USS Constitution 1797 by The Bitter End - 1/76.8 - 44 Gun Frigate - heavily modified kit

[Holger.Schwarz]

Hello, I’m really impressed by your craftsmanship and approach. The build log is really valuable and I’ll be following it with great interest. Best wishes and regards, Holger

 

[Der Alte Rentner]

We were fortunate enough to win a great wine award and one of the countries top wine writers came out for an interview...what were they interested in hearing about? Constitution....this photo made it onto their social media platform. Maybe it inspires someone to join the club!

Congratulations on the award. I've enjoyed one or two wines from South Africa over the years, admittedly, it's been a while, but I recall one Chenin Blanc as having been among the best I've sampled. May I ask the name of your vineyard? and what wines do you produce? Might we find a representation of these anywhere in the US?

 

[Der Alte Rentner]

Since posting the above, I've done some research, found the site for your farm, and got a few small details on your award.

The pictures of the farm make a compelling case to consider a visit. If ever I get over my dread of commercial air travel, I may yet make it over there to see Conny first hand, and perhaps sample the wine.

I've never heard of Pinotage, but evidently your Langdam FrostLine 2024 was the award winner. (2026 Absa Top 10 Pinotage).

I also learned that Pinotage is South Africa’s own red grape, developed in 1925 by Stellenbosch professor Abraham Perold, who crossed Pinot Noir with Cinsaut (then called Hermitage in the Cape — hence Pino-tage). Almost all of it is still grown in South Africa. As an aside, if memory serves, the Chenin Blanc I spoke of was a Stellenbosch.

I dug further to see if it would be possible to purchase any of your farm's wines here, but was told no.. Begging the question, is there anyway to acquire some directly from you?

My trusty A/I agent suggested I seek out other brand Pinotages here. If that's my only option, which of these would you suggest I try? Diemersdal The Journal, Beyerskloof Diesel, or Kanonkop?

Sorry, didn't mean to clutter your build log with the detour, but, you did open the door...



Once again, congrats - not just on your award, but on your build! Great picture, causing me to double down on my conviction that you should keep the finish as natural as possible. I'd hate to see all that beautiful detail covered by black paint.. Since SoS started a new page, I am copying the photo from your post to here.

 

[Marcus.K.]

Wash boards:

A feature I have not seen many examples of but which clearly appears on many sources related to constitution. We see them on the hull model of 1812:

And in the roux president painting:

With such scant evidence for most of this vessel I decided this was enough to justify the addition of a wash board.

I made this through trial and error and slowly carving and fitting a piece of wood until it seemed correct enough to accept(given this will be painted later). I then carved planking lines into it with a small file and created this result:

...

A tiny correction from the researcher, the "wonk" in this thread here

This detail below the lower cheek is called "Wash Cant" - at least that´s what we found in the beautiful AotS "US Frigate Essex" or Jean Boudroits "74 gun ship" (in its English translated version of course).

See here item #13 - the Wash Cant.

The "Wash board" or "Splash Board" is what Haiko shows some posts above:

We understood that in the earlier phase of the American Navy builds the head of the ship was much more open - and therefore the ships bow needed a better protection from green water or the sea shipped over the bow. .. Therefore this raised bulwark was installed and used.

By the way: if you compare the Doughty and Fox Plans of 1794 and 1795 to the later ship - as depicted in Cornè´s side view or in other depictions - and also in later years of course - you will notice that the sweep the Concept had caused a raised bulwark in the bow. The bulwarks did not follow the sweep of the gun deck - it bend more! The real ship instead seemed to have had from the beginning a sweep of the bulwark parallel following the decks sweep, causing the bow to be less protected - and needing more protection against greenwater than most likely Doughty and Fox intended. This may be the experience of the English influenced Doughty and Fox. If we look into Humphreys very early "Terrible" sketch - his very first concept drawing for the 44 gun frigates - we see he did not foreseen any wash board .. Maybe this was one of the points the two, Humphreys and Fox, got into trouble with each other. As a matter of fact: all later representations of Constitution seem to indicate that the bulwark planking in the real ship followed in parallel the gun decks curvature. A more simple and more economic way of building - but causing more greenwater - if not protected by an additional features - such as the wash board.

As the heads of ships forward of the bow in the following years got planked in more and more the sea wasn´t able to reach that often the bow - that this wash boards could then be opened even to allow a better entry into the head. In the 1812 Hull model we can see two entries beside the bow sprit which this older wash boards would not offer! Hull could afford to have them opened as the head was by then already planked in.

Here you can see: the Hull model does not have anymore that specific wash board. Instead the total bow is now enclosed until the height of the Main rail - while just left and right of that bollard timber - those massive timbers left and right of the bow sprit - there is the opening for the sailors to get access to the head by then.

It seems the early ship had this open bow, with no main rail from about were the timber heads were - to the bow sprit.. Later, with better closed head the access to the head could be organized more in the center - and the main rail could be closed all around the bow, as the entrance was now just under that main rail.