USS Tennessee 1869 by Keith Black - scale 1:120 - Wood Hull Screw Frigate - ex Madawaska 1865

[TBlack]

Keith, I use YouTube for my recipes. You get to see what it’s supposed to look like.

Tom

[Cathead]

Honestly I'd considering getting some cookbooks from a library if you can. Online recipes have gone down the tubes, full of unnecessary padding and online search no longer rewards quality. 

 

So glad to hear of continued progress!

[KeithAug]

Keith . My wife, daughter and daughter-in-law swear by these books. They all have dishes where you load all the food on one tray and bung it in the oven and about 45 minutes later you have a very tasty meal. I can confirm the food is very good and the washing up is minimal. I don't know if you can get them in the USA but it is worth looking.

Here is a review - https://vaithehy.co.uk/2020/07/book-review-the-quick-roasting-tin.html

Edited March 30 by KeithAug

[TBlack]

I don’t remember ever disagreeing with Keith A. Or cathead, for whom I have great respect, but try “food wishes” on YouTube.

[FriedClams]

Good to hear of Maggie's continuing progress, Keith!  Putting away the walker seems a huge milestone.  Stay strong my friend.  Wishing the very best for both of you.

 

Gary 

[ChiefClanker]

Keep up the support of Maggie, Keith!  It is the most important focus at this time.  

 

My prayers to the two you,

Mark

 

[Keith Black]

Wow, my last post was towards the end of March, time has certainly gotten away from me. My apologies for the delay for a Maggie update and a response to Brian @mbp521, Keith @clearway, Tom @TBlack, Eric @Cathead, Keith @KeithAug, Gary @FriedClams, and Mark @AnchorClanker. To each of you, thank you for your kind thoughts and well wishes. And thank you to all for the likes and for following along on this new part of our journey.

 

 Maggie is much improved in the clarity of her speech, fascial expressions, the strength in her left hand, ams, legs, and her independence. She is getting her own  breakfast and lunch. She's managing to do her laundry, she's washing some dishes (we don't have a dishwasher) or drying dishes after I wash. She's able to get in and out of the shower and gets dressed on her own accord. She's managed to do a little knitting, it's sure not pre stroke quality but that she's able to knit at all is a small miracle.

 

 She made meatloaf the other night with some help but she was able to make the effort and it was a welcome change from my cooking. While we were prepping we play bickered at one another and she reminded me that I was in her domain. Sweeter words were never spoken. This is coming none too soon as the other night I caught myself on Amazon looking at frying pans and paring knives. 

 

 She has a devil of a time with opening lidded containers so on those nights when I have pool league I have to place plastic wrap over those (lid removed) containers she'll be needing to get into for her supper and she has no issues using the microwave. I'm so grateful for her getting to this point as it allows for some much needed Keith time. 

 

 The above is answer to prayer, a peaceful rhythm of life has returned, our lives no longer feel like it's been stirred with a stick.

 

 Though we be knee deep in that time of year that requires outside attention, I'm getting real close to resuming work on the Tennessee. The other night I managed to attach a rigged pair of deadeyes to the port side and it felt good to be sitting at the worktable again. The third hand awaits, stropped deadeyes and thread callout,  time for this part of my journey to continue.

 

 Thank you for following along,

 

  Keith 

 

 

[Javelin]

That's great news all around Keith. Hope Maggie keeps making progress. Great to hear she's gotten this far already. 

 

Great to see you're getting "some time off" as well. 

 

[TBlack]

Keith, are you happy with your cooking, or are you relieved that you now have help?

Tom

[My Fathers Son]

Really glad to see this response as I know from experience that getting any sort of recovery is dependant on a combination of good fortune and hard work. 

 

Good to see you are going to get some sea time for yourself. 

[Knocklouder]

So glad to hear this my friend. Life is full of ups and downs, soon you'll be up to my favorite part Ratlines.  Lol 😆  sorry  Just glad Maggie is  doing so well. 😅    you should get her a stuffed Penguin and chocolates to make her smile.  Lol.

Bob M.

 

Edited May 3 by Knocklouder
Guessing typos lol

[KeithAug]

Fantastic news Keith. Maggie sounds like a real trouper. Great you got a little shipwright distraction although taking up knitting is always an option.

[mbp521]

Great Maggie update Keith, so thankful that things are progressing in the right direction. I look forward to these updates as much as I do Tennessee updates. We’ll continue to pull for her recovery over here. 
 

-Brian

[FriedClams]

So glad to hear Maggie is doing much better - wonderful news Keith!  It's also good that your lives are becoming less chaotic and stressful.  Much needed "Keith Time" - excellent.  Everything pointing to the positive.

 

Gary

[Glen McGuire]

Dang!  That's 2 pieces of great news for us.  Maggie is making a wonderful recovery and you are fixing to get back to work on the Tennessee.  That's an even better update than I was hoping for!

[Keith Black]

On 5/3/2024 at 2:21 PM, Javelin said:

That's great news all around Keith. Hope Maggie keeps making progress. Great to hear she's gotten this far already. 

 

Great to see you're getting "some time off" as well.

 Thank you, Roel 

 

 

On 5/3/2024 at 3:30 PM, TBlack said:

are you happy with your cooking, or are you relieved that you now have help?

 Tom, let it suffice to say since taking over cooking duties I've lost 14 pounds. I don't like cooking, it's just not my thing and yes, I much relieved that Maggie is at the point that she's getting where she can move back into the chief cooking role. 

 

 

On 5/3/2024 at 3:45 PM, Knocklouder said:

So glad to hear this my friend. Life is full of ups and downs, soon you'll be up to my favorite part Ratlines.  Lol 😆  sorry  Just glad Maggie is  doing so well. 😅    you should get her a stuffed Penguin and chocolates to make her smile.  Lol.

 Thank you, Bob. She don't need no stuffed penguin and chocolates to make her smile, she has me! 

 

 

On 5/3/2024 at 3:52 PM, KeithAug said:

Fantastic news Keith. Maggie sounds like a real trouper. Great you got a little shipwright distraction although taking up knitting is always an option.

 Thank you, Keith. I consider knitting one those womanly mysteries I best left be. 

 

 

On 5/3/2024 at 5:38 PM, mbp521 said:

Great Maggie update Keith, so thankful that things are progressing in the right direction. I look forward to these updates as much as I do Tennessee updates. We’ll continue to pull for her recovery over here.

 Thank you, Brian. 

 

 

23 hours ago, FriedClams said:

So glad to hear Maggie is doing much better - wonderful news Keith!  It's also good that your lives are becoming less chaotic and stressful.  Much needed "Keith Time" - excellent.  Everything pointing to the positive.

 Thank you, Gary. An easy rhythm to life is a good life. 

 

 

22 hours ago, Glen McGuire said:

Dang!  That's 2 pieces of great news for us.  Maggie is making a wonderful recovery and you are fixing to get back to work on the Tennessee.  That's an even better update than I was hoping for!

 Thank you, Glen. As soon as I hit the send button I'm making my way upstairs for some ole finger retraining. 

 

 Thank you to all for the likes and for following along. You guys bless my heart in so many ways, thank you for being you. 

[clearway]

haven't looked in for a few days- that's great news Keith 😁

 

Keith

[Keith Black]

 Thank you, Keith

[mtaylor]

The best news I've heard in some time, Keith.  I'm glad you two are able to keep putting a smile on each other's faces.   The world needs more of that.

[GrandpaPhil]

That’s excellent news!  I’m very happy to hear it!

[Keith Black]

13 hours ago, mtaylor said:

The best news I've heard in some time, Keith.  I'm glad you two are able to keep putting a smile on each other's faces.   The world needs more of that.

 Thank you, Mark

 

 

10 minutes ago, GrandpaPhil said:

That’s excellent news!  I’m very happy to hear it!

 Thank you, Phil

 

 I spent a large part of yesterday at the worktable. I spent way too much time for what I got accomplished due to having to reteach myself all the 1:120 tricks necessary to get the shrouds done. At the end of the day I had a whopping two shrouds in place and started on the third. Be it ever so small, it is progress.  

Edited May 6 by Keith Black

[Keith Black]

 A bit of USS Tennessee and Marine Corp history. The Tennessee transported a battalion of US Marines to Aspinwall, Panama landing on 12 April, 1885.

 

 This is the only time the USS Tennessee saw action (to my knowledge) in her career. The Aspinwall Marine deployment was the first time in history that a brigade of US Marines was organized. 

 

 The Tennessee would be sold for scrap little over a year later on 15 September, 1886. 

 

https://www.usmcu.edu/Portals/218/US Marines in Battle Guantanamo Bay.pdf

 

The insert below taken from the above link starting page 2.

 

 

On 2 April 1885, the eighth Commandant of the Marine Corps, Colonel Charles Grymes McCawley, received orders to organize a battalion of Marines and to embark them for Aspinwall, Panama. A battalion of 234 Marines was quickly organized under the command of then-major Charles Heywood by drawing available personnel from the Marine Barracks at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, as well as Brooklyn, Philadelphia, and Washington,

 

4 At the time, the commandancy was filled by a colonel; the rank was raised to brigadier general in 1899 and to major general in 1902. Col Heywood served as Commandant from 1891 to 1903.

 

DC. The battalion also included company commander Captain Robert W. Huntington and First Lieutenant George F. Elliott (fu- ture 10th Commandant), who both would play critical roles in the Guantánamo Bay landings 13 years later. Navy Command- er Bowman H. McCalla (also a future key player at Guantána- mo Bay) was selected to be the naval force commander for the Panama expedition under the overall command of Rear Admiral James E. Jouett.

On 3 April 1885, the Navy Department telegraphed the commander of the North Atlantic Squadron, Rear Admiral Jouett, assigning him overall command of the mission. Admiral Jouett’s instructions were very straightforward. He was authorized to use a naval expeditionary force for the sole purpose of protecting American lives and property and to ensure free and uninterrupted transit across the isthmus. He was cautioned to use great discretion in his actions and in no way to interfere with the sovereign acts of the government of Colombia or to take part in any of the political or social events.

The expeditionary force, with Heywood’s battalion as the main landing force, sailed from New York on 3 April 1885, landing Heywood’s Marines in Aspinwall, on 12 April. Ultimately, three Marine battalions would be formed and deployed to Panama. They would be nominally consolidated into a brigade under the command of Major Heywood and operate ashore for the better part of a month, restoring and maintaining order until sufficient Colombian troops arrived between 30 April and 5 May to take control. This was the first time a United States Marine brigade had ever been organized.5 Commander McCalla would arrive on 15 April and make the decision to come ashore to take personal control of the operation, which would ultimately lead to conflict between the Navy and the Marine Corps in the post- operation environment.

The formation of this provisional Marine brigade caused the Corps to reduce its Atlantic coast shore installations by more than half. To make matters worse, at this time there was no Marine battalion or regimental organizational structure. The efforts to form larger tactical organizations such as this where none currently existed were naturally very ad hoc evolutions, leading to an environment characterized by improvisation and discovery learning. One of the more interesting outcomes of this successful employment of naval forces in response to a crisis was not so much its impacts on world events as was its impact internally on Service and individual professional opinions and theories being discussed in the naval Service. A hot topic at the time was the

 

5 Robert Debs Heinl, Soldiers of the Sea: The United States Marine Corps, 1775–1962 (Baltimore, MD: Nautical and Aviation Publishing Co. of America, 1991), 93.

 2

RAdm Jouett’s flagship, the USS Tennessee (1865). Originally USS Madawaska, the ship’s name was changed to Tennessee on 15 May 1869.
Naval History and Heritage Command, NH46920

RAdm James E. Jouett, commander of the North Atlantic Squadron. Selected as the overall commander for the Panama intervention, Jouett assigned oversight of operations ashore to Cdr B. H. McCalla.
Naval History and Heritage Command

 

role of the Marine Corps and its future utility as a naval landing force in expeditionary operations versus the use of Marines in ships detachments.

Commander McCalla issued a detailed after action report on the isthmus operations to the secretary of the Navy. In this report McCalla praised the Marines for their efficiency and dis- cipline but was very critical of their tactics and proficiency with artillery and machine guns. He even went so far as to critique the current rifle manual and manual of arms and to make recom- mended changes to the existing manuals.6 Needless to say, detailed criticisms of Marine ground operations by a naval officer did not sit well with Marine Corps leadership.

Most significantly, McCalla took direct aim at the primary Marine mission of guarding naval installations when he concluded that too much time on barracks duty came at the expense of professional education of Marine officers and meaningful training of Marine units to prepare them for expeditionary operations. Commander McCalla recommended annual summer maneuvers with Marines in conjunction with the fleet and U.S. Army to develop the tactics and techniques and organizational structure needed for major landing operations. He also advocated the Navy purchase transports specifically designed to carry Marine brigades.7 Although McCalla’s report actually advocated the development of the Marine Corps as a true expeditionary arm of the fleet, that salient point was lost in what was viewed by Marine leadership as a direct refutation on the currently accepted core missions of the Marine Corps.

 

6 “Report of Commander McCalla upon the Naval Expedition to the Isthmus of Panama, April 1885,” Annual Report of the Navy Department, Bureau of Navi- gation, 1885, Archives Branch, Marine Corps History Division, Quantico, VA, 61. 7 “Report of Commander McCalla upon the Naval Expedition to the Isthmus of Panama, April 1885,” 67.

Lead elements of the Marine battalion landing at Aspinwall, Panama, 1885. Naval History and Heritage Command

 

An armed railroad car used by Marines to provide security for rail traffic across the Isthmus of Panama in 1885.
Naval History and Heritage Command

3

 

McCalla’s recommendations struck directly at the dilemma the Marine Corps faced throughout the latter half of the nineteenth century. The Marine Corps was a force with very limited resources that allowed them to perform their current mission, but with little hope of adding new structure and resources to take on new missions. Colonel Commandant McCawley strongly rebutted Commander McCalla’s conclusions and recommendations and defended the status quo, describing the missions of the Marine Corps in the traditional terms of ships detachments and guard duty at the Navy yards. He made no reference to the possibility of future expeditionary roles for the Corps.8

In retrospect, the 1885 Panama operation provided a telling preview of the employment of Marines at Guantánamo Bay in the Spanish-American War 13 years later, with McCalla as the na- val force commander, Heywood as Commandant of the Marine Corps, Huntington as commander of the Marine landing force, and Elliott as a company commander in the operation’s decisive engagement.

The issues raised in Commander McCalla’s report were illustrative of the professional and institutional split between the leadership of the Marine Corps and an influential Navy reform element led by Captain Alfred Mahan and Lieutenant William F. Fullam. The transformation of the Navy from a predominantly coastal defense force to an instrument of power projection and sea control in the 1880s and 1890s brought forth significant implications for the current and potential future missions of the Corps. This period was characterized by intense professional debate on the future structure and missions of both elements of the naval Service. The Navy reformers had become a dominant driving force in determining the future of the Navy and the Corps.

 

 

 The below two photos show the Marine landing parties going ashore in ship's boats from the Tennessee. Of note in both photos is a steam launch towing two ship's boats. These are the only images of this steam launch recorded. In none of the other photos of the Tennessee is this steam launch shown hanging in the port side davits. You can see that the launch was meant to hang on the port side because of the access cutout in the launches tarp cover.

 

 Was this historic mission the first time a steam launch was made available to the USS Tennessee?

 

 Is it safe to assume that the Tennessee's two gatling guns were made available to the deployed Marines?  

 

 

 

 

Edited May 8 by Keith Black

[mtaylor]

Ah.. "Adapt, Improvise, Overcome" possibly goes back to that, Keith.  Thanks for posting that obscure bit of Marine history.

 

As for the Gatling Guns being made available, good question since were so many inter-rivalry politics were apparent.   I'm thinking it was very possible at that point in time due to local decision making and not something from DC Headquarters.

[Keith Black]

40 minutes ago, mtaylor said:

Thanks for posting that obscure bit of Marine history.

 I thought/hoped you'd enjoy that little snippet of our history. It's neat the Tennessee got to be a part of it no matter she was in essence a troop transport ship. 

Edited May 7 by Keith Black

[ChiefClanker]

Keith,

it has been a while since I logged into Model Ship World.  It is great to hear your wife is doing better.  It is very encouraging.  Keep up the great job taking care of her.

 

Glad to see your progress on your ship.  Keep it up!

 

Mark

 

[Keith Black]

Thank you, Mark. 

[Keith Black]

 Thank you to all for the likes and for following along.

 

 Maggie update.....her progress has slowed these past two weeks due to an infection but hopefully once that clears she'll continue making strides in her recovery. Thank you again to each of you for your prayers and thoughts for her,

 

 I've been able to make some limited progress on the Tennessee's main shrouds. I look back with envy at those days when when I was able to devote eight hours plus at the worktable. I should have worked longer hours back then as now my eyesight for close work is diminishing. I've always been a bit of a perfectionist and so naturally my mindset when I first started working on the Tennessee was get it done as perfect as possible. Because the grains of sand drain ever faster my mindset now is, better quit messing about and get it done. It was never going to be perfect, I no longer have the luxury of tilting at windmills.     

 

 Notice the loupe among the tools used for running the shrouds. I had to start using the loupe to check my work on the deadeye lashings as on one pair I ran the line through the same hole twice. I didn't catch this till after the deadeyes were glued in place and the shroud line attached. Once upon a time I would have redone it, now, I let er fly. I don't think anyone will ever notice and I really can't tell and I know which pair it is. But it nags at me, so be it. 

 

I went back through the log and I couldn't find where I explained the how and why I lash the deadeye pairs off ship. The reason being the deadeyes are too small and there just isn't the room. 

 

 The main's channel shrouds requires the measurement from one deadeye top the the other deadeye top to be 0.70 inches, same size as a US penny. To keep the size constant I've superglued the rotating adjust balls of the third hand to keep the distance fixed. That way I don't have to use a ruler to check each pair though I do spot check to make sure the adjustment is still set correctly. 

 

Starboard side. Try as hard as I might, I can't seem to get em perfect aligned. Oh well, more shadows in the wind.  

 

 Port side. The second pair in from the left is the pair where I ran the line through the same hole twice, top deadeye, top hole. I've always intended for the model to be viewed from the starboard side so it was pretty easy 'let it fly' rationalization.

 

 Nine more pair of deadeyes and shroud lines and I can set about with ratline weaving.

 

 Again, thank you to all.  

Edited May 25 by Keith Black

[Snug Harbor Johnny]

  Who says that the deadeyes have to be 'perfectly' aligned?  As they are tensioning devices, variations are bound to occur over time as shrouds get periodically adjusted.  Your ship looks just fine.

[mtaylor]

I'm with Snug Harbor Johnny on this.   Even the missed deadeye hole won't be noticed except by you and those of us following your log.   

[Snug Harbor Johnny]

1 hour ago, mtaylor said:

I'm with Snug Harbor Johnny on this.   Even the missed deadeye hole won't be noticed except by you and those of us following your log.   

  Good point, as I hadn't noticed the deadeye until it was pointed out and I looked again closely ('Just ordered new glasses because my prescription changed, but it will take 1 - 2 weeks to get them).  'Guess Keith and I share a couple traits, since on a Pennsylvania long rifle I made (and was showing to some new friends recently) - I kept pointing all the things I 'did wrong' (mostly small details).  A man with some expertise in antique firearms said to forget real or imagined 'faults' - he thought it was beautifully done ... as is Keith's U.S.S. Tennessee !