipbuilding, and safety at sea.
 
But the question always remained the same: What was the root cause of the world's most "unsinkable" ship to go to the bottom. Perhaps this year we finally have the answer to this - AND possibly the recovery of Amelia Earhart's plane.
 
While most of us go about our daily lives without too much ado, a small group of dedicated scientists, engineers, and research analysts have been quietly working to find the truth about Titanic.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saHs6J0OXVI
 
In all fairness, I could hardly believe my eyes when I viewed this shocking revelation.

If you play the Movie 'Titanic' backwards, it's about a magic ship that saves people ...

Anyone remember the scene in "The Far Side of the World" where JA and SM fall overboard through Surprise's  cabin windows undetected one night, and just when they think that things could not get worse, they are rescued by militant, lesbian, native women escaping their home island, who decorated their raft with dried severed male members tacked to the sides?  I don't think that happened to Lord Cochrane. Anyway, this is evidence that Mr. O'Brien occasionally smoked wacky-weed.

I'm glad you enjoyed the excerpt. I'll see what I can do about posting some more. It's fascinating stuff. I think the officer was quite young as I detect a little homesickness here and there in the letter.
 
 A model of HMS Lively would be a nice companion for the letter but I have so much work lined up that I don't know when could fit it in.

I read the O'Brian series over a period of 5 years. Dragged out to last as long as possible. I gave them to my wife and she read them all finishing the last one a year ago with much regret that there were no more. We decided to put them all in a box and hide them away for five years and then start again..Only four more years to go..!
 
I am particularly impressed with O'Brian's grasp of the period. I'm a bit of a collector and I have a letter written in 1808 by a Royal Navy officer on the 38 gun 5th rate HMS Lively (which was briefly one of Aubrey's ships in the series.) The letter was written to the man's father in Scotland while the ship was docked in Lisbon. It's a long handwritten letter and amongst many other things, mentions politics, prize money, pirates and even a fire in the coal hold. I understand O'Brian used a lot of contemporary ship's logs and letters to frame his stories, reading this letter one could certainly see why.
 
Here's exactly what's written about the fire. 
 
"On Friday last, a dinner and ball were given on board, a day a little remarkable also on account of the risk we ran of being blown up: for as we were at breakfast the drum beat to quarters and we understood there was a fire forward. It was discovered by the smoke bursting from the coal hole and was immediately messaged to the 1st Lt. and was soon extinguished, having burned through the thickness of one stanchion. The coal hole is divided from the fore magazine only by a thin partition. After flogging the man who had been down there last and thro whose carelessness the accident had happened, the captain expressed his satisfaction at the general reliance and alertship with which every man attended to his duty and provided against accidents of the sort happening again by forbidding any man going down without a midshipman present."   
 
 
It's a fascinating read and sometime when I'm not so busy I'll do some research into the writer.
 
Dan.

In researching my biography of Captain Johnston Blakeley, USN, 1781-1814 - Shameless plug: "Blakeley and the Wasp: The Cruise of 1814", Stephen W. H. Duffy, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, 2001, I came across this little gem.
 
 
The following enclosure was in a letter dated March 27, 1811 from the Washington Yard Commander, Captain Thomas Tingey, to the Secretary of the Navy Paul Hamilton, Washington Navy Yard:
 
"Sir, I have the honor to enclose a requisition, of Lieut. J. Blakeley [Commander] of Cabin Furniture of the [uSS] Enterprize.
 
In submitting this indent for your consideration, I feel it is my duty to state that, when this vessel was fitted from the Yard in 1808, she was furnished with silver table spoons, tea spoons, and other usual plate, with chairs, table clothes, and all the customary articles for the cabin: Not one single material of which was returned with her."
 
I consider it also incumbent to inform you, that all the vessels equipped from this yard have been furnished with bosun's calls, of silver, very few of which have ever been returned."
 
[Note: Lieut. Johnston Blakeley, was just then assuming command of the newly repaired Enterprise. Blakeley would immediately set about re-rigging her as a brig.]
 
"One dozen dishes
Ditto Soup Plates
Ditto shallow plates
Ditto small plates
Ditton tureens - one of tin
2 bowels
2 sugar dishes
1 dozen wine glasses
1 dozen tumblers
2 quart decanters
2 pint decanters
2 salt cellars
1 looking glass
2 tea kettles
2 sugar canisters
1 tea tray
2 waiters
12 table spoons
12 tea spoons
6 iron table spoons
1 set casters
1 soup ladle
1 dozen large knives
1 dozen large forks
1 dozen small knives
1 dozen small forks
12 table clothes
2 ditto covers
12 towels
2 brooms
2 candel sticks
2 pair steel snuffers
1 cork screw
6 chairs
1 coffee mill
1 pepper mill
2 brass cocks
2 brass canisters
1 mattress and [1]pillow.
 
The above  is a list of the furniture wanted for the use of the US schooner Enterprize, washington, 25th March, 1811, J. Blakeley approved and submitted."
 
Blakeley was, or course, to go on to glory in the second corvette named the USS Wasp. But he found it very difficult to procure these items for his Wasp in 1813 using, as he stated, this very list, due to wartime shortages in Newburyport, Mass, and Portsmouth, NH. But by this time, the stressed Navy Department was not so picky. The official indent, dated Baltimore, 1813, for use in all the six new corvettes then building [Wasp, Frolick, Peacock, Erie, Ontario and Argus] contained but one word: "discretionary".

In researching my biography of Captain Johnston Blakeley, USN, 1781-1814 - Shameless plug: "Blakeley and the Wasp: The Cruise of 1814", Stephen W. H. Duffy, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, 2001, I came across this little gem.
 
 
The following enclosure was in a letter dated March 27, 1811 from the Washington Yard Commander, Captain Thomas Tingey, to the Secretary of the Navy Paul Hamilton, Washington Navy Yard:
 
"Sir, I have the honor to enclose a requisition, of Lieut. J. Blakeley [Commander] of Cabin Furniture of the [uSS] Enterprize.
 
In submitting this indent for your consideration, I feel it is my duty to state that, when this vessel was fitted from the Yard in 1808, she was furnished with silver table spoons, tea spoons, and other usual plate, with chairs, table clothes, and all the customary articles for the cabin: Not one single material of which was returned with her."
 
I consider it also incumbent to inform you, that all the vessels equipped from this yard have been furnished with bosun's calls, of silver, very few of which have ever been returned."
 
[Note: Lieut. Johnston Blakeley, was just then assuming command of the newly repaired Enterprise. Blakeley would immediately set about re-rigging her as a brig.]
 
"One dozen dishes
Ditto Soup Plates
Ditto shallow plates
Ditto small plates
Ditton tureens - one of tin
2 bowels
2 sugar dishes
1 dozen wine glasses
1 dozen tumblers
2 quart decanters
2 pint decanters
2 salt cellars
1 looking glass
2 tea kettles
2 sugar canisters
1 tea tray
2 waiters
12 table spoons
12 tea spoons
6 iron table spoons
1 set casters
1 soup ladle
1 dozen large knives
1 dozen large forks
1 dozen small knives
1 dozen small forks
12 table clothes
2 ditto covers
12 towels
2 brooms
2 candel sticks
2 pair steel snuffers
1 cork screw
6 chairs
1 coffee mill
1 pepper mill
2 brass cocks
2 brass canisters
1 mattress and [1]pillow.
 
The above  is a list of the furniture wanted for the use of the US schooner Enterprize, washington, 25th March, 1811, J. Blakeley approved and submitted."
 
Blakeley was, or course, to go on to glory in the second corvette named the USS Wasp. But he found it very difficult to procure these items for his Wasp in 1813 using, as he stated, this very list, due to wartime shortages in Newburyport, Mass, and Portsmouth, NH. But by this time, the stressed Navy Department was not so picky. The official indent, dated Baltimore, 1813, for use in all the six new corvettes then building [Wasp, Frolick, Peacock, Erie, Ontario and Argus] contained but one word: "discretionary".

Great!
I'am happy and proud to be a member of such a community.
haru940 
Italy

Haru
 
To follow Frolick's post if you can take a look at the ESSEX PAPERS book. There is an entire indent of what Her Captain (Edward Prebble) had brought on board as his personal stores as well as what was "provided". 
 
You'll probably find similar (records / stores) for most of the era you're researching
 
Sam

In researching my biography of Captain Johnston Blakeley, USN, 1781-1814 - Shameless plug: "Blakeley and the Wasp: The Cruise of 1814", Stephen W. H. Duffy, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, 2001, I came across this little gem.
 
 
The following enclosure was in a letter dated March 27, 1811 from the Washington Yard Commander, Captain Thomas Tingey, to the Secretary of the Navy Paul Hamilton, Washington Navy Yard:
 
"Sir, I have the honor to enclose a requisition, of Lieut. J. Blakeley [Commander] of Cabin Furniture of the [uSS] Enterprize.
 
In submitting this indent for your consideration, I feel it is my duty to state that, when this vessel was fitted from the Yard in 1808, she was furnished with silver table spoons, tea spoons, and other usual plate, with chairs, table clothes, and all the customary articles for the cabin: Not one single material of which was returned with her."
 
I consider it also incumbent to inform you, that all the vessels equipped from this yard have been furnished with bosun's calls, of silver, very few of which have ever been returned."
 
[Note: Lieut. Johnston Blakeley, was just then assuming command of the newly repaired Enterprise. Blakeley would immediately set about re-rigging her as a brig.]
 
"One dozen dishes
Ditto Soup Plates
Ditto shallow plates
Ditto small plates
Ditton tureens - one of tin
2 bowels
2 sugar dishes
1 dozen wine glasses
1 dozen tumblers
2 quart decanters
2 pint decanters
2 salt cellars
1 looking glass
2 tea kettles
2 sugar canisters
1 tea tray
2 waiters
12 table spoons
12 tea spoons
6 iron table spoons
1 set casters
1 soup ladle
1 dozen large knives
1 dozen large forks
1 dozen small knives
1 dozen small forks
12 table clothes
2 ditto covers
12 towels
2 brooms
2 candel sticks
2 pair steel snuffers
1 cork screw
6 chairs
1 coffee mill
1 pepper mill
2 brass cocks
2 brass canisters
1 mattress and [1]pillow.
 
The above  is a list of the furniture wanted for the use of the US schooner Enterprize, washington, 25th March, 1811, J. Blakeley approved and submitted."
 
Blakeley was, or course, to go on to glory in the second corvette named the USS Wasp. But he found it very difficult to procure these items for his Wasp in 1813 using, as he stated, this very list, due to wartime shortages in Newburyport, Mass, and Portsmouth, NH. But by this time, the stressed Navy Department was not so picky. The official indent, dated Baltimore, 1813, for use in all the six new corvettes then building [Wasp, Frolick, Peacock, Erie, Ontario and Argus] contained but one word: "discretionary".

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.