Constitution Page One

The USS Constitution will likely be my final model ship project.  She sits today in Boston Harbor, Charlestown, MA, where she is open daily for public tours.  I was honored to walk her decks with my son, Michael, on May 12th (about five months after beginning this build).

USS Constitution is a three-masted heavy frigate of the US Navy, named by President George Washington after The Constitution of The United States of America.  She is the world's oldest commissioned vessel still afloat.

Launched in 1797, one of six heavy frigates authorized for construction by the Naval Act of 1794 and the third constructed.  Constitution and her sisters were larger and more heavily armed and built than standard frigates of the period.  Her first duties with the newly formed U.S. Navy were to provide protection for American merchant shipping during the war with France and to defeat the Barbary pirates in the First Barbary War.

Constitution is most noted for her actions during the War of 1812 against the United Kingdom, when she captured numerous merchant ships and defeated five British warships.  The battle with Guerriere earned her the nickname of "Old Ironsides" and public adoration that has repeatedly saved her from scrapping. She continued to serve as Flagship in the Mediterranean and African squadrons, and circled the world in the 1840's.  During the American Civil War, she served as a training ship for the U.S. Naval Academy.  

Constitution was retired from active service in 1881, and served as a receiving ship until designated a museum ship in 1907.

FINISHED

FINISHED

This photo of the actual ship's bell was created from a large brass wood screw, as seen below.

The ships bell installed directly onto the fore side of the main mast.

There are three of these Jacobs Ladders.
(one for each mast)

 

The lower yard for the main mast was the first installed.

 

The yards have all been created and now ready to be installed and rigged.

The sixteen cannonades installed in place on the aft spar deck.

Full view of the spar deck with all 22 guns installed.

Cannonade fully rigged with block and tackle.

Note the rope coils have not been added yet.

The short carriage tackle used to haul the carriage forward into firing position.

One of the 18 cannonades  ready to be fitted onto the deck.

These "quoins" are the wooden wedges used to adjust the elevation of the cannons.

Close up of the cannonades turned on my lathe ready for black paint.

The spar deck has 22 guns in all.  There are two long cannons, 18 cannonades, and 2 carronades.

 The ships steering wheel installed.

The upper deck (called the Spar Deck) is constructed with "cutaway" sections, which will allow partial view of the Gun Deck below.
Seen here, the fife rails surrounding the fore mast, and also the stack to the ship's stove.

The forward spar deck showing the fife rail surrounding the fore mast hole.  

Overhead view of the entire spar deck in progress.

Aft view of the spar deck after installing the companionways with the brass canvas frames and the ships steering wheel.

Note, the unpainted masts are dry fitted at this point.

Close up of the brass canvas frames covering the companionway entrances.

These joints have been silver soldered. 

 The two binnacles located on each side of the ships steering wheel.

 The fife rails ready to be fitted to the deck.

The fife rails on the left will surround the mizzen mast.  The larger fife rails on the right will surround the main mast.

The two part gun port lids being fitted.

The Constitutions gun port lids are very unique.  As seen here, the lids are two "half lids" which are hinged at the top and bottom and having a hole in the center where the cannon muzzle extends through when closed.

Overhead view of the spar deck and showing the port side gun port lids installed.

Another deck view from above the bow area.











GO TO PAGE 2

Constitution Page Two

The ships stove sits on a platform between the chain bitts.

The four chain pots on each side of these companionways were used to store the anchor chain.

These chain bitts were used to secure the chain when the heavy anchor was released.

Perhaps the most difficult deck fixtures to create were these bilge pumps which were used to pump water from below the gun deck.

Still another companionway with gratings and cannon ball storage.

Note the water barrels sitting on the grating platform to the left.

The water barrel and grog barrel was created on a small wood lathe.  The brass rings are extremely tiny and a little bit tricky to add with precision.

Here is a closer look at the capstan (s).... the one on the right will eventually be added to the upper (Spar) deck.
It was used to hoist heavy cargo items onto the ships deck using heavy block and tackle rigging.

Here are two openings without gratings.  The openings with stairs are called companionways.
Note the Capstan between the openings.... used to raise the ships anchor by inserting long bars into the square holes.  It took the efforts of a dozen crewmen to raise the anchor and up to two hours depending on the depth.

This is the first of several grated openings that will be added to the gun deck.

These gratings allow daylight through to the deck below, and In most cases, they could be removed to allow access to the stairs leading below.  
The tiny cannon balls seen here are actually rat shot pellets from my 22 cal pistol.  

Chairs and table installed.  This is the space used by the ships Commander to do most of his reading and studying, and meeting with his officers.  It would have been his primary command post.  

Note that the paneled walls are actually hanging from the ceiling on hinges, and can be folded upward to allow this room to become operable gun positions when the four cannons are needed for combat. 

This dresser cabinet with mirror was the biggest challenge of all the furniture pieces.

Furnishing the Captains Greater Cabin required the creation of this tiny table and 5 chairs.

The short pencil included for scale perspective. 

The gun deck is now ready to begin adding the many fixtures, among which are the several hatches with stairs up and down to allow passage from deck to deck.

Seen here, is the first of the openings called "companionways".

All of the fully rigged long guns installed on the gun deck.

Each gun is assembled and rigged off ship and then installed on the gun deck.

Perhaps, the biggest challenge of all is the turning of the 54 cannons that will be rigged on her battle decks.  The lower deck (the Gun Deck) will have 30 of the 24 pound cannons....called long guns.... while the upper deck (Spar Deck) will have 24 of the 32 pound cannonades.

Hard rock maple is being used to create these guns.

There are 30 cannons on the gun deck.  

Seen here, the cannon carriages have been created and the trucks (wheels) are in process.

Many hours will be spent on the cannon instillation before moving on.

The bulwarks for the Spar Deck have been created off ship in order to easily add all the many belaying pins and cleats which the rigging lines will be tied off.

Here she is sitting securely in the new display base.

Here are the gudgeons created to mount the rudder to the stern post.

The pintles on the rudder will fit into the gudgeon holes, allowing the rudder to pivot back and forth from side to side.

Finally, the rudder is attached and the ship can be mounted on the new custom display base I created.

Here is the rudder after copper plating and adding the pintles that will secure the rudder to the stern post.

After weeks of laying upside down on my work table, once the rudder is installed, she will be ready to turn back to her upright position.

The copper plating completed.

The 2,500 individual plates covering the hull took more than 40 hours to finish. 

The ponce wheel seen here was created by cutting the evenly spaced spikes into the edge of a pattern tracing tool used by dress makers.

Seen here, the copper tape has been dimpled with a custom made ponce wheel to give the illusion of the thousands of metal bolts used to attach each plate.  

Skipping forward to the point after the hull planking is completed and painted with a black lacquer base so the adhesive on the back of these copper plates will stick securely.

Copper plating was done to protect the wooden hull from sea worms that would bore into the planks, causing severe damage. 

The transom completed....

This is a dry fitting of the eagle before painting.

The eagle carving is carved from oak wood taken from a scrap piece of hardwood flooring left over from our home. 

Here is the finished unit installed to the hull.

The stern quarter gallery located on each side of the aft has three windows.

Note the clear transparency film added underneath the window framing to give the illusion of having glass window panes.  

Here is the painted panel ...

Not ready to be fitted onto the ship yet because they must be fitted with pin rails, cleats, and gun rigging hardware.

This is how the bulkhead appears before spray painting with Hunter green enamel.

The tooth picks were snipped off leaving the slightly raised bump to simulate the bolt heads.

Creating the spar deck bulwarks with the hundreds of bolt heads is a uniquely tricky challenge.

After marking the pattern and drilling the holes, I stuck the tip of these plastic tooth picks into each hole. 

Hull planking begins with the upper area from the water line up.... carefully trimming around the gun ports.  Also note the green bulwarks for the upper deck, called the Spar Deck.

Hull below the water line will be copper plated.

She is now ready for outer hull planking.

Also note that the gun deck is now fully planked and the white bulwarks with trimmed gun ports have been added.

There will be 30 cannons installed on this battle deck.

From inside the captains study area.

The small closet jutting out with doors on each side is built around the mizzen mast.

The outer bulkheads now added.

On the actual ship, these paneled bulkheads are removable to allow the area to be converted for battle.

The captains quarters .... this served as a study area.

There will be four cannons inside the captains area.  This area will actually be furnished.

Framing out the aft section above the captains quarters.

The deck planks have been added to the gun deck.  This is the second deck level of the ship (below the main "Spar Deck")

I plan to build both decks in extreme detail including some 52 fully rigged cannons which she was armed with.

The framing of the bow has been added at this point. 

Here is the creation of the bow with filler pieces on each side of the bow stem.

The creation of the stern area.

Here are the stern filler pieces created from balsa wood. 

After carving each side, the background was painted black and then the scroll carvings are painted white.

Note the American flag on each side.

The carving of the very distinctive bow stem was done in hard rock maple.

By mid-January the ships framing has been completed.

Also, the gun deck planking has been added.

Note I have also mounted the frame onto a temporary holding base which will eventually be replaced by a display base.

I began this build on December 23rd of 2016.  Here is the first photo after cutting out and assembling the keel former and bulkhead frames.

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