Book advice needed.

[newbieonekinobi]

Hi guys,

 

   I'm thinking of  Mamolis' 'Rattlesnake' as my next build so I'm wondering what's best to read about American privateers.

 

  Any suggestions?

 

 

     Dave

[BillLib]

Hi Dave,

The History of American Sailing Ships by Howard Chapelle has a chapter on privateers and slavers.  He does mention the Rattlesnake with a brief history and some drawings.

 

Bill

[uss frolick]

Chapelle's "The Search for Speed Under Sail" is the best for the technical aspects of American privateers, and it includes every known plan. It was his last and best book (1967), and it includes a better set of plans plans of the Rattlesnake drawn by Merit Edson. If you are looking for the specific history of the cruises of the Rattlesnake, then unfortunately, you are out of luck. Her career is no longer remembered, other than the date of her capture. There was a book called "The History of American Privateers" published at the end of the 19th century that is quite good, and it has been reprinted in modern times. I forget the author: Edward Stanton MacClay, maybe. "The Republic's Private Navy" by Jerome Garritee is the best scholarly modern work, but it deals with Baltimore's Privateer from the War of 1812, and of course, the Rattlesnake is a Revolutionary War ship out of Massachusetts (we think she is anyway). There is a new book out about the history of Salem privateers that I saw on Amazon that I haven't read, and I forget the title, but it looks promising.

[flying_dutchman2]

Some general interesting books on privateering.

History of the American Privateers Coggeshall 1812

http://books.google.com/books/about/History_of_the_American_privateers.html?id=x6wAAAAAYAAJ

 

Before you buy you can look here

http://www.historicships.com/TALLSHIPS/Model%20Shipways/Rattlesnake/Rattlesnake%20Manual.pdf

[newbieonekinobi]

So much to choose from!

 

  I appreciate your help guys.

[roach101761]

Dave

 

Are you looking for History books on the topic or model ship building books?  I have a book in my office concerning only Baltimore privateers.  Can not remember the name or  would direct it to you now.  I will however post it on Monday, unless someone here bets me to it. This book give a history of Baltimore privateers and goes deep in to the finances of the privateer venture.  Good book, lots of detail. 

 

Phil

[michaelpsutton2]

I would recommend  Harold Hahn's "Ships of the American Revolution". Although there is no mention of the Rattlesnake, there is a ton of detail on small armed ships of the period.

[uss frolick]

This from Historian John Miller from his "Early American Ships", Page 174:

 

"The 16 gun Privateer Ship Rattlesnake was built in Plymouth Massachusetts in 1779 or 1780 allegedly to the designs by the maverick designer John Peck. She was owned by John Andrews and others of Salem, and her captain was Mark Clark. She mounted anywhere between 14 and 20 carriage guns at various times, and she usually carried about 85 men. The earliest dated commission found of her is dated June 12, 1781, but she may have been commissioned earlier. One privateer with the name of Rattlesnake is reported to have captured more than $1 million worth of British shipping on a single cruise in the Baltic, but whether it was this Rattlesnake or not we do not know.

 

Our Rattlesnake was captured off the American coast in 1781 by the brand new British 44-gun ship Assurance, and was renamed Cormorant. She was taken to England and her lines were drawn (her lines survive on file at the national Maritime Museum at Greenwich). It took the British bureaucracy a long time to realize that they already had a ship called Cormorant in the Royal Navy, and she was renamed Rattlesnake once more in August 1783, after the war was over. Chapelle says she was sold out of the service in 1784, but British records indicate that she was not sold until 10 October 1786.

 

What happened next is partially conjecture, but it seems she passed into French hands during the period of the French Revolution, for there was a French privateer called Le Tonnant in the 1790s that had the Rattlesnakes exact lines."

[newbieonekinobi]

Thanks again guys for your help.

 

  After considering your advice and perusing Amazon at length I finally decided to purchase this book:

 

   'Patriot Pirates: The Privateer War for Freedom and Fortune in The American Revolution'-Robert H. Patton.

 

 Apparently the author had a very famous relative....

 

 

  Dave

Edited March 24, 2015 by Egon46