"Old Ironsides" reference books

[J T Lombard]

I am looking for good reference books on the USS Constitution. Any suggestions???

 

regards

 

J Lombard

[trippwj]

9 hours ago, J T Lombard said:

I am looking for good reference books on the USS Constitution. Any suggestions???

 

regards

 

J Lombard

 

Career or construction?

 

For the former there are hundreds (I might exagerate) and for the latter dozens.

 

I'll see what I can pull together but suggest starting with The Six Frigates by Toll, if only for the bibliography!

 

 

 

[Gregory]

An Amazon search brings up many:

 

USS Constitution

 

Other members can suggest their favorites.

 

 

Edited December 15, 2020 by Gregory

[trippwj]

Here is a start for you - there are scores more, as well as numerous other resources such as the Navy Documents series (look for Barbary Wars, Quasi War with France, War of 1812 here http://www.ibiblio.org/anrs/c19.html).

 

Byington, Richard Brownlow. 2015. “Cut from Different Cloth: The USS Constitution and the American Frigate Fleet.” Doctor of Philosophy, Florida State University. http://fsu.digital.flvc.org/islandora/object/fsu%3A291267/.

Chapelle, Howard I. 1944. The American Sailing Navy: The Ships and Their Development. S.l.: Bonanza.

Chapelle, Howard I. 1967. The Search for Speed under Sail, 1700-1855. New York: Norton.

Eriksen, Olof A. 2009. Constitution: All Sails up and Flying. Denver, Colo: Outskirts Press, Inc.

Hollis, Ira N. (Ira Nelson). 1900. The Frigate Constitution; the Central Figure of the Navy under Sail. Houghton, Mifflin. http://archive.org/details/frigateconstitution00hollrich.

Jennings, John. 1966. Tattered Ensign.  The Story of America’s Most Famous Fighting Frigate, U.S.S. Constitution. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company.

Marquardt, Karl Heinz. 2005. The 44-Gun Frigate USS Constitution: “Old Ironsides.” Anatomy of the Ship. Annapolis, Md: Naval Institute Press.

Martin, Tyrone G. 1997. “A Loved and Respected Machine.” Naval History 11 (4 (Jul/Aug)): 26–56.

Martin, Tyrone G. 2003. A Most Fortunate Ship: A Narrative History of Old Ironsides. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press.

Norton, Louis Arthur. 2013. “Timber for America’s Wooden Walls.” Naval History 27 (2): 58–63.

Roosevelt, Franklin D. 1914. “Our First Frigates. Some Unpublished Facts About Their Construction.” Transactions of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers XXII: 139–55.

Toll, Ian W. 2006. Six Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of the U.S. Navy. 1ST edition. New York: W. W. Norton.

 

[jimbyr]

Jt

 

If you're building her as launched

 

"Uss Constitution Super Frigate of many Faces"  by William Bass........Hard to find

 

"A most Fortunate ship"  by Ty Martin

 

"The 44 Gun Frigate Uss Constitution"  by   Karl Heinz Marquardt

 

Jim

 

 

[BETAQDAVE]

How about this paperback book that was put out when the Constitution was celebrating her 200th anniversary from her launching in 1797.

 

This book covers her from her design to her present state of preservation, including all the major and minor reconstructions.

It includes detail drawings like this throughout.

    There are also several color prints of her in action including her living room sized main fighting top.

     At a cost of only $22 I found the 239 page book to be a very informative guide when I built the Revell version that's currently still in drydock after a fall that pretty much dismasted her when impacting the floor of my garage.   I've never repaired her, but didn't have the heart to throw it out as I still may fix her up.  Maybe someday.......

Edited December 15, 2020 by BETAQDAVE

[Roger Pellett]

I recommend “Old Ironsides, The Rise, Decline And Resurrection Of The USS Constitution”  by Thomas C. Gillmer.

 

Gillmer was formerly Professor of Naval Architecture at the US Naval Academy and was retained by the Navy to assess Constitution’s structural condition prior to her 2000 major repair.  As such he is eminently qualified to write about this ship.

 

The book is nicely produced by the US Naval Institute and includes many technical drawings as well as paintings bymarine artist William Gilkerson.  It includes a balance of nuts and bolts information about her construction and well written historical narrative.

[J T Lombard]

Thank you all for your input. You have given me all I need to assist with my build.

Thanks again

 

J Lombard

[Marcus.K.]

In my humble opinion:

 

the very best source with lowest chance for historical mistakes are all the books of Cmd. Tyrone Martin who was the ships commanding captain during her 1970ies refits and who started his own research.

His books are based on decates of investigation and research. He regulary reworks his books and did eliminate previously done mistakes.

 

"A most fortunate ship" being the best known and his bestseller. His other books had to be published in a less professional manner .. which is sad. They deserve a  wider publicity!

 

T. Martin was (is?) selling a ringbinder he named "A Close up". I got a version and its full with information - mostly chronolocical statements out of logs concerning the ships appearance or outfitting - all of them sorted by subject (decks, guns, etc.). Very good primary sources! But of course written only and with room for interpretation.. He too added some copies of drawings and sketches. Unfortunatly when I recieved my version the copy-quality was not as good as today´s internet source are sometimes. But.. you can find many of those graphical information by now in internet if you know what to look for.  

 

I am not sure if it is still available... pls. Check his page "captains ckerk"

http://captainsclerk.info/

By the way: this page is also a great source for information as it presents parts of what is written in the Close Up or in his books. 

 

A wonderful book to read if you are interested in the life on board:

Martin, Tyrone G. "The Constitution's Finest Fight, 1815." Its the written report of a crew member in 1815.

 

William Bass' wonderful book "USS Constitution - Superfrigate of the many faces" too had to be published private. Its a nice research about the ships appearance in about 1803, based on inspection of the early Felice Corne paintings. He did have discussions with T. Martin and I think it is a very interesting work and very helpful if you are intersted in the ships earlier and very nice appearance. But as mentioned above: hard to find.

 

Then there is Olof Eriksens "All sails up and flying" - a wonderful study of the rigging in 1814 based on the Isaac Hull Model ins PEM in Salem, the oldest known model done by crewmembers and presented to Captain Hull in 1812. He did compare Bradys Handbook for midshipmens with notes by a real mifshipman of Old Ironsides he recieved by Cmd. Martin  and did tryouts on his huge model to find the most likely solutions. He too, as Mr. Bass, had exchanged information with T. Martin and later recomments this book too .. although its a bit hard to "read" (Mr. Eriksen loves repetitions). But the drawings will be a perfect guideline for the rigging.

 

Those books and collections deserve much more publicity and also a more professional publishing. To my surprise even T. Martin could only publish some of his books with a classical publisher. W. Bass had to print his book in private and therefore there are not many available. Eriksens book is much too small. He provides dozens of drawings which for themself would require a wider format. But I learned the publisher wasn´t willing to invest in that. 

 

Brady´s "the Kedge Anchor" is a kind of a primary source. Its a "handbook" for Midshipmen and describes important features and processes on a ship of that age. Usually you will find editions from after the 1840s or reprints of those time. .and of course things have changed from 1800, 1812 to the 1840´s. But: I would guess about 95% was still the same - and therefore you can´t be much wrong. Brady describes the American way of marine issues. Don´t follow Steel and Lever as they describe the British Fashion. 

 

Eriksen did a comparision about different rigging styles and compared them with the Isaac Hull Model - and his finding is: Constitution was rigged - what a surprise - in American style! Marquardt by the way did drawings based on British.

Of course: I would guess about 85-90% is very compareable and only experts in the field of rigging would notice the difference.. so it depends on whom do you want to impress .. or what do you expect from yourself.

 

All those books should come in a classical leather binder with golden letters on them. All of them are really interesting and valuable for modelist and enthusiats.    

 

Gillmers nice book "Old Ironsides - raise, decline ..." is also very interesting, but I believe, Mr. Martin mentioned that there are mistakes, and also I believe he did not much like parts of the ships restoration done with Mr. Gillmers help. The art of Gilkerson inside the book is of course really beatiful and a lot of information in the book is worth reading it.

 

A. Tolls "Six frigates" is a very nice reading about the ships background history and destroys a lot of glorification and myths around many contributer of the ship. Mr. Martin onced explained to me it would be full of historical mistakes, but he admitted: its a good reading.

 

K.H. Marquardts AotS book "the 44-gun Frigate USS Constitution" is of course also a beautiful and professional published collection of drawings and information. Unfortunatly it seems to be done in a hurry since the author obviously did not refer to the - I have to admit: sometimes disputed - Isaac Hull model. He also seems to not look too precisly into the ships hull´s design - since his design is very much influenced by british or european ship building tradtions. Also his rigging is not american style. His reconstructions of the ships stern in different times I very much doubt. He is in fact a respected expert in design, function and history of ships of Age of Sail - but this book is not his masterpiece I think. It is very good to be inspired and fascinated - but be careful to take over details.

 

I have seen and read many others.. there are of coures more nice books out there ... I did not yet mention Howard Chappelles works. They are by now "classics" .. but in this is the danger. They are old by now - and just because something was new and sensational some years ago it must not be true: I learned to start mistrusting the "capacities" and "authorities" - since they often begin to ignore new findings and stop progress by the weight of their expertise. Nevertheless: his books are remarkable sources of know how about the American Navy´s.. 

  

Those are my main books as source for the ships design.

 

You may notice that I am a "fan" of Tyrone Martin - although I believe he too may have wrong understanding in this and that. I had the luck to have - years ago - a nice converstion via several emails with him. I have the impression that his studies have been really gone deep over a professional life span now - and he has gained the best overview about all issues concerning the ships design and history. Since in my understanding many questions will not been answered with certainty - so its best to try to have the best "statistically" answers. Having - if not proof - then at least a good evidence by comparing several independ sources. Primary sources are best of course - and Cmd. Martin did his lessons. I guess there are only a few persons in the world who may have read as much primary source about Old Ironsides as Cmd. Martin. .. if at all.

 

Thats why I try to study beside the books

- photos of the Isaac Hull Model in PEM Salem MA for the ships appearance in 1812 

- paintings by Felice Corne (1803 side view, 1804 Tripolis and the 1812 battle paintings)

- paintings and engravings of Roux or Baugean and others about US Frigate President and United States

- NMM drawings of US Frigate President (as they are available in Internet)

- deck plans of US Frigate United States by .. was it Ware?

- the USS Constitutions Museums Blog

- many, many photo´s and pictures in internet..  

 

Hope this is helpful and wish you a lot of fun with that beautiful and impressive subject "Old Ironsides". 

 

Edited January 29, 2021 by Marcus.K.