uss frolick

Just to clarify, the fictional Surprise was based on the real ship of the same name, L'Unite, as CCoyle suggests. The ship was real, and Patrick O'Brien had copies of the NMM plans when he wrote his books about her fictional adventures. But the real L' Unite had 12 ports per side on the main deck. Her class carried 22 or 24 long 8-pounders in broadside, in French service, exclusive of the bridle ports. To this, the class added eight 36-pounder brass carronades and/or long 4-pounders to the quarterdeck and forecastle, mounting 30-32 guns in total. The British usually substituted carronades on one or both decks when they became available.
 
Four identical ships of the L'Unite Class were built: L'Unite, L'Republicaine, Tourterelle and Cornellie. They were designed by Pierre Alexandre Forfait . All four were taken or destroyed by the British early in the war, and the plans of the Tourterelle also survive in the NMM. They are just beautiful. I like the looks of Tourterelle much better than the Surprise, and they are less faded. Tourterelle put up one hell of a fight against an 18-pounder British frigate, HMS Lively, before she struck. Tourterelle even used a hot shot furnace that she carried aboard her, but to no avail.
 
Here's a link to the Tourterelle plans at the NMM. Note that they have deck-plans, both as taken, and as fitted, for RN service:
 
 
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections.html#!csearch;searchTerm=tourterelle
 

I came across a fascinating video made at the U. S. Naval Academy museum on design and history of ships during the era leading up to the War of 1812. Many gorgeous ship models are featured.
 
Sorry if this video has already been mentioned on this site.

Good Morning Frolick;
 
If that was just a humourous reaction to the possible double meaning, then ignore the following, but:
 
Just to be sure, and in case this expression is not used in the States, it means to step delicately around something, verbally, which the speaker/writer does not want to mention directly. It can also be used to describe various situations where someone is not exerting themselves hard enough to achieve success.
 
All the best,
 
Mark P

Ouch! Thank you for that, frolick.

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 😍!

Good Evening Everyone;
 
The word which everyone seems to be pussy-footing around so carefully is so old that its origins and early use are hard to trace, with similar words in a variety of languages. However, in medieval times it was a perfectly acceptable word, and did not have the shock-power that can now be attributed to it in some contexts. Sailors, not unnaturally, adopted it to describe something which was as close to the girl back home as they could get whilst at sea (cabin boys excepted, if they were so inclined, of course) And so 'see-you-enn-tee' -splice became an inoffensive and widespread description. I have also seen the word used to describe the place in a tree where the trunk forks into two branches, which usage would doubtless have been familiar to shipwrights selecting trees for felling. In Regency and Georgian times the word is also widespread, and not necessarily shocking, being used in satirical prints as a simple descriptor, along with its more common four letter sibling. Victorian ladies reaching for the smelling salts upon hearing a word which could be sexual in its meaning changed the accepted conditions for using the word, I suspect.
 
So three cheers for sailors and their vocabulary. It's a see-you-enn-tee-splice, so let's call it that!
 
All the best,
 
Mark P 
 
Edit: I wrote the proper word, but the site's software has asterisked it out. So I will try a small change. 

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 😍!

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 😍!

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 😍!

Good Evening George;
 
The note from the log reads as follows, as best as I can make it out (abbreviations can be difficult to read when dealing with only a small part of a document, so I am not clear on the beginning and a few other bits)
 
Wednesday 7th   Notes  ?? sent 2 long six pounders ? 12 p? Carronades. shot &c ??? Mr? (Master? Could also be Wm for William but that does not fit context) Shipwrights employed on board. Crew variously received 88 Gall of Beer. 

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...)

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!
 
 
 
 

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!
 
 
 
 

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!
 
 
 
 

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!
 
 
 
 

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!
 
 
 
 

Built this model while living in San Diego. This is my first attempt at a scratch build.

The MFA, Boston has a painting by James Henry Wright US Ship Constellation (48.495). It looks as if it might be loosely based on the print source you have above. Were you ever able to locate the source or it's still a mystery?
 
https://collections.mfa.org/objects/33240/us-ship-constellation?ctx=2fdb0a01-8f65-406d-a6f1-ec71d0390482&idx=1
Thanks

Just to clarify, the fictional Surprise was based on the real ship of the same name, L'Unite, as CCoyle suggests. The ship was real, and Patrick O'Brien had copies of the NMM plans when he wrote his books about her fictional adventures. But the real L' Unite had 12 ports per side on the main deck. Her class carried 22 or 24 long 8-pounders in broadside, in French service, exclusive of the bridle ports. To this, the class added eight 36-pounder brass carronades and/or long 4-pounders to the quarterdeck and forecastle, mounting 30-32 guns in total. The British usually substituted carronades on one or both decks when they became available.
 
Four identical ships of the L'Unite Class were built: L'Unite, L'Republicaine, Tourterelle and Cornellie. They were designed by Pierre Alexandre Forfait . All four were taken or destroyed by the British early in the war, and the plans of the Tourterelle also survive in the NMM. They are just beautiful. I like the looks of Tourterelle much better than the Surprise, and they are less faded. Tourterelle put up one hell of a fight against an 18-pounder British frigate, HMS Lively, before she struck. Tourterelle even used a hot shot furnace that she carried aboard her, but to no avail.
 
Here's a link to the Tourterelle plans at the NMM. Note that they have deck-plans, both as taken, and as fitted, for RN service:
 
 
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections.html#!csearch;searchTerm=tourterelle
 

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:
 
 
 
 

I don't think anyone will notice if you make it 5.3 ..😁

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

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