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I first set foot on board the Constitution when I was 7 years old, and I was hooked on sailing ships ever since. My elementary school library had C S Forester's The Captain From Connecticut which I loved and led me to Forester's other work, namely Hornblower. In fact, the 16 foot daysailer I've had since 1979 is named Lydia. I spent my teens and twenties working under sail and power, from barkentines to tugs. I've built several of the 1:96 scale Constitution/United States Revell kits, two of them were RCed; but I always wanted a sailing model of the ubiquitous British frigate, and no one made that kit. I finally decided to build one. Already deep into building an 1850's American sloop-of-war, and with a Baltimore Clipper schooner already planked up, I began a third model of the HMS Macedonian. I chose Macedonian because I could easily get Chapelle's drawing of her from The American Sailing Navy from the Smithsonian, and she was interesting. Macedonian by Gardner Macedonian was a Lively class frigate rated at 38 guns, another of Sir William Rule's designs. Launched in 1810, during the War of 1812 she had the misfortune to meet the American frigate United States, a Constitution class 44 and was captured. She was taken into the American Navy and served until 1828 when she was broken up and replaced by a new ship. Lively Bacchante The story of Macedonian is well told in Chronicles of the Frigate Macedonian, 1809-1922 by James T deKay and I've posted a fair history of the ship on my page There's lots of data available on how the British built and out-fitted their frigates, and even Macedonian's figurehead still exists, but I never have found any reliable information on what her stern looked like. What I've come up with is my own conjecture based on the sterns of other Lively class frigates. The mounted figure is from a statue of Alexander that existed when Macedonian was built. The round object is the "Vergina Sun" found at ancient Macedonian sites and dating from the time of Alexander's father. Symbology available when Macedonian was built and while this is my own guess, it's at least a logical guess. I considered using Alexander's profile from a coin in place of the mounted figure, but his face is already on the bow - given the choice, I'd think an English builder would choose the horse. When the drawings came in from the Smithsonian, the first thing I did was have them digitally scanned. I then rescaled them from 1:48 up to 1:36 mostly so this model would be the same scale as my Constellation. That done, I made up a sheet with each station drawn full-sized, and printed that on my plotter. At this scale, the model should be; Length: 59" taffrail to Alexander's nose Beam molded: 13.3" Draught: 6.87" without the removable ballast keel Her length over the rig will be about 7' and she will stand from keel to truck, about 4'. (I'll update this with more accurate numbers and metric equivalents at a later date) These paper patterns were used to rough cut the wooden stations from 3/8" plywood. Each paper pattern was then glued onto it's station close cut on the bandsaw, and then fined up on the beltsander where some bevel was put into the forward and after stations. -
Hello, I just starting my first ship, the "Black Prince" by Mamoli. I was lost until I found your planking for beginners article. Thank you. My great x X Grandfather was Joshuah Humphreys , coined the father of the US Navy, having designed the first USN six frigates. Previously he armed Benjamin Franklins merchant ships during the revolutionary war. One was the "Black Prince". I am having fun, learning and again thanx in appreciation. Marc -
For those of you with curiosity concerning how the first US Frigates were equipped for sea, you may find a ten page listing of the sundries received by the Frigate United States in 1798 at the following link: http://wardepartmentpapers.org/document.php?id=27521 There are some interesting items - including the quantity of powder (268 barrels), grape shot (3,705 2lb grape), compasses (several), 6 panes of glass, 99 gal sherry wine, 48 3/4 gal port wine, 62 gal molasses, and 462 gal of vinegar.
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I'm trying to group all the information on all six First Ships Question when did the copper plates get installed on the Constitution and Constellation?... Also did the others have the copper plates installed as well? Dose any log books mention this for even one ship? I know I will have more questions later I hope you guys don't mind me making this thread I figured that the any and all info pertaining to The First Six should be kept either in one thread or six different threads. Depending on how much info is out there for each ship then I think it will get split up with all found info in separate threads and everybody can draw their own conclusions
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