Howard L Chapelle Leon D. Polland THE CONSTELLATION QUESTION SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY NUMBER 5 eTk Conste^Mion QttGstion PART I he Story of the Constellation <^ Howard I. Chapelle PART 2 Comments on "The Story of the Constellation c*^ Leon D. Polland PART 3 An Outline of the Present Restoration C^K^ Leon D. Polland 1 ' . . » I- It . I- .« u II ' ' ' " f - y ^ 'iT' ■ H 1 r If SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION PRESS City of Washington • 1970 SERIAL PUBLICATIONS OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION The emphasis upon publications as a means of diffusing knowledge was expressed by the first Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. In his formal plan for the Insti- tution, Joseph Henry articulated a program that included the following statement: "It is proposed to publish a series of reports, giving an account of the new discoveries in science, and of the changes made from year to year in all branches of knowledge not strictly professional." This keynote of basic research has been adhered to over the years in the issuance of thousands of tides in serial publications under the Smithsonian imprint, commencing with Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge in 1848 and continuing with the following active series: Smithsonian Annals of Flight Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology Smithsonian Contributions to Astrophysics Smithsonian Contributions to Botany Smithsonian Contributions to the Earth Sciences Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology Smithsonian Studies in History and Technology In these series, the Institution publishes original articles and monographs dealing with the research and collection of its several museums and offices and of professional colleagues at other institutions of learning. These papers report newly acquired facts, synoptic interpretations of data, or original theory in specialized fields. Each publica- tion is distributed by mailing lists to libraries, laboratories, institutes, and interested specialists throughout the world. Individual copies may be obtained from the Smith- sonian Institution Press as long as stocks are available. S. DILLON RIPLEY Secretary Smithsonian Institution Parts 2 and 3 Copyright © 1970 by Leon D. Polland Portions of Part 3 previously published in The Frigate "Constellation": An Outline of the Present Restoration, by Leon D. Polland, 1966 and 1968. For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Washington, D.C. 20402 - Price $3.75 Foreword This unusual volume has an unusual history. It began as a monograph by Mr. Howard I. Chapelle—essentially the present Part 1—and as a paper by Mr. Leon D. Polland—presented before sections of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers on 7 May 1966—which forms the basis for the rebuttal contained in Parts 2 and 3. Mr. Chapelle's manuscript was accepted for publication by the Smith- sonian Institution Press in the spring of 1968. In this manuscript Mr. Chapelle, who is as straightforward as he is learned, set forth his reasons for questioning the authen- ticity of the present day Constellation. When, in July 1968, a Baltimore newspaper announced the forthcoming publication under the headline "Constellation Now Under Fire From Smithsonian Historian," the Institution began to hear from those who disagreed with Mr. Chapelle. Some of our correspondents, misunderstanding the nature of the Smithsonian, argued that publication of Mr. Chapelle's manuscript by the Smithsonian Institution Press would constitute official government sponsorship of the author's conclusions. Many urged us to abandon the whole project on the grounds that publication would constitute a kind of desecration of a precious national shrine. Faced with these suggestions, which occasionally seemed almost to be demands, the Institution found itself in somewhat of a dilemma. Since the Smithsonian Institu- tion Press has always been a publisher of scholarly manuscripts, more akin to a university press than to a government publication office, its standards and procedures are those appropriate to any scholarly ptiblisher. Given Mr. Chapelle's towering reputa- tion in his field, and given the enthusiastic reports of the outside scholars to whom his manuscript was referred, the Press felt an obligation to stick by its original decision. In reaffirming our determination to proceed with Mr. Chapelle's manuscript, we stated that: "In publishing it, the Institution certainly does not presume to guarantee the correctness of everything in the manuscript. The Institution does, however, believe that the manuscript represents a serious contribution to scholarship, that it deserves to be made available to interested scholars and laymen, and that its reception by other competent authorities in the field over the years will be the best test of its validity." On the other hand, we recognized that the debate between Mr. Chapelle and Mr. Polland—highly technical though it may be—was not quite the same as a dis- pute between scholars about, say, the interpretation of a Babylonian text. Various agencies of the federal government and of the State of Maryland had been involved in the restoration of the ship; numerous private citizens had contributed their time and money to the restoration; and the ship herself had indeed become a national historic landmark. In view of all this, it seemed to us that the mere publication of Mr. Chapelle's controversial manuscript might not adequately discharge the Institution's obligation. FOREWORD It was in this context that we began discussions with the Constellation Restoration Committee, and particularly with its Chairman, Mr. Gordon M. F. Stick. To our great delight, we learned that the Committee shared our concern for the freedom of scholarly expression and was not unalterably opposed to the publication of Mr. Chapelle's manuscript. Rather, the Committee urged that it be given an opportunity to review the manuscript and to provide a rebuttal for publication along with it. Mr. Polland, Technical Advisor and Chief of Construction and Repair for the Constellation Proj- ect, was chosen to prepare the rebuttal. With Mr. Chapelle's gracious consent to the delay this necessarily involved, and with the Committee's agreement that his manu- script would be subjected to the same rigorous standards that are applied to all Smithsonian Institution Press publications, the present volume was born. If I may be permitted a personal observation, I would say that as a layman I find the question of whether today's Constellation is the original Constellation by no means the only interesting part of this book. I recall the laconic words of Captain Joshua Slocum (or his ghostwriter) as he described the rebuilding of the extraordinary sloop Spray in Sailing Alone Around the World: "Now, it is a law in Lloyd's that the Jane repaired all out of the old until she is entirely new is still the Jane. The Spray changed her being so gradually that it was hard to say at what point the old died or new took birth, and was no matter." As a layman, I find this book fascinating in a number of respects quite different from the question which it sets out to discuss. It is a privilege and a pleasure to watch two scholars as erudite as Mr. Chapelle and Mr. Polland set out to prove their respective sides of so complex a controversy. In the process, one learns an enormous amount about shipbuilding techniques, about naval architecture, and even about government procurement procedures through the centuries. It is conceivable that some readers may finish the book and still be unable to answer The Constellation Question. But I venture to say that they will agree with me that their time has been well spent. Charles Blitzer Assistant Secretary for History and Art Smithsonian Institution February 1970 Contents PART 1—The Story of the Constellation, by Howard I. Chapelle Page Introduction 3 Historical Notes 5 The Roosevelt Brief 17 Documentation of the Roosevelt Brief 23 Comments on the 1966 Polland Paper 43 Illustrations 1. Model of frigate Constellation 6 2. Draught of 1794 frigate Co?zj^;^//<3/zon 10 3. Lines of the frigate Constellation 10 4. Girdling method employed in Constellation 19 5. Transverse sections of frigate Corz5^/f//(3/207z, Norfolk, 1853 faces 21 6. Hog in keel of frigate Co«5/f//(3 not J URE giste vern o 0) o [I4 c^ ONUMBER 5 11 Boston ship was launched on 21 October she stuck on the ways^ but was finally launched without damage to the hull.) As a result Humphreys was sent to Baltimore to help Stodder, and the Constellation was launched 7 September 1797. In the chronological account of building the Constellation, mention has been made of the draught and offsets. In the period the Constellation was built it had long been customary to build from plans, not from half models. In the case of the Randolph only the building plan survives, as does also another Revolutionary War period plan for the 74-gun ships that were never built.^ However, decorative half models were occasionally built—Joshua Humphreys had built such a half model of the proposed Continental Navy 74s (now in Independence Hall, Philadelphia) which follows the lines shown in the plan, or draught, but also shows departures in details. He also built a model of his proposed 44-gun frigate design and presented it to Knox, as stated earlier. This type of model was too fragile for use in the loft or in construction but did serve to show the shape of a hull to laymen better than would a plan. The draughts for the Constitution and Constellation classes were on a nonstandard (about %6"^1' graphic-scale, drawn in India ink on handmade drawing paper. The plans C&R 40-7-11A and C&R 40-7-1 IB showed the sheer elevation, or broadside view, with the location of every other frame; room and space was 26 inches. Horizontal or water lines spaced three feet apart are also shown, as are all details of cutwaters, head rails, and quarter galleries, with location of all gunports. The various mouldings or sheer lines are shown, along with rudder and sternpost rake and stem rake. On this plan the location of capstans, hatches, pumps, bitts ,and deck heights are also shown in profile and location of masts is established; a copy, C&R 41-9-1P, does not show deck detail. Buttock-bow lines, shown as curves in dotted lines, on the profile of the hull, represent longitudinal sections through the hull parallel to the centerline, and are spaced two feet apart. This view of the hull design determines the appearance of the ship, and in the buttock-bow curves, something of the form of the hull. Hull form, however, is developed to the greater extent in the body plan, which shows cross sections through one side of the hull, at right angles to the centerline. Since the hull will be alike on both sides, that is all that need be considered in either draught or half-model. This plan for the 36-gun frigates showed the shape of every other frame, at the stations showm in the sheer elevation. Here the waterlines are horizontal and straight; the vertical section lines, that is, the "buttock-bow" lines, are straight. The half-breadth plan is what the name indicates; it shows the shape of the sheer and waterlines in plan view, with frame stations as straight lines at right angles to the centerline, and the buttock-bow lines are straight and parallel to the centeriine. This is the final projection to show hull form. The lines were drawn to inside of planking at this period, "moulded," so that offsets produced moulds to the shape of the frames. Diagonals—straight lines at various angles to the centerline in the body plan— are fairing or proving lines and are generally shown as long curves superimposed on the half-breadth plan. Carving is indicated on the sheer elevation but, in a class of ships on one design, the carving shown would not be employed but would be only to indicate the quantity to be used, or just to decorate the drawing. 12 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY A drawing of this kind required much time to complete. The first or master draw- ing would probably require 40 to 100 working man-hours, depending upon the time needed to estabhsh the design and how rapidly the draughtsman was able to fair and prove the many projections required. It is probable, in the case of these frigates, that offsets were taken immediately when the master draught was completed, using dividers and the graphic scale. Offsets are measurements scaled from the draught in feet, inches, and eighths, by which the lines of the ship were drawn full size on the mould-loft floor. For the original draught for the Constellation frigate-class there are about 1180 entries in the offset table.^ After the lines were laid down in the loft and given final fairing, the individual measurements on the loft floor, that had been corrected in fairing, were entered into the offset table to give a final and correct record for future reference. The scaling of draught measurements would be a 20- to 30-man-hour job, laying down and final fair- ing might have taken 300-350 man-hours, employing trained loftsmen. (The Constel- lation's original offsets are now represented in the Fox papers at Salem, Massachu- setts, by a museum transcript, the original having been extracted unlawfully by a recent visitor.) Moulds were next made for every piece of timber to go into the stem, stern, keel, and keelson structures and for each of the frames; the latter were formed of a number of "crooks" or futtocks, that were required to form a complete frame rail to rail. Since each half-frame would require 10 to 12 pieces, the moulds were numerous. Approxi- mately 200 to 250 moulds would be required, excluding about 40 rough moulds for each ship, which would be the first gotten out for cutting timber. Moulds were of thin plank, suitably identified, and were accompanied by bevel boards for all frame timbers. In the case of these frigates, additional plans were required, such as "inboard works" and deck arrangements, previously mentioned, as well as sketches. Specifica- tions or "building instructions" also had to be written. Next, copies of each had to be made for the three frigates of each of the two classes, and Fox and Doughty were under some pressure to get these copies to the yards. Tracing was not then possible, so the plans were sometimes pricked through the master plan into the copy with a needle, producing very small holes in the copy which were used to guide the draughtsman in drawing the duplicate. An 1827 statement by Fox, however, shows that after he lifted the offsets from the two master plans, he used these to lay out the necessary duplicate plans; a much faster and more precise method. Since none of the surviving frigate plans shows pricking, there can be no doubt that the copies were drawn by use of offsets. It seems quite evident that both Doughty and Fox made the duplicate plans of each class of frigate; between the two men they must have drawn six copies for the yards and two for the War Office files, and also Fox and Humphreys retained copies, alto- gether ten plans, two of which may have been the master draughts. All except the last were drawn from corrected offsets; the master draughts were the original design plans and would probably be the one of each frigate-class retained by Fox. The conversion of a design from draught to mould-loft to ship required much time and labor, it can be seen. In view of the fact timber was worked with manual tools—axe, adze, "frame" or NUMBER 5 13 pit saws, and cross-handled augers—production per man-hour in the shipyards was relatively small. Hence large gangs of carpenters were employed and the working day was from sunrise to sunset. With good management, some builders in this period could "run up" a ship in a matter of a few months under such conditions. But this was not the case with the frigates being built in the 1794 program. Though the preliminary stages in construction of the Constellation had proceeded rapidly, lack of timber and labor difficulties prevented any schedule for completion being maintained and, like Congress at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and the United States at Philadelphia, Constellation was late in launching. One of the problems faced in the design of these frigates, inherent in their very size, was longitudinal strength. The French, who had built large men-of-war, had met with this problem as early as 1746 when they tried diagonal planking inside of the frames and, again, in 1772 the frigate UOiseau was built with the outboard planking diagonal. The Americans, in 1794, resorted to the use of "dagger knees" at deck beams, secured inside the ceiling, or inboard planking. These knees stood at about 45 degrees to the vertical with lower ends butted together. Thus, the lower arms of each knee crossed, and were fastened to, three or more frames; the upper arms rested along- side and against deck beams. The chief objections to this system were the weight of structure it entailed and the space occupied, which reduced stowage. It was also found that longitudinal strength, by this system, was not improved as much as expected. The use of additional longitudinal timbers inside the hull and backing frames, which had been employed since 1600, met with the same objections. The 1794-98 frigates all showed longitudinal weakness, and hogged within ten years after launching; the surviving ships were badly hogged by 1835. In planning the construction of the frigates, Knox had set up an organizational plan for control of costs and for supervision of construction.-^" The plan of operation called for an Agent to be appointed to each yard, who was to hire labor, purchase materials and equipment, rigging, etc. A Clerk of the Yard was also appointed to keep accounts and act as property officer, as a subordinate of the Agent. Superintendents, all naval officers, were appointed to supervise the construction and to see that the frigates were built to official specifications, serving somewhat as would the chief inspec- tor in a modem yard. Next, Constructors were appointed, subordinate to the Super- intendents. The Constructors, or master builders, were to carry out the construction according to plans and specifications. The Constructor might be said to have been the yard foreman or yard manager in a modern yard. It is apparent that Knox established very tight control over all procurement, through countersigned purchase orders by the appointed management officials. This prevented any unauthorized procurement by any individual. Strict attendance in the yards by each management official was specifically required by Knox. This tight control should be kept in mind. The term "rebuilt" will appear often in this discussion. The practice of rebuilding old, rotten, or unsatisfactory men-of-war into new ships—sometimes with extensive changes in hull form, dimensions, armament, and rating or class—seems to have become common in the British Navy during the 17th century. The purpose was to obtain a replacement of a worn-out ship, using maintenance funds instead of money allotted 14 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY to new construction. The Royal Navy records of the eariy 18th century show some ships to have been rebuilt twice in less than twenty years, usually with such extensive changes in each "rebuilding" as to show, beyond doubt, that an entirely new vessel had resulted in nearly every case. Rebuilding began by hauling the ship ashore and stripping her of plank to open the hull to a thorough inspection. If the frames were extensively rotten, a new design was usually prepared and a new ship built. If, however, only a part of the frames were rotten, a very extensive repair might result with no change in dimensions though, usually, there were some changes in appearance and, occasionally, in rate or class. Repairing the frame of a badly rotted ship often produced difficulty, particularly in joining new work to old. Partial rebuilding could also be expensive; it was shown that the costs of removing numerous rotten timbers were as much as the costs of new work. The Royal Navy also found that unless every infected timber had been removed, rot would soon appear in the new work. It is a matter of record that ships having a "great repair," or those partially rebuilt, in the Royal Navy had short lives in service in most instances. In the United States Navy, the first vessel to be rebuilt was the 28-gun frigate Adams, which had been built at New York in 1799. This was a sharp-model vessel that had seen some hard service at sea. She had been laid up in the Washington dockyard as a result of the reduction in force ordered by President Jefferson and had become unserviceable. A httle before the War of 1812 she was hauled ashore, cut in two amidships, and pulled apart 15 feet, and a new section of hull inserted, then torn down and her topsides rebuilt to make her a flush-decked sloop-of-war. (For many years thereafter, as reported in Theodore Roosevelt's Naval War of 1812, Navy men often claimed that the Adams was not alike on both sides. This was due to the diffi- culty in joining new to old structure. This partial rebuilding was done to restore a partly sound, old frigate so as to obtain an effective sloop-of-war. To prevent capture, the Adams was burned in the Penobscot in 1813. In April 1816 Congress passed an act for the gradual improvement of the Navy. Though this provided authorization for six 74-gun ships and nine 44-gun frigates, the act did not provide funds. This prevented immediate implementation of the act; after two years funds were granted sufficient only to allow construction to start on the 74s and three of the 44s. In 1820 small vessels were required and four schooners were built using funds originally intended for the larger ships. Some of the 74s were not launched until after midcentury, and this was true of some of the frigates also. Con- struction of the vessels was paced by the availability of funds—and Congress be- came less and less generous, as the lessons of the War of 1812 were gradually forgot- ten—so it was about 15 years before all the keels were laid for the authorized vessels. Insufficient funds were allotted to the maintenance of all the old ships to keep them in serviceable condition. This was most apparent in the ships built during the War of 1812, where green timber had been used in construction. It was eventually decided to gather together funds, authorized for maintenance, to allow building of replacements for these decaying vessels, while neglecting continuous maintenance of the other much-decayed ships. This "rebuilding" would not require additional au- thorizations from Congress, nor a request for new construction funds, beyond those NUMBER 5 15 required for the authorized vessels under the act of 1816. Were this not done the act of 1816 would have reduced the Navy, since the authorized ships were so delayed in construction. This situation was no secret in Washington. In 1820 the sloop Erie, built at Baltimore in 1813, was surveyed and found to be in poor condition owing to rot in her frames. Sufficient funds were found, so it was decided to rebuild her, adding about four feet amidships, making her 122 feet be- tween perpendiculars. When work began, the difficulties in attaching new work to old led to the gradual replacement of most of the sound old structure, and again the prac- tical difficulties met with in retaining any of the old structure were apparent. The 117-foot 11-inch sloop-of-war Peacock was also in poor condition. Built hur- riedly in New York in 1813, she had seen hard service and was severely infected with rot. In 1827 it was decided to "rebuild" her; however, in the light of the experience with her near-sister Erie and her condition, it was decided to build a new ship in the process. A new design was drawn by Samuel Humphreys, the chief constructor. This design was prepared in 1827, when the old ship was broken up, and in 1828 the new ship was laid down; she measured 118 feet between perpendiculars and was in all respects a new vessel in design and construction when launched. No attempt was made to retain any material from the old ship, in spite of her notable career, for the ship's construction was for a practical requirement; sentiment did not enter into the matter. In 1829 the frigates John Adams, Macedonian, and Congress were in a dete- riorated state. Orders were issued to "rebuild" the John Adams. It was obvious that this ship, built in 1799 as a 28-gun frigate at Charleston, South Carolina, 139 feet between perpendiculars, was not worth extensive repair. It was also found that the accumu- lated maintenance funds that had been allotted to her were not only insufficient to rebuild a frigate, the available money could only produce a ship sloop 110 feet long. This was not satisfactory, so other maintenance funds were tapped to allow a 2nd class sloop-of-war (of the 1825 class) 127 feet long to be built. The old ship was broken up in the Norfolk Navy Yard and the new^ John Adams was built there. With this ship, the practice of "rebuilding" had developed to the point where it could produce a ship of larger or smaller dimensions, and of a different class or rating than the original ship. Next the prize frigate Macedonian, 158 feet long, was taken in hand. Though built of the highly touted English oak, she was in a very rotten condition. It was decided to "rebuild" her as a small 36-gun, double-banked (complete battery on spar deck) frigate, 164 feet between perpendiculars. Humphreys prepared her design in 1829. Lack of funds caused a nearly 3-year delay, but she was laid down at Norfolk in 1832 and launched four years later. The old prize frigate thus "rebuilt" was not broken up until the winter of 1835-36. The new Macedonian, though 164 feet long, was too small for her armament and soon the guns on the spar deck were removed. Between 1849 and 1852 she was "razeed" or cut down to a spar-decked corvette of 24 guns. Congress at this time had authorized a somewhat larger naval appropriation, part of which was used in "rebuilding" the Macedonian and aJso in "rebuilding" the prize-ship sloop Cyane in 1834. Cyane was a complete departure in design from the prize ship and was built as a flush-decked corvette 132 feet 3 inches between perpendiculars. 16 SMITHSONLVN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY The Congress was rebuilt in 1839. The old 164-foot frigate was broken up m 1836 and the design for the replacement was made that year. She was laid down early in 1839 at the Portsmouth Navy Yard and was built rapidly, being launched in 1841. The rebuilt Congress was 179 feet between perpendiculars and was a double-banked frigate. This ship in no way resembled the old Congress of 1795-97. The Constellation was the next "rebuilding"; the ship was "rebuilt" 1853-55 at Norfolk, and what then occurred will be described later. A number of ships had been razeed, including the 74-gun Independence which was cut down one deck and made into a frigate, and the frigate Cumberland, cut down to a spar-decked corvette. None of these was lengthened. The 74-gun Frank- lin was also to be razeed to a frigate but, upon survey, was found to be too rotten to be cut down. She was broken up at Portsmouth Navy Yard in 1853 and "rebuilt" as a large screw steam-frigate 265 feet 9 inches long and was not launched until 17 September 1864. Bennett says she was built entirely with maintenance funds and it was ten years after laying down that she was ready for machinery.^^ It will be seen that the rebuildings after 1820 were not "great repairs" and alterations in old ships; rather, the so-called rebuildings were in fact new construc- tion in every instance. This practice produced "modern," effective ships which were the Navy's greatest need. This practice continued for some years after the Civil War.^^ As pointed out earlier, the act for the "Gradual Increase of the Navy" of 1816 actually would have reduced the effective force of the Navy through long delays, imposed by lack of funds, in completing new ships had not administrative "rebuilding" been established as a policy. The lack of Congressional support of the Navy and the long opposition to naval appropriations by Western and Southern congressmen would have usually prevented any increased amount of additional construction funds being au- thorized, to add to the 1816 program, and often there were insufficient funds for much progress in building ships authorized by the act. It ought to be made clear that cutting in two amidships and adding a new section, while rebuilding a rotten wood hull, was a difficult operation. The practice in the old wooden shipbuilding yards was first to cut the ship in two at the midsection and pull the hull apart the required distance. Not only did the two halves have to be lined up, the butts and scarphs needed for the rejoining of the hull had to be staggered properly in all longitudinals. When the plank had been stripped from the hull, rotten timbers had to have moulds made of them, before removal, for the replacements. Again, staggered butts in the frame members had to be arranged; as a result, new work had to be far more extensive than that required to build only the added hull section. Removal of old work, without damage to adjoining sound timbers, was often impossible. It is not surprising, then, to find that out of nine cases of United States Navy administrative "rebuilding," only the two earliest ships were intended to retain any of their old structure. Of the remaining seven, there can be no question that six of the "rebuilt" ships were actually new ships, of new design. The other is the Constella- tion, which is in question in this debate." The Roosevelt Brief T HE EVIDENCE for the Baltimore Committee's claim that the existing Constellation is the old frigate of that name was published in an article in the Maryland Historical Magazine (vol. 56, no. 1, March 1961, pp. 15-38). It is titled "Yankee Race Horse: The U.S.S. Constellation" and the authors are Charles Scarlett, Jr., Leon Polland, John Schneid, and Donald Stewart. The article is basically a brief or memo- randum prepared late in 1918 by Franklin Delano Roosevelt, when he was Assistant Secretary of the Navy, which was submitted to Josephus Daniels, Secretary of the Navy. The occasion was a proposal, then under consideration, for the Navy to "restore" the frigate Constitution as the oldest American naval vessel afloat. Mr. Roosevelt was in opposition to this proposal, on the grounds that the then existing corvette Constellation was in fact the old frigate of that name, built in Baltimore and launched before the Constitution. His brief was a presentation of his arguments in support of this claim. Mr. Roosevelt had developed an interest in American naval history and had prepared a paper on the early American frigates: "Our First Frigates. Some unpub- lished Facts about Their Construction," which was read at the twenty-second general meeting of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, held in New York on 10 and 11 December 1914. This paper was pubUshed, with the official plans of the two classes of frigates, in the society's Transactions.^* The matter in question now had not developed in Mr. Roosevelt's mind in 1914, for no mention of it is made in this paper, and the Fox-Humphrey draughts were used. The brief, or memorandum, submitted to Mr. Daniels was not documented. It consisted of a series of claims flatly stated as facts. The authors, in preparing the article in the Maryland Historical Magazine, assembled documentary material which they describe as support for each of the Roosevelt claims, adding, they state, material not known to or used by Mr. Roosevelt. They claim to have collected "a considerable body of documents, copies, plans, drawings and notes." These supporting documents will be discussed later; the Roosevelt brief will first be examined. The authors' fore- word or introduction is a version of Roosevelt's basic claims, presented in a series of undocumented statements. The Roosevelt brief begins with a short account of the building of the frigates authorized in 1794, in which the names of Navy agents and constructors are given. Though the organizational arrangements for building, pubUshed in American State Papers, are not described, the duties of these men are given in the brief. It is stated 17 18 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY there that the Navy agents were responsible for the procurement of labor and matenal on commission, a fact to be remembered. There follow some erroneous statements about Humphreys, with no mention of Fox but with the dimensions of the vessels given. Obviously Roosevelt had used the American State Papers occasionally as a source. A short and incomplete extract from this source regarding the progress reports in contruction of the Constellation is also given. Roosevelt then proceeds to develop his argument that a frigate design by Stodder, the owner of the leased shipyard at Baltimore, was substituted by him for the official design of the Constellation class, authorized in 1794. The purpose is to explain the discrepancies in the description and dimensions between the existing corvette and the old frigate, so that it could be apparently established that the corvette is actually the old frigate, slightly altered. Roosevelt claims that Stodder let it be known that he disagreed with the official design, did not respect Humphreys as a designer, and would accept no orders from Truxtun. The probable source for this would be the Fox Papers, Fox to Truxtun, 2 April 1795. But this is too late a date for any substitution in design, for the timber required in the official design had begun to arrive in the yard. Fox, who had heard of Stodder's alleged statements secondhand, had passed the information on to Truxtun, who in turn passed it on to the War Office. There is no mention in this correspondence of a new design in use or under consideration. With regard to the mode of the alleged substitution of design, Roosevelt, explains that "Truxtun spent many months with his family, and Major Stodder broke his word; after promising to follow instruction on the building, he changed the entire lower structure of the Constellation. The length when completed was 164 feet, the beam 40 feet but the frame spacing and the structure of the ship which was hidden from view was the work of one David Stodder, the Baltimore builder." In other words it is inferred that the substitution was accomplished while Truxtun was absent without leave from his post for months at a time so that either he did not see the hull alterations and was unaware of what was going on in lofting and in making the moulds for the substitute design after his return, or was faced with "an accomplished fact" and chose to overlook it. However, Truxtun does not seem in fact to have faced such alternatives, for the Stodder affair did not occur until sometime in March 1795 it is stated, too late for so sweeping a change since most of the timbers were then shaped. Furthermore, "an accomplished fact" could not have existed, for assembly of the frames did not begin until after 14 May 1795, as is shown in the official progress reports, so discrepancies could have been reported in time for correction by the War Office. It is evident that Roosevelt was unacquainted with the temperament of Truxtun, who was a very proud man, with a keen sense of duty, and who was also meticulous in demanding recognition of his authority. To suggest that this man would stand aside, supinely, in any such situations as have been described, is ludicrous. Before the arrival of the timber in the shipyard, Truxtun and Stodder were en- gaged in the construction of the then unusually large building ways, requiring piles and cribbing, and foundations for keel blocks and the groundways. Hence it appears that Stodder could have had no time for the described substitution of design, and all that it entailed in work and time, had the situation described by Roosevelt actually existed. NUMBER 5 19 Roosevelt states that Stodder had received permission to leave out the diagonal riders in the new ship as another evidence of the change of design. Such an omission took place, but not as Stodder''s proposal. Truxtun proposed this and managed to get War Office approval. Truxtun also obtained permission to substitute oak for pitch pine deck beams. Actually it was Truxtun who gave Humphreys much trouble with amateur suggestions (Navy Department Records in National Archives, Correspondence on Naval Affairs when Navy was under War Department, 1790-1798) rather than Stod- der. This is also apparent in the Fox papers ^^ where Truxtun appears to have been often an officious busybody. Roosevelt states that the Constellation was in very poor condition in 1812 as she had been "shot to rot and ruin in her many engagements with the French and Pirates of the Barbary States." She had been damaged in being sunk and raised after she had tailed onto a shoal while at anchor in the Delaware and had fallen on her side and swamped when the tide fell. Aside from the effects of her two battles with French frigates there is no official record yet found of any serious damage from gunfire. The brief next states that she was "brought up to the main dock," stripped of gear, and "her sides were bolstered and reframed with double planking." Since there was no drydock at Washington she was actually hove down. Truxtun had claimed she was tender, so in this repair she was double-planked or "girdled." This produced an in- crease in extreme beam of about 14 inches, and a belt of double planking along the hull from some distance abaft the stem to about the quarters aft; the belt was faired at the ends into the entrance and run. This belt extended from a few feet below the light load line to a little above the load waterline, covering the wales. She was the only American naval vessel so treated for stability reasons. No additional timbers were applied to the frames so "moulded beam'' remained as before, but "extreme beam" was increased. The brief then goes on to claim, in curiously nonprofessional language, that the ship was given "new iron works" and that the "old line and wound works" were re- placed. It is also claimed that the Constellation was "the first ship of the navy to carry Hanking Planking ORDINARY SECTION "FURRING" "OIRDLINQ- FIGURE 4.—Girdling method employed in Constellation. {The Engineer, 4 August 1922, p. 109) 20 SMITHSONL\N STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY iron work on her masts and spars." "Wound work" does not appear in the nautical dictionaries available to the writer. The Sailor's Word Book: An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms by Admiral W. H. Smyth, R.N. (Glasgow and Edinburgh, 1867), and Young Sea Officers Sheet Anchor, as well as the modem International Maritime Dic- tionary; all agree that bands of hemp rope around built-up masts and spars were called "wooldings," while iron bands, when introduced in the second quarter of the 19th century in place of wooldings, were called "hoops." It has been accepted that ironwork was late in being introduced into the United States Navy. The eariiest evidence yet found shows that iron work increased, replacing hemp, in the 1830s, though some chain rigging had come into use after the War of 1812 in the Navy. The brief states that Captain Tingey was in charge of the large repair at Washington in 1811-12 and was responsible for work done on the ship. The authors, in their introduction, appear to believe that in this great repair the "tumblehome," or falling-inboard, of the topsides was reduced by Tingey. This would mean com- plete retopping, which is not mentioned in any records known to the writer and which is contrary to the plans available; drawn later than 1812. Roosevelt makes no mention of this change in tumblehome anywhere in his brief. The brief has nothing specific about repairs to the ship after 1815. It states that between 1812 and 1848 "she had been overloaded with equipment, men and too many cannon, not to mention some 150 tons of kentledge which had warped her old keel and top keel." In shipbuilding terms she had a hogged keel and keelson. It will be seen later that incorrect terminology in the Roosevelt brief ostensibly origi- nates in the statements made in sources mentioned in the footnotes. The remarkable thing about this is that the sources are alleged to be statements of naval officers, a ship- wright, and a naval constructor, all of whom are made responsible for much of the highly unprofessional language and terminology which wall be discussed later. The only reference to repairs in the 1812-48 period is one in 1830-32, "but not as much as the works of 1812." Roosevelt appears to have believed that practically all repair work could be done by the crew at sea. The brief then describes how Roosevelt thought the vessel was rebuilt at Gosport, or the Norfolk Navy Yard, after surveys in 1852-53. As a result of these surveys it is claimed, it was decided that "part of the hull" could be preserved by rebuilding her as a first-class sloop-of-war. In 1853, the brief states, the ship was dismantled to her spar deck and then, "with the aid of hundreds of men and animals . . . hauled up the blocks covered with tallow and black lead and into one of the huge shiphouses at Gos- port Navy Yard." She was then "stripped down to her lower frames and planks which were suitable for reuse. These were calked up [sic] and her keel was spliced, adding some 12 feet to the length of the vessel. Her keel was warped, high in the center and low on the ends." Next, "a shoe or extra keel was made which fastened onto her old keel to straighten it." This product of Roosevelt's imagination is merely an incorrect and lubberly version of the lengthening operation in a wooden ship, much abbreviated. The ship would actually have spars, rigging, armament, stores, and deck gear, as well as ballast, removed. There would be no need to knock off her bulwarks at this stage. NUMBER 5 21 It did not require hundreds of men and animals to haul her up, the Norfolk Navy Yard had geared capstans and other mechanical. aids by this date and, in any case, her "blocks" were not covered with tallow and black lead; instead, her ground-ways were tallowed. No mention is made by Roosevelt of the work required after the hull has been pulled apart and in obtaining the hull form on either side of the cut, for lofting the "insert." Nor is there mention of stripping 15 to 30 feet either side of the cut in order to stagger the butts and scarphs in the longitudinals, or keelson, planking, clamps, stringers, shelves, and ceiling. Roosevelt imagined the hog in the keel of the old frigate would be built into the new vessel. As will be shown, the bottom of her keel had been made straight sometime prior to the surveys in 1853, though the keel rabbet showed about 1 foot 9]^ inches of hog. This would have caused deformation in her keelson and in all of longitudinal and upper structural members of the hull. It is evident that Roosevelt was ignorant of the various steps to be taken in lengthening a wooden ship and of the undesirability of hog in the keel, which, in such an extensive repair as Roosevelt imagined, would not be tolerated. Next, the brief describes the alleged difficulties in the vessel's hull form. "The loftsmen and draftsmen at Gosport had their troubles with the old Constellation as she did not compare with Humphreys' plan of the ship which was drawn in 1795. David Stodder's long forgotten grave held the answers. The Stodder changes of the Constellation and his idea of what a Baltimore ship should have and not have was the problem facing the chiefs of construction at Norfolk." This whole matter is best discussed when the supporting attempts at documenta- tion are examined. However, the naval constructors would have very readily solved the "troubles," that Roosevelt imagined, by taking the lines off the ship, for in any case so old a vessel would show deformation that would not appear in her building plans. A take-off would then be necessary so that new work would fit the old with the required accuracy. It is stated in the brief that "some 37 percent of the Constellation still remains in NewqDort. She has her stem, original keel excepting one section forward, most of her oak frames are still intact and some 136 tons of old wrought iron [sic] kentledge still strings along her hold. She retains knees from the hackmatack [sic] brought up in boats in 1796." These statements are ridiculous. There was, and is, no way of determining the exact age of timber in the corvette. Certainly the corvette could not have her "original keel excepting one section forward" if she had been cut in two and lengthened as claimed elsewhere by Roosevelt, for this cut would have to be amidships, or at the "dead flat" in that vicinity . Carbon tests are useless in determining the age of the timbers in the vessel. She has existed, between 1855 and the present, 113 years, and the appearance of her timbers could readily give the impression of great age. "Dated" timbers and metal fastenings are said to have been found in both Constellation and Constitution but it is naive to accept these as evidence. Vintage wood and fastenings are the byproducts of numerous repairs and overenthusiasm on the part of workmen. Curiously enough, only famous ships seem to have "vintage" material. Kentledge is pig iron, not wrought iron. Hack- matack, or larch, is not found in Maryland nor in Georgia nor in the Carolinas; it is native to the northeastern states. No larch was used in the Baltimore frigate nor in 22 SMITHSONL\N STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY the corvette, both of which were built of white and live oak, yellow pine, and, in the frigate, a little red cedar which was employed according to the specifications.^'' Further, Roosevelt states: "The Constellation has Stodder's building still on board [sic] and she is in fact the same ship built in Baltimore in 1795." He also claims that "she is still the same clipper type Constellation" and repeats the claim that "Humphreys' hull and mould plan was changed by Stodder and all that was evident of change in 1797 was her thinned-out bow (clipper-type). Stodder did not suffer from this but was of high degree in his futuristic thinking and design [sic]. The Constitution was of sufficient length to convert her to a sloop of war several years after Constellation's rebuilding. Constitution like the Constellation was rebuilt many times but did not have her length altered." It is not true, of course, that either the frigate or the existing corvette was very sharp in the entrance; neither supports any claim of "futuristic thinking" in "high degree" either in 1794-95 or in 1853-55; plans that have been published prove that again and again. Constitution was never cut down in structure to a corvette, though in the 1850s she had her quarterdeck and forecastle guns removed. No especial length was required for a corvette rating. As in sloops-of-war, the rating corvette meant a vessel armed on one deck only. It is only fair to acknowledge that the Constellation Committee, or the authors of "Yankee Race Horse," were sportsmanlike in publishing Josephus Daniels' rather facetious reply to Roosevelt's brief; parts relating to the Constellation follow: December 18, 1918 To—Roosevelt, disciple of John Paul Jones So the off-sets for the present Constellation were taken from the lower structure of the old ship and these were laid out on the mold loft floor with an extension of 12 feet to the body. Now that you have proved your point and made everyone in construction mad at you, do you want the ship on the Hudson for a Christmas present. I am. Sincerely yours, (Signed) Josephus Daniels (Secretary of the Navy) It seems evident that Daniels had consulted the Bureau of Construction and Repair and they had evaluated the Assistant Secretary's unsound claims regarding the Con- stellation. At any rate, the decision was made to restore the Constitution (instead of the Constellation) after the Roosevelt brief had been examined. Documentation of the Roosevelt Brief cXKKKXKKJ >ya ;>D43^ b cX/a'S/dcX>Ge<>3^ T HE FIRST FOOTNOTE to be discussed in the documentation of the Roosevelt brief is that referring to sources used by the authors. They state {M.H.M., pp. 17-18) that "All research into early American naval history has been severly hampered since the complete destruction by fire of the Newport Naval Training Station Museum, Jan- uary 25, 1946. Lost in this disaster were the Theodore Roosevelt Collection of Naval Papers relating to the War of 1812, some 300 early ship plans, and hundreds of original letters and documents, which included the bulk of documentary records per- taining to the Constellation possessed by the Navy Department." This footnote goes on to say that the authors made use of the copies of these documents "made in years prior to the fire, as well as work done by other researchers from the originals." There seems to be some confusion in references to this source for, in "Abbrevi- ations for Sources," the authors give "NWCL" as "Constellation File, Library of Naval War College, U.S. Naval Training Station, Newport, R.I." It will be noticed that the source named first is "Naval Training Station Museum," while in Mr. Polland's paper the source is placed in "Barracks B," "Constellation File." It is strange that the exact location of such an important source for the support of their cause should be in doubt, to this extent, in the minds of the authors or of Franklin D. Roosevelt. An investigation carried out at the U.S. Naval Station in April 1967 showed that certain Constellation records, covering the period 1883 to 1941, had been transferred to the National Archives on microfilm. In December 1958 logs and general correspond- ence regarding Constellation in the years 1894 to 1906 had been transferred. Investi- gation also showed that none of this material referred to the matter in debate. It should be noted that the Constellation was assigned to Newport in 1894. There are some "Constellation History Records," including a history of the station, in the files. Examination of these shows them to have been prepared in 1932, 1936, and 1937, and to be of a popular nature, without documentation. No material relating to the 1797-1855 period building and repairs records could be found, with the excep- tions described later. The material sent to Washington included some material dated before the time given for the destruction of the Constellation files at Newport. Certain facts came to light during the investigation (24 April 1967) at the Naval War College and at the Naval Station. The first of these is that the Naval War College Library was never destroyed by fire. There never was a "Naval War College Museum" 23 24 SMITHSONL\N STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY nor a "Naval Training Station Museum." The Naval Training Station Library was in "The House that Jack Built," next to Barracks "B," and was not burned with the latter building in 1946. Personnel employed in the libraries have no knowledge of any col- lection of original plans or documents, nor of the "Theodore Roosevelt Collection of Naval Papers." In fact, Theodore Roosevelt apparently made but three short visits to the station, according to records there, and no one could suggest any reason why he would have placed such a collection in so inconvenient a place for his use. There is no record to be found of the storage of any documents by the libraries in Barracks "B." The fire that destroyed this building broke out at 11:28 P.M., 19 January 1946, not 25 January 1946. Four lives were lost in the building, which contained quarters for recruits and station personnel. The office and records of the Chaplain, the American Red Cross, Navy Relief, Public Information, and the files of the Naualog, a station news pubUcation, were destroyed.^' The "300 early ship plans," apparently wholly naval vessels, cannot be accounted for. The plan files of the Bureau of Construction and Repair, now in Navy Records, National Archives, do not show this number of plans to have been possible for naval vessels built earlier than 1850, considering the total number of naval vessels built from 1793 on and the plans now preserved there.^^ The official plan files would be the only source for what is described as the "Theodore Roosevelt Collection." There is nothing in Theodore Roosevelt's Naval War of 1812 ^^ nor in his contri- bution to The Royal Navy, A History from the Earliest Times to the Present (vol. 6, Wm. Laird Clowes, and others: Boston and London, 1901) that indicates his pos- session of so much technical material, for he does not refer to draughts or plans in his possession in his discussions of the size of American men-of-war. Since the Con- stellation did not play an active part in the War of 1812 it is difficult to understand why Theodore Roosevelt would have any special interest in her which would lead him to extract a large file of plans and documents, relative to this ship, from the Bureau files. While there are small collections of naval shipbuilding papers, not part of the Bureau files, these are plans and papers that were in the hands of naval constructors upon their retirement. The largest known is John Lenthall's collection in the Frank- lin Institute in Philadelphia. Much of this collection is plans that are dupHcated in the Bureau files, the whole amounting to less than ten naval vessels. Still another oddity is that file copies of the alleged oflficial correspondence, from the "Naval War College Library" collection that is cited, cannot be found in the War Office, nor in Navy Department correspondence files, whether incoming or outgoing. To proceed with this examination of the authors' footnotes to the Roosevelt brief. The next to be taken up is in support of the situation described there, which al- lowed Stodder to depart from the oflScial design {M.H.M., footnote 18, p. 21). It begins: " '. . . did not agree . . .' is a mild description of Stodder's attitude. Joshiah [sic] Fox wrote to Truxtun (April 2, 1795 . . .) passing on the second-hand but none the less rousing information that Stodder was 'contemptuous' of the whole pro- ceedings. The Baltimore Constructor maintained he could do a much better job of drafting and moulding a frigate than Humphreys. According to Fox's informant, NUMBER 5 25 Stodder declared he would follow neither draught nor moulds nor any directions from the War Office, and that he would not take orders from any officer in his yard." Truxtun is said by the authors to have reported this to Pickering, who replied, 7 April 1795, "making it clear that Knox's arrangements . . gave any Superintend- ent full authority to enforce the Government's plan of building. Truxtun would have the power to discharge the Constructor as an extreme measure, but he was urged in- stead to smooth matters out." This would seem to settle the matter decisively. But the footnote goes on to state that Pickering wrote Stodder, "devoting a lengthy opening paragraph to the fact than an 'important personage' had been 'rendered uneasy in his position,' and stressed the importance of maintaining 'harmony' at all costs. . . . The balance of the letter affirms that the plans of construction adopted by the War Department are to be exactly followed unless advantageous suggestions are made, in which case prior Department approval will be sought." On this evidence the authors somehow conclude that Pickering not only knew of the substitution in the design but had approved of it, with Fox's concurrence. Ob- viously Pickering was merely trying to keep peace in the yard and following a com- monsense administrative procedure. So far, no record of Fox having any informa- tion regarding a substitution in design has been found in his papers. In plain terms Stodder was informed that the official plans and building program must be followed, though the Secretary would consider any suggestion for improvement, provided it was submitted to his office and approved before being carried out, which would allow a proposal to be submitted to his technical advisers. He certainly would not pass judgment himself, "off the cuff." Attention is invited to the time factor—by the time of this incident and correspondence, timber for the authorized design was coming into the yard. So it was far too late for any change In hull design. While a great many proposals for "improvements" on the ships were offered, the small number that were approved—dealing mostly with structure—show that in the main the official program was adhered to in building. There was no room for any casual, irresponsible changing of design. The reports on progress show that by 14 May 1795, the keel and keelson timbers were in the Baltimore yard, along with most of the live oak which at this date had been "shaped to moulds and bevels." This represented weeks of work, perhaps months. At any rate, the existence of a change in design cannot be shown possible unless it occurred in the fall of 1794, to allow time for this timber (for the unauthorized design) to reach the yard and be worked. There is no claim or evidence either by Roosevelt or by the authors that any change in design was even contemplated by Stodder so early; the whole claim is based on a situation said to have occurred in the spring of 1795. Another problem in the introduction of a substitute design by Stodder would be timber. As the Knox organization plan showed, Stodder had neither money nor authority to buy timber. Even though his design might use some timber reworked from the official program stock, it would require quite a lot of new timber if the design were to differ from the official draught enough to resemble the corvette's hull form, as claimed by Roosevelt. Where would such timber come from and how would it be paid for? The situation Roosevelt tried to establish was that the substitution in design was 369-704 0—70^-^ 26 SMITHSONL\N STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY possible because of Truxtun's long absences from the yard, allowing Stodder to do as he pleased. It has been pointed out that Roosevelt obviously knew little about Truxtun and his character. Now follows a footnote evidence from the alleged "Naval War Col- lege Library" collection. This is said to be dated 14 April 1795, Stodder to Truxtun, and follows: "... I must say to you, Sir, that I have all of my facilities, and for your information / have Mr. Pickering's authority to change the draughts and moulds of this frigate. (Italics by Committee) Mr. Humphreys, I must remind you has had little experience in building other than merchant ships . . . and he being a quaker shoud' be catholic [sic] in his design of ships of war. I have been in agreement with the War Office . . . besides even you have disagreed with Humhpreys on more than one occasion. I beg you not to write to Humphreys of this matter as Mr. Pickering will tell you he agrees with me as does the brothers here on materials and instructions. I also ask that you act more in the manner befiting a masonic brother and show some amount of trust in your fellows. I am with respect, David Stodder." To anyone who has read much about Truxtun, it is impossible to believe that he would have received such an impertinent and foolish letter from a subordinate without a violent explosion of temper, action, and correspondence. Any claim that Stodder had Pickering's authority to change the plan would be fiction, for no such grant can be found in the Department papers. Humphreys had worked with Wharton in building Randolph during the Revolution and had built and repaired vessels for Truxton, so was well known to him. On the other hand Stodder had not built any man-of-war, and a search of the Baltimore registry did not produce any record of a merchant vessel over 600 register tons built by him, while the frigate was over 1200 register tons. Humphreys' association with Wharton was well known to all. It is obvious that the person who composed this piece of evidence did not know Truxtun's char- acter, nor much about Humphreys' career. Another example from the same source, M.H.M., (footnote 21, p. 22) is an alleged letter, Pickering to Stodder, of 18 May 1795: "I have asked all the builders to communicate with me on new ideas which will benefit the Frigates. Mr. Humphreys may protest, but / assure you I will support your changes in the molds and design [sic].^"—You are the second person to inform me of Humphreys protests and I must remind Mr. Humphreys of his status and of the considerations I have given the builders, to improve his ships. I have informed him that you are the owner of a navy-yard and also a master-builder and that your changes as displayed in your model are in accord with Mr. Fox and the War Office ..." (Italics by the Committee). This "dociunent" is an obvious absurdity for, as all concerned (including Picker- ing) well knew, Humphreys owned a "navy yard" or shipyard, and was a "master- builder" or master-shipwright. Finally Pickering was not a complete fool and would not have taken on such responsibilities in so off-hand a manner. There is, of course, no record of Fox being "in accord," as said before. No copy of this "letter" has been found in Humphreys' papers nor in the War Department files in National Archives. Were such letters sent, as the alleged communication indicates, there would be file copies in the Department records, as also has been said before. This is the first mention of a model of Stodder's design which seems to infer a half model had been sent to the War Office. 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(National Archives, 107-13-4B) NUMBER 5 27 find some reference to such a model in the War Department correspondence without success. One would expect to find an accompanying explanation of the half model's superiority in form over the official design, along with the Department's approval. Of course the half model would not shorten the time required to employ a substitute frigate design carried to the launching stage. In the same footnote there is a claim that a change was made in frame spacing in the substitute frigate, though why this should be done is not explained. This claim is based on a letter, quoted by the authors, in the Pickering papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Stodder to Pickering, suggesting a cheaper way to bolt the floor timbers and incidentally referring to the frame spacing being 32 inches. In the official draught the frame spacing was 26 inches. It was apparent, of course, that if the spacing was changed, to 32 inches, new moulds and timbers would have to be substituted for those of the official design. Furthermore, the frames would be fewer in number. To correct the increased weakness that this would produce, there could be an increase in thickness of planking and ceiling, or wider frame futtocks, none of which is men- tioned in the footnotes, but all requiring timber not specified in the official program. There is a simple explanation to all of this—Stodder made a mistake in his letter to Pickering. Mention is made {M.H.M., footnote 20, p. 22) of a plan in the Records of the Bureau of Construction and Repair, Navy Records, National Archives, C&R 107- 13-4B, which the authors state was made from "Bureau records," without giving any reason for this conclusion. Instead, the authors direct attention to a pencil sketch on the drawing showing frame spacing of 32 inches and marked "Old." This sketch is obviously an addition, for the original plan is in ink. This sketch is used to support the claim that the frigate had the increased frame spacing, as well as a change in hull form to that of the corvette. This plan, "Transverse Sections of Frigate Constellation, Scale ^ of an inch= one foot, Norfolk, Feb. 1853," shows nine half-sections with dimensions (offsets) drawn in ink, indexed C&R 107-13^B. With it is plan C&R 107-13-4A, which the authors do not mention. The latter plan is of the keel of the frigate Constellation showing the amount of hog in the keel rabbet—about 1 foot 9/2 inches—with height measurements at fixed points given. The false keel, shoe, or bottom of the keel had been made straight. Its title is "Constellation, Scale ^ of an inch = one foot," and written on this drawing is "Received January 1853," with "from Norfolk, Va." added in pencil. The nine sections have, as a common base line, the straight bottom of the keel, so the sections stand from one another the height of the hog at each station, as drawn in C&R 107-13-4A. The nine sections in C&R 107-13-4B have the recorded offsets taken from outboard, vertical heights from individual base lines referenced to the bottom of the keel, to comply with the hog at each section. The vertical offsets are two feet apart. The vertical reference line is 21 feet 7/2 inches outboard from the hull centerline. On this, the horizontal offsets are recorded at 2- foot intervals referenced to the hog line so that the individual level lines of all of the sections are not on the same plane longitudinally. The plan is a record of the taking-off of the lines of the old Baltimore frigate, with take-off sections spaced 20 feet apart, except the end sections which are 10 feet from their neighbors. That 28 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY V. 5'f > C ^ r---\ N C > X ^ ^^ \ ,.^^ >v^ K -* -1 y^f'^ - ^ c.JS'^f-'^^S NUMBER 5 29 the plan is a take-off is shown by the measurements, or offsets, being taken from outboard and by the use of the hogged keel rabbet drawing to establish the heights of each section. The plan was probably made when planking was stripped from the hull, and was intended to inform the Bureau of the hull distortions resulting from excessive hog. An overlay of the midsection of the frigate of 1794-95 was drawn on 54 inch = one foot scale from the offsets formerly in the Fox papers at Salem and placed over the section in C&R 107-13-4B identified as being "6'7" forward of after side of port No. 6" which was 2 feet 3 inches forward of the 1794 offset midsection ©, but where the dead flat had begun. This is shown in Figure 7 and it will be seen that the topsides practically coincide while the bottoms of the sections show a slight difference. Whether the slight variations are the result of errors in measurements or inaccurate plotting by myself, the similarity is sufficient to prove that C&R 107X-13-4B is a takeoff of the old frigate, made at Norfolk before February 1853. This shows beyond question Jah-offJ8S3y I07'J3'4-3 (As designed ^ Cfake-o^, (Sis desh Consiellalion Corveti's "^^CN^ H FIGURE 7.—Overlay of midsections of Constellation. 30 SMITHSONL\N STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY that the old frigate was different in form from the corvette and, furthermore, that the old frigate existed until, at least, early 1853. The moulded beam shown in C&R 107-13- 4B is that of the old frigate and not that of the corvette. This supports the claim that the ship was merely double-planked at the wateriine in 1811-12 and that her frames in the topsides were not altered. The sketch of the 32-inch frame spacing, marked "old," cannot be accounted for in this drawing, unless it is going to be claimed that the 32-inch spacing was used in building to the 1794 design! Otherwise why show it on tills drawing? If this question cannot be answered intelhgently, the remaining possibility is that someone has tried to tamper with the official records. In the same footnote regarding the claim that increased frame spacing was used by Stodder, it is stated "That a change in shape did occur is substantiated by a letter from Truxtun to a member of the House of Representatives (Truxtun to Livingston, 22 May 1798 NWCL) : 'I must say though we probably have a better ship through the efforts of Major David Stodder—the constructor here ... his new ideas in the form of the bow will most likely increase the speed through the water of the hull'." In Truxtun's correspondence after the Constellation went to sea there are com- plaints about her sharpness, which reduced her stowage (this seems to mean sharp deadrise). In Naval Documents Related to the Quasi-War Between the United States and France, Naval Operations (Office of Naval Records and Library, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1935, p. 517, Truxtun to Secretary of the Navy, 26 March 1799), Truxtun refers to the matter thus: "these ships [proposed 74-gun ships] must have great room and not be over-sharp as our frigates certainly are." This makes it plain that he is referring to deadrise in all the 1794 frigates being too great, which re- duced stowage. In no captain's correspondence is there mention of a remarkably sharp entrance in Constellation. The deadrise and deep draft of the frigates were considered objectionable by Fox and Truxtun, as the Fox papers at Salem make abundantly clear. The purpose of the "Naval War College Library" composition is to show that the old frigate had been built as "sharp" in the bow as the corvette, and so was an innova- tion in 1794-95. This is untrue, as the many published plans of vessels of 1790-1850 show, for neither frigate nor corvette had such sharp ends as some of the earlier ves- sels, and at Baltimore there were many very sharp-ended "Baltimore Clippers" that made either the frigate, or the corvette for that matter, look full in comparison. It is also stated {M.H.M., Footnote 23, p. 23) that "Josiah Fox in later life wrote extensively about his activities in the early Navy, and left a document entitled 'Sworn statement J. Fox—in the year 1835' (NWCL) crediting himself and Doughty with the drafting of virtually all the major Naval vessels of the first period of construc- tion, except the Constellation, as follows: '. . . vessels of 36 guns—Congress and Cres- cent built to Algeria [sic] (Constellation drafted by Stodder).' " For some reason the full "document" has never been published. Mr. Polland, in his 1966 paper, p. 13, refers to the "document" as follows: "From the Naval War College at Newport, R. I. 'Barracks B' came a copy of a sworn document by Josiah Fox contemporary and former subordinate of Humphreys. This document, burned in the disastrous fire at the installation, had fortunately been transcribed in a typewritten sheet and is thus pre- served. It lists ships, including the original fleet actually designed by himself, including. NUMBER 5 31 he says none by Humphreys and 'Constellation designed by Stodder.' This document is considered by CRC [Constellation Research Committee] to be 'questionable' in its present form as it could well have been subjected to the 'license' of the transcriber. It should, however, be taken at its face value and is thus recorded." A very surprising conclusion, reached on the admittedly doubtful "document." Attention is invited to the reference of a new site for the Newport records. The Naval War College had no relationship to "Barracks B," nor did the latter have any relationship to the Naval Training Station Library. Again, according to statements made at the Naval Station (formerly the Naval Training Station) there is no record to be found of library material or plans being in any storeroom in Barracks B. There are statements by Josiah Fox regarding his services that the authors, or Mr. Franklin D. Roosevelt, did not cite. A very complete statement is in the Fox Papers, Peabody Marine Museum, Salem, Massachusetts. A transcript of this document, with some annotation of doubtful value by Wesson, is in A Calendar of the Papers of Josiah Fox in the Collection of Ernest J. Wesson, cited earlier. Fox's statement of services was addressed to Samuel Southard, Secretary of the Navy, on 27 November 1826, with supporting documents. In this he first gave a full account of his participation in the frigate building program and of his later services as naval constructor. Next he stated: "The four frigates which the Subscriber draughted were. The United States, Constitution, Constellation, and the one intended to have been built a Norfolk. [The Chesapeake]." He also stated that live oak previously prepared at Norfolk "had been taken to finish the frigate Constellation." Since the Norfolk ship was one of the three 36s on the official draught it is obvious that the official design was used for the Baltimore frigate since the timbers on official design moulds could be used. The statement of service is signed by Fox and dated 27 November 1826 "near Wheeling, Va." Appended to it was the following: "Ships of War draughted by Josiah Fox" "Frigates of 44 guns'': [sic] 44 United States 44 Constitution 44 Philadelphia 44 Cheasapeake 36 Constellation 36 Crescent (builtforDey of Algiers) 32 John Adams 22 Portsmouth 18 Hornet 18 Wasp 12 Ferret and a great part of the numerous gunboats." In 1827 a controversy arose between Fox and Samuel Humphreys (Chief Con- structor, U.S.N., and son of Joshua Humphreys) over the credit for the designs of the authorized frigates. The frigate United States had beaten the French frigate Lafayette in a sailing race, and an account of this had been published in the Niles Weekly Register, 18 August 1827, along with a reprint of a traveler's interview with Fox that 32 SMITHSONL\N STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY had been published in the Wheeling Gazette, in which Fox had made certain claims. Soon after this, Samuel Humphreys published a letter in the National Journal belittiing Fox's claims and promoting his father's. An account of this controversy, with tran- scripts of three unfinished drafts of Fox's reply to Samuel Humphreys, was published by Mr. Merie T. Westiake Jr., as "Josiah Fox Gentleman, Quaker and Shipbuilder." "^ The most complete draft was transcribed by Mr. Westiake to read: I observed in Niles Register of the 18th ultimo That Mr. Samuel Humphreys states that the extract of a letter from a Gentleman on his travels in the Western Country which appeared in the Wheeling Gazette is incorrect & asserts that the Original drafts of the Frigates United States, Constitution, President, Consellation & Congress—were drawn by Joshua Humphreys of Philada [sic] agreeably to Dimensions proposed by that Gent'n to Gen'l Knox the Secretary of War & that the only part Mr. Fox took in the Business was making Copies from the Originals. He is willing to give to Mr. F. all the Credit that is due him & with that disposition states that Mr. F. drafted the Frigates Philada & Chesapeake & the sloop Wasp and built the two last named Vessels. If Mr. S. H. had sufficiently informed himself before he undertook to give publicity to those assertions I feel Confident that he would not have brought them before the View of the Public. I have always entertained a great respect for the Gentleman but he was only a school Boy at the time & consequently unacquainted with the true state of the Business connected with those ships I feel disposed to pass over his assertion that the statement was "incorrect." It never came to my knowledge who gave Gen'l Knox the first or original dimensions for those Frigates, it only remains for me to say that I opposed them—& that Gen'l Knox by my advice altered the dimensions of the 44 Gun Frigates those of the 36 Gun Frigates may have been as first proposed. That the drafting of the Frigates was Confided to me as well as laying them down in the Mould loft & making the Moulds &, all of which was done by my advice & assistance. Mr. J. H. did attempt to palm drafts upon me as the approved ones but General Knox having reced [sic] intimation of the Circumstance did in a public manner not only reject them but laid an additional responsibility on me that I should undiviatingly adhere to my drafts as being the original ones approved by him. There may be Gentlemen yet living who can testify to those facts if required. Mr. J. H.'s drafts & Models were not only rejected by the Secretary of War but by all the Master Ship Builders from Swedes Church to upper part of Kensington, to whom they were submitted. The other and less complete drafts are variations of the foregoing and relate only to the controversy over credit for the frigate designs. It will be seen that Fox claimed he made the draughts for the frigates and does not mention the Stodder design for Constellation. The nearest thing to a "Sworn Statement" found yet in any of the Fox papers is a document published by Elizabeth B. Stanton, "Josiah Fox's Story of the Nation's First Navy, An attested copy of his record in the Navy which was Submitted by Him to the Navy Department Shortly before his Death—Transcript made for The Journal of American History by his great-great granddaughter." ^- It was "attested' only so far as the transcript was "a true copy" of course, and not sworn to by Fox, who was a Quaker, by the way, and would not "take oath" but might "affirm." This is a version of the statement of service published in Wesson's Calendar; which one was employed in Fox's letter to the Secretary of the Navy has yet to be determined; the Stanton version, as published, has supporting documents attached to it, also. The pertinent statements in the Stanton version are on the first page of the published transcript "The subscriber drafted the 'United States,' 'Constellation' and the one intended to have been built at Norfolk and Mr. Doughty drafted the 'Presi- NUMBER 5 33 dent' and 'Congress'." There is the same list of ships that Fox stated he designed in the document in the Wesson Calendar, now in the Fox papers at Salem. Fox, therefore, specifically stated that he designed Constellation and nowhere mentions Stodder, nor his draught, nor model, in his statement of service of 1826, nor in the drafts for his reply to Samuel Humphreys in 1827. The "Naval War College Library" collection, cited in the remaining footnotes, includes a "statement by Captain Tingey," Captain of the Washington Navy Yard, December 1811, in which he describes Constellation as "very sharp forward," makes reference to her great speed, poor condition, thinness of planking, and speaks of "the flat transom that runs from starboard to larboard and from the taffrail under water to the post." Were it authentic, this curiously unprofessional statement would be the first and apparently the only reference to a peculiar transom on this ship; no other reference to an unusual transom on Constellation has yet been found. Another of the "Naval War College Library documents" is described as "Major Battle Damage, Repairs and Reconstruction to U. S. Ship Constellation 1797-1855," File 1231-A, credited to Admiral W. L. Capps at direction of Truman H. Newberry, Assistant Secretary of Navy, and the authors date this 1905-08. No office file copy has been found in the Navy Department records; this alleged report will be fully examined later when Mr. Polland's paper is discussed. Still another Tingey "document" is presented, from the "Naval War College Library," in which he uses such terms as "The wound work of the masts," and "iron should be used to provide im-movabl' [sic] strength for masts and booms," which have been noticed in the Roosevelt brief. Footnote 27 {M.H.M., p. 25) includes the reference: "see NWCL, Statement of Samuel Humphreys 1829 Repairs, for enlargement and rounding of stem" (of the Constellation). Since it is alleged that this was among the burned documents, it can hardly be seen! Why the stem should be "enlarged" in order to round it is not explained. Footnote 29 (M.H.M., p. 25) refers to an alleged change in beam and, ap- parently, quotes from a Tingey rep>ort "to remove excess tumble in the home come [sic] of the ship'' in 1812—13. Had such a change in topsides been a fact it would follow that she was "retopped," a very extensive alteration which had no relation to the "girdling" that was certainly done in the 1812 repair. Retopping would not change the moulded beam of a frigate, however; a complete rebuilding would be required to do this. The transverse sections of frigate Constellation February 1853 drawing discussed earlier shows that no change in tumble home was made.^^ In attempting to show that the corvette was the old frigate, altered, the authors put heavy strain on some of the evidence. For example, it is stated {M.H.M., foot- note 31, p. 26) that constructor John Lenthall, in a letter to Commodore Skinner 18 Dec. 1851, proposed "to retain her" (inferring that the old vessel's structure was to be retained) whereas the full document in the National Archives (Figure 8) shows no proposal, but rather a question: If the ancient renoun of this ship makes it desirable to retain her (for in point of economy there will be a loss) the plan heretofore under consideration of the Bureau seems well adapted to carrying it out—This ship has been found deficient in stability (though built from the same lines as the Constitution) but in other respects she is well-formed." 34 SMITHSONL\N STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY /, x-i^I^^-S- l^'H^'fiyU. a^i^^'it^ /tC^^^K.^.^, /^n-e. •^ ^^t^f^' /T-**- ,^?^*».<-*7t# /c^^Ltry^ Sin^^t-e^ ^ Jii^u ^ /ZZ^ ■^T.^ lu.^ ^^^C ^7 SS£^ Ut4^.^ Jl^^itfUp /ti,-**«.^/.w~o^y' /

ering and launching. Constellation had not been a spar-decked frigate, so far as can be ascertained in naval records. Next, we have Davis, allegedly a joumey-man shipwright at least, trained in a U.S. Navy yard. "Between February and June or July she was stripped down to her berth deck and it was decided that her low decks were good as was her low frames and keel, the old keel was warp>ed [sic], high in the center, low on the ends, she had to have a piece of false keel graved in to stiaighten out her warped keel and some small pieces fitted in to her old keel." Again there is the astonishing lack of knowledge of the correct, contemporary nautical and ship building language, by a shipvmght in this testimony; "low decks" for decks—the berth deck would be the lowest deck in this ship—"low frames" for floors and lower futtocks, "warped" keel for hogged keel. The shoe or false keel would not be "graved in" for it ran the full length of the keel, so would have been fitted. The Admiral Capps' report. Major Battle Damage mentioned earlier also shows unprofessional language "New materials, timbers and exterior hull . . . from the keel upward. False keel, ^ of the keel, keelson and members, 15 foot inch splice ^* in stem all new outside plank from the 15 foot line and to the rail ]/$ oak planking below the 15 foot line at lengthened area." This is certainly not a report on repairs, by a trained shipwright, on the Constellation. Incidentally, Admiral Capps discussed Roosevelt's Our First Frigates before the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers in 1914 ^^ and did not mention having reported on Constellation, which would be pertinent in a discussion of the paper. The Capps report will be examined more fully, when the Polland paper is discussed. In the examination of the Roosevelt brief (p. 21), comment was withheld on statements regarding the surprise when it was "discovered" that the Constellation had not been built to the official draught, after hauling her out at Norfolk in 1853. Foot- 369-704 O - 70 - 4 42 SMITHSONL\N STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY notes describing this (pp. 29-30, footnotes 35 to 39 inclusive, M.H.M.) follow. Delano diary, January 1853 "in pencil"—"Underwater body of Constellation does not match drawing of Humphrey plan or the sketched drawings 1852 showing sections of the hull. This fact was discovered during the docking of the ship to fit her to the blocking to draw her into the ship house." Davis' testimony "I will never forget the mess when it was discovered that this ship did not compare to the plans of her drawn in 1794 in Philadelphia. Someone was wrong, either they did not follow the plans or they built her from some other plans, she had to have all of her ballast piled while draftsmen lifted the lines of her underwater from her hull." The authors further state that— "The sections referred to in the Delano quotation are undoubtedly those of NA plan C&R 107-13-4B (Transverse Sections of Frigate Constellation, Feb. 1853) which shows nine sections of the hull of the Humphreys design." These statements, in the Roosevelt brief and in the supporting footnotes again show lack of knowledge of shipbuilding and shipyard practices and of nomenclature that is apparent throughout the Maryland Historical Magazine article. Contrary to Roosevelt's description of the preliminary steps in rebuilding the Constellation, a vessel was not hauled "up the blocks," she would be hauled on the ways and supported by skids or sliding ways (as has been stated in Section Two), if hauled into a ship-house. Delano's "diary" refers to "sketched drawings, 1852" which the authors rightly identify as Transverse Sections of Frigate Constellation Feb. 1853 though "Delano" dates them 1852. Davis is quoted to the effect that the Constellation had to have all of her ballast piled (ashore) so the draftsmen could take off her lines, which was not correct. In an old wooden sailing ship the ballast would usually be removed before hauling, not only to prevent straining the hull but also to reduce the load in hauling. Taking-off could be done without reference to the ballast in any case. It is impossible to believe that a Navy Yard-trained shipwright would use such terms as to "take the lines of her underwater from her hull," for such a trained man would say "take off her lines," of course. The most curious claim develops in the Roosevelt brief and in the authors state- ments; that the ship was discovered not to have been built on the official draught when hauling in 1853. If this had been true, the United States Navy would have employed an important vessel for 56 years (from 1797 to 1853) whose hull-form was unknown to the construction authorities! It might be argued that in heaving-down for repairs of the hull, this would not be apparent, but this is not really true. However, the Norfolk Navy Yard had a drydock in service after 1833, or for 20 years before the hauling in 1853 that is being discussed. In this period the Constellation must have been docked a number of times. It would be interesting to know how this could be done without making the discovery that surprised the Norfolk Yard in 1853. Comments on the 1966 Polland Paper 26 LAy^!A!/^Ayd'^y^/:y^iA!Ay^A^^ M R. POLLAND'S PAPER is, mainly, an explanation of his design for the reconstruction of the existing corvette Constellation as a frigate. Only a portion of the paper refers to the matters being discussed. The author states, however, that extensive research was carried on, naming various places where source material was apparently found, including the "Naval War College Library" and "Naval Training Station Museum," Newport, Rhode Island (previously burned according to the 1961 M.H.M. article). The result is much repetition of the Maryland Historical Magazine article claims and liberal use of "Naval War College Library" "documentation." In his introduction to his paper (page ii), Polland refers to Franklin D. Roosevelt's paper "Our First Frigates," but fails to note that Roosevelt had not then formulated his claim that a substitution had been made for the official draught of Constellation. The claim is repeated, concerning the loss of the "Theodore Roosevelt Collection" of plans, documents, etc., when the "Newport Naval Training Station Museum" burned. The continued uncertainty regarding the location of the "Theodore Roosevelt Collec- tion" is difficult to understand, in the light of the extensive research that was said to have been done by the Baltimore group. The Introduction of the Polland paper repeats the claim that the corvette is the old frigate, altered in 1853-55. In his preliminary remarks (p. 2) Mr. Polland makes it clear that the Baltimore Committees (there were at least two) decided, before start- ing research, that it was their objective to prove the Roosevelt claims to be correct, not to weigh the evidence pro and con. It was recognized, however, that the corvette had no resemblance to the official draught of the frigate Constellation. This made it neces- sary that evidence be produced to impeach the Congressional papers, published in American State Papers, vol. 1, and also the accumulation of plans, offsets, and technical material in the records of the U.S. Navy's Bureau of Construction and Repair and of its predecessor, the Bureau of Equipment, Construction and Repair, and contemp>orary documents in the Fox papers, and in the Humphrey papers as well. It is admitted by Polland (p- 3) that the corvette was obviously "represented" in John Lenthall's plan dated 1853, and, it might have been added, the corvette was built on the offsets: "Dimensions of the Spar deck Sloop of War Constellation taken from the Mould loft Floor" (National Archives, C&R, 142-1-7 "Constellation" 1853). This, had the Committees examined it, was a complete lofting record, giving offsets 43 44 SMITHSONLVN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY ^^-M' FIGURE 11.—Draught of corvette Constellation, 1853, drawn from Lenthall draught and offsets. for proof that the corvette was built entirely from Lenthall's lines, now in the National Archives (C&R 28-3-5) dated "June 1853 Scale 5 feet=l inch." A body plan of this design is in the Lenthall collection, titled "Spar Deck Sloop of War Constellation," John Lenthall, scale 5 feet=l inch, in ink, with "New Constellation" written above the title in pencil. The Committee overlooked other information that is contained in these offsets, which show that they had been corrected, as to heights, in sheer to allow for the "hang" of the keel, amounting to three inches. This contradicts Roosevelt's claim that the orig- inal keel hog was built into the "new" ship by retaining the old frigate's bottom. "Hang" is reverse of hog and the ''sag" is at midsection, not in the ends. Hang was employed in wooden hulls over 100 feet long to prevent hog from appearing after the vessel had been launched, when strain is first brought on the structural longitudinals in which, in a wooden ship, some movement usually takes place. This was recommended practice in American Bureau rules for wooden ship construction, as a matter of fact, until large wooden ships ceased to be built in the present century. There is no evidence whatsoever that the Lenthall draught and the offsets of 1853 were take-offs of any old vessel; rather, a new design is obviously shown. The offset table is not the very limited measurements that would be "taken from the work" in the cobbling-up of an old frigate, as described by Roosevelt, to produce the corvette in which the old keel and practically the whole bottom of the old frigate are said to have been retained. The Committee ran into some remarkable material. In the spring of 1960 they found a portion of an inboard plan of the Constellation (corvette) in the F. D. Roose- velt Library on which a vertical line had been drawn at frame F., labeled "New 12 ft. aft." and initialed F.D.R. This is apparently supposed to be evidence, but merely shows the ignorance of the person who drew the vertical line. Station F is well forward of 0 on Lenthall's draught and the cutting-in-two, as claimed by Roosevelt and the Com- mittee, would have had to have been made at 0 (dead flat station) in order to fair the "insert"—12 feet long—into the two halves of the hull. NUMBER 5 45 The Fox "Sworn statement" is quoted (Polland, p. 13) and the claim that Hum- phreys had no experience in building a man-of-war is repeated here. Much time and effort would have been avoided if the Committee had studied the history of American naval shipbuilding before committing themselves to unsupported claims. The Com- mittee's lack of knowledge in this area led to an attempt to build up Stodder's reputa- tion as a great shipbuilder and authority. They state (Polland, p. 14), with regard to the omission of the diagonal riders in the Constellation: "Undoubtedly Stodder fully con- curred with Truxtun on the deletion of the diagonal riders. His own experience was by this time well known and more than a little respected in Washington" (the capital was then Philadelphia). This statement is referenced from the "Naval War College Library," "Pickering to Stodder letter of May 18, 1795." (In his biography of Trux- tun " Eugene S. Ferguson gives an indication of Stodder's reputation.) In regard to an article in the Maryland Journal that embarrassed him (and which he suspected was sponsored by Stodder), Truxtun wrote Fox that it might be "some of Stodder's nonsence" [sic]. No indication has been found that Stodder was more than a practical merchant-ship builder of no marked distinction. His complaints about Constellation may be summarized as—she is built too expensively (which undoubtedly was true, as is still often the case with government vessels). Some comments in Mr. Pollands' paper (p. 17) show that he, too, though a naval architect, was unacquainted with wooden shipbuilding: "Allowing for later repairs, such as that of 1888 and including work performed in 1904, there still remained those most important hand hewn timbers which at this point were considered to (at the least) pre-date the 1853 reconstruction." This implies that hand-hewn timbers were an ac- ceptable evidence of great age. A visit to some of the boatyards in Maine and Maryland today would show the adze and the broad axe are still tools in use for shaping heavy timbers, dubbing sawn frames, and other work on a large wooden hull. A rather curious statement (p. 17) is that the old Constellation rolled excessively and that this could be counteracted by a reduction in tumble home, which was done in 1812 under the supervision of "Constructor Captain Tingey." As the tumble home, in the American frigates whose plans exist, was quite small at main or gun deck level and marked only as the main rail was approached, the amount of tumble home therefore had no marked effect on either rolling or initial stability and would not have effect until some condition produced extreme heel. When the angle of heel reached the point where the lee side of the gun deck was at water level the guns were hanging on their breechings and tackles. Hence the frigates were sailed at less than 15 degrees of heel so far as possible. It is also stated here that Constellation was one of the fastest ships afloat. This would be a very difficult matter to prove. The rank of "Constructor Captain" was never established in the U.S. Navy and Tingey had no claim to be a Constructor. It is further stated (p. 17) : "Also to be considered is the fact that the lower shrouds were continually rubbing on the bulwark rails causing excessive strains and obvious stretching and chaffing damaged to the shrouds." Our shipbuilding ancestors were not so stupid as to allow this. The channels were made wide enough so that the shrouds or lanyards were at least 4 inches outboard of the rail when set up. Another version of the Tingey report of 1812-13 is given (p. 18) : "To remove 46 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY Office of the Chief of Naval Operations Washington 25, D.C. Op-29/pam Ser 11P29 5 Jan 1954 From: Chief of Naval Operations To: Commandants of Naval Districts and Commanders of Naval Ship- yards Subj: History of USS CONSTELLATION; clarification of 1. The Navy Department has approved the proposals contained in a bill pending before the Congress which would authorize the Bureau of Ships to dismantle and scrap the USS CONSTELLATION. The introduction of this bill has heightened interest in the CONSTELLATION and her history and has led to some newspaper statements which have questioned whether or not the CONSTELLATION is the "original frigate." 2. As early as 1811 the expense of repairing the CONSTELLATION was estimated at $120,000 (SECNAV Itr to Congressional Committee), the original cost having been $314,212.15. An inspection in 1818 found the hull defective in many places, while in 1828 the outside planking of the ship from the rail to the water's edge was found to be in a state of decay. Extensive repairs are known to have been made in 1812, 1828-29, 1832, 1834-35, and 1838-39, before the 1853 rebuilding. The materials used in making these repairs included at least 18,121 cubic feet of timber and 514,601 square feet of planking. 3. In a letter dated December 26, 1851, from the Commandant Gosport (Norfolk) Naval Shipyard to SECNAV, we find: "In submitting to the Department the proposition to repair and remodel the frigate Constellation I had in view your recommendation 'to build every year two vessels, in order that the Navy may keep pace with the improvements of the age—' "Believing that it required a special act of Congress to authorize this very desirable measure, and much doubting whether that body would act upon the recommendation during its present Session. I ventured to Suggest a mode by which I thought these difficulties might be remedied, and the work commenced." FIGURE 12a.—Page 1 of official letter from Chief of Naval Operations, 5 January 1954, concern- ing the history of the Constellation. NUMBER 5 47 4. The Secretary of the Navy, the Hon. J. C. Dobbin, in his annual report for 1853, records that the CONSTELLATION was in the process of being converted to a first-class sloop-of-war. In 1854, SECNAV reported further: ". . . the Constellation, was built in 1797, as a frigate of the second class, and had been many times rebuilt. Being found altogether unworthy of further repairs, she has been rebuilt as a spar-deck sloop . . ." 5. Mr. Howard I. Chappelle in his book. The History of the American Sairmg Navy, published by W. W. Norton & Co., New York, 1949, correctly states that the CONSTELLATION was rebuilt in 1853-54, and that her original design was changed from a frigate to a sloop-of-war or corvette. 6. The following dimensions of the CONSTELLATION'S hull are pertinent: 1797 1854 Length between perpendiculars 164'0" 176'0" Beam moulded 40'6" 4r0" Depth, in hold 13'6" 21'1" The CONSTELLATION of 1797 was rated as a 36-gun frigate, and her dis- placement was recorded as 1,278 tons. SECNAV report for 1854 describes her as a 22-gun sloop-of-war. (CONSTITUTION was a 44-gun frigate of 1,576 tons.) 7. It will be apparent from the facts set forth above that there was such an extensive rebuilding in 1852-53 that there are grounds for stating that the present ship dates from that period. Probably there are very few, if any, timbers of 1797 in the present vessel. On the other hand, there are very few timbers in the present day CONSTITUTION which date back to her first commissioning, although her hull lines and original dimensions have been preserved. If any restoration of the CONSTELLATION were to be attempted the logical course would be to rebuild the frigate of 1797, from the keel up. The original frigate had a history well worthy of preservation. 8. In spite of all the facts recorded above, some persons contend that the present CONSTELLATION, as the direct inheritor of the old traditions, is, in spirit at least, the original one. Major General Jim Dan Hill, now the Com- manding General of the 32nd Infantry Division, Wisconsin National Guard, President of Wisconsin State College, in Superior, author of The History of the Texas Navy, and Sea Dogs of the Sixties, who believes that the name of the CONSTELLATION should be given to a new aircraft carrier, had this to say in a recent article about the frigates UNITED STATES, CONSTITU- TION, and CONSTELLATION: FIGURE 12b.—Page 2 of official letter from Chief of Naval Operations, 5 January 1954, concern- ing the history of the Constellation. 48 SMITHSONL\N STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY "Of course, all three ships [as of 1860] had long since been repaired so often they were like the bowie knife that Cactus Pete Dabney's great great grandfather carried through the Battle of San Jacinto, and with which no one knows how many Indians had been scalped. "I had hefted the knife and said: 'Pete, you and your ancestors have been operating with mighty dull cutlery, or by now the blade would be honed to the size of a toothpick.' " 'That knife,' he retorted, 'has had three new blades, complete through the grips, two new guards, five new bone grips held in place by nine new sets of cross rivets; but take my word for it, that weapon is the same identical bowie knife my old great great grandpappy carried at San Jacinto.' " [signed] JOHN B. HEFFERNAN By direction Note: This letter is issued so that questions of fact about the CONSTELLA- TION can be answered locally. FIGURE 12c.—Page 3 of official letter from Chief of Naval Operations, 5 January 1954, concerning the history of the Constellation. excess tumble in the home come of the ship—new second and third futtocks from the bow to the stern. To renew rot in timbers and to give the ship seven inches more oak from all wales on both hull sides, etc., etc. . . . Tingey, Capt." This says in effect that the entire frame of the ship, outboard of the floors and the first futtocks to the bilge, was replaced, for the futtocks were numbered from the floors to the main or upper deck in wooden shipbuilding! Tingey hardly intended to "renew rot" in timbers. The great alteration seems actually to have been the addition of 7 inches of oak plank over the wales, thus increasing the extreme beam 14 inches. The reputation of the frigate for lack of stiffness or initial stability was not changed by Tingey repairs for, as we have seen, in his letter of 1851, Lenthall mentions her lack of stability as an objection to the vessel. "Home come" is not found in any nautical vocabulary known to this critic. Mr. Polland (p. 20) attempts to show that the Constellation was given a round stern prior to 1851 and refers to a plan "used for a survey of the mizzen mast." This is said to be in National Archives "RG-45," but the Archives staff have not been able to find it, with only this available reference. The date of the plan is stated to be 1829 but the survey it shows is said to be dated 1840. The author does not at- tempt to explain this except by inference, on the grounds of possible convenience to the draughtsman in reworking part of an old plan. The "1829" date is tied to the "destroyed" Samuel Humphreys statement in 1829 in the "Naval War College Library," a convenient, but not necessarily accurate procedure. However, this elimi- NUMBER 5 49 nated the square transom of the old frigate and gave an apparently plausible explana- tion for the round stem of the corvette as part of the old vessel. The relation of "moulded beam" to "extreme beam" seems to have given trouble, but some of this seems to be due to the need of reconciling the 40-foot moulded beam of the frigate with the 41-foot moulded beam of the corvette. The Roosevelt proce- dure of rebuilding would not have produced such an increase, nor would the Committee's version of the 1853-55 rebuilding process. A most interesting "document" is presented by Mr. Polland on pp. 32-41 of his paper. It is titled "The Major Battle Damage, Repairs and Reconstruction to the U.S. Ship 'CONSTELLATION' 1797-1855, Prepared by the Bureau of Construction and Repair—USN, by Rear Admiral Washington L. Capps, Chief of the Bureau, at the direction of Hon. Truman H. Newberry, Assistant Secretary, Department of the Navy, FILE .^-1231-A." This, it will be recalled, is one of the "documents" from the "Navy War College Library" that has already been mentioned in two short citations. We now have, apparently, the full, alleged document-transcript. Unaccountable nautical and shipbuilding phrases appear throughout this manuscript. First there is: "Designed— Joshua Humphreys—Note—Humphreys' design was a model to follow but changes were made by the various constructors building the United States, Constitution, and Constellation" (Polland, p. 32). Then follows, in a reference to American State Papers, vol. 1, pp. 13-16: "Full dimensions in file 1208-s, which also contains data on mate- rials, stores, specifications for interest only as these were generally not followed." This citation is next followed by "Note: Major Stodder worked from a model built in his yard, 1795 and it is very doubtful if Humphreys plans were followed except in the sizes of material." "File 1208-s" cannot be accounted for; it has no reference to American State Papers. No proof is offered that the specifications in the American State Papers were not followed. In view of what has been examined earlier, the so-called Capps' report is as ques- tionable as its "source." There has been no evidence produced that Stodder "worked from a model built at his yard, 1795"; the inaccuracy of this claim has been shown earlier, for no record of a model exists. The repetition of the fiction that Stodder clandestinely substituted his design for the authorized draught of 1794 in so many im- possible methods or situations is now supplemented by the inference that Stodder built from a model, instead of the authorized draught, in his yard, openly, in spite of Trux- tun's presence! Though Humphreys visited the Constellation at launching, he appar- ently did not comment on any change in form or design, for there is nothing of this sort in his papers, and, to emphasize the point, nothing can be found in the Fox papers at Salem, Massachusetts, or others that are known, showing any knowledge by these men of a departure from the authorized hull design, by Stodder or anyone else. In- difference to unauthorized departure from their design does not fit the characters of Humphreys and Fox, as revealed in their papers. It may be repetitious to examine the Capps' report further, but having stated that the "documents" cited by Mr. Polland will be examined, it is necessary to continue. Under the heading "Battle-Damage" (Polland, p. 33), the curious nautical and ship- building nomenclature that has marked the Roosevelt and committee citations is even more extensive; for example, under "Spar-Deck", "hatch rising on two sides" is given 50 SMITHSONL\N STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY for coamings and "transom facing" for, apparendy, transom planking. Also "four 3rd futtocks" are "spliced," rather than scarphed or replaced, with 14 more 3rd futtocks listed. (Futtocks were usually "butted" and not scarphed, by the way.) As will be seen, replacement of lower futtocks was a common repair in the Capps' report. (The reader will remember that they are numbered from the keel upward.) Why the ship required so much repair below the bilge (which normally outlives the topsides in a wooden hull) and so little in the topsides is not stated. On the Berth- Deck both "sheathing" and "ceiling" are described as "spliced." What sheathing is meant cannot be determined, but all sheathing was butted, as in most other planking. Normally "sheathing" is plank on the inside of the bulwarks or is thick plank laid over bottom plank, while "ceiling" is the plank on the inboard face of the frames. Finally, it is stated that she was "Not Hulled" and was not damaged below the water! This makes the replacement of 3rd futtocks, listed as battle damage, utterly incomprehensible. In the report of the frigate's damages in its second action (Polland, p. 34), under "Masts and Rigging," "sailyard" is listed as part of the spars attached to the bowsprit. No such spar name can be found in marine dictionaries. Under "Trim" is listed— repairs to "/s of the port quartergallery." "Trim" is used in this reference to mean decorative parts, which is incorrect. As an estimate this would do, but hardly as a report on a repair. In repairs, fractional quantities are employed only in areas, in estimating, as "1/4 of deck to be recaulked," and not to bulwark or gallery repairs. Next (Polland, p. 35) it is stated that the Constellation was "Hauled" in the Washington Navy Yard, January 1812, whereas Tingey is represented as writing to Stewart that she had been "careened", or hovedown, for repairs (Polland, p. 18). The Washington yard had neither drydock nor marine railway at this time.^^ Tingey is called "Constructor-Cap- tain" again (p. 35)— this time by a Chief of the Bureau of Construction and Repair! Among the oddities in marine terminology are "all bow assembly-[a very modern term applied to construction, not used in 1812] sprit and booms." In this report the "Second futtocks" were all replaced! "all plank with wales above the 12 foot line" is apparently intended to mean the whole topside planking. Apparently this frigate had 36 lodging and dagger knees below the berth deck; unusual to say the least for such knees were commonly placed on the main or gun deck only. Under "Exterior Hull", "chain ports" for chain hawse, "chain iron" for chain plates, and a strange sequence: "hull caulked, treenailed, and coppered." Chain cable were not issued in the Navy until after 1813, by the way. Next, another questionable statement (p. 36) is that in 1828 the "Construction and Repair Department" (nonexistent in 1828) stated "The Constellation was different from other frigates of the class in that she had a fore-castle and quarterdeck-fore and aft with platforms running from fore to aft for marines and with just enough room to work the carronades and for their coil [sic]" (italics mine). The only frigates of her "class" then afloat in the U.S. Navy and serviceable were Congress and, perhaps, the British Macedonian. Both had quarterdeck and forecastle connected by gangways, as was usual in frigates of all nations. So far as can now be determined, the forecastle and quarterdeck, connected by gangways, were never altered in these two frigates; but Congress 2nd was built with a spardeck instead. The frigates authorized in 1794 were large enough, however, to have wide gangways on which carronades were mounted. NUMBER 5 51 but this strained the ships and soon the gangway batteries were removed. It should be noted that the report uses "platforms" for gangways, "coil" for recoil, and elsewhere "grates" for hatch gratings and "hatch boards" for hatch covers. The ship had continu- ous bottom repairs, according to the Capps' report, for in 1829 she had, in addition to "213 new timbers and stanchions", "27 first futtocks, 53 second futtocks, and 68 third futtocks all new". On the "Spar-Deck" something called a "bowsprit hook" and, sur- prisingly, new "mast holes," are listed among the repairs! She also had new "fore and mainsail sheet bitts" (Polland, p. 37) and "15 feet of stem, cutwater and heads," "10 fore-hooks under keel, coppered and after calking [sic] inside and out." It is to be feared the "transcriber" or author went adrift, for a good part of the "transcript" makes no sense. What "fore and mainsail sheet bitts" were on a square-rigged ship is a mystery. The repairs of 1832 (p. 37) show she had a "snow-mast" instead of a properly named trysail mast or spencer-mast, all new plank to "anchor ports," whatever these were, and was fitted with something called "two messangers [sic] to the main topsaid [sic] sheet bitts." Since messengers were cordage that did not lead to bitts, identification is imfx>ssible. Another innovation also appears: "quarter-piece on starboard hull, scuppered leaded together with plank sheer coppered." It would be interesting to know what this repair was intended to be and why the planksheer should be coppered—if this "transcript" were authentic. The ignorance of proper terms used in wooden ship- building displayed in the alleged Capps' report makes it impossible to take this "docu- ment" seriously, even if it could not be otherwise established that its source is wholly imaginary. The repairs of 1835 mention "longcombing" on main hatch, "new platforms [for gangways] running fore and aft for marines"; the capstan is "scarphed," "new cross cable" and "cross bitt" are fitted. Why and where a capstan would be scarphed, and what "cross cables" were, are additional mysteries. "Hogging of the keel filled with form [sic] [?] and lead and a false keel attached with the entire hull re-coppered includ- ing the keel and false keel after the ship was completely caulked." This is the way it stands in Polland's paper at any rate: a collection of errors in nautical nomenclature (Polland, p. 38). According to this document the Constellation was at the Norfolk yard from 1845 to 1852, hauled 26 February 1853. There is no need to examine this part of the report in much detail but it is useful to mention a few more oddities: "bottom cottoned and caulked," a "new offiers [sic] quarterwalk across the deck" (Polland, p. 39). Also "bow yoke and hook" (p. 40) are mentioned. The "quarterwalk across the deck" cannot be identified nor "bow yoke and hook," though possibly breast hook may have been in- tended; "mast sockets" and "hold walks" (p. 40) —"mast sockets" are presumably mast steps, but what "hold walks" might be is impossible to say. It is needless to discuss most of Mr. Polland's statements in his Summary (pp. 93- 98) for they repeat matter that has been examined in the Roosevelt Brief discussion (pages 17-22). The remainder (Polland, pp. 96-97) can quickly be disposed of: an "Inspector's Report January 1854," found in the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library "Group 10, Naval Affairs, Hyde Park, N.Y.," which is transcribed to read "the counter rounded and the new guns delivered . . . the iron work has been cleaned and painted and will be refitted on the ship and masting. . ." Why the "inspector" should report 52 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY FIGURE 13.—Corvette Constellation, showing round stern. "the counter rounded" when the round-stern was an integral part of the ship's struc- ture that, according to the committee's claim, had been added long before 1853, is unexplainable. The next "document" (Polland, p. 97) is represented to be the whole report of Tingey, at Washington, in "December-1811." This is the "Naval War College Library" document mentioned in footnote 24, p. 24, M.H.M. It reads: In January 1812 the ship was brought up to the dock and was found to be in fair con- dition but not in condition to be an active man-of-war and suitable to engage a British ship of equal size of arms. She had excessive tumble-home due to the excessive curve from the widest beam to the bulwark rail. Truxtun and Murray had tried to remedy this by replacing bulwarks in dL more upright position, but this had come in way of the standing rigging and through the working of the vessel had cut the shrouds through on more than one occasion. The excessive tumble-home had also meant the death of a few men who had climbed outboard of the gun deck to ram home or load in the heat of battle. These unfortunate souls had been swept over when the ship came about sharply or in several instances were surprised by the firing of a carronade from above and lost their balance, being lost at sea during engagements when there was no time to pick them up. The ship has a strange feature in that she is very sharp forward and this probably accounts for her great speed—some of which is lost by the flat transom that runs from starboard to lar- board and from the taffrail under water to the post. NUMBER 5 53 Brig Adaline—water ways and top timber on the main deck much strained & open breast hook over the bowsprit started bowsprit beam sprung fore topmast cap damaged cathead on the starboard bow and plankshire sprung and split & broken, trestle trees and crosstrees broken & split, flying jib boom gone fore boom and gaff sprung, bulwark on starboard side quarter split and damaged, mast hoops mostly gone, fore topsail and fore yard sprung and rendered unfit for service, starboard swifter chafed mostly off fore and main peak downhaul gone top mast and flying jib stays chafed and spauled, gammoning of bowsprit gone, lifts gone top said sheets & tyes much injured, throat halyard block gone, starboard top mast backstay dead eye and chain gone clue of the jib gone & jib sheet, sprit and fore topsail split main and fore sail cut and blown to pieces, square sail cut and blown away, rigging of jib boom all gone . . . lanyards to the fore shrouds chafed and spauled no long boat nor gaily .... to repair we recommend the waterways, timberheads and top timber on the main deck to be recaulked and breast hook over the bowsprit bolted, bowsprit beam secured with a thick clamp bolted on the forward side fore top to be repaired & cap to be hooped. New cathead and plankshire on starboard side, new trestle and crosstrees, new flying jibboom, fore boom & gaff, swifter on starboard side new, bulkwdrds repaired. Fore & main peak & downhaul top- mast and flying jib. gammoning of bowsprit to be replaced new throat hal- yard block, top mast dead eye strap & chain replaced, clew of the jib in fore topsail to be repaired, new main, fore & square sail. Rigging for the jib room . . . lanyards to be replaced with new long boat, galley & cooking stove to be replaced with new, remnant of main, fore sail & rigging & spars to be sold. 4 Sept. 1837. FIGURE 14.—Example of shipbuilding survey reports for repairs of Maine vessels, using proper shipbuilding nomenclature, 1836-1837. Punctuation and spelling as in original. (Courtesy of V^illiam A. Baker, N.A.) The hull planking of the ship is very thin especially in the wales and in the thickness of the port coverings. There are no quaker guns aboard and when a gun is out of position for any reason there being no substitute to fill the opening which could bring on engagement from the less equal hull in battle. The wound-work on the masts should be renew'd and in their sted [sic]-iron should be used to provide im-movabl' strength for masts and booms. The boats aboard could hardly be called sea-worthy and if all were lost [sic] they would probably take many poor souls to a watery grave due to leakage and rot. It was reported by the last Captain that two guns burst on the voyage from the Barbary Coast to this yard and that those being old carronades bored for 24 but worn to perhaps 26 pounds [sic]. The interior is shameful and this is not due to the command of the last Captain, as his books lead me to believe Barron is at fault and he should be responsible for the repairs needed by this ship. Tingey Washington-December—1811" [italics mine]. 54 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY Parts of this "document" were examined earlier (p. 33) but the whole "report" adds to the humor of the Roosevelt brief and the authors' documentation. The "document" is dated December 1811 (in the "NWCL papers" the day of writing is commonly omitted) but describes the condition of the ship in 18121 It gives a most fantastic description of the effect of the "excessive" tumble home and of the attempts to correct it by the vessel's captains, who are presumed to have practically rebuilt the ship's topsides while in commission! The description of men loading outside the gun- ports does not suggest how they obtained foothold there, so that they could be swept away in tacking. This would also mean that the frigate then heeled enough to bring the men into the water, if they were perched outboard, so she must have taken in water through the open ports on every tack! I wonder if anyone has seen any reference to an issue of quaker guns to U.S. Navy vessels? "Thin plank at wales" would mean the bottom plank was even thinner, for the wales were the thickest planks outboard. The lack of quaker guns was certainly lamentable, since the ports could not be filled; this would lead, if the reasons given can be interpreted, to the enemy attacking the weaker side of the frigate! The strange use of "hull" to mean side, "starboard hull" for star- board side, is another of the errors that appear in this report. In the BibUography of the paper (p. 112) a letter of Delano to "Harte," Chief of the Bureau of Construction and Repair, 27 February 1853, is quoted. Delano knew the chief well and his name was Hartt. The paper contains a "Glossary of Terms Used Herein," but unfortunately does not contain any of the terminology in question, either in the Roosevelt brief or in the sup- porting documentation. It will be asked why so much emphasis has been placed on the use of the incorrect or unprofessional, even humorous, nautical terminology and language that is so extensively shown in the Roosevelt brief and in its supporting documenta- tion. The answer is that the authors chose to employ what obviously are intended to appear as "official reports" of competent, professional men concerning the tech- nical matters involved. Therefore, in evaluating these, it is very desirable to establish the validity of the authorship given for each "report.'' If these, upon examination, appear not to have been written in professional nautical language, but instead show extensive ignorance of the proper nomenclature and terminology of sailing ships and of wooden shipbuilding, then the "reports" are discredited. But it is necessary to show that the impeachment is not based on chance errors growing out of haste, carelessness, or mistakes in transcribing the reports. And to do this, it is necessary to show a large number of examples, particularly the most glaringly incorrect nomenclature that was used. Tingey, Truxtun, and Capps have been cited, in the footnotes of the brief, as sources for reports and statements that exhibit an almost complete ignorance of technical terms that would be known to the most junior officer in their times. Delano, the experienced naval constructor, is credited with an ignorance of the terminology of his profession that would have shamed the newest apprentice in his age. Shipbuilding nomenclature in the days of sailing ships was more extensive than today, when a great deal of the special nomenclature of the past is no longer needed. However, the peculiar shipbuilding and nautical nomenclature of the period of sail NUMBER 5 55 has been preserved in old works on naval architecture and shipbuilding, as well as in old books on seamanship. There are, also, old and new marine dictionaries that supplement the technical books. Altogether, these sources give a very complete vocab- ulary of shipbuilding and nautical terms that would be used by officers of the Navy, naval constructors, and shipwrights in the periods under discussion. It must now be apparent that "The Theodore Roosevelt Collection" of Constel- lation documents, etc., can be impeached. This can be done not only by investigating the claimed locations of the collection and the obvious impossibility of verifying its existence but also by examining the alleged extracts or "transcripts," which have been pubUshed by the Constellation Committees, showing an almost complete ignor- ance of shipbuilding and naval terminology and nomenclature. Yet, on the very flimsy evidence that has been used to support the Constellation claims, a grossly inaccurate "history" of the ship has been created and imposed upon what must be a naive public. This has led to heavy expenditures of pubhc and private funds that cannot be justified on any "historical" baisis. The corvette Constellation is of historical interest as the last saiUng man-of-war, designed and built as such by the United States Navy in 1853-55 at Norfolk, Virginia. Therefore, her restoradon should be as the corvette shown in the C&R plans of this ship, not as the Baltimore frigate of 1797, or as a frigate of any other date. In any attempt to create a frigate, out of this corvette, a historical ship will be destroyed to produce a monstrously inaccurate "reconstruction." NOTES ^CHARLES SCARLETT^ JR., and others, "Yankee Race Horse: The U.S.S. Constellation," Maryland Historical Magazine (March 1961), vol. 56, no. 1, pp. 15-31. Hereinafter referred to as M.H.M. ''LEON D. POLLAND, The Frigate "Constellation": An Outline of the Present Restoration (Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, 1966). ' The chronological history of the building of the Constellation at Baltimore and descrip- tion of the building organization is taken from American State Papers, Documents, Legislative and Executive of Congress of the United States, from the First Session of the First to the Second Session of the 18th Congress inclusive, commencing March 3, 1789, and ending March 5, 1825 (Washington, 1834), vol. 1: Naval Affairs. " Plan in Vice-Admiral PARIS, Souvenirs de Marine, Collection de Plans ou Dessins de Navires et de Bateaux Anciens ou Modernes, Existants on Disparus avec les Elements numeriques Necessaire a Construction (Paris, 1892), vol. V, plate 277: L'Indien. See also HOWARD I. CHAPELLE, The History of the American Sailing Navy (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.), plate iv. " American State Papers, vol. 1. ^ A .^G^i^^ f^(j- ^'^'" ^^'^' I'^t^^kif-^i^ ^^S4^d^xJ0iuc'^u6ifui^aJ' ■lM^ca.^i^ dfph>ii'i^uU), mk^i^ii^'^^tt^M ^^^^«^*^ a.<^mt^.. dfiae/l cuMn/iei IMJUV.. JIL /Ja^i^ 4^e^ii^, MtA^m^ ufkii'iv Aoi^ ^U4i- a^A2/ FIGURE 1.—Letter from the War Office to David Stodder, 7 April 1796 (National Archives, Washington, D.C, Record Group 45, Entry 374, Letters sent concerning Naval matters, Oc- tober 1790-June 1798). more comprehensive vehicle of my own, embodying our archeological findings as well as the documentary research in various repositories. On 7 May 1966 this writer was granted the privilege of presenting his 131-page paper before the Chesapeake and Hampton Roads Section of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (S.N.A.M.E.). Since that date, every report and comment on that paper brought to the attention of this office has been of approval. The second edition has been equally well received.^ NUMBER 5 61 ^iwx^' ,^9 99^ fi^d/ii Afdm 4ymii^4,^Ut/-dll^ M^/^,^^ eH*iM.u^uea/if id0M. Van. 4i4Aj<^ ^ a^ t£, ut^trui^u. dm/c a^ /Uo MMT^ ti* FIGURE 2.—Letter from the Secretary of the Navy to James Hacket, 19 May 1795 (National Archives, Washington, D.C, Record Group 45, Entry 374, Letters sent concerning Naval mat- ters, October 1790-June 1798). It was not until 1968 that Mr. Chapelle prepared a response to our 1961 article, questioning the documentation which had been accepted to begin with in good faith on the part of this committee. This writer long ago has said such documents were pre- sented solely on the basis of their existence. Referring to my paper of 7 May 1966 Mr. Chapelle says "The result is much repetition of the Maryland Historical Magazine article claims. . " Mr. Chapelle continues to say that the paper presents this writer's own design for the conversion of a sloop-of-war to a frigate. The chief criticism is directed at several documents which appear to be typewritten transcriptions of original papers. These are the papers which this committee has re- viewed and subsequently discarded since their publication by the Maryland Historical Society Magazine eight years ago. There are, of course, other such documents which this author feels cannot be cast out.'* The information contained in such papers is sometimes repeated in other docu- ments located hundreds of miles distant which often infers a basis or at least a con- nection for the transcription. We cannot arbitrarily discount letters, sketches, and plans when they do not entirely reflect professional language or for that matter necessarily agree with our views. Neither can we believe that papers found in various and wide- 62 SMITHSONLVN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY /fi^^, ^^ JUjM^, l/fS-. « cyy^.^/f^^^f^*^t^^ftfy^npy^ .^^n^ ^***y^ ^'^-"^' ' ^*^ ,,^;,^ ...f*^ .>.^ y(^ j^ET «5n»fe^ /fm ij^ /'iUyoCy, FIGURE 3.—Letter from Timothy Pickering to Joshua Humphreys, 20 May 1795 (National Archives, Washington, D.C, Record Group 45, Entry 374, Letters sent concerning Naval matters October 1790-June 1798). NUMBER 5 63 spread repositories can have been (except in isolated cases) placed in those files for any but the most valid of reasons; and we are speaking now of, in addition to the Newport Naval Training Station in Rhode Island, such institutions as the Library of Congress, the National Archives, the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, the Department of Naval History, and various historical societies. In any event, the few transcribed papers presented here as evidence (even though that evidence be secondary) are submitted on the basis of their very existence.* As some- times happens, this may be as close to the truth as we can get.. Fortunately, such is not the case, since enough valid evidence exists in the remaining original documents as well as in the physical structure of the ship to indicate this Constellation as having been reconstructed from Truxtun's own ship. She has never lost her identity. As is often the case in a work of this nature, it is not possible to gather all the mate- rial here without the help of able and dedicated assistance. In this effort, the author called upon Mr. Michael Morgan, historian of the Construction and Repair Committee for the early records of United States ships. His enthusiastic response resulted in the fol- lowing narration regarding the construction of the Chesapeake in Norfolk, as well as many of our observations on the character of Thomas Truxtun. In the following pages, we shall present the case for the historical and structural integrity of the Constellation frigate of Baltimore. This committee was limited to less than three months in which to present that case. This writer, of course, would have preferred an additional three months which could have been profitably used. He is, however, grateful to the Smithsonian Institution for the opportunity to put together the following notes on behalf of the Constellation. It is, of course, necessary to "define the problem" in order that the reader may draw his conclusions based upon the material presented. The reader may note at least three hypotheses by Mr. Chapelle and by this writer. He may conclude that the subject of this work, the Frigate Constellation was (1) broken up completely and destroyed in 1853-55 and the present ship is the result of a completely new construction; (2) hauled up and lengthened by twelve feet just forward of the midbody; (3) lengthened as above but completely torn down in the process, retaining only the keel. It is apparent that the two latter conclusions would infer the continuous existence of the Frigate, differing only in degree of change. We are aware, too, that even the Constitution now carries but a portion of her original keel, although she has not lost her original lines. Mr. Chapelle does not accept as valid evidence the employment of transcribed documents which indicate some disagreement in design between David Stodder, the Baltimore builder, and Joshua Humphreys, who submitted the preliminary draught drawn by William Doughty. Further, basic departures from the original draught are indicated in the hull structure of the ship. Difficulties at Baltimore, as well as elsewhere (Figures 1-3) were not exceptional and could lead to modifications of original ideas. Comments Page 4 Mr. Chapelle states that this committee presents its 1961 claims ^ based chiefly on a brief prepared by Franklin Delano Roosevelt and "Another presentation was made in a paper read before a meeting of an American professional society's sections in 1966, supplementing the 1961 publication." This may be somewhat misleading to the reader, as the 1961 publication, based on Franklin Delano Roosevelt's memo- randum was presented as a magazine article in the available space of 16 pages. In 1966, the presentation to the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers contained 131 pages, only a small part of which traces its origin to Roosevelt's writings. The second edition of that paper, is now 188 pages in book form. Quite a "supplement" to a magazine article! Page 7 Mr. Chapelle states that on 27 March 1794 Congress authorized the construction of six frigates, three of 44 guns and three of 36 guns. A simple reading of the authori- zation act reveals that Congress authorized four 44s and two 36s.'' This may seem to be a minor error, but Mr. Chapelle builds upon it to create an argument for his position that the Constellation was built according to the official plans. This contention is summarized on page 31 of Mr. Chapelle's paper. While discussing the Fox state- ment of 27 November 1826 Mr. Chapelle, commenting on Fox's claim that timber prepared for the Norfolk frigate had been used to finish the Constellation says, "Since the Norfolk ship was one of the three 36s on the official draught it is obvious that the official design was used for the Baltimore frigate since the timbers on official design moulds could be used." This might be a strong argument, except for the fact that the Norfolk ship was a 44 and not a 36.^ The history of the frigate built at Norfolk is rather muddled and calls for a detailed examination. The distribution of the six frigates is clearly stated in a letter from the Secretary of War to the House of Representatives on 29 December 1794. In this letter, the Secretary reports on the progress of the six ships and he states that the 44s were to be built at Philadelphia, New York, Boston, and Norfolk. The 36s were to be built at Baltimore and Portsmouth, New Hampshire.* A year later another progress report was made, from which the following is the report on the Norfolk ship: 64 NUMBER 5 65 Statement of the progress made in building a frigate, to carry forty-four guns, at Norfolk, under the direction of Mr. Josiah Fox, Naval Constructor, and Captain Richard Dale, Sup>erintendent. The keel is completed and laid on the blocks; the pieces are scarfed and bolted to each other in the best manner. The stern frame is complete and ready for raising. More than two- thirds of the live oak for the frame is arrived, which is worked to the various moulds; great part of the timbers are bolted together in frames, and are ready for raising. The gun deck and the lower deck are all finished, and are ready to put into the ship. The plank for the decks' is not yet arrived. The outside plank, as likewise the ceiling, are preparing, and some part have been delivered. All the copper necessary for securing the various parts of the ship together, and for the sheathing the bottom, is in the public stores. The keelson and midship dead woods are complete. The masts, bowsprit, yards and all the other spars, are cut, and several of them are received at the yard. The carlings, ledges, coamings for the hatchways, and the partners for the mast, are now in hand. The iron work for the hull and materials are getting ready. The caboose, with a hearth, forge armorer's tools, spare coppers, boilers, &c. are complete. All the necessary contracts are entered into by the agent, and the articles contracted for are daily arriving.* From this report, it can be seen that quite a bit of work was done on the Norfolk ship before peace was made with Algiers. According to the terms of the original authorization act, work was to cease on the frigates if peace was made with Algiers. On 20 April 1796, however. Congress approved the completion of three of the frigates {Constitution, United States, Constellation) and the President was authorized to sell those perishable materials that were not needed to complete the remaining three ships. The other materials were to be stored until they were needed.^° It is at this point that Fox maintains that the material from the discontinued ship at Norfolk was sent to Baltimore to complete the Constellation. This cotild be true, but if it is, then the timber had to be reworked since the Norfolk ship was a 44 and the Baltimore ship a 36. On 16 July 1798 Congress authorized the building of the other three frigates {Chesapeake, Congress, and President) and authorized the President to use any materials on hand for these ships.'^ It appears that the original work that had been started on the Norfolk ship had been dismantled and the construction was resumed in 1798. This second vessel laid down at Norfolk was nominally a 44 but she was built to a different design from the other 44s. In his History of the American Sailing Navy, page 135, Mr. Chapelle has the following to say about her: When work stopped on the frigates she was so little advanced that the order in effect canceled her construction. Fox had joined with Truxtun and others in objecting to the size of the 44-gun frigates, and their arguments had much effect on the authorities. As a result Fox was permitted to prepare a new design for a 44, of reduced size, that would have the approval of Truxtun and other objectors. The authorization for the revised design does not exist (at least it has not been found), but the correspondence shows that the Secretary of the Navy was aware that the new ship was smaller than the previous 44s for he inquired as to her dimensions and tonnage when she was under construction. Among the Fox Papers there is a drawing, entitled Congress, which may be her building plan. The new ship was launched, under the name Chesapeake on June 20, 1799. There are several points to be made about this passage. The frigate Chesapeake was launched on 2 December 1799 not 20 June 1799.'^ Mr. Chapelle has confused the frigate with a sloop built under the name Chesapeake but this name was changed 66 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY to Patapsco.^^ The most interesting part of this passage from Mr. Chapelle's book is the statement that the Chesapeake was built to a new design and the authorization for that new design has not been located. Two letters shed additional light on this subject. The first is from Abashai Thomas for the Secretary of the Navy to Josiah Fox and states as follows: Sir Since I have been in the Navy Office I have always considered the Chesapeake as cal- culated to carry 30-18 pounders & 14 Twelves. Today it has been discovered that she was originally intended to carry 28-18 pounders and 16 nines—I cannot find that any orders have been given to alter her from the first design, & yet the letter covering directions to you to have the Carriages made designates 12 pounders—As the Guns are now preparing & will soon be ready to send off—I am directed by the Secretary to request that you will be pleased as soon as may be to forward to this Office correct information on the subject. . . P.S. On Shewing this letter to Mr. Stoddert, he observed that he had determined the Quarter Deck Guns should be 9 pounders—therefore it is only the numbers we want—Dimensions for making the Carriages are inclosed this day to Mr. Pennock. . .^* The above letter is dated 26 October 1799 as is the following letter from the Secretary of the Navy to William Pennock: Sir A Mistake has been made in giving directions for making the Carriages for the Guns of the Chesapeake—She is to mount Eighteen pounders & nine pounders—You will please to have the Carriages made accordingly. . . . PS—Be pleased to inform me as early as may be whether the Frigate is pierced for 30 or 28 Guns on the Gun Deck, and what number on the Quarter Deck &c. The dimensions of the Nine Pounders are enclosed. . . ." These letters indicate that not only were changes made in the design of the Chesapeake but also that authorization for such changes could not be found in 1799. Notice the confusion that existed in the Secretary of the Navy's office as to the number of guns Chesapeake carried on her gun deck, where a change in the number of gun- ports was a major change in the ship. Mr. Chapelle accepts these changes in the Chesapeake even though no authorization for them exists. He does not, however, accept changes in the design of the Constellation (changes that caused less confusion than those made on the Chesapeake) on the grounds that no record of the authorization for such changes can be found. Page 11 The construction of ships' draughts are irrelevant to the discussion at hand. Page 12 Mr. Chapelle's comment concerning the original offsets of this ship, "now rep- resented in the Fox papers at Salem, Massachusetts, by a museum transcript, the orig- inal having been extracted unlawfully by a recent visitor" does not go unnoticed. The intent and meaning is clear enough and we hope that he will soon have the oppor- tunity to elaborate upon this interesting statement. Page 13 Once again, it is not quite understood how a description of diagonal planking and dagger knees, etc., bears upon the question at hand: the authentic nature of the Constellation frigate of Baltimore. NUMBER 5 67 Page 14 We note Mr. Chapelle's statement that ''rebuilding began by hauling the ship ashore" (italics mine). At least there is agreement on that point; however, rebuilding does not imply the breaking up of a ship: '" Something didn't sound right! Hauled up? Was a ship 'hauled clear' of the water for dismantling? Certainly not. It has always been the practice to disassemble the top hamper and upper works with the ship afloat. As weight is removed from the topsides, the hulk rises in the water allow- ing dismantling to the floor timbers whereupon the remaining keel assembly is easily hauled and torn apart for salvage. This is the procedure to this very day. This writer, within recent years had an opportunity to take part in dismantling the last United States Battleship, Kentucky, and the above procedure was followed just as it was a century before. At this point, let us at least establish that the ship was, indeed, hauled up,'^ and let us fix the date (see Figure 4). In attempting to build a case for the construction of new ships to replace original vessels through the Navy's "manipulation" of funds, Mr. Chapelle reaches back to the case of the John Adams, the Macedonian, and the Congress. We can find no record of the Navy denying the facts that the original ships were broken up and new ships built. It may be appropriate here to voice the sentiments of this writer on the wisdom of employing records of ships other than the Constellation to prove a point. From page 93 in the Summary of this writer's paper of 7 May 1966: As befits a work of this nature, the following summary is appended. Data contributing cer- tain and direct validity is listed here. Transcriptions will not be considered nor will evidence be presented pertaining to any but this ship [italic added]. It follows that typewritten unsigned documents may be presented as secondary evidence only when supported by » primary source. Again it will not be considered valid to state that the files of another ship, or other ships, indicate structural histories which have not been found to follow here. The question has been, "What happened to this ship?" In the face of the foregoing, what happened to the Peacock, the Adams, the Macedonian, the Congress, the Cyane, etc., is of passing moment. It follows that this writer will not consider valid here, evidence pertcuning to ships other than the Constellation. That being the case, we must discount several large segments of extra- neous matter from Mr. Chapelle's manuscript. It may be well to say also that it is universally agreed that the ship, from her launching until the day she entered Gosport the North Slip over half a century later, was the original Constellation. If this is so, interpretation of the documents involved is irrelevant. Page 16 Here Mr. Chapelle states that the 74-gun Franklin scheduled to be razeed was instead "rebuilt" (Mr. Chapelle's quotes) meaning, of course, that she was surrepti- tiously built entirely as a new ship. Again, we can find no evidence that the Navy denies the fact that this was a new ship and as Mr. Chapelle states, "Bennet says she was built entirely with maintenance funds." 68 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY ,^^,^2.-'^ '/ ^ y^'i »»-«*»,- V .£^»% /^ C-^ ■> d FIGURE 4.—Letter from Samuel S. Breese to Joseph Smith, 24 February 1853 (National Archives, Washington, D.C, Record Group 19). NUMBER 5 69 Page 18 Among other misleading statements by Mr. Chapelle, we find that Roosevelt has incorrectly determined that Stodder "let it be known that he disagreed with the official design, did not respect Humphreys as a designer and would accept no orders from Truxtun." The probable source is given in the Fox Papers, Fox to Truxtun 2 April 1795 and ". . . this is too late a date for any substitution in design, for the timber required in the official design had begun to arrive in the yard. Although the above Fox letter is dated 2 April 1795, we have no indication that Stodder made his statement on that date; only that Fox signed his own letter on that date. Stodder may or may not have, made his statement long before and we should remember, too, that this was secondhand information. It should be especially noted that one of the major considerations of Mr. Chapelle's discussion is that of the frame spacing. This will be discussed at greater length in the following pages. For the moment, this writer will observe that the ■ timber and room turned out to be something other than one would expect if we are to believe that the Humphreys' draught (really the Doughty draught) of 1794 was followed by the builder. Further, it should be emphasized that the existence of a drawing does not indicate the exist- ence of a structure. This, too, will be discussed at length as our discussion develops. The change in frame spacing and structure described by Franklin Delano Roosevelt actually did take place as we shall attempt to prove, although he left little for us to find in the way of his own source material. We do not know from where his information was derived but we do have the ship in Baltimore Harbor and as Mr. Roosevelt said, she "was the work of one David Stodder. . ." Mr. Chapelle takes the liberty of stating that "it appears that Stodder could have had no time for the . substitution of design . . . had the situation described by Roosevelt actually existed" (italics mine). In the experience of this writer in serious research, it just "appears" that the use of that word should be stressed as suggestive of a fact, since it "appears" that the truth is not really known. The fact is it "appears' that changes were made in the structure although records no longer exist, unless we choose to investigate the one greatest, most revealing record of all—the ship now in Baltimore Harbor. It is sad to relate that Mr. Chapelle, to our knowledge, in more than 20 years has not taken the time to visit the Constellation. To elaborate for a moment on the above observation, a "visit" to the ship is a rather mild term. Nothing short of a full fledged survey would reveal anything close to the many answers that this hull might contain within her planks. This writer has participated in several dozen ship surveys which, by the way, entail dirty coveralls, much sweat and grime, freezing weather and Hades hot sum- mers, in the bowels of the vessel—and all the while making notes and sketches which he will later transcribe to permanent records. A far cry from one depending upon his books for all the answers. It must be quite obvious that only a combination of the two can provide the reader with the answers he seeks, and this combination has long since become a way of life for the Constellation Construction and Repair Committee. Mr. Chapelle tells us "It is evident that Roosevelt was unacquainted with the temperment of Truxtun, who was a very proud man, with a keen sense of duty, and who was also meticulous in demanding recognition of his authority. To suggest that this man would stand aside, supinely, in any situation as has been described, is ludicrous." 70 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY This is a rather heavy handed reading of Truxtun's character. It is true that Truxtun was often dogmatic in his dealings with others, but it is a restricted view of Truxtun's character. In reality, he was a complex man. During Constellation's initial cruise, Truxtun discovered that his second lieutenant, William Cowper, was inattentive to duty, allowing the sails to go untrimmed, the rigging to go slack and lines to be dragged in the water. On several occasions Truxtun brought these matters to Cowper's attention, but the lieutenant failed to correct them in the course of events. Truxtun wrote Cowper a note telling him in no uncertain terms that these matters must be corrected. This letter included the following passage: I have been told, that you say it would take an Attorney, to learn, and retain the Instructions in Print, I have only to observe, that when a School Boy at a Vacation, I have had three Times as much assigned me as a Task, and did not think it difficult. It is unnecessary for me at present to add, I therefore shall exp>ect in the future the Orders of the Ship more attended to, and a Consistency more in Character observed." Cowper replied to Truxtun's note with a letter of his own, which is now lost. Truxtun, however, again replied to Cowper's note and this second letter of Truxtun's appears in the Naval records.^^ At this point, Mr. Chapelle's interpretation of Truxtun's character should be considered and its validity tested in the light of the Captain's reply. According to Mr. Chapelle, we would expect a similar letter to the one quoted above; a letter in which Truxtun would demand "meticulous recognition of his authority." The reverse is tioie. In Truxtun's second letter, he notes the inexperience of the officers and he accepts Cowper's promises, which apparently were made in the lost letter. Truxtun ends with the following paragraph: Good Subordination must always be strictly kept up, among a Number of Men, but in being strict in Discipline, Justness must not be forgotten, or the Savage Character had Recourse to. Ordering of Punishment is to a Man possessing the Principles of a Gentlemen, always pain- ful, and however irritable he may become from vexatious Circumstances, frequently occurring; the more he reflects, and the less frequent his Punishments are, the better; In fact they should only happen, when indispensably necessary, and their Effect will be the greater.^ This certainly is not the writing of a man with an excessively proud nature that Mr. Chapelle suggests. Truxtun was not that simple a man. This, on the other hand, is not to suggest that Truxtun would have allowed Stodder to make any changes in the plans without question. Truxtun would have questioned these changes, but in an orderly manner. An examination of an incident that occurred in 1800 will demon- strate how Truxtun might have handled Stodder in 1795. As Mr. Chapelle states, Truxtun had a meticulous sense of duty which he applied not only to others but to himself as well. In 1800, the frigate Congress was dismasted during a storm and Truxtun was appointed president of a court of inquiry to investi- gate the circumstances. While the court of inquiry was being arranged, several members of the crew of the Congress attempted to incite their shipmates to mutiny. Truxtun apparently asked for authority to order a court martial for these men, as can be seen from the following letter from the Secretary of the Navy Stoddart to Truxtun, dated 15 April 1800: NUMBER 5 71 Captain Sever had reported to me, the mutinous conduct of some of the Crew of the Frigate Congress—As Commander of the Squadron, you might have ordered a Court Martial at cmce, without appealing, to me, & I am sorry you did not do it. I do not like this method of appealing to the head of the Department, by officers, who are themselves competent to the object of appeal—I have now directed Captain Sever to apply to you for a Court Martial, which be please to order.^ It is evident that Truxtun had been unsure of his authority and had asked Stod- dart for a clarification. In 1795 a similar situation existed and Truxtun reacted similarly as an examination of the following exchange of letters shows. On 2 April 1795 Josiah Fox wrote the following letter to Truxtun: a few weeks ago I happened to meet with a Builder who resides at Kensington (and who I apprehend a person of Character & Reputation) the Subject of our Discourse turning on the Frigates, which are now building in the United States the person informed me he had been in company with Builder Stodder of Baltimore a few days before (I believe at Kensington) who told him he had seen the Draught of the Frigates which he appeared to dispise [sic] and told the said person he knew how to Draught & Model the Frigates much better than the persons who were employed by the Secretary of War for that purpose & that he would not build the Frigate at Baltimore agreeable to the Draught nor War Office directions—but would do just as he pleased, saying he could build a Ship better than any other person or an expression somewhat similar, therefore should not pay any attention to the Moulds or Bevellings sent him for the purpose of Building the said Frigate, neither would he act in Conformity to Directions from any persons appointed to Superintend the aforesaid Frigate—there were many other expressions which has escaped my memory—as it appeared to give the aforesaid f>erson some reasonable Grounds for Supposing the Constructor of the Navy of the U.S. & Capt who is appointed to superintend the Building were deficient in abilites [sic] to conduct the Business and tending also to convey prejudices against the Office of the executive department of Govern- ment, I think it my duty to acquaint you of those circumstances in order to prevent any bad consequences that might result from such proceedings and likewise to let you Know that if any alterations should be made in the Said Frigate (not by express order of the Department of War) that it was premeditated by Builder Stodder previous to Building the Said Frigate—I think Samuel Owner [Bower?] was present at the time this Conversation passed^ Truxtun's response to this letter is similar to his reaction during the situation aboard the Congress in 1800. In both cases, he seemed to be unsure of his authority and he wrote to his superiors for clarification. Although Truxtun's letter is apparently lost, its content can be inferred by the reply from the War Department. This letter to Truxtun was written on 7 April 1795. It acknowledges Truxton's letter of the previous day and states that the instructions of the Secretary of War to the con- structors have been examined and these instructions give the authority to the super- intendent, confining a constructor to the plans. If a deviation from the plans was made, the superintendent should file a report to the Secretary of War, who vv^ould compel conformity or discharge the constructor.'^ With the authority to deal with any deviation in the plans clarified, Truxtun set out to deal with Stodder. Again, unfortunately, Truxtun's letter is lost but Stodder's reply of 14 April 1795 (see p. 75) makes it clear that Truxtun had questioned some of the changes. Our comments will follow in proper sequence. Page 19 This writer must again take exception to Mr. Chapelle's use of the statement that "Aside from the effects of her two battles with French frigates there is no 72 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY official record yet found of any serious damage from gunfire" (italics mine). This does not indicate that there was no damage; only that no records have yet been found. Although the above example is one of minor significance, Mr. Chapelle often uses this phraseology as a valid statement of fact. Mr. Chapelle's criticism of Mr. Roosevelt's "curiously nonprofessional language" is, in most instances, unfair and often attempts to show himself in a contrasting light of the cold efficient professional. The reader should not be deceived by these tactics which seek to place the chosen target in a defensive attitude. The psychological reac- tion of the reader or the observer is "supposed" to be one which will look to the obvious professional for the true facts and who is obviously the professional, the expert in each case? Mr. Chapelle, of course, who is now free to pass judgment. Mr. Chapelle emphasizes the nomenclature used by Mr. Roosevelt and almost everyone else who takes a view opposite to his own. Here we note that Roosevelt's "old line and wound works" does not appear in the nautical dictionaries, indicating, of course, that the late President was an unprofessional (and unwelcome) intruder. Throughout Mr. Chapelle's manuscript, he pounds away at the unprofessional lan- guage employed by transcribers when the truth is that, in many cases, they could not decipher the old English handwriting in the original documents. This is especially true in cases where technical terms are employed. To illustrate this point, the reader has only to glance at the papers reproduced within these pages. There have been typewritten sheets submitted here as "true transcribed copies" and indeed we accepted some in good faith—in 1961, but they have since been dis- carded by us as invalid. If, however, there is a chance that they may be traced to a valid source, then we have no choice but to accept them for what they are on the very basis of their existence.^* It will be shown, however, that this case does not rest upon such evidence. Now let us analyze Roosevelt's "old line and wound works," which appears to have a somewhat explosive effect upon Mr. Chapelle. As he so correctly points out after a thorough perusal of his dictionaries, "bands of hemp rope around built-up masts and spars were called 'wooldings', . . ." Although this writer has the same nautical dic- tionaries close at hand, I immediately understood Mr. Roosevelt's meaning of ". . . line and wound works" without retreating to my library. As is so often the case in the treatment of naval nomenclature, the old terms often do not sufficiently describe the item or detail, in which case, it is sometimes prudent to provide a more descriptive terminology when addressing an audience. While Mr. Roosevelt may, or may not, have been familiar with "wooldings" and unfortunately, of course, he is not around to defend himself, he did find a near perfect description—and in only four words! This writer must go on record here as often being guilty of the same "crime"— and I might add that I am still actively engaged in the art of shipbuilding and closely connected with several modern shipyards. It is by no means unnatural to revert to "descriptive nomenclature" when addressing laymen or even people within the same organization but with varying professions and trades—and nomenclature of their own. Mr. Chapelle expends much time and paper berating Mr. Roosevelt and the tran- scribers for their ignorance. Actually, in most cases, the transcribers did the best they could and we are thankful that they at least preserved the gist of the message. NUMBER 5 73 Page 20 Mr. Roosevelt, in describing the condition of Constellation before the 1853-55 repair, tells us that "Her keel was warped, high in the center and low on the ends," meaning, of course, that the ship wais hogged, and continues ". . a shoe . . was made ... to straighten it." From this, Mr. Chapelle gathers that "Roosevelt imagined the hog in the keel . . . would be built into the new vessel" (italics mine) ! Page 21 Regarding a visual inspection of Constellation's timbers, we are told by Mr. Chapelle that in the 113 years of her "existence," from 1855 to the present time, "the appearance of her timbers could readily give the impression of great age." How right he is! It is certainly unfortunate that he has never been aboard during the fifteen years that this committee has held custody of the ship. We may have had the opportunity to point out to him many good examples of the 113 year old timbers on the gun decks as well as on the berth deck. As a matter of fact, a careful comparison of coloring and texture in the hatch coamings on those decks, as well as the breast hooks, with their counterparts below on the orlop level and in the hold indicate a substantial difference in age. The oak timber below is easily identified by its darker color, as much older in the ship. Mr. Chapelle tells us (p. 21) that "it is naive to accept these [dated timbers and metal fastenings] as evidence. . ." and that these are the "byproducts of numerous repairs and overenthusiasm on the part of workmen." In the condensation of my 1966 paper which forms the second section of this effort, we have taken the opp>ortunity to insert several additional comments. We shall present a professional analysis of the copper hull fastening bolts (p. 141) with- drawn from the Constellation. Mr. Chapelle contends that it could not have required "hundreds of men" to help haul up Constellation at Gk)sport as Mr. Roosevelt claimed because the Navy Yard had geared capstans and other mechanical aids. Mr. Chapelle notes also that "the ship would actually have . . ballast removed" before hauling. So again, we are reminded that Mr. Roosevelt imagined the entire operation. Attention is called to the two entries from the Gosport Log, dated 23 February 1853 and 24 February 1853.2« The first entry includes "8 overseers & 153 white laborers with all the mechanics . . . hauling up Frigate Constellation'''' (italics mine). The second entry the next day includes the notation "landing ballast from Constellation''' (Figure 5). Page 22 Mr. Chapelle states that, "It is not true, of course, that either the frigate or the existing corvette was very sharp in the entrance; neither supports any claim of 'futuristic thinking'. . . " To counter this unsupported statement, we must offer the letter of Truxtun to Livingston, 22 May 1798: ". . . his new ideas in the form of the bow will most likely increase the speed through the water of the hull. . . " ^^ (italics mine). On page 30, Mr. Chapelle introduces another letter from Truxtun's correspondence relating to sharpness in her bottom after which he concludes that "this .yg^mj to mean . . . deadrise'' (italics mine) ! 369-704 O - 70 - tj 74 SMITHSONL\N STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY Mr. Chapelle contends that "the decision was made to restore the Constitution (instead of the Constellation)" after an evaluation of Mr. Roosevelt's papers written in 1914 and 1918. Mr. Chapelle further presents Secretary Daniels memorandum to Mr. Roosevelt dated 18 December 1918. It may be well to note that Constitution was not restored until many years later (1929-1930). Actually, when the moment arrived to make the choice between the two ships, the Navy made note of the fact that Constitution, although many times rebuilt, still retained her square stem and original length. Further, Constitution, originally built at Boston was to be displayed there as a memorial to the Navy and as a reminder to all of the proud shipbuilding heritage of the people of that city. On the other hand. Constellation, although in much FIGURE 5.—Entries from Gosport Log, signed by A. T. Young and dated 23 and 24 February 1853, respectively (National Archives, Washington, D.C, Record Group 71). /' /■ V, . /y .^ /-^ ^ J.5 ' ■■ //-.ti 3 /->r )t .(^ z'//vy, T ^ ^i *<.»»^*»,w„ r^ ..^^/3f y,..^/ ■/',...,,.., f,^^ ^^t>~. yrc^.^^^A, ^r—-.-;.^ (/^^.^^ a£^^_ /»^*<' ^^-j.^ /^.^ rx. /c f^^ytt-^ X^,/.^^zl:x />;- ^>-/ /X«- -^t^^ CM. ^•-fO-Cj.* _ ^^w.«..^ /»^^ ^.,-^,^/,,,,. /ft. ^ tt^*^^ *^/' iy.^,.^ y».«, .?K. x^/{//- -^'^./^cC^^y . NUMBER 5 75 better physical condition, had been modernized with 12 feet added to her length, and her stern, long ago rounded to an elliptical curve; and there is more to this rounded stem than may meet the eye, as we shall soon see. Page 23 Mr. Chapelle discusses the "Documentation of the Roosevelt Brief." As we have already pointed out, the reader should be fully aware that the article in question was published in March of 1961. Subsequent recognition of several deficiencies in that article led to the presentation of a paper before the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (S.N.A.M.E.) in 1966. Controversy over a magazine article, now generally unavailable and superseded by a much more comprehensive work, would not further the aims of this discussion. As this report develops, we shall include a con- densation of the paper of 7 May 1966, which we believe will provide enough additional information to inform the reader of the overall situation. Page 25 Mr. Chapelle invites our attention to the "time factor"; "timber for the authorized design was coming into the yard. So it was far too late for any change in hull design." He further contends that it was impractical to alter the "official" moulds and bevels coming from Georgia. However, the timber for the 44-gun frigate Chesapeake, which had been abandoned in Gosport (Norfolk) was sent to Baltimore. If the moulds and bevels from another ship could be reworked, is it so far fetched to believe that changes could be made in her own design? Pages 25-26 Here Mr. Chapelle clearly enough tells us that Franklin D. Roosevelt attempted to establish a situation in which a substitution in design was possible! This is hard to believe! And again, of course, F.D.R. is not here to defend himself. "The situation Roosevelt tried to establish . . ." and "It has been pointed out . . . that Roosevelt obviously knew little about Truxtun and his character." . . . "To anyone who has read much about Truxtun, it is impossible to believe. . . ." It is unfortunate that the Constellation Committee, in the 1961 article, used the term "Naval Training Station Museum" in Newport which should have been stated as "Library of Naval War College, U.S. Naval Training Station, Newport, R.I." It must be stated for the record that we, too, have studied the character of Thomas Truxtun who, although sometimes a bit pompous and officious, was none- theless—and above all—fair minded. One might just as well reason that the follov^dng letter from Stodder could have made him pause to reconsider his position. I must say to you, Sir, that I have all of my facilities, and for your information I have Mr. Pickering's authority to change the draughts and moulds of this frigate. Mr. Humphreys, I must remind you has had little experience in building other than merchant ships and he being a quaker shoud be catholic [sic] in his design of ships of war. I have been in agreement with the War Ofiice . . . besides even you have disagreed with Humphreys on more than one occasion. I beg you not to write to Humphreys of this matter as Mr. Pickering will tell you he agrees with me as does the brothers here on materials and instructions. I also ask that you act more in the manner befiting a masonic brother and show some amount of trust in your fellows. I am with respect, David Stodder."' 76 SMITHSONL\N STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY Mr. Chapelle attacks the validity of this letter on the grounds that Truxtun would have reacted to it with a "violent explosion of temper, action, and corre- spondence." It has already been shown that Truxtun was not as explosive as Mr. Chapelle would have us believe. It is also evident from the correspondence herein quoted, that several of Truxtun's letters have been lost and is that so surprising? The possibility exists that he wrote to the Secretary of War on Stodder's changes and that a letter or letters have been lost. As for action, if his letters brought no results, what more could he do? Mr. Chapelle says that "Any claim that Stodder had Pickering's authority to change the plan would be fiction, for no such grant can be found in the Department papers." The lack of any evidence that such authority was granted does not preclude the authority being granted. According to Mr. Chapelle, if there is no letter existing today stating that an event took place, that event did not take place. This is an absurd position. It has already been established that there was a design change in the frigate Chesapeake but no authorization for such a change has been found. On 18 May 1795, Pickering wrote to Stodder in which he states the following: I have asked all the builders to communicate vrith me on new ideas which will benefit the Frig- ates. Mr. Humphreys may protest, but I assure you I will support your changes in the molds and design.—You are the second person to inform me of Humphreys' protests and I must remind Mr. Humphreys of his status and of the considerations I have given the builders, to improve his ships. I have informed him that you are the owner of a navy-yard and also a master-builder and that your changes as displayed in your model are in accord with Mr. Fox and the War Office. . ."=' Mr. Chapelle attacks this letter on the grounds that all concerned knew that Humphreys owned a shipyard and was a master builder. The letter, of course, does not deny this. It simply states that Stodder was a master builder and the owner of a navy yard. (The phrase "also a master-builder" is ambiguous. It could mean that Stodder like Humphreys was a master-builder.) Mr. Chapelle again demands confirmation. This time confirmation exists. In the official files of the Navy, while it was under the War Department, is a letter dated 20 May 1795 two days after Pickering's letter to Stodder. The communication from the War Department to Humphreys asks him to comment on the enclosed letter from Stodder. Humphreys was asked to comment and it is added that other constructors may also communicate on the improvements of the frigates.^^ Mr. Chapelle does not question this letter. Page 27 Mr. Chapelle has, for many years, contended that the frame spacing on the "official" plan for Constellation, the Humphreys' plan (in reality the Doughty plan) indicates a frame spacing of 26 inches. This ship, with a frame spacing of 32 inches, therefore, cannot have been constructed from that plan! We heartily agree, for that (proposed) plan was never used for the Constellation! We invite the attention of the reader to a facsimile of the letter written by David Stodder, the builder, to the Secre- tary of the Navy dated 30 April 1795 ^° in which he states "The keel is 18 In broad Timber and room [frame spacing] 32 In. . . ." What more basic evidence do we need in determining this dimension? Mr. Chapelle's reaction to this document is astounding! We hear now that "There is a simple explanation to all this" (italics mine) for the one NUMBER 5 77 man who can tell US what we want to know, Stodder, "made a mistake. . . ."!—amis- take by the shipbuilder in 1795 which just happens to coincide exactly wdth the dimen- sions still found on the ship! The reader may recognize the obvious fact that the entire case can rest on this document until Mr. Chapelle can justify the "mistake." Further- more, when Constellation was drydocked in 1964, the keel was carefully measured throughout its length. The average siding was found to vary from 1754 inches to a full 18 inches, just as David Stodder set down in his letter of 30 April 1795 (Figure 4, Part 3). Now, we must again consider the "Transverse Sections" dated "Feb. 1853." ^^ The confusion occasioned by the various plans and documents is admittedly frustrating and this plan is no exception. The plan appears to be taken directly from the ship as indicated by the offsets outboard of the sections. But was it? Are we to believe the notation of January 1853 in the Delano notebook? "In pencil"—"Underwater body of Constellation does not match drawing of Humphrey Plan or the sketched drav^dngs 1852 showing sections of the hull. This fact was discovered during the docking of the ship to fit her for the blocking to draw her into the shiphouse." Mr. Chapelle's com- ments on this "diary" are typical of his treatment of Roosevelt's writings. For one thing, Mr. Chap>elle appears to be in error as to Benjamin F. Delano who was stationed in New York during 1853. It is true that this writer had made the same error; however, continued research by the Constellation Committee and the Navy Department in 1968 revealed that Edward H. Delano, not Benjamin F., was stationed at Norfolk (Gosport) in 1853 and it is his signature that we find on various documents at that station. In one instance, we note the signature, B. F. Delano on the document cited by Mr. Chapelle; however, close examination reveals that the initials appear to have been traced over. In the process, the letters "E.H." appear to have been mistakenly taken for "B.F." If this assumption is correct, the value of that document was all but destroyed by the tampering. At this moment, we are of course, discussing the Delano notebook which Mr. Chapelle points out has not been produced by the authors of the 1961 article. Of course, the Constellation Committee too would like to find the original diary; however, the absence of that prime source, we have to be content with what was we found at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. officially stamped NA-RG 45.^^ While this writer has some reservations concerning this typewritten copy, we have to work with whatever is available. If we cannot get to the truth, we must get as close to it as available information will permit, and that means cool-headed interpretation of much question- able material. We must agree that some of the language does not appear to fit the time or the place and that some of the nomenclature is of questionable nature; however, several of the terms are not as erroneous as Mr. Chapelle would have us believe- The applica- tion of a bit of logical reasoning indicates that "chatin iron" is rather close to "chain- plates" and what is the definition of "hogging?" Why! Sagging at the ends! "Cut to pieces" of course could mean much more than merely "cutting in two" since much more cutting was contemplated, such as the subsequent removal of her entire topside. As for the use of cotton on large ships, my own recollection is that on the wales and bottom planks, for 5-inch thick plank, six double threads of oakum and two single threads of 78 SMITHSONL\N STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY spunyarn were used. On topsides and waterways, five threads black oakum and one thread of white oakum—or cotton were used.^^ While this writer must take exception to such strong terms as "unthinkable" and "impossible to accept," it is agreed that the caulking operation appears to be somewhat early in the sequence of construction. Returning to the plan of Sections, if they did not match the "underwater body", where did they come from? Mr. Chapelle's analysis of this plan is a good one. We consider this to be the best single effort in his manuscript. Both parties have now concluded that the sections are taken from the Humphreys- Doughty plan of 1794. Delano's notes, if we can believe what we read, tell us that the sketches did not match the ship, but further, they did match the Humphreys plan! (To what sketches was Delano referring?) A careful check of the Gosport Log Book (1853) indicating the work load and dispersal of yard personnel, gives no indication of people assigned to Constellation in the month of February for the purpose of erecting scaffolds and preparing the ship for an external take-off of her hull lines. The only reference to staging for the ship comes almost four months later in a letter from Captain Samuel S. Breese, Commanding oflficer Navy Yard, Gosport to Joseph Smith, Chief, Bureau of Yards and Docks, Washington. ^^ The most persistent question is: Why would it be necessary to take off the lines of a ship which Mr. Chapelle insists were already well established? The existence of the Humphreys-Doughty plan of 1794 should have been all they required! It is not unheard of to take the lines of a ship from the plan, rather than expend much more labor in the erection of scaffolding and then to send the draftsmen (and a crew would be required) out to the ship in mid-winter to take their measurements; truly an unenviable job. We must suggest that the take-off was accomplished on the drawing board, scaled from the old plan and found incompatible with the ship. As Mr. Chapelle states, "the sketch of the 32" frame spacing marked 'old' cannot be accounted for", but of course, it will not go away! (Figure 6.) It must be tied to David Stodder's letter of 30 April 1795.35 Of course the plan of the keel (C&R Plan 107-13-4A) shows the original hog.3® As Mr. Chapelle states, this drawing is dated as ''Received January 1853" (italics mine). Received from where? Incidentally, this plot of the keel, when overlayed on the Lines Plan of the present ship, is compatible from the stern post to the stem and up through the forefoot, and Mr. Chapelle agrees that the plan illustrates the original keel! Page 30 In referring to deadrise and sharp ends in all the 1794 frigates and most partic- ularly to the Constellation, Mr. Chapelle states that "In no captain's correspondence is there mention of a remarkably sharp entrance. . ." This, of course, is not true if we are to take into account Truxtun's letter to Livingston date 22 May 1798,^^ which states "Stodder's new ideas on the form of the bow will no doubt increase her speed through the water". Mr. Chapelle's statement conceming the fact that Con- stellation's bow was not as sharp as many other vessels built at Baltimore could be NUMBER 5 79 :Ac{ FIGURE 6.—Sketch found on transverse sections of frigate Constellation, Nor- folk, 1853, from Figure 5 of Part 1 (National Ar- chives, 107-13^B). Note 32-inch frame spacing. somewhat misleading. Aside from the fact that the shape of the bow has been rather thoroughly covered in previous pages, the vessels he now compares with the Constel- lation are either much smaller bay and coastal vessels or as he says—"Baltimore Clip- pers"—a design of much later date. Page 31 Mr. Fox, in his statement of services, 27 November 1826, stated that the live oak previously prepared at Norfolk for that now abandoned project "had been taken to finish the frigate Constellation." Mr. Chapelle refers to the Norfolk ship as a 36-gun frigate whereas she was in reality a small 44 on the original listing as indicated by "Ships of War draughted by Josiah Fox," dated 27 November 1826, "near Wheeling, Va."—"Frigates of 44 Guns [sicj''.^^ Further to the interesting question of shifting timbers from one ship project to another, we submit the following sequence of events taken from the correspondence on Naval Affairs when the Navy was under the War Department.^" It will be seen that timbers were exchanged, even between 36-gun ships and 44s. To Joshua Humphreys—Philadelphia—War Office September 6, 1796. Sir Be pleased to deliver to Mr. George Claghome all such pieces of timber as may not be wanted for the completing the frigate now building by you; the pieces promised to be sent to Baltimore excepted.*" 80 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY On page 105 of the War Oflfice correspondence—Four letters from the War Department in 1796 transferring timbers from Philadelphia to Baltimore, Philadelphia to Boston, Norfolk to Boston, Norfolk to Baltimore, and Baltimore to Boston. We note also the following which explains the difficulty of procuring live oak for all six frigates. War Office, June 29, 1795, to Tench Francis, Esquire. Had the difficult[ties] of getting the live oak been foreseen—had it been known that full and regular supplies for two [ships] only, could be kept up—certainly, the carrying forward of six frigates at the same time, would not have been attempted. What should not have been begun, ought now that the facts are known, to be laid aside. Consequently I shall direct four of the Constructors to suspend their labours, . ^^ or to dismiss all their hands for whom they cannot find constant, and useful employment.*' In scanning the old letter book we find anotiier interesting note on the difficulty of procuring the live oak—even from the Savannah River in Georgia. This time it is the stem which is involved (Figure 7). It was David Stodder in Baltimore who sent the (/.x/fif / ^;:^'- y^-/A!^,u>^^^ /:?. //ys- .^/^ ^ .-//- ///.^//At /i^. r^ f/^y.. y/A. -//f,y/ /Ack//A. A'A.z/r / ., I y-a'/A/yy/^'/A^/r^/../' <(*yi'~^<'J'. //,^/ /I'r/i AA/^■^^A'^^ //.> ///// ,t ^///j.^l''^/'/'^^' .-'c' //^f c AAy."//.fy"/ { ^n^ y A A y ^ y ./ y iY/ty.' /Alt' Ay Xr A/ii'ce ^ ' Afi^iT /',f A ,/Ae. "X/rJ^yi^fffffrfA H^ti^nU. <^ sU.^- ^An^g^ FIGURE 8.—Letter from War Office to James Hacket, 4 November 1785 (National Archives, Washington, D.C, Record Group 45, Entry 374, Letters sent concerning Naval matters, October 1790-June 1798). Mr. Stodder Naval-Constructor at Baltimore sent aset [sic] of Moulds for the 36 Gun Frigates, to Mr. Morgan the beginning of last June, therefore, there will not be any necessity for sending more. 82 SMITHSONLVN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY /^ )^ >^ /^r^y (Z>(&^,. { iy^S A -^ ,^.,a2.^ FIGURE 9.—Letter from War Office to David Stodder, 1 June 1796 (National Archives, Wash- ington, D.C, Record Group 45, Entry 374, Letters sent concerning Naval matters, October 1790- June 1798). You are requested to make out a Statement of what live Oak timbers are yet wanting that measures may be taken to procure a full supply of such timbers from the Navy Yards at Norfolk and New York. FIGURE 10.—Letter from War Office to John Blagge, 11 June 1796 (National Archives, Wash- ington, D.C, Record Group 45, Entry 374, Letters sent concerning Naval matters, October 1790- June 1798). You will be pleased to deliver such of the live timbers as may be in the Navy Yard at New York to Messrs Samuel and Joseph Sterret [sic] Naval Agents at Baltimore. 'AA^ ^^<^ d^ye //. Yf^ — \t«/4/f^ NUMBER 5 83 moulds for the 36-gun frigates to John Morgan in Georgia. Figures 8-10 further illustrate necessary procurement arrangements of timber. Page 33 Mr. Chapelle notes that Fox claims credit for draughting the United States and Constellation and "nowhere mentions Stodder, nor his draught . . . . " The more interesting and unstated remark would include the fact that Fox supplied a corrected draught, thus perhaps now claiming the credit for himself. Whatever the scope of those corrections, aside from the placement of the beams and the pumps, the Fox draught becomes the latest actual working plan and the Humphreys' plan becomes obsolete! At this moment, we know nothing of a draught by David Stodder, whether he made one or not—and neither does Mr. Chapelle; and we are not really concerned with the claims of Josiah Fox on any but this ship. From the Correspondence on Naval Affairs *^ we submit two key letters; one in- dicating delivery of the Humphreys-Doughty plan to Baltimore (Figure 11) and the other indicating Fox's involvement in the draughts of the ship (Figure 12). This may well bear upon the source of his claim to have "draughted the Constellation.''^ Even so, his plan is referred to as the "corrected draught." To avoid misleading the reader, it is pointed out that the letter (Figure 12) directed to Thomas Truxtun refers to a "draught . . which accompanies this [letter, which] is not complete;" and "a more correct draught [is] to be made and transmitted." We have found so far no record of the actual delivery of that draught; however, it is obvious that at least one other draught existed.*^ It is pointed out at this time that submittal of a preliminary plan does not now and never did constitute a guarantee that further development in the form of radical alterations could not occur in the designs nor is there any guarantee that the original plan will be used at all! As to the statement of Captain Tingey in 1811 referring to a "flat transom," Mr. Chapelle tells us that this is the "first and apparently the only reference to a peculiar transom on this ship; no other reference to an unusual transom has yet been found." From this, we are to gather that because he has seen no other reference, that there is no other and we must conclude that the statement is false. FIGURE 11.—Letter from War Department to Samuel and Joseph Sterrett, 18 February 1795 (National Archives, Washington, D.C, Record Group 45, Entry 374, Letters sent concerning Naval matters, October 1790-June 1798). Herewith you will receive in a Tin case the draught of the Frigate to be built at Baltimore; prepared under the direction of Mr. Humphreys, the Constructor at this port. . . . ^^IUUHM Ami, 1(^/6 yueuiHi tiv oy 7ui, CA^C mi dW^^ 84 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY FIGURE 12.—Letter from War Office to Thomas Truxtun, 25 October 1796 (National Archives, Washington, D.C, Record Group 45, Entry 374, Letters sent concerning Naval matters, October 1790-June 1798). The draught for the Frigate which accompanies this, is not complete; it will . in the opinion of Mr. Humphrey's answer the present purpose, as shewing [sic] the stations of the beams and . . where to place the pumps. As soon as Mr. Fox returns I shall direct a more correct draught to be made out and transmitted. Again, Mr. Chapelle finds "No office file copy . . in the Navy Department rec- ords," of the Capps Report. In consideration of that statement, the reader is no doubt asked to conclude that this copy is a hoax. We think it would have been closer to the truth if he had added that it too was found by this commitee in Newport (File 1231-A)*'' in 1960 and is still there—unless, as we have heard before, someone has tampered with the files. We shall have more to say about "missing" Archive documents in later pages. Mr. Chapelle has several times stated that Constellation's stern was rounded in 1853-55. The Samuel Humphrey statement here referred to infers that plans were afoot to round the stem—and as can be seen in Figure 20, there is convincing evidence that this alteration actually occurred in 1829 and not in 1853 as Mr. Chapelle would have us believe. Another point of confusion is added by the change in beam in 1812 which Mr. Chapelle says could not have occurred unless a very extensive alteration had been made—involving all frames from the turn of the bilge to the rail, ceiling, planking, knees shelf strakes, etc. Nowhere in footnote 29 (pages 25-26) of the 1961 article did the Constellation Committee even infer that the "moulded beam" was altered, only that "It is not possible to reconcile the several figures given in the early records for the Constellation's beam, nor can it be clearly ascertained what each writer meant by the different terms used." Often, the early records indicate "extreme beam", "beam amidships", "moulded beam" or simply "beam." NUMBER 5 85 The "extreme beam" is, of course, the widest dimension of the hull from the outside of plank on one side to the outside of plank on the opposite side. "Beam amidships" is the athwartship dimension at the longitudinal midsection of the hull. "Generally" this dimension is measured from outside of the frame on one side to outside of frame opposite. The widest section of the hull may also be designated as the midship section by the designers, whether it happens to fall at the longitudinal midsection or at another station of the hull. This too may be the section for measur- ing the beam, if the designer or builder so indicates. The "moulded beam" is the dimension measured from outside of frame to outside of frame opposite. To compli- cate matters even further, this writer has often heard it said that "moulded beam" is measured on steel ships from outer surface of the steel frame to outer surface of the frame opposite, while on wood ships the same term is used for the dimension from outer surface of plank to outer surface of plank opposite. Even this does not always hold true. Note that the body plan is drawn to outside of the frames (Figures 1 and 10 of Part 3).Our conclusion was finally based on the builders or designers designation for the moulded beam—and all too often the early records do not reveal his initial intent. As the reader can see, the term "beam" can indicate a variety of dimensions and the Constellation Committee in 1961 only used that generic term to point out the confusion in the interpretation of the old documents. Page 37 Mr. Chapelle here introduces a Newspaper account of 11 July 1853 which stated that the " 'Old Constellation' was literally torn to pieces preparatory to the building of a new Constellation," and that the massive keel was "placed in one of the ship houses" (Daily Southern Argus, Norfolk, Virginia). The literal interpretation of "torn to pieces'' is somewhat open to question. A graphic example is seen in Figure 13 of the same ship, "torn to pieces" preparatory to the building of a new Constellation. The date? January 1968. The photo shows the gun deck and spar deck levels, "torn to pieces." We cannot pretend that the work here was as extensive as of the 1853 rebuilding but even so, the result of the work here again produced a "new" Constellation. It is as always, a figure of speech as old as our language. Further, the newspaper article of 11 July 1853 states that "her massive keel" was "placed in a ship house." This is certainly true, as we know that she was placed in shiphouse "B" at Gosport where the operation was performed.*^ We must not miss the fact that the keel of the old ship was placed in that shiphouse and secondly that the author is impressed with the massive nature of the keel. This immediately suggests that the floor timbers, at the very least, are still attached to that keel—and this in itself could constitute perpetuation of the old ship! To illustrate the hazards encountered in the quoting of newspaper articles, we submit the following report as published in The Philadelphia Saturday Inquirer, 19 July 1845. According to this account (Figure 14), this preposterous article also ap- peared in the Baltimore Patriot as well as the Norfolk Herald. The Constellation, of course, was never altered to include steam propulsion, although such proposals were submitted to the Navy Department. Correspondence in the National Archives 86 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY FIGURE 13.—Gun Deck and Quarter Deck of the Constellation, January 1968 at Pier 7, Baltimore. (Record Group 45, Bureau Letters) dated 8 and 11 July 1845 proposed that the Constellation as well as the Macedonian be converted to steam propulsion. There is no evidence, however, of actual "orders" ever having been received at Gosport to proceed with such a project, much less to "proceed immediately." It is interesting to note that the article is dated 10 July, which fits neatly within the dates of the above-mentioned correspondence of 8 and 11 July. It would appear that someone in a fit of hopeful anticipation had let the story "leak out." As we are well aware, the Constellation was never increased by "thirty feet" to a total of 200 feet between perp)endiculars. Such an increase could not have resulted in a 200-foot ship, neither overall nor between perpendiculars. We note also that the author of this article believed the ship to have been built in Baltimore. In 1845? The Restoration Committee has had several sad experiences with inaccurate reporting by the modern press. We are now asked by Mr. Chapelle to note without question newspaper accounts well over a century old, written and edited under com- paratively archaic conditions of communication in comparison with the technological advantages now seemingly enjoyed by our press, radio, and television reporters. This writer does not intend to become a party to the memo to Commanding Officer of the Point dated May 1918. This office hardly feels the need to depend upon such highly questionable material, but the alleged extent of Mr. Chapelle's NUMBER 5 87 mm |,iiiiiij||ijwinimujLi.jyLL BTAVAIi & MARI1VE. Tlie Constellation. Wc noticed yestercby that this gaJtant ship was to be aUcred to a steamer. Ttie Norfolk Herald furnishes us with llie following notice of the ship and the change she is about Io undergo: [Bait. Patriot. i Correspondence of the Baltimore Patriot. A HEUALD 0*1 ICE, Norfolk, 10th July. NAVAL.—The U. S. frigate Constellation, the 1 (j^allant ship which won the first laurels for our iti- I tant navy, under the command of C(»mmodore ; I Truxton, in 1799 and 1800, is to be metamorphosed i into a steamer. Orders have been received by i Commodore Wilkinson, in command of the Gosport I Navy Yard, to proceed immediately to make the ' necessary alterations for that purpose, and all hands : at the Navy Yard were busily employed yesterday » 1 in landing her armament, ] univer.sally acknowledged to f)e tlic most iMautif'ul I I and pprf(pct ship of htr olas^s in th«^ world. h FIGURE 14.—Article from the Philadelphia Saturday Enquirer, 10 July 1845. "investigation" is remarkable. On one line, Mr. Chapelle tells us that "the desig- nation" U.S. Frigate Constellation" was used in a few instances (actually the ship was almost always referred to as a frigate) and a few lines later suggests that the " 'Commanding Officer of the Point' was clairvoyant" in using that designation, as he should have waited for Mr. Roosevelt to say it first. Page 37 Mr. Chapelle asks us to consider the record of rebuilt naval vessels listed in his Historical Notes as if that were the official record of Naval Construction. We must reiterate that we have already denounced as invalid to the current question that which has happened to another or other ships; and let us not forget that the Navy has never denied the records of those ships. 88 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY Mr. Chapelle inadvertently points out his own published errors in staring that Constellation was destroyed in 1852.*" It is of course, a well established fact that the frigate was not hauled until 23 February 1853 in order that the work could begin. Pages 38-40 The paper which Mr. Chapelle here attempts to discredit appears to be nothing more than a summary, transcribed sometime after 1950 and no one has ever denied the fact! There is no indication of a claim that this "document" of insignificant pro- portions was written for any purpose other than as a memorandum or as a reminder to the transcriber. Indications point to the conclusion that it may have been tran- scribed from an original memo. The rough notes in the files of the Committee bear our comment, "so what?" Pages 43-44 Mr. Chapelle wastes little time or space in an initial attempt to discredit this writer and the work presented to the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers on 7 May 1966. His suggestion that this office attempts to "impeach" the Congressional papers. Navy records, etc. is, of course, untrue. Mr. Chapelle's treatment of the mould loft offsets and Lenthall's lines plan of June 1853 appears to be somewhat shortsighted and in any case the single paragraph he presents is oversimplified though filled with lengthy terminology, which we would suppose to be more appropriately listed in a bibliography than employed in the body of his work. Regarding the several documents listing this ship as the "New Constellation." It is not at all unusual to refer to a newly reconstructed ship as the "new" model. This certainly simplifies identification of the ship and points up the fact of reconstruction. The Lenthall plan indicated here by Mr. Chapelle is not the only one bearing the "New" title—although that line is an addition in pencil. An even more revealing plan of the "new" and "old" Constellation is discussed on page 126—as well as the structure of the drawing here noted by Mr. Chapelle as C&R 28—3-5 dated June 1853 by John Lenthall (p. 89). The 1853 mould loft offsets reflect a different design than that indicated in Hum- phrey's plan. If this theory is correct and we assume her official draughts were de- stroyed in the Washington Navy Yard in 1814 (or else where are they) that leaves this ship, among others perhaps, without many of her original plans so important in determining the contours of her underbody. If that were not true, then why the need now to take the lines from the hull and to lay down these lines on the mould loft floor? It would seem reasonable to assume that here was an opportunity to lay down the com- plete "new" ship including the 12-foot extension and any other alterations to her moulded lines. These offsets when translated into a draught, form the plan of John Lenthall, June 1853 (Figure 15). FIGURE 15.—Lines plan of Sloop of War Constellation by John Lenthall, June 1853 (National Archives, Washington, D.C, Record Group 19, C&R Plan 28-3-5). < f iy. ' / - t oj^itt^ c^ ^OyA- ci^em^<^^tz^^£^ % 'iS^£<€ly^^ 90 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHN^OLOGY ' Ay/'"^'/' /^ ''^ '■ '^ ''^AJ. < A'- "/ JfltL^^ IVi A^- ^.>7^Usy'^CyC.<4::pPiZ.^je^ NUMBER 5 91 FIGURE 16.—Lines plan of Sloop of War Constellation by John Lenthall, May 1853 (Lenthall Documents Collection, Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). Mr. Chapelle says "There is no evidence . . . that the Lenthall draught and the offsets of 1853 were take-offs of any old vessel; . . ." In truth we don't know exactly what happened—and neither does he! There is more to the June 1853 C&R plan than Mr. Chapelle has noted. This drawing can be traced to an original dated May 1853 (Figure 16), indicating some of the structural elements of the hull. Among the details shown are the original breast hooks in way of the apron of the stem. Lenthall shows the "new" hooks in the upper works as "hatched in" while the "old" (original) timbers are not thus shaded showing the very obvious difference in old and new structure (see page 90). This writer appears to have "admitted" (in his 1966 paper) that "the corvette was obviously 'represented' in John Lenthall's plan"! I'm not quite sure of Mr. Chapelle's meaning but I seem to have been guilty of stating a fact that up to this point I thought we both agreed upon. In commenting upon the "F.D.R." notation and the vertical line on the Lenthall plan fragment, Mr. Chapelle tells us that it "merely shows the ignorance of the person who drew the vertical line. Station F is well forward of 0 [amidships] . . . and the cutting-in-two, . . . would have had to have been made at © (dead flat station). . . ." If the reader will reflect a moment on this statement, which is so neatly wrapped in illogical phraseology, he will note that the inscription says "new, 12' aft" (of frame F). If we were now to delete the "new" 12-foot section and move the remaining (original) forward section aft to close the gap, where would frame F FIGURE 17.—Diagram oi the Roosevelt theory and the committee's findings on the lengthened section. F.D.R. theory embraces frames B, C, D, E and after sister of "F" overiapping CRG's findings, E, F, G, H and after sister of L 92 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY lie now? Frames B, G, D and E are new, and frame F would be in the room now occupied by B, only 36 inches from the amidships frame station and the dead flat! (Figure 17) In any case, the 4/2 frames when applied as a multiple of the 32" spacing equals 12.015 feet. This is certainly more than a coincidence. The original length of the ship, 164.0 feet plus the 12-foot extension is exactly 176.0 feet, the present length. The 26 inch frame spacing indicated on the Humphreys-Doughty plan cannot be applied as a multiple arriving at 12.0 feet. Note also—measuring 12 feet aft of frame I, we arrive at the butt end of the top keel piece, making it possible to retain the timber abaft the cut while installing a new 40-foot timber forward and another below (Figure 17). Page 45 We will not again use time and space belaboring the Fox "Sworn Statement." As for the "time and effort [which] would have been avoided if [this] Committee had studied the history of American naval shipbuilding. . . ." we have long since become conditioned to Mr. Chapelle's critical phraseology. "No indication has been found that Stodder was more than a practical merchant- ship builder." This hardly deserves comment, as we have shown several indications that Stodder deserves a better fate than Mr. Chapelle would assign him. Mr. Chapelle states that "Some comments in Mr. Polland's paper . . show that he, too, though a naval architect, was unacquainted with wooden shipbuilding. " Although mis- takes may have been made on both sides of this very interesting affair, Mr. Chapelle may one day find that throughout his attacks on this office, he has committed the unforgiveable blunder of underestimating his opponents! He now seeks to convince the reader by lightly passing off our observations as being those of one "unacquainted with wooden shipbuilding". After 10 years as Technical Advisor on this project, after many surveys of the Constitution in Boston and the Morgan in Mystic, as director of International Sail, An Association of Restored Sailing Ships and lately involved in the expansion of this country's new fishing fleet, many of which are of wood con- struction (and surprisingly similar in hull construction detail to ships built in the past two centuries), I hardly feel as one unacquainted with wooden shipbuilding. Mr. Chapelle is speaking now of my statement conceming the obvious "hand hewn timbers" which we have placed in comparison with adjacent circular saw-cut timber. It is becoming more apparent that he does not, or does not wish to, follow the intended description which we must now admit should have been elaborated upon for the layman (Figure 18). The frames on either side of E, F, G, and H are obviously adz cut as the tool marks are easily distinguishable and the number of bolt holes, together with the color and texture of the wood, bears testimony to the fact that they are of greater age in the ship than the four saw-cut frames E, F, G and H. Many of the bolt holes are elongated and some doubled. The earlier frames are overwhelmingly evident as far aft as number 28. Mr. Chapelle neglects to say, of course, that we observe the rotary marks only on the sidings of the frames and that the adjacent frames are adz cut on all four sides, the mouldings as well as the sidings. To attempt to run the cuiA^ed or shaped-and-beveled side of a large timber through a mill saw would be impractical and is, indeed, un- heard of. The sidings, however, are all straight cuts, easily made in the mill or yard. NUMBER 5 93 ■'<■:' ' " - ''^^ p..^ JPB - n fe ^^1 ^■Ki*| Iwaf*^ *!f»?7l .;jflny|','EKi i-A^^^ ■ nwivT^I pr ii^ heJIA. 't TTn?^ 1 *^+t^ft.^ vi'^i f.:iX*w ^^Hal 9*' '^ * Ai^WI m ^^Jfj^^ <^j|M^B^ ^B. imiQ Xmmg /■' ^^SS 3R^ K*r'---^J7- [ Pw^ E^i^M • J- .- K ^^' f^^ A-m W%'A^% ■ 'r-FIGURE 18.—Framing timbers from the Constellation: a, saw mill cut; b, adz cut; c, typical framing. FIGURE 19.—A typical framing timber, vA\/\/y M_otlLpt.E> S>i*«.ffc.tt (e.aTbo4.*.D IAAA/J A Trf^<^*^(- fR.A>AittA'c/^yy^^a4^/Mytx. ^/L^^c A^^^/£. /:^;> */3 fyL/A^rJ'i J^'A^V^^ I^^^ \e /a IM .^^AA* 'A/f^eayt^- Aif^rA^yy^ £f/u^tLy^ lA».^.A^,yt^yfna.Cy,^ anyt^/jiytJri^-a//ev /ta^../^ AJt-t^An-tAcXKX>C^S<>CC^K>0^M>aOG^^ I N JUNE OF 195 9 the initial survey was begun. As the ship was approached from shoreside, it was immediately noted that she bore but a vague resemblance to a frigate of the period 1797-1812. A closer study of the hull appeared to indicate that if this was indeed the ship launched in Harris Creek, Baltimore, over a century and a half before, several tremendous changes had occurred in her profile. More specifically, five primary distinctions separated this hull from the recognizable profile of Commodore Thomas Truxtun's Frigate of 1797. 1. The square transom of the early ship was here represented by a round or elliptical shape. 2. The tumblehome of the hull appeared to be much reduced in comparison to the early frigates. 3. The decorative head rails, so distinctive on the early ships, were nowhere to be seen, being totally enclosed in an evelope of deteriorating timber. The outline of the head could not conceal the straight line rails of a later period as opposed to the delicately "bagged" rails of the early ships. 4. The hull was said to have been lengthened by 12 feet. 5. The spar deck bulwarks now consisted only of an outsized hammock rail. The masts and spars were now on the beach rapidly deteriorating almost precluding any thoughts of total preservation. As quickly as possible these elements of the top hamper were coated with preservative and further protected until work could begin. At this time, the new planking on the port side had already been installed from the water to the level of the lower gun port sills (about the 12-foot to the 25-foot water- line) . It was obvious, however, that the main wale strakes had been omitted. A mental note was made to correct this deficiency at a later date. When the initial survey was complete, it was decided to replank the starboard side installing 6x9 inch and 6x10 inch wales, 6 planks in width, of fir timber, the upper- most strake in way of the gun deck beams at the 24-foot waterline. The wales moulding 2 inches thicker than the adjacent strakes provide additional longitudinal strength along the length of the transversely framed hull. Little had been accomplished at this time in recording the condition of the oak framing timbers on the port side now newly planked to the vicinity of the 25-foot waterline. 107 108 SMITHSONLVN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY CRC immediately drew up a plan of these frames that were in way of the small area still open, which afforded a view of the upper futtocks. This plan while sadly in- complete, illustrates in the open area the new additions, the earlier timbers, and what appeared to be parts of even earlier structure. Thus was established a precedent and cultivation of a work habit which was to remain with the committee during the long months and years to come. Every detail was to be recorded even though at the time it may have appeared to be an insignificant event. The starboard side of the hull, now ready for restoration, was, of course, an entirely different matter. The condition and extent of repairs to each frame was noted and later recorded on a print prepared for that purpose. More than 100 photographs were made involving each frame from stem to stem. As noted before. Constellation in 1959 bore little, if any, resemblance to a frigate of 1 797, but it should be carefully pointed out that the element of disguise is forever present—if this was indeed the ship launched on 7 September 1797. In the course of several reconstructions her appearance could have changed considerably. It was a mat- ter of some concern to the Baltimore committee that some definite indication of the ship's historical integrity be estabUshed and this was to be no mean task, although CRC had one distinct advantage. The background of research when smnmed up would not alone be limited to library information and technical data from archives but here within reach was the ship herself awaiting minute examination of every timber, bolt, and trunnel. Simultaneously with the inception of the Construction and Repair Committee, then known as the Technical Advisory Committee, every available plan or sketch of the ship was integrated into a central file. These principally consisted of several spar and gun deck plans, a Lines Plan, circa 1888 *' which was traced from a plan by John Lent- hall dated May 1853,^ a Sail Plan of 1904 and a Docking Plan of 1946.^ Last but far from least, a poor copy of a plan by William Doughty in 1794 draughted under direc- tion of Joshua Humphrey " of Philadelphia. The original of this plan is located at the U.S. Naval .Academy, Annapolis; however, it took little more than a glance to note that the contours of this old drawing did not coincide with the later plans of 1853. Closer examination of the plans substantiated CRC's first impressions that the ship, in her present form at least and from what could be seen of her topsides, did not represent an early American frigate. In addition to the reduced tumblehome amid- ships, the bows appeared to have been thinned out considerably and forming a grace- ful flair from the 2-foot waterline to the rail. If this be the product of a designer of 1797, then he was indeed a man or rare, farsighted instinct for it was several decades before the fore bodies generally reached this stage of development. It was now noted by the plans that the frame spacing differed by six inches! An honest evaluation of material and observation thus far assimilated could only lead to certain conclusions. The ship fitted out as a sloop-of-war and riding so peace- fully at her berth in Baltimore almost certainly appeared to be represented by John Lenthall's plan of 1853," drawn a half century following the launching of Frigate "E," the alphabetical designation of the ship christened Constellation. This apparent setback to the integrity of the ship was closely followed by the reahzation that several vessels had been "administratively rebuilt" by the Navy in the NUMBER 5 109 decades preceding the Civil War. Funds for new naval shipbuilding were nonexistent being almost entirely cut off by an apathetic Congress. That austere body, however, neglected to consider the resourcefulness of the Navy and approved funds for repairs, reconstructions, and conversions. Later evidence testi- fies that several old ships-of-war had entered various Navy Yards in a program de- signed to modernize the fleet but in the process had mysteriously disappeared, broken up completely and an entirely new ship substituted, bearing the original name. Thus was an old ship "Administratively Rebuilt" and it was now becoming alarmingly evident that the old Constellation "may have" disappeared in the same manner when she was brought out of "ordinary" in January 1853. A search of the records in 1963 showed, however, that in no case had the Navy denied the fact that in several cases new ships had replaced the originals. It was in this rather heavy atmosphere that the Committee surveyed its position. Under existing circumstances reconstruction could continue on the lines of a sloop-of-war originally built in 1853-1855. Work would largely center around replacement of deteriorated timbers, plank for plank and beam for beam, until the present ship, once more built anew, would reflect the profile of the Civil War Navy. Active research would be minimized; documentary and physical characteristics of the ship already providing the basis for the restoration. Somehow it all seemed too simple. CRC at this moment could not pretend to have followed through on its original intent to conduct an intensive research program. In any event where does the historian end his research? Is there ever really an end? FIGURE 1.—Body plans of Constellation: a. Plan by John Lenthall, May and June 1853; b, Humphreys/Doughty, 1795. 110 SMITHSONLVN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY Looking back, actually little had been accomplished other than the interpretation of two plans drawn a half century apart. There could be but one obvious conclusion and it was acted upon almost immediately. A search for documentary material was initiated through the Baltimore Public Libraries, the Peabody Library, and the Mary- land Historical Society; these being the local and most obvious repositories. Simulta- neously, correspondence and personal contact was opened with the National Archives in Washington. Before the second anniversary of this program, over 50 separate as- saults had been made on the files at the National Archives alone. As the search broadened, the Committee's activities included the Pennsylvania Historical Society, the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library in Hyde Park, New York, the Naval War College Library, Newport, Rhode Island, the Boston Navy Yard, the Washington Navy Yard and many others. Meanwhile, much remained to be done at the shipsite. Through the months of July and August 1959, various measurements were taken along the decks and athwart the beams. Deck heights were recorded as well as framing and beam dimensions including the length on waterline and beam moulded to outside of frames and shell planking. The result of these recordings appeared to justify the physical characteristics to the plan of John Lenthall laid down in May 1853. It was noted, however, that the gun deck was sheathed with 3 5/2-inch white pine planking making a total thickness of 7/2 inches, the original planking below being 4x7 inch oak and pine. In July of 1964 the sheathing was finally stripped off baring the deck once more. These dimen- sions were carefully recorded, it being already established that the height of gun port sills from the deck at the sides bore a definite relationship to the type and caliber of cannon. This dimension may well furnish another clue to the history of Constellation. Although the spar deck above is alluded to as the weather deck, the upper 'tween deck, known as the gun deck, is by no means tight in the modem concept. The 14-inch high hatch coamings are designed to deflect water and debris from entering the decks below. The gun deck itself may be considered to be technically open to the elements due mainly to the nonwatertight gun ports, hatches, scuppers, and hawse holes. With the main pumps in operation, a flood of water is discharged over this deck from the well, in the after section of the main hold. Further description of the gun deck arrangement would include the riding bitts set up with Sampson knees and notched in way of beams no. 7 and 9, in the gun deck and through to the berth deck. The aft pair of bitts were cut off flush at the deck plank many years ago and at this moment new oak timbers are shaped and scarphed into place. The forward bitts were well worn and had been trimmed from 17 inch square to cylindrical shapes; their pedestals are today still square cut. The plans of 1888^^ indicate both pairs of bitts, rounded and still in use. The new aft set of hawser bitts are built of oak 17 inches square, as were the original forward bitts, complete with cross bar. Between the fore and after bitts, the camboose was located and described as we soon discovered by Commodore Thomas Truxtun in his letter book.^- Dagger knees under the spar deck, fore and aft, are considered to be in generally good repair, only three requiring restoration. NUMBER 5 111 Shelf knees in the deckhead were in various stages of decay, the weather having penetrated the spar deck plank permitting concentrations of water to be trapped above the knees and beams. The upper clamps as well as spirketing and waterway timber were found to be generally affected by wet-rot. These elements were completely renewed in the summer of 1964. Dagger and hanging knees in way of the main hatch are of wrought iron, 31-inch arm, 42-inch leg and 3% inches wide and were probably installed in 1853-55 although such supporting structure was proposed for ships before 1800.^^ The French Insurgent, captured by Constellation in 1799 was found to have iron knees. The mooring arrangement at the gun deck level includes a "stopper bill" on the port side and a hawser clamp starboard providing means to employ a semimodern chain hawser to port and a hemp hawser to starboard. The capstan is located on centerline at frame 18, ratcheted in the deck and directly connected to an additional drum on the quarter deck. Thus, manpower may be appUed by 60 or more people if necessary on both levels to raise the (8100 pound) anchors or to hoist the heavy spars. The double bilge pumps located at frames 11 and 12 centerline are of early vintage, however, in use well past the Civil War period. They are identical to those found on Constitution. Another set of single lift pumps are indicated by obvious cuts in the deck at frame 8; however, they too are long removed and are not showoi on the new plans. Before the end of 1959 the research files included a direct and clear reproduc- tion of Lenthall's plan of May 1853 which contained the lines, half breadths and inboard profile.^* Here, then, was the basic plan about which in the following notes all others would depend. To supplement this plan, the offsets and dimensions of 1853 were located in the National Archives. Thereafter, dimensions taken from the work could be directly correlated with the source of origin, it no longer being necessary to scale off the drawings, a rather hazardous procedure. As the survey gained momentum, the obvious discrepancy, that of length between perpendiculars assumed heightened significance. The official offsets clearly indicated 176 feet B.P. (between perpendiculars) as did Lenthall's lines plan, and finally con- firmed by physical dimensions taken from the work. If in the event that Constellation actually was lengthened by 12 feet from what was universally known to be 164 feet B.P., would it be unreasonable to suspect that somewhere in this hull such evidence existed in the form of fastenings, timber cuts, or other pecularities in the structure? In the spring of 1960 a portion of Lenthall's plan was discovered in the library of Franklin D. Roosevelt. This was the inboard profile from the foremast aft to amidships. A curious vertical line drawn through frame F, initialed F.D.R. was labeled "New 12' Aft of line." '' At this writing, the sources of the late President's material are not all known to us, indeed his papers contain few footnotes. The truth was often manifest in archeological evidence. In the present case, it was obvious that a concentrated survey be carried out in way of frame F. 112 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY Inspection of the lower futtocks and floors at this level was necessarily deferred, the frames being hidden behind the ceiling timbers and completely covered by pig iron ballast bars in the hold below (Figures 14 and 13, Part 3). It is not here implied that conclusive evidence has come to light merely on the basis of a notation on a drawing even though it be immediately followed by the "discovery" of a repair in the ship. It is a sad fact that conclusions have been pubhshed based entirely on library research. As this report develops, futtock timbers E, F, G, H, and I will be further discussed. FIGURE 2.—Fragment of an Inboard Profile from the forehold aft to amidships by John Lenthall (Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, New York). \;Cay/jAtF/c^.Zro^^ 1- : ~ 1 1 1 ._. ' n " [{ 1 A -Hi ! —'-\ . . - - ^■-^Q ''-' Q ■' t^ i ! it ' u "■'".J ',- 1^ \ t : _ i ' li ■ ^ ^1 -f- , - ; ; 1,. ------ - ' - - - ■ ''- - - - - X^_u___:;.___ i__.^_^__^^ ., -0 . .J> «:£ivx.-- 1- c^p-^^u- 2 7- - l?JIAi^-_!U_''X^ t>W<^-A;- c-ioo-i- An.Qj-ij-ifi '- F,o„«B 3.-I„baard Work, and Deck Plan, (final d„.ught), No. C-lOO-l by L. D. Polland, 26 June .959. (Diagram previously published in Leon D. Polland,TA. Fri^.U "Cons.eUation": An Outline of tke T,esem Restoration. 1966 ana 1968. NUMBER 5 113 Back at the drawing board, where Lenthall's plan lay open, it was next observed that the four upper breast hooks are "hatched in" on the drawing while the lower three in the fore hold were not thus shaded. Whatever the meaning, these details were again carefully surveyed on the ship. It was noted that the three lower hooks appeared to be of a much earlier vintage and they clearly indicated the difference in condition, coloring, and texture of wood. The difference is to be noted by comparing the later hatch beams and girders on the upper decks, with those on the orlop and berth decks, amidships. In most cases, the lower structure shows a strikingly darker complexion. The later breast hooks as found in the upper sections are hatched in on the new plans and match those of Lenthall's drawing. Deadwood and all keel pieces are also included in the new plan of the Inboard Works (Figure 3). The exposed orlop breast hook although badly strained, remains intact and still satisfactorily contributes to the strength of the bow assembly. On 24 June 1959 the first new construction plan was begun. This was to become the Inboard Profile and Deck Plan, including Spar and Gun Decks ^^ (Figure 3). It was planned to construct the new drawings to criteria laid down by the lines of 1853 and 1888 with the further objective of altering the work in accordance with latest research material. Although tracing and scaling from the old prints proved to be a tedious task, it was well worth the effort. Before it was even completed, the plan provided a basis for comparative analysis of several generations of ship construction superimposed, momentarily, on this same plan. At the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia the journal of Thomas Truxtun was located.^^ This was to prove invaluable as the Captain went to great lengths to set down a detailed description of each deck level. The deck plans of 1888 ^® show among later innovations, curved fife rails in way of the fore and main masts on the old fighting ships carried these fixtures squared off on two sides. They were generally quite large in order to accommodate as much of the running gear as possible. This cleared the spar deck bulwarks for the fighting crew and boarding parties. It was recognized quite early in the restoration that CRC should become familiar with the original design of Constellation, as well as with her contemporaries in the original fleet of six ships authorized by Congress on 27 March 1974 ^^: United States Constitution, President, Congress, Constellation, Chesapeake. It soon become habitual to study available plans of these ships in order to firmly establish the design and peculiarities of a typical frigate of 1797-1800. Of no less importance were the later designs of the 1850s and the ships preceding them. The Constellation that sailed out of the Gosport Navy Yard in 1855 bore a marked resemblance to the new corvettes, from the water to the rail at least. There was little comparison, however, in the underwater body. Boilers, coal bunkers, and driving gear took their toll of available space below in the new steamers, resulting in con- siderable filling out of the underwater lines. Block coefficients expanded from about .45 to about .65 or .70. The decrease in deadrise is evident when comparing the body plan of the Hartford built in Boston in 1858, with Humphrey's Congress and Con- stellation plan for example, or again with the lines of our ship as she cleared Gosport in 1855. 114 SMITHSONL\N STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY In the months following the discovery of the 1853 offsets, many plans and related documents found their way into the ship's growing files. Included among these are the following statements: From the notes of Captain Tingey of the Washington Navy Yard in December 1811: "this ship has a strange feature, in that she is very sharp forward, and this probably accounts for her great speed. . . ." ^° Truxtun to Livingston, 22 May 1798: "I must say though we probably have a better ship through the efforts of Major David Stodder—the constructor here . . . his new ideas in the form of the bow will most likely increase the speed through the water of the hull. . . I praised Stodder's ideas and his launch was most successful. . . ." 2^ The notebook of Constructor Delano of Gosport in 1853 in which we find: "Underwater body of Constellation does not match drawing of Humphrey's Plan, or the sketched drawings 1852. . ." ^^ Although the above are typewritten transcriptions they are included for the record on the basis of their very existence. Letter of Captain Charles H. Bell of sloop Constellation to Secretary of the Navy, 3 November 1855, on his first cruise: "I have found the sailing quality of the Con- stellation much to my liking, since the extension of the body. I do however find that the head spacing should have been raised in the 'tween decks and that many of her old knees should have been replaced in the last conversion. . ." ^^ (italics mine). As late as November 1926 at the Philadelphia Navy Yard ^* the docking master tried to use the Humphrey plan "to construct the keel blocks and hull bracing." It was found, almost too late, that "her form did not match the prints." These statements were to be of inestimable importance in the evaluation of Constellation's integrity; however, none was as significant as the letter from David Stodder, the builder of Constellation dated 30 April 1795 to the Secretary of War, Timothy Pickering in which he states "Timber and room [frame spacing] [is] 32 in. . . ." ^^ This statement seemed quite definitely to identify the "Old" Constellation and the ship now in Baltimore, as the same! The letter itself, proved to be one of the most significant finds of our research. He also states here that the keel is 18 inches broad while the 1853 offsets indicate a 17-inch keel. This letter (Figure 4) also contains several original characteristics of the ship as constructed: "The bolting the floor of the ship is one of the most essential parts, tho' the weight of a bolt of 1^ of an Inch is as much as two of 1^ of an Inch, yet I am convinced that Bolt cannot possibly answer the same purpose as the two therefore it must be wrong.—The Keel is 18 In broad Timber & room 32 In. . ." It would be quite impossible to alter the spacing of the frames without com- pletely destroying the identity of a ship. Such could not be the case here as this dimension, 32 inches is now shown to be constant from 1795 to the present time. On the plan of "Sections" (1853) there is a note also and a small insert sketch indicat- ing the "Old" frame spacing as 32 inches (Figure 6, Part 2) .^'^ Considering that "Con- structor" Delano apparently found that these sections did not fit the ship,-'' it was decided by CRC to make additional overlays traced from these sections. When placed over the plan of Joshua Humphreys, it was apparent that these lines were mistakenly NUMBER 5 115 y(,^fj^Si^ 't^tJK^ ^ !S^ "i^-y: ^^«^ '-^j^'^^^^-^^^b^ i^ FIGURE 4.—Letter from David Stodder to Timothy Pickering, 30 April 1795 (Pickering File, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). 116 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY taken from that plan. It was evident that each section in Delano's drawing of 1853 matched precisely the corresponding station in Humphreys' plan. Another indication that Humphreys' plan was not the basis for the finished lines of this ship. At first it appeared that these sections were taken off the ship while docked, the offsets being shown outboard of the hull. The Gosport Log for 17 January 1853, however, tells us only that "Constellation was docked for the purpose of getting her bilgeways under her for hauling her up." ^^ By way of further explanation, it should be noted that the ship was at the least "razeed" down to the berth deck in the vicinity of the 22-foot wateriine and in many areas cut down to the floor timbers. In 1853, however, sound frames were apparently left standing. Thus it was that the ship came down through the ensuing years, to her berth, back in the Port of Baltimore in 1955. Of course, this proof existed entirely on paper, at that point, but by the spring of 1960, work had already begun to remove the outboard planking from the starboard side. It was then anticipated that the structure of the framing timbers would reveal something to prove or disclaim the integrity of the ship. On 6 December 1796, Stodder and Tmxtun received permission from the War Office to delete the diagonal riders from the hull structure.^^ At the time of the committee's first survey of Constitution in Boston, CRC made it a point to check the diagonal riders of that ship only to find that during her recon- struction in 1856, or perhaps later, these large timbers were never replaced. Undoubtedly Stodder fully concurred with Truxtun on the deletion of the diagonal riders. His own experience was by this time well known and more than a little respected in the capital.^" Quite often he found himself at odds with Truxtun on technicalities of design but they must have both been aware that the British ships of lighter scantlings did not carry diagonal riders. This hull stiffening may have been very well on Humphreys' merchant ship designs, especially those engaged in the bulk trades where heavy loads were imposed upon the lower hull structure. The unequal distribution of buoyancy along the length of a ship is inherent in a normally efficient hull design, due to rapid changes in sectional shapes at the extremi- ties. This is largely responsible for the condition known as "hogging" or drooping at the ends. A large percentage of the logitudinal strengths of a wooden hull lies in the out- side planking and the ceilings; however, a glaring deficiency lies in the total absence of edge fastenings, as employed in modem welding and riveting methods. By the very characteristics of the wood and the included fastenings (iron and copper bolts, tree nails, etc.) it is not possible to realize the full strength of the structure. Invariably an unwelcome flexibility is induced in the hull, as the fastenings "work" in the timbers, resulting in a permanent hog as the weight of the hull at the extremities slowly overcomes the buoyancy. The distribution of loads, therefore, in a wooden ship should be carefully planned, even though the ship is lying in still water. It was this condition that the diagonal riders were designed to offset. It is doubtful, however, that the additional time, which would have been considerable, and expense in building would have justified them. There was trouble enough it seems in the procurement of timber from the coast of Georgia.^^ NUMBER 5 117 After about two years on the stocks, there was little to show in the way of progress, although the other frigates were certainly no further along the way. To John Morgan had fallen the task of locating and getting out the live oak for the framing timbers. He was sent to the mouth of the Savannah River and upon deUvery, he was to become the constructor at Norfolk for the frigate to be built there.^^ Live oak, with several times the durability of the white oak employed in French and British ships, could conservatively be estimated to remain serviceable for 25 years, perhaps even a half century. Cutting the timber to the moulds, dragging it out, and loading it aboard ships for the perilous coastal voyage to the building yard was another matter. Morgan's correspondence records the terrible conditions under which he labored with the few men he could hold. Continuous downpours of rain kept the men and the work virtually underwater, and disease added to the troubles. Ships were wrecked on the way to Baltimore and the delivery was many months behind schedule.^^ All evidence pointed to the assumption that during the "great reconstruction" of 1853-55, the tumblehome had been altered and the length increased. Now with the outside planking and the inner ceiling in process of removal, CRC found the oppor- tunity to check-out the documentary evidence and theories with an archeological study of the now exposed frames. As each strake was removed upwards from the 15-foot waterline and progressing to the plank sheer, the newly exposed timbers were photo- graphed for future reference and each futtock section of each frame was inspected for identifying tool marks, number of bolts, frequency of bolt holes, bolt material (iron or copj>er), elongation of bolt holes, and apparent condition, texture, and age of frames, in direct comparison with adjacent timber, length of futtocks, and shifting of butts. As the inspection got underway, particular attention was concentrated on the area, supposed, by Franklin D. Roosevelt, to have been added between frames B, C, D, and E and the after sister of frame F in 1853. It was found instead that frames E, F, G, and H and the after sister of frame I showed evidence of being later addi- tions. Thus, Mr. Roosevelt's notation overlapped CRC's findings. These four frames contained at least 60 percent fewer bolt holes than their counterparts which, it ap- peared had been subjected to several resheathings before the existence of frames E, F, G, and H. Another most revealing characteristic of these four frames, extending up to the plank sheer, was that they were obviously cut and shaped in a saw mill. The rotary blade markings were quite clear on the frame sidings. In striking contrast, all adjacent remaining frames showed evidence of having been hand hewn on all four sides. The lengthening of a ship's hull should not be considered an innovation of the mid-19th century. This practice extended back many years in the shipyards and is of course, common even today. Both Theodore Roosevelt in his Naval War of 1812 ^* and James Fenimore Cooper in his Naval History of the United States ^^ show the frigate Adams cut down to a sloop and lengthened at the Washington Navy Yard in 1812. This was but one of several which were "administratively rebuilt." Returning to Constellation, the latest and strangest discovery was that several of the earlier frames extended from the plank sheer down to the turn of the bilge and 118 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY out of sight, in one continuous long arm. The survey team had expected to find all the frames assembled from at least four futtocks and this was generally the case with several exceptions as noted here. These exceptions are indicated on a plan made for the purpose of recording these findings.^^ When the outer planking was finally and completely stripped down to the 15- foot wateriine in 1960, there was exposed to view in many areas, several generations of timber. Chocks, facing timbers, and patches were discriminately sewn into room and space and worked into the frames in the top timbers. This condition prevailed from the gun deck to the plank sheer. Allowing for later repairs, such as that of 1888 and including work performed in 1904, there still remained those most unportant hand hewn timbers which at this point were considered to pre-date the 1853 reconstmction. It appeared that the "moment of truth" was close at hand. When did the tumblehome (or the original moulded sectional shape) actually begin the transition ? The crews had not been satisfied with the excessive rolling characteristics (which can be counteracted by a reduction in tumblehome) from the first, until 1812, when Constellation entered the Washington Navy Yard under the supervision of Captain Tingey. If we can believe the Newsport, Rhode Island Naval Training Station transcripts, both Captains Truxtun and Murray had tried to remedy the excessive tumblehome by relocating the bulwarks.^^ Truxtun claimed, however, that Con- stellation was one of the fastest ships afloat in spite of this uncomfortable roll. She was often referred to as "The Yankee Race Horse" following the victory over the French La Vengeance in February 1800. This claim is not surprising, however, as many captains as well as the crews often referred to their own ships as the fastest afloat. There is evidence that the lower shrouds were continually rubbing on the bul- wark rails causing excessive strains and obvious stretching and chaffing damage. Captain Tingey stated that he could improve the situation by adjusting the tumble- home to the angle of shrouds and at the same time strengthening the hull.^® Evidence up to this point leads one to believe that when Constellation left Washington in January 1813, her wale planking had been increased on each side by 7 inches over the side planking, her sectional shape in way of the upper timbers was somewhat altered and she was materially a "better ship than when she left the stocks in Baltimore," to quote Captain Tingey and later, Franklin D. Roosevelt in his historical outline of Constellation, Constitution, and United States.^^ Thus, it would seem Captain Tingey increased the water plane area, a function of stability. He increased the transverse metacentric height at the same time, adjust- ing the tumblehome which in turn increased the righting moment of the ship and stabiUzing the uncomfortable roll. Another item to be taken into account is the long length frames extending from the vicinity of the spar deck beams to below the turn of the bilge. These are undoubtedly early timbers (pre-1853), judging by the excessive number of bolt holes and obvious marks of the adz. There is on file in the ship's archives at least one sheet of the semi-monthly progress report, dated 15 July 1839, indicating the extent of work.^° Of special interest is the notation that the "air ports were caulked" during NUMBER 5 119 this repair. Also Usted as finished and to be finished in 1829 are the follov^dng items: Ship's head, quarter galleries, capstan, rudder to be hung, iron work on the hull, spar deck bulwarks caulked, gun ports, lifting pump, fore pump, plumbing, lower masts, top masts, yards and cross trees, sprit sail yard, half main yard, tanks, cooper- age, gun carriages, carronade carriages, boats, sails repaired and replaced, all rigging reworked, bower, sheet and kedge anchors and hawsers repaired, 213 new top timbers and futtocks, 68 new third futtocks, 53 second futtocks, 27 first futtocks and 9 new strakes under the wales. It was from documents such as this that the Capps Report must surely have originated. This should provide some indication of the extent of work done at that time; however, much more was accomplished, including rework on the aft orlop deck. It was becoming obvious, viewing the naked frames, that the razee line in 1853 occurred at or about the 22-foot waterline and when the sheath was removed, as CRC was redoing, the futtock timbers above and below that line were renewed, then as now, "as necessary." Considering the long length frames which reach above and below that line, it seems apparent that the tumblehome was not altered in 1853. The spacing of gun ports was altered to accommodate the new heavy guns and this necessitated in many cases the shortening of upper futtocks in way of the lower port sills. Before closing the discussion on the long length frames, it may be well to con- sider that this may be one of the principal points relative to the extreme longevity of Constellation. It is a matter of record that well before restoration was started on Constitution in 1923, it was found that many of her frames were in short lengths. On her reconstruc- tion plans, CRC counted as many as five futtocks making up her framing structure. The butts were found to have shifted in the frames and she was badly distorted; 11 Va inches wider on her port side than on the starboard. Her stem was 8^4 inches to port; and a 14/2 inch hog was found in the hull.*^ Constellation on the other hand, while greatly weakened structually through the years of neglect never experienced this near disaster. She was at sea under her own sail long after Constitution was honorably retired. It is also noted that the increased frame spacing or "Timber and Room," (over that of, for example, Constitution) does not necessarily bear the connotation that more dead space exists between the frames, thus making for a lighter construction. On the contrary, the total siding of sistered frames being 24 inches substracted from the spacing of 32 inches, leaves a remaining dead space of but 8 inches. In comparison, the siding of sistered frames on Constitution is 13 inches and the space between frames is an additional 13 inches totaling the 26 inch room and space of Humphrey's design. The spacing is measured from the fore side of the forward sister of one frame, to the corresponding or fore side of an adjacent frame. Thus we see that the mass of framing timber presented on Constellation, contributes materially to the strength of the hull. The molded dimensions of the frames are practically equal on both ships. This should provide some indication of the strength of Constellation's hull structure in direct relation to one which, a great ship in her own right, aptly earned the title of "Old Ironsides." 120 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY The tumblehome then was apparently altered by Tingey in the Washington Navy Yard when the sides were increased in 1812-13 *^ and again to conform to moderniza- tion in 1839. There is little doubt that she was razeed in 1853. During the restoration in 1960, it was decided to raise the spar deck bulwarks to approximate their original positions on the new inboard profile. CRC now had in its growing files a photostatic copy of a elevation plan of the stern, dated 1840 and used for a survey of the mizzen mast.*^ This clearly indicates the raised spar deck bulwarks around the perimeter of the rounded stern 11 years before the rebuilding of 1853. Even then, this was not an original thought.** Further examination of this plan revealed in the vicinity of the waterline a min- utely inscribed date—"1829" (See Figure 20, Part 2.) This indicated that the mizzen mast survey was carried out in 1840 on the old plan thus saving the expense of a new drawing, a perfectly acceptable procedure. Armed with this information, the committee could safely conclude that the rounded stern concept of the frigate with full taffrail bulwarks did indeed trace back 24 years before work began in 1853. This, incidentally pointed directly to Samuel Humphreys' statement in 1829 on the same subject. The plan also indicates the arrangement of the stern decorations and a good view of the quarter galleries just as they appear now. These are shown on the outboard profile of 1960, precisely as they were at that period. An interesting sidelight on the rounded stern appears on an engraving by J. Yeager in a treatise on shipbuilding published in the Edinborough Encyclopedia, 1819. This fine drawing depicts various gun bearings as determined on the square sterned British frigate Boadicea compared with the round stemed Hamadryad. Apart from our earlier conclusions that the sailing characteristics are materially improved by eliminating the square transom, it became clear that considerable energy was expended in experiments covering the arrangements of the artillery thus defending the adoption FIGURE 5.—Stern profiles of Constellation: a, 1829-1840; b, present. NUMBER 5 121 of the curvilineal stern. There is an obvious advantage in the more concentrated dis- tribution of fire power with guns trained through the after broadside ports, quarter and stem ports of the round sterned Hamadryad frigate. Thoroughout the final stages of the conception of the reconstruction plans, a ghost had appeared to haunt the seemingly well conceived analysis of the presenta- tion of deck arrangements. In Capps Report under "Major Repairing, 1829," there appears a statement referring to a notation of the Constmction and Repair Department, 1828. This state- ment is in reference to a forecastle and a quarterdeck.'^^ It was somewhat of a shock for CRC to suddenly learn of an apparently nebulous structure, the design of which was something of a mystery at that moment. It was thus decided to continue along the lines of the Committee's original plan, to restore the spar deck as indicated by the presently existing structure, and where necessary to fall back upon the growing file of contemporaries, in order to arrive at what was known to be "typical." It was reasoned, therefore, that subsequent alterations could be incorporated when significant documentary evidence presented itself. The hatch was covered with portable gratings or wooden hatch covers permitting the ship's boats to be stowed thereon, or lowered to the gun deck below, by means of a gallows at the aft part and a belfrey at the fore part. A diamond netting was rigged in the gangway between the fore and aft bulwarks, in way of the hatch and secured to stanchions. This seemed to parallel the known description of the 32-gun Essex designed by William Hackett.*^ It was decided to further investigate the weather deck arrangements of several other ships, perhaps a step earlier in the eighteenth century. Returning to the model collection at the Naval Academy attention was drawn to an English ship model No. 43 in the collection.*^ Here, the huge main hatch extended from side to side and from the quarter deck to a focs'l deck. This fit the description perfectly, including runways, or gangways, on each side. Thus, it may be determined that the alleged focs'l and quarter decks on Constellation were actually the extremities of the spar deck level, being in effect the spar deck itself, a forecastle and quarter deck, if some prefer that nomenclature, divided by the unusually large main hatch area which, with the portable gratings and tarpaulin cover in place,*^ presented a flush deck appearance. If this theory is acceptable. Constellation would bear a marked resemblance to Essex in the upper works and the weather deck. A check of the lines plan, however, reveals no such similarity below the bulwarks, which is not surprising. That ship, hur- riedly though expertly designed by a man of advanced maturity, reflected a some- what earlier period in her beautiful contours. It should be noted that the description as suggested above, draws the original design of Constellation even further afield from that of Joshua Humphreys whose designs indicate no such arrangement.*'' It is probable that the raised poop deck and focs'l "effect" was illusioned by the fact that the main hatch may have originally extended almost from the fore mast to the main mast and from side to side of the waist. This is quite possible as such an arrange- ment is described in a letter by Charles Stewart, filed in the Library of Congress.°° This 369-704 O - 70 - 9 122 SMITHSONL\N STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY I /ri.j.il.' uir/il/i.'JM; ■ .l.l.ni,m„l l.f III.- 0 8H 1 l» Ii r I Li) J N<;. \ - PLATE CCCCXCVIJ. ri.ui .-III,.- ,ur,,l<..f.il Si^ri, .■/ iJu l/.n„.,,l,:,„.IJ,,„.,..'..„l/, II,.- .I,lt.i-/,il '^ ^ /■lull .-rilif llii-fi-JIrih .'lUir H.iiii.iJr-in.lJ-riii.ili villi till I'ini.' ,11 III.- iilii-l' hf^iiiifi.Up.irtiiltii lit tht .,lllifr,.',i.li.-f,I '■'•■■'" lli'.ii-" .-I'III' K.h ,1,1.1 III.,.I, Ifliif. ,1^,1- ..!'III., Stern ,„,J ll,nti,iitrv,-Hl Frmiil,-- ''*•' ''»'" '"" -'"' ■'•''"'"- -is l:-ssilih. / rtT ' o*4S FIGURE 8.—Main hatch variations of spar deck: i>!'««<-^ // j c *-«^ /.2.A6t.<-,^ <:f'..^^.<^.^c.»^.-» cJ.yAf: a-fA^^^^^ /^-i^L.- ofe».-A^-»^ //e<^,idL^«>l. ^cr*<-.^ /' .'ta^^-n- ^d>^r£~/t ^r>y^^^. / «^*-.-.--./-<4X. ^^ "iSe-~ ^' a"/»..^~ <^5C: ^/»,.^U<^.. ta.-r->-'<—*^ rfa-^-- ^if*-.»^ ^ /- J j-f^.,^. 67> io r'^-'y- ^d ' V /&.^i^ t,e- ^- ^ ' - ^- ■'^^ -^ 'J^'^^ ^>.<.r fA«>^ Xii^^^~ ^x-.,^.p<^.^ // .sa,-.-.-*' oiyA^z A i*>'r-.^iL.-^. /t ^^-....^..^ '^yC^.r ^— ^--^•^-.—^ FIGURE 11.—Letter from John Lenthall to Commodore Skinner, 18 December 1851. (National Archives, Washington, D.C, Record Group 45). NUMBER 5 133 same error. Down through 152 years everyone it seems, reached for what appeared to be the original building plan. A bit of research into previous dockings in each case could have saved a great deal of effort. Unbelievably, to carry this theme further, there was received by CRC a Docking Plan dated 30 September 1946, made at the Boston Navy Yard.^« The basis for this drawing is obviously an early and incorrect draught, the Humphreys' plan of 1794. All dimensions, however, including the 18 inch broad keel were apparently taken from that plan. This is also the 18-inch keel siding mentioned by Stodder (Figure 4). The Boston plan is closely followed and superseded by a corrected plan dated 22 October, 3 weeks later. "^ The profile, however, still remains incorrect. It shows the wrong stem and cutwater and the bowsprit entree is through the spar deck, instead of bearing on the hook at the gun deck. At first glance, one might assume it to be perfectly natural that the ship's contours did not agree with that plan in 1946 nor did it agree in 1926 in Philadelphia.^" It is simple enough to reason that a new ship was built in 1853, but what about 1852 and 1812 if we are to believe the transcribed correspond- ence in our files? Delano and Tingey in those years also appear to have found that the ship and Humphreys' plan were incompatible. The beakhead structure in 1959 was found to be reminiscent of the rebuilding of 1853-55. It was typical of the style of the later ships of the brewing Civil War era. The original trailboard carvings by William Rush have long since disappeared. The trails now aboard, however, are already well over a century old, as is the billet head, both apparently made during or prior to 1855. The original figurehead is said to have been destroyed in the battle with L'lnsurgent (9 February 1799). In comparison with the trailboards on Constitution in Boston and those of the Hartford in the Mariners Museum, Newport News, it is apparent that the carvings on the Constellation are possibly the finest examples of such carvings in this country (Figure 12). According to Franklin D. Roosevelt, the present trailboards were removed during the Civil War and replaced with "Wartime trails."®^ It was at least 15 years until they found their way back to the ship. During her service as a training ship through the 1870s, she had only a white painted stripe to serve as trails. After many trials and experimental projections with the lines of the head rails and after consulting dozens of old contemporary prints and models at the Naval Academy, CRC finally settled upon what appeared to be a proper curve or "bag" of this dis- tinctive feature in a ship of 1797. It was evident that the catheads, which play an important part in the location of these rails, were too far aft and their entire weight solely supported by a knee on the underside. Any pleasing curve which could be imparted to the eking of the seat rail came hard by the bridle ports beneath the cat- heads thereby rendering these openings ineffectual. The catheads were relocated above the forward edge of the bridle ports. It was also found advantageous to raise the cat- heads to the level of the top of plank sheer, which now provides positive support for the anchor bridling, the inboard ends being bolted through the spar deck to the beam at station 2 all in accordance with contemporary draughts and models. Now we were free to work the seat rail into the supporting knee curving forward and away from beneath the cathead. The actual "bag" of the head rails must first be based on the iiiiiiiiiBiT-n NUMBER 5 135 rake and curve of the upper cheek of the trails. Each must complement the other in order to affect an eye appealing unit. This suggests that the shape of the rails are somewhat limited by the existing structure. This also suggests, however, that a diligent application of the one to the other must result in the shape we are looking for in the first place. It was after considerable trial and error that the first sketches were finally trans- ferred to an actual scale model. This consisted of a hair rail and a seat rail. Subject to critical examination, a midrail was added in order to gain further stiffening for the structure. This contributed to the esthetic beauty of the head but was not strictly in accord wih most of the old plans and so was soon deleted. Finally, the preliminary sketches were set down on a new construction plan (No. C-400-1) along with offsets of the rails in order to loft the complex curves in a building fixture and then transfer the entire erection to the bows of the ship. On the new Outboard Profile (1960) the ten small head knees, are deleted and re- placed by four much larger 8-inch white oak members, moulded 12 inches in depth. The lacing pieces, plainly enough were in poor condition and obviously required replacement. The lacing cap, or tie piece, was in a short length, having been cut down. It was of good solid clear white oak and CRC hesitated before removing it but there was no alternative, as it must be long enough to carry out the function for which it was intended; that function being to secure the upper edges of the lacing pieces and the billet to the stem. The tailboards were carefully removed and laid out on the gun deck. Here they were photographed and inspected for deterioration. Aside from the loss of two small pieces of the trail cheek moulding, the carvings were found to be generally sound. The gammoning irons of a later period were found to be bolted through the remaining existing lacing pieces. These were removed in the summer of 1964 in preparation for the restoration to the earlier rope gammonings. Timber head bitts were nowhere in evidence on the spar deck. They are shown now on the plan of the spar deck and the Inboard Works (Plan No. C-100-1; Figure 3) as well as on the Outboard Profile (C-200-3). The timber heads are also shown on the sheer plan, at frames X, Y, Z and "a" (Plan No. C-100-4; Figure 10). Knightheads and hawse pieces found on the ship, remain unchanged on the plans. The Capps Report indicates replacement of the knightheads in 1853. This renewal was strikingly evident in comparison with the adjacent hawse pieces on the ship. The hawse pieces angle back along the bows, forming a beakhead bulk- head, which is graphically illustrated on the plan of the spar deck as well as on the Lines Plan, in the sheers and half breadths. It was then painstakingly built up on a one-quarter-inch scale model before the actual reconstruction was begun. FIGURE 12.—Head rails and cutwater of Constellation: top, July 1953; bottom, present. 136 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY Rigging channels were rebuilt and the chain plates are still substantially sound after several minor repairs. The rest of the iron work remains intact and is typical of the early period (pre-1853). It should be noted on later ships that the "chains" actu- ally became iron or steel straps spreading the lower shrouds on the channels. A good example of this later "chain plate" is to be found on the restored Constitution. Upon removal of the chain plates on the starboard side, it was found that wooden bushings had been inserted in the through-bolt holes in the earlier frames to take up the slack caused by elongation of those holes. One such bushing was removed from the aftermost chain of the fore mast, leading to the topgallant backstay. It is now pre- served in the ship's archives. A chesstree timber from the main course tack, as re- constructed, was bolted to the hull at frame E. The iron mooring staples on each side, removed during the replanking, are now reinstalled. In the report of Commander E. Delavey, 29 November 1926,®^ he points out that the forward staple on the port side was removed and replaced after repairs. In the process of heating one of the bolts, the retaining nut was dropped between the frames while red hot, showering sparks and causing a fire on the berth and orlop decks. The blackened timber is still in evidence though structurally sound. Gun deck planking was found to have been sheathed with 4x1% inch pine. In July of 1964, the sheathing was removed laying bare the deck planking, 4x7 inch oak king plank on centerline and tapering to 3/2 x 7 inch pine at the sides. The three waterway strakes are 6/2x9 inches; the waterway log, 12 x 15 inches. It was at once noted that the outline of an earlier and somewhat larger capstan was in- scribed in the deck plank in way of the present gear. It is just such evidence for which the researcher must be constantly alert. The orlop deck fore and aft required practically no structural rebuilding. The knees and fastenings were found to be solid and tight. A small percentage of ceiling plank was in need of replacement on the sides in the main hold. Several deck beam ends were deficient under the berth and deck amidships. Repairs are under way. Hatch beams and carlings of great age are sound and tough. The evident differ- ence in longevity of timber is apparent, even to the unpracticed eye, when compared with that of the later deck coamings and knees in the upper 'tweens. This is not to say that all 'tween deck coamings were relaced with newer structural elements in 1853 as it seems abundantly apparent that wherever possible, the original beams and girders were reinstalled. The lower orlop breast hook, as distinguished from the deck hooks, is one of the finest examples of original live oak timber yet exposed. This huge, naturally curved timber, comes down to us almost certainly from the shipyard of David Stodder. It, as well as the adjacent thrust knees, is one of the highlights of a tour through the ship. Although partially split at the throat due to the tension of the curved bow structure, the breast hook is still in one piece, functional, and intact. The after orlop deck is composed of the following store rooms, arranged on each side of the cockpit: a sail locker, marines storeroom, captain's stores, two bread rooms, hospital stores, masters stores, midshipmen stores, officer stores and pursers stores. Ac- cording to the notes of Thomas Truxtun, one steward's berth occupied the forward area athwart the centerline outside the sail locker in the glory hole. NUMBER 5 137 Below the orlop deck are two magazines for the storage of ammunition, en- closed on all sides and illuminated by lamp boxes. Forward of the magazines is the spirit room and aft, the lazarette. In the after hold at frame 26, the mizzen step of solid bronze and octagonal in shape is mounted upon the keelson, just abaft the magazine bulkhead. About 120 tons of pig iron ballast or kentledge is strung along the bilges from the spirit room, approximately frame 17 and forward, through the main hold and into the fore hold up to the foremast step at frame R. In areas where the bilge water has reached this ballast (some of which is apparently as old as the ship), it had deteriorated to a state of iron oxide. The scale, in some cases three-eighths inches thick, was easily broken off with the bare fingers. In March of 1963, CRC was finally in a position to shift a large portion of the amidship ballast from the ship's bottom in order to flush and clean the main lower hold and bilges (Figure 13). The ballast now began to move, lifted piece by piece from its resting place in the bottom to the platform which was left available on the sides at the turn of the bilges. Each pig iron bar, varying in weight from 150 to 350 pounds was hove up in its turn finally laying bare the keelson, floors, bottom planking, ceiling stringers, limber strakes and boxing upon which the bars had been stacked so many years before. 369-704 O - 70 - 10 FIGURE 13.—Fore hold of Constellation showing iron ballast. (Courtesy of the Baltimore Sunpapers.) 138 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY Now indeed was an opportunity to sound out these timbers with the ever present inspection pick. A check of each structural component soon revealed that the bottom, in general terms was sound and tight. The outer planking, a particular source of concern when tested (from the inside, of course) appeared to be sound enough. This was a reassuring examination, preliminary to the final test on the outer surface. Sadly enough, all the news was not good. Several areas of "iron sickness" were found involving almost 30 percent of the stringers under the ballast bars. This led to a substantial increase in the restoration estimate of material and labor. Also noted was the deteriorated condition of the three sea cock bolsters. The valves themselves of cast bronze appeared to be in fine condition except for the usual patina which formed on the surfaces, but it was almost certain that they would have to be dis- mounted in order to secure the watertight integrity of the penetrations. During the summer of 1964, while in drydock, the ballast was scaled and painted with white lead. Next, each bar was replaced in racks out of reach of the bilge water. The flood cocks on Constellation are located strategically adjacent to the maga- zines in the fore and after holds, and in the waist section, or main hold. The keelson moulds 34 inches from the throat fine to top of cap and sides 17 inches. It is a product of the rebuilding of 1853-55 as is also the fore and aft deadwood timbers, the stern post, apron of the stem (stem liner) and about 15 feet of the stem itself. CRC's careful examination of the stem reveals that it tapers from an 18-inch breadth at the fore foot, to 17 inches as it progresses upwards from the 12-foot water- line. The keel is 18 inches broad and 30 inches moulded (mean depth). This was recorded, as determined at the Boston Navy Yard, shown on their Docking Plan.^ They are the same as the dimensions given by David Stodder in his letter dated 30 April 1795. These dimensions were again soon to be determined by the restoration committee during the drydocking of 28 May 1964 (see p. 139). Critical dimensions in way of the keel assembly are: rabbet of keel, 4 inches; deadwood, 4 inches; floor timber, 16 inches; throat to under side of berth deck beam, 13 feet 2^ inches (depth of hold). As to the keel section, no one knew what the garboard scantlings consisted of, nor was there any more than speculative information as to the manner of fastening together of the floor timbers, the deadwood, and the keel. The resulting plan of the midship section (Figure 14) is evolved from untold numbers of sketches, trial and error calculations, physical measurements on the ship and comparisons with plans of contemporary ships, circa 1795-1860. Floor timbers throughout, were found to be sound and solid in the ship's bottom. Two anchors arrived in Baltimore with the ship. They are typical of the early oak stock bowers. One is unmarked and listed as "old" in the delivery inventory. The other is stamped 8100 lbs. 1858. The plans of 1888 show typical kedge anchors of the period catted up on billboards alongside the spar deck. On the new plans of 1960, these have been replaced with the typical bower anchors, at this moment on the beach alongside the ship. It is of interest to note the various methods of determining anchor sizes in the mid-19th century. From John Lenthall's "Equipment List: Articles Under the Cognizance of the Bureau of Equipment and Recruiting," ^* we note on p. 33 the FIGURE 14.—Midship Section Plaji, No. C-100-3 by L. D, Polland, 10 September 1959. (Previously published in Leon D. Polland, The Frigate "Constellation": An Outline of the Present Restoration, 1968) NUMBER 5 139 formula, "multiply the square of her extreme breadth by the number assigned to her rate . . in the . . . table" (2.8 for a Sloop of War, 2nd or 3rd rate). "The product will express the number of pounds exclusive of stock, but inclusive of bending shackle." Thus, 422 X 2.8 = 4939 pounds. If the constant, 3.0 {for frigates of the 2nd rate, razeed) is applied, the resultant weight of each bower anchor will be 5292 pounds. The Boston Navy Yard Capacity Plan dated May 1859 lists the weight as 5615 pounds,®^ a negligible difference. To quote Lenthall, "This rule will give the intended weights, but . . . discretion will be exercised. . ." ®^ In summary we note: the anchors of a Sloop of War are too small by 661 pounds; the plan of 1859 shows anchors of a razeed frigate, a description which surely fit Constellation after the 1853 alteration; and the weight differential is insignificant at 323 pounds. Sketches and eventually new drawings were made depicting the anchors.^"^ The iron bound oak stocks were in poor condition, requiring much repair. All dimen- sions for the new drawings were taken directly from the work. DRYDOCKING.—The underwater body: If CRC could tabulate all of its anxie- ties conceming the structural integrity of the ship (as a matter of fact the very im- mediate safety of Constellation), there is little doubt that from 1959 until the spring of 1964, drydocking would head the list. It must be remembered that the committee had never seen the underwater body, the garboards, the keel, the lower stem or the stern post. The day finally arrived on 28 May 1964.*' As the noon whistle blew at the shipyard in Baltimore Constellation cleared the water. As the inspection team stepped out on the dock, the first detail to be noted was the copper sheath covering the entire underwater surface from the 20 foot waterline to and including the keel. Here it had been hoped to find a relatively narrow belt of copper. An estimate of approximately $4000 was drawn to remove this sheath in order to get at the planking and caulking. The work progressed all through the night and by the end of the second day, the wood hull was laid bare and sand-washed. In the area of research the breadth of the keel had long confounded everyone. The offsets of 1853 give this dimension as 17 inches which is of course, contrary to the 18-inch dimension described by David Stodder, the builder. The Restoration Commit- tee, up to this point, leaned heavily upon the measurements taken at the Boston Navy Yard in 1946 to substantiate the claim that the original keel still existed, in reference to its dimensions.^" CRC therefore immediately set about taking off dimensions at vari- ous points along the keel. It was found that for the greatest length, every dimension in breadth exceeded 17 inches, generally varying from I7/2 inches to a full 18 inches. On 17 June 1964, one loose copper bolt dated W 1812 was withdrawn from the keel near the stem post. This was surmised to be part of Captain Tingey's repair at the Washington Navy Yard during that year. The bearing surface (length) of the bolt driven from side to side of the keel is 18 inches. This was not the first dated bolt to be found in the hull. On 19 May 1960, there was withddrawn from frame 21, plank 21, starboard side, a 13-inch long bolt dated "1797." A final word on the copper hull fastening bolts. Figure 15^ is an enlargement of the date stamp, 1797, on a copper fastening bolt removed from the hull during the 1960 drydocking of the Constellation. Immediately following the discovery of this bolt, as well as the one stamped "W 1812," affidavits were drawn up and signed by the shipyard workmen. 140 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY FIGURE 15.—Markings on copper bolts from contemporary ships: a, Gosport Navy Yard from Constellation; h, Washington Navy Yard from Constellation; c, from New Hampshire; d, from Constitution; e, from Constellation. ■i^ ' ' - - i- • I Mil - - ^f.. ~^f.^ -VV'' '.-Hf^'. NUMBER 5 141 The letter (Figure 16) from the Kennecott Refining Corp. is a report of a profes- sional comparison analysis of the bolts in order to determine the difference between the copper of 1797 used in the ship and later bolts of 1853. It will be seen that the compari- son reveals a distinct increase in antimony and arsenic as we compare the earlier to the later fastenings. As the chemists state, indications are, at the least, "that they came from two different sources." Note also that no cobalt is found in the bolts dated 1797, 1812, and one additional bolt dated 1808. Also the gold content of the 1853 bolt is more than double that in the fastenings of 1797 or 1812 and more than three times the content in the bolt of 1808. A substantial difference is also indicated in the silver content of the four bolts. The theory has been advanced that some of the "old" fastenings were re-used for nostalgic reasons or perhaps to imbed in an "administratively built" ship some proof that it is in fact the "old" ship. This theory is of little practical value when removed from the "library mechanic" to the cold reality of a construction plant foreman. There are several penalties for reusing soft copper bolts, spikes, or rivets previously cold formed or peined on opposite ends. When removed the bar is generally malformed and the ends now upset must be cut off, reducing the length by about 2 inches. Let us consider where to use these fastenings of varied lengths, now too short to be installed in a similar location on a "new" construction—and they will be 2 inches shorter when again tightened in the new structure! To compound the problem, if the older fasten- ing is to apf>ear normal, it must be of the same length and diameter as the new bolts surrounding it. It is evident that certain production penalties must occur in the practice of this theory. The most surprising of all discoveries was the keel to stem connection. This cer- tainly is not the arrangement of timbers as shown by John Lenthall in 1853. Also it did not appear to be a repair (see Figure 17). The lowest extremity of the stem is located 40 inches above the baseline and ten inches above the lower rabbet. The hooked scarph joint shown on Lenthall's plan of May 1853 was not in evidence and the stem planed off in a horizontal line at the foot is bolted directly to the keel and further secured laterally by bronze fish plates. The keel, built up in two sections, is also secured by a double set of bronze retain- ers or fish plates. These are beautifully inletted into the timbers on both sides at the stem and at the post. The keel shoe does not meet the forefoot in the manner shown by Lenthall in 1853 and reproduced on CRC's own plans in 1959-60. The pieces are butted directly to each other fore and aft and to the stem shoe. As Lenthall depicts the arrangement, the stem shoe overlaps its counterpart on the underside of the keel. These observations are significant in themselves. The inspection team could find nowhere in its files a record of repairs which could relate itself to this peculiar arrangement. In 1853 a new piece of stem 15 feet, 10 inches long was installed.'" This would be about 13 feet short of reaching the forefoot. Similariy in 1829, 15 feet of stem was replaced, apparently the same piece. Even if a repair was reported in the area of the forefoot, how could it have changed the profile of die keel in this manner? The keel itself rises up to meet the stem, well above the straight rabbet. 142 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY f Kennecott Refining Corporation Poil Office Bnx 3407 Baliimcirc. M.iryhnd 21226 March 18, 1969 Constellation Restoration Committee Pier 4, Pratt Street Baltimore, Maryland 21202 Gentlemen: Listed below are the impurity contents of the copper pins you recently submitted to Dur analytical laboratory. We understand these pins were removed from the structural members of the U.S. FRIGATE CONSTELLATION.' Pin Marked Pin Marked Pin Marked 1808 Pi n Marked 1797 1812-USNYW .0035 (large dia.) .0094 18 53-55GNY Tin (per cent ) .00029 .00027 Lead (per cent ) .068 .093 .17 .26 Bismuth (per cent ) .0037 .085 .0048 .0080 Nickel (per cent ) .040 .12 .027 .075 Antimony (per cent ) .0058 .013 .0090 .11 Arsenic (per cent ) .019 .11 .036 .17 Iron (per cent ) .00072 .00094 .00068 .00075 Tellurium (per cent ) .00055 .0017 .00038 .00070 Selenium (per cent ) .020 .010 <.010 .013 Cobalt (per cent ) N.D.* N.D. N.D. trace Gold (oz/T**) Silver (oz/T) .205 .230 .085 .480 8.38 9.09 9.10 12 .49 * None det ected ** Troy oun ces per avc irdupois ton I understand you ar the 1797 pin and the GNY pin son of the respective Lead, a two pins indicates that they diffe ested in whether ource. A compari contents of thes Most of the impurities were analyzed spectrographically by Mr. Albert A. DiLeonardi, Chief Chemist. Gold and silver were analyzed using fire assay techniques by Mr. Leo E. O'Hara, Laboratory Technician. Very truly yours, f<^.G h^crt^{ W. A. Wood quality Co DiLeonardi O'Hara C. A. Zeldln FIGURE 16.—Letter from W. A. Wood, Quality Control Director, Kennecott Refining Corporation to Constellation Restoration Committee, 18 March 1969. NUMBER 5 143 FIGURE 17.—Stem to keel connection of Constellation: a, f, arrangement of timbers and fish plates noted upon drydocking, 1964; b, John Lenthall's conception (C&R Plan, No. 28-3-5) of arrangement of timbers; c, similar areas on H.M.S. Victory showing similar use of bronze fish plates; d—e, fish plates in way of keel and stern posts of Constellation and H.M.S. Victory, respectively. There seemed to be no alternative but to conclude that Lenthall drew his plan before he saw the keel and his projected scarph still remains on the drawing to this day; and the Restoration Committee is quite familiar with the Delano statement that the "underwater body of Constellation does not match drawing of Humphrey plan or the sketched drawings 1852" °^ (italics mine). In the following letter from the War Office to David Stodder, reference is made to his "model of a scarph." While we must hesitate to make an unsupported claim, it is worthwhile noting that the stem to keel connection surveyed during the drydocking in 1964 did not agree with the plan of John Lenthall, nor indeed does it bear a similarity to any of the Admiralty models or plans in our library of contemporary American ships. The only ship structure known to us at this writing bearing a resem- blance to this element of the keel assembly is to be found on H.M.S. Victory which 144 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY c-4i!d<' /<»' w7r:A 'UicAof'^n^Mo ^/itAjaAA>fxf i//.1ii/^£,4^^(^.^tA'/^' i^ ''^li' (yM.cA>fi'^^ /A / , . /utA't-et/tA^>^2^ iiTM^ct, e^t4^^z/tA^ -^u/tAli.- ,rM^. Vi't/- Uft/l fvdyc t*ti^ A FIGURE 18.—Letter from War Office to David Stodder, 21 May 1795 (National Archives, Washington, D.C, Record Group 45). exhibits remarkably similar fish plates in way of the forefoot, as well as the stern post. Victory, of course, was first built in 7765. Our correspondence with the former con- structor of many years at H. M. Dockyard, Portsmouth, indicates the fish plates to date from Victory's earliest construction. The fish plates at the stem, keel, and post connections of Constellation are almost identical to those found on H.M.S. Victory. It is suggested that this peculiar construction of Consellation's keel is related to the "model of a scarph" referenced by David Stodder, from the War Office.®^ Judging by the content of the letter dated 21 May 1795, we can safely assume that Stodder was rather concerned about methods of scarphing certain timbers. Since his letter of 30 April ®^ already indicated that the keel and floors were assembled, we might now imply that he had in mind the stem-to-keel connections. This information would certainly complement our observations on the already noted "fish plates" found on Constellation (1797) a,nd Victory (1765). Stodder was concerned enough to have constructed a model illustrating his "new ideas." Of course, we cannot as this writing, claim with certainty that there is a primary connection between the letter and the peculiarities of the stem-keel and post-keel structures, but is such a possibility inconceivable? Our function is to present the material as it was found. Various interpretations may be assigned to this document but until a better time we shall be content to let the reader ponder this one final item: The Constellation Committee has within its files many documents conceming the ship. It is not physically possible within these pages to catalog those papers. That project must one day be undertaken for there is still more to tell. NUMBER 5 145 TABLE 1.—Principal Dimensions of U.S. Frigate Constellation Feet Inches Length between perpendiculars 176 0 Beam moulded outside of frame 41 Q Hold to gun deck 21 4}A The base line is the lower edge of the rabbet of the keel. The forward perpendicular is at the intersection of the fore side of the rabbet of the stem with a waterline 17 feet above the lower edge of the rabbet of the keel. The after perpendicular is at the intersection of the aft side of the rabbet of the stern post with a water line 17 feet above the lower edge of the rabbet of the keel. Timber and room 2 8 Distance of fictitious timber b from fore perpendicular 1 1 Distance from frame b to amidships 74 8 Distance from amidships to frame 36 96 0 Distance of fictitious frame 36 from after perpendicular 4 3 Length between perpendiculars 176 0 Distance of forward square frame R from forward perpendicular 27 9 Distance of after square frame 28 from after perpendicular 25 7 Height at amidships above lower edge of rabbet of keel Rabbet of keel 0 4 Deadwood 0 4 Throat of floor timber 1 4 Hold to underside of berth deck beam 13 2}/^ Berth deck beam moulded 1 OJ/^ Berth deck plank 0 33/^ Height from berth deck plank to underside of gun deck beam 5 9 Gun deck beam moulded 1 1 Gun deck plank 0 4J^ Height of top of gun deck plank amidships 23 9 Deduct the spring of the beam 5 Height of the top of gun deck plank at the side 23 4 Height under the spar deck beam 6 0 Spar deck beam moulded 0 8 Spar deck plank 0 33^ Plank sheer above the deck 0 93^ Height of top of plank sheer above lower edge of rabbet of keel (amidships) 31 1 Height of the top of gun deck plank at the side 23 4 Port sill above the deck 2 0 Height of lower port sill above lower edge of rabbet of keel 25 4 Port in height 3 0 Height of upper port sill above lower edge of rabbet of keel 28 4 NOTES ^Transactions of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (1914), vol. 22, 139-155. Presented to the Society in New York, 10 December 1914. Mbid., p. 153. ^ General Services Administration National Archives and Record Services (Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, New York). 146 SMITHSON^N STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 'THEODORE ROOSEVELT, The Naval War of 1812, 1st ed. (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1882). ^American State Papers, Documents Legislative and Executive of Congress of the United States, from the First Session of the First to the Second Session of the 18th Congress inclusive, commencing March 3, 1789 and ending March 5, 1825 (Washington, 1834), vol. 1: Naval Affairs. Constellation dimensions given on 20 January 1794. ' Record Group 19: Records of the Bureau of Ships (National Archives, Washington, D.C). ■'Lenthall Documents Collection (Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). ^Constellation Docking Plan, No. ix-20-50700-661826 dated 30 September 1946 (Boston Navy Yard, Massachusetts). See also National Archives Record Group 19 (footnote 6). °Draught of 36-Gun Frigate (Frigates Congress and Constellation, 36 Guns), signed by William Doughty, 1794 (United States Naval Academy Museum, United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland). " Lenthall Documents Collection (footnote 7). 11 National Archives Record Group 19 (footnote 6). 12 Journal of Captain Thomas Truxtun (Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). 13 THOMAS NICHOLS, "Observations on the Use of Iron Knees," Papers for the Society for the Improvement of Naval Architecture (London, 1795), article XXXV, p. 37. See also M. THOMAS, "Seppings on Ship-Building," The Analetic Magazine (Philadelphia, 1815), vol. 6, p. 456. "It is a well known fact, that the Insurgent, taken from the French by Commodore Trux- tun in 1799, sixteen years ago was built with iron knees." 1* Lenthall Documents Collection (footnote 7). ^^ General Services Administration National Archives and Record Services (footnote 3). 16 Inboard Works and Deck Plans (Final Draught), No. C-100-1 by L. D. Polland, 26 June 1959, in LEON D. POLLAND, The Frigate "Constellation": An Outline of the Present Restora- tion, 2nd ed. (Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, 1968). Also in files of the Constellation Restoration Committee of Baltimore. ^' Lenthall Documents Collection (footnote 7). ^ National Archives Record Group 19 (footnote 6). 1* Naval Documents Relating to the Barbary Wars (Washington, D.C.: United States Govern- ment Printing Office, 1939), vol. 1, p. 69. 20 Transcribed statement of Captain Tingey, Superintendent, Washington Navy Yard. Constellation file 1231-A: "Major Battle Damage, Repairs and Reconstruction to U.S. Ship Constellation, 1797-1855" by Admiral W. L. Capps, at direction of Truman H. Newberry, Assist- ant Secretary of Navy (Library of Naval War College, U.S. Naval Training Station, Newport Rhode Island). 21 Constellation file (Library of Naval War College, U.S. Naval Training Station, Newport, Rhode Island). Transcribed letter. 22 Record Group 45: Naval Records Collection of the Office of Naval Records and Library (National Archives, Washington, D.C.). =^ File IX-21-M7-2(N) 31 (BostonNavy Yard, Massachusetts). 24 "Report on Work Completed at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, 30 October to 26 November 1926" by Commander E. DeLavey dated 29 November 1926. National Archives Record Group 45 (footnote 22). 25 Pickering File (Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). ™ National Archives Record Group 19 (footnote 6). Plan of Transverse Sections, C&R Plan 107-13-4B dated February 1853. 27 National Archives Record Group 45 (footnote 22). Transcribed sheet from Delano notebook. 28 Record Group 71: Records of Bureau of Yards and Docks, Navy Yard, Gosport Log Book 1851-1855 (National Archives, Washington, D.C. Letters from Commandant, Gosport Navy Yard January-June 1853; November 1853-May 1854. 29 Record Group 45: Naval Records Collection of the Office of Naval Records and Library, Entry 374: The War Department Records of the Federal Government, 1790-1831 (National Archives, Washington, D.C). Letters sent concerning Naval matters, October 1790-June 1798. 27 NUMBER 5 147 ** Ibid., Letter from Pickering to Stodder, 18 May 1795. "You are the owner of a Navy Yard and also a master builder . . ." "^ EUGENE FERGUSON, Truxtun of the Constellation (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1956), chapter 25. Outlines the problems of procuring timber from Georgia. ^° National Archives Record Group 45 (footnote 29). John Morgans appointment as con- structor at Norfolk, 8 August 1794. ^ FERGUSON, op. cit. "ROOSEVELT, op. cit. (footnote 4), p. 72. ""(New York, Lea and Blanchard, 1839), vol. 2, p. 197. ^POLLAND, op. cit. (footnote 16), p. 17, 19. " Transcribed statement of Captain Tingey (footnote 20). =» Ibid. ^ "Our First Frigates," loc. cit. (footnote 1). *" File of the Constellation Restoration Committee of Balimore. "■ U.S.F. Constitution (booklet) (Washington, D.C: United States Government Printing Office, 1932). " Transcribed statement of Captain Tingey (footnote 20). "National Archives Record Group 45 (footnote 20). Plan (fragment) of Constellation, Mizzen Mast Survey 1840 (1829). Note initials F.D.R. on lower right margin. " Transcribed statement of Samuel Humphreys on enlarging and rounding the stern in 1829. In Constellation file (Library of Naval War College, U.S. Naval Training Station, Newport, Rhode Island). "Report listed as other than battle damage and the specifications for repairs are from Ware and Tare at sea." "Repair 1828-1829. Released from Gosport Navy Yard 1829 (Specifica- tions) . . To newly fasion [sic] the underbody of the stern . . . and to round the counter to a full body curve. " *^ POLLAND, op cit. (footnote 16), p. 36. See also Transcribed statement of Captain Tingey (footnote 20). "Barbary Wars—Personnel and Ships Data 1801-1807. Published under direction of the Honorable James V. Forrestal, Secretary of the Navy (Washington, D.C: United States Govern- ment Printing Office, 1945), p. 71. Includes National Archives ships plan 41-9-lL. " The Henry Huddleston Rogers Ship Model Collection (United States Naval Academy Museum, Annapolis, Maryland). " Inboard Works and Deck Plans (footnote 16). *' Draught of 36-Gun Frigate (footnote 9). " Tingey and Charles Stewart Papers (Library of Congress, Washington, D.C). " Journal of Captain Thomas Truxtun (footnote 12). "^ Transcribed statement of Captain Tingey (footnote 20). " Inboard Works and Deck Plans (footnote 16). " POLLAND, op. cit. (footnote 16), p. 36. Capps Report, "Major Repairing—1828" ^ Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ^ National Archives Record Group 19 (footnote 6). " National Archives Record Group 45 (footnote 22). ^Ibid. (footnote 20), Dimensions and offsets of 44- and 36-gun frigates, by Joshua Hum- phreys, 30 July 1795. "* National Archives Record Group 19 (footnote 6). ^ National Archieves Record Group 71 (footnote 28). °^ POLLAND, op. cit. (footnote 16), p. 40. "^ Ibid. •^ Inboard Works and Deck Plans (footnote 16). " National Archives Record Group 19 (footnote 6). " Ibid, (footnote 5), "Constellation—1853- Dimensions of the Spar deck Sloop of War Con- stellation taken from the Mould loft floor." " POLLAND, op. cit. (footnote 16), Lines Plan, No. C-100-4 by L. D. Polland, 27 May 1961. 148 SMITHSONL^N STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY " LOUIS GOTTSCHALK, The Use of Personal Documents in History, Anthropology, and So- ciology (New York: Social Science Research Council, 1924), p. 36. "For each particular of a document the process of establishing credibility should be separately undertaken." ^ National Archives Record Group (footnote 6). °' Draught of 36-Gun Frigate (footnote 9). '"National Archives Record Group 19 (footnote 6), "Constellation—1853: Dimensions of the Spar deck Sloop of War Constellation taken from the Mould loft floor.'' '^ Inboard Works and Deck Plans (footnote 16). '= Ibid. See also Midship Section Plan, No. C-100-3 by L. D. Polland, 10 September 1959 and Lines Plan, No. C-1004 by L. D. Pofland, 27 May 1961. " Inboard Works and Deck Plans (footnote 16). '^Offsets signed by Josiah Fox 20 October 1795 in Josiah Fox Papers (Peabody Marine Museum, Salem, Massachusetts). "Heels of facing timbers are to run two feet below upper edge of gun deck beams." '° Lenthall Documents Collection (footnote 7). "National Archives Record Group 45 (footnote 22), Letter from Lenthall to Skinner, 18 December 1851. " Plan of Dimensions and Offsets Plan, No. C-100-5 by L. D. Polland, 20 April 1961, in files of the Constellation Restoration Committee of Baltimore. " Constellation Docking Plan (footnote 8). '^Constellation Docking Plan, No. IX-20-50700-85990, 22 October 1946. (Boston Navy Yard, Massachusetts). "" "Report on Work Completed" (footnote 24). "FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, "Constellation Trailboards" (Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, New York). ^" "Report of Work Completed" (footnote 24). ^ Constellation Docking Plan (footnote 79). ^ File of the Constellation Restoration Committee of Baltimore. ^National Archives Record Group 19 (footnote 6). ^^ [John Lenthall's "Equipment List"] (footnote 84), p. 33. "'Constellation Anchors Plan, No. C-300-2 by L. D. Polland, 31 August 1959, in file of Constellation Restoration Committee of Baltimore. ®° Constellation was drydocked at Maryland Shipbuilding & Drydock Company, Baltimore, Maryland. *" Constellation Docking Plan (footnote 79). "" Transcribed statement of Captain Tingey (footnote 20). '^ National Archives Record Group 45 (footnote 22). "'Record Group 45 (footnote 29). '^ Pickering File (footnote 25). Index Adams, frigate, 117; rebuilding of 28-gun, 14 Administrative: organization, 13; rebuilding, 13—16, 108; personnel and duties, 13 Air ports, 118 Annerican Bureau rules, 44 American State Papers, 17, 18, 43-49; dimen- sions of Constellation in, 106 Anchor: joints, 98; ports, 99; weights, 138 Apron of the stem, 138 Archives. See National Archives Authorization Act of 1794, 64 Baker, William A., Naval architect, 53 Ballast: pig iron, 112; shifting of, 137 Baltimore Committee. See Construction and Repair Committee Barracks "B," 24, 31 Barron, Captain, USN, 53 Barry, John, 5, 7 Bath Independent, 100 Beam: amidships, 84; confusion in terms, 84; extreme, 84; moulded, 126; to outside of frame, 145 Bell, Captain Charies H., 114 Blagge, John, 82 Boadicea, frigate, 120 Boats, 121 Body plan, 11 Bolts. See Copper Fastening Bolts Boston Navy Yard Docking plan of 1946, 133, 138 Breast hooks, 91, 113, 136 Breese, Captain Samuel S., 78 Bridle ports. See Anchor ports Bugler, Arthur, 98 Bureau of Construction and Repair, 22, 24, 27, 43, 49 Buttock and bow lines, 11 Calender of Josiah Fox Papers. See Fox, Josiah Capps, Rear Admiral Washington L., USN, 33, 41-49, 54 Capps Report: Chapelle's interpretation of, 84, 95, 97, 99; and repairs of 1828, 121 Capstan, HI, 136 Catheads, 130 Caulking, 77 Chain plates, 136 Chesapeake, frigate, 63; 44-gun, 64; 1795 progress report, 64; launched, 65; arming of, 66; timber for, 75. See also Fox, Josiah Chief of Naval Operations, 46 Congress, frigate, 16, 50, 70. See also Truxtun, Thomas; Stoddert, Benjamin Congress, U.S.: Act for the gradual improve- ment of the Navy, April 1816, 14. See also Authorization Act. Constellation, frigate: design of and responsi- bilities for, 31—33; designated as historic shrine, 106; inspection of hull of, 127; model of, 99; scarph of, 143; sunk in Delaware River, 19 Constitution, frigate, 17; decision to restore, 74; distortion in hull of, 119; floors and first futtocks of, 98; survey of, by L. D. Polland, 116 Construction and Repair Committee, 108, 165 "Construction and Repair Department," 50 "Constructors," 13 Cooper, James Fenimore, 117 Copper fastening bolts, 139; analysis of, 141 Copper hull sheathing, 139 Copying plans, 12 Corvette, 15,21,30,43 Cowper, Lieutenant William, 70 Cumberland, frigate, razeed, 16 Cyane, sloop of war, rebuilding of, 15 Dagger knees, 13, 110, 111 Daily Southern Argus, 37, 85 Daniels, Josephus, Secretary of the Navy, 17, 22, 39 149 150 SMITHSONL\N STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY Davis, Robert H., Shipwright, 37-39, 41, 42 Dead flat, 44 Deadrise, 113 Decorations, on quarter galleries and stern, 120. See also Head carvings Delano, Benjamin F., 37-42, 54, 77 Delano, Edward H., 77, 114 Delavey, Captain E., 136 Design, substitution of, 18, 25 Diagonals, 11 Diagonal planking, 13, 19 Diagonal riders, 45, 116 Dimensions: of keel, 133; of main hatch, 124; and offsets, 127, 131; recording of, 110; table of principal, 145 Dismantling procedure, 67 Documentation, 17-18, 43 Doughty, William, 7, 12, 17, 30, 33, 63, 108 Draughts, 7, 9, 11, 32; description of, 11, 12; man hours of, 12; number of, 12; scale of, 11 Drydocking, 139 Ellicott, Andrew, 7 Erie, sloop of war, rebuilding of, 15 Essex, frigate, 121 Ferguson, Eugene S., 45 Fish plates, 141 Flitch, 8, 9 Forefoot: according to 1853 plan, 130; as found in 1964, 141 Fox, Josiah, 7, 9, 12, 17-18, 24, 26, 29-33, 43, 45, 49, 64, 71, 83, 92; papers in collection of Ernest J. Wesson, 31, 32, 33 Frames spacing, 69, 108; of Constitution and Constellation, 119 Framing timbers: exposed to view in 1960, 117; saw mill cuts, 94; photographic records, 117 Francis, Tench, 80 Franklin, 74-gun ship, rebuilding of, 16, 37 Franklin Institute, 24 Frigates, authorization for six, 7, 64, 65 Gammoning irons, 135 Gangways, 50 Girdling, 19, 30 Gosport Log, 73, 116, 127 Gosport Stores Report, 129 Gun deck: camboose, 110; hatch coamings, 110; main pumps, 110; sheathing, 110; planking, 136 Gun port sill heights, 110 Hackett, James, 81 Hackett, William, 121 Hackmatack, 21 Half-breadth plan, 11 Hamadryad, frigate, 120 Hand-hewn timbers, 45 Hang, 44 Harte, S.T., 100, 126 Hartford, sloop of war, 113 Hartt: Boston shipbuilder, 9; naval construc- tor, 54. See also Harte, S. T. Hauling up, 20 Hawse pipes, 126 Hawser clamp. 111 Head carvings: billet head, 133; figure head, 133; trailboards, 133. See also Decorations Headrails, Constellation, 133 Heel, 45, 52, 54 Heffeman, Rear Admiral John B. (Retired USN), 46-48 Henry B.Hyde, 100 Hog, 13,21,27,29,41 Hogged keel, 20, 27, 29, 41 Hove down, 19 Hull-form, 11,21,27 Humphreys, Joshua, 6, 7, 9, 11-12, 17-19, 26, 31-43, 45, 49, 63, 79, 108, 114, 121, 129, 131, 133 Humphreys, Samuel, Chief constructor, 31-33, 48, 120 Inboard Works and Deck plans of 1959 (Pol- land), 129 Independence, 74-gun ship, razeed, 16 Inspector's Report of January 1854, 51-52 L'lnsurgent, French frigate, 133 Iron: knees. 111; sickness, 138; work, 20 John Adams, frigate, rebuilding of, 15 Journal of American History, 32 Kendedge, 21 Keel, stem connection, 141. See also Dimen- sions Keelson, 138 Kennecott Refining Corporation. See Copper fastening bolts Knees: spar deck. 111; decay of, 111; hanging, 111; shelf, 111. See also Iron Dagger knees; Knightheads, 130 Knox, General Henry, 5, 7-9, 13, 25, 32 Lacing pieces, 135 Lafayette, frigate, 31 Laird-Clowes, William, 24 Larch, 21 Launching, 9-11; of Constellation, 11; of Con- stitution, 11; of United States, 9 Length, problems of, 13 Lengthened section, 94, 107, 111 NUMBER 5 151 Lengthening, practice of, 16-17, 21-22 Lenthall, John, Naval constructor, 24, 33, 36, 43, 44, 48, 88, 108-113, 126, 131, 138, 143 Library of Congress, files of, 63, 123 Lines and Half Breadth plan, 129 Live oak, 8, 9, 22 Livingston, 114 Location of hatches, 11 Lofting, 7, 12, 32 L'Oiseau, French frigate, 13 Long length futtocks and frames, 117, 118, 119 Longitudinal strength, 13 Macedonian, frigate, 50; rebuilding of, 15 Magazines, powder, 137 Main hatch, portable gratings of, 121. See also Dimensions Maintenance funds, 15, 16 Manson, Captain, 100 Mariners Museum, 133 Maryland Historical Magazine, 17-18, 37, 40- 43, 59, 75 Maryland Journal, 45 Mead, Captain William W., USN, 37 Meade, Captain W. W., 37 Memorandum to CO. of the Point, 86 Midsection, 29 Mizzen mast survey, 95, 120 Model, 7, 11; Stodder's, 49. See also Constel- lation, frigate Morgan, John, Constructor, 9, 117 Morgan, Michael, 63 Moulded beam, 19, 30, 48^9; and extreme beam, 49 Moulds, 9, 12, 32; number of, 12 National Archives, files of, 63 Nautical and shipbuilding language, errors in, 41-44, 45, 48, 50-51, 53-54 Naval Academy, Annapolis, 121, 133 Naval History, Department of, U.S. Navy, 63 Naval Training Station, U.S., 23-24, 31, 43, 63; museum, 43, 75 Naval War College: Library, 23, 24, 26, 30, 31, 33, 37-43, 45, 48-49, 52, 54; museum, 23-24, 31-43 Naval War of 1812, 24. See also Roosevelt, Theodore Newbury, Truman H., Secretary of the Navy, 33, 49 Niles Weekly Register, 31-32 Norfolk Navy Yard ("Gosport"), 20-21, 105 Office Services Supervisor, 38 Offsets, 7, 11, 12, 43, 44; and mould loft, 88 Orlop deck, 136 Overlay of midsections, 27-29 Peabody Marine Museum, 31, 33 Peacock, sloop of war, rebuilding of, 15 Philadelphia Saturday Inquirer, 85 Pickering, Secretary of War, 9, 25, 26, 27, 45 Plans, inboard, 9, 12 Platforms. See Gangways Polland, Leon D., 43, 45, 48-51 Portsmouth, N.H., 37 Procurement control, 13, 25 Progress: in construction, 9, 25; report of 1839, 118. See also Air ports Providence Sunday Journal, 94 Pumps, bilge. 111 Quaker guns, need for, 54 Randolph, frigate, 6, 11, 26 Razee, 15-16 Rebuilt ships. See Administrative Repairs on lower structure, 94, 95 Roberts, R. F., 98 Room and space, 11, 12, 30 Roosevelt, Franklin Delano, 17-26, 31-44, 51, 53, 63, 64, 69, 72, 91, 105, 118, 133; library, 111 Roosevelt, Theodore, 24-43, 105, 117, collec- tion of Naval papers, 24—55 Rot, 9, 14-15, 53; in timbers, 111 Royal Navy, ships of: cost of, 14; rebuilding of, 14 Rush, William, 133 Saw mill cuts in frames, 94 Scaffolding. See Staging Scarlett, Charles, Jr., 17 Schneid, John, 17 Sea cocks, 138 Sections plan 1853, 77, 78, 114 Sheer elevation, 11 Sheet bitts, 99 Shipbuilding: survey, 53; terms, 41—42, 45, 48, 50-51 Shrouds, chaffing of, 45 Skinner, Commodore, 33, 131 Sloop of war, 20 S.N.A.M.E. paper, 59, 64, 99, 100, 105 South Carolina, frigate, 5 Southard, Samuel, Secretary of the Navy, 31 Spar deck, 44. See also Iron; Knees Special order, to fly Constellation's flag at half- mast, 38-39 Specifications, 12 Staging, for Constellation, 1853, 78 Stanton, Elizabeth, 13, 32 Stem, timber for, 80 Stern, round, 48, 52, 84, 94 Sterrett, Joseph and Samuel, 82 152 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY Stewart, Captain Charles, 123 Stewart, Donald, 17 Stodder, David, 5, 8, 9, 11, 18-19, 22, 24-27, 30, 33, 45, 49, 63, 69, 76, 80, 82, 92, 114, 138; experience of, 26; scarph model by, 143; substitution of his design, 18; sworn statement of, 45 Stodder shipyard, 106, 107 Stoddert, Benjamin, Secretary of the Navy, 71, 94 "Stopper bill," 111 Stringham, Silas, 131 Thomas, Abashai, 66 Timber, 8, 9, 13; heads, 130 Timbers: dating of, 21; floor, 98; inspection of, 73; interchangeability of, 79 Tingey, Thomas, 20, 32-33, 45, 48, 50, 52-53, 59; "constructor-captain,'' 45, 50, 114; destroys Washington Navy Yard, 105, 118, 120 Toner, Captain Raymond J., 123 Tools and labor, production of, 13 Tracing plans, 12 Trailboards, 133 Transverse sections of frigate Constellation, 27, 77 Truxtun, Captain, Thomas, 8-9, 18-19, 24-26, 30, 45, 54, 70, 71, 80, 94, 123, 124, 136; absence-without-leave, 18, 25-26; on design by Stodder, 18, 78; journal of, 113 Tumblehome, 20, 33, 45, 48, 54, 94; alteration of, 107, 118, 120 United States, frigate, 3 La Vengeance, French frigate, 118 Victory, H.M.S., 143-144 Wale strakes, 107 War of 1812. See Naval War of 1812 Washington, President George, 5, 8 Washington Navy Yard. See Tingey, Thomas Water lines, 11 Waterways, 136 Wesson, Ernest J., 31-32. See also Fox, Josiah Westiake, Merle T., Jr., 32 Wet rot. See Rot Wharton, John, 5-6, 26 Wheeling Gazette, 32 Yeager, J., 120 Yellow Pine, 22 U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1970 O - 369-704