Shipbucket

This is CONSTELLATION in February 1799 during the action against the French frigate L'INSURGENTE off Nevis during the Quasi War. CONSTELLATION is painted with a wide yellow ochre stripe applied to the early US Navy frigates during this period. The exact scheme carried by the ship at this time is unknown and this rendition is a best guess. A model of the ship held at the Smithsonian shows the hull painted in overall yellow ochre, but many paintings show the ship with the more familiar wide gun stripe and so I have chosen this version as a matter of personal preference.

CONSTELLATION was one of the original six frigates authorized for the early United States Navy by the Naval Act of 1794. Nominally rated at 38 guns, CONSTELLATION (and her sister CONGRESS) were built on smaller lines than the larger 44-gun CONSTITUTION, UNITED STATES, and PRESIDENT. The ship was built by David Stodder at the Joseph and Samuel Sterett shipyard in Baltimore. Launched on 7 September 1797, she sailed under the command of Captain Thomas Truxtun to the Caribbean in December 1798 to protect American commerce in the region. During this period, CONSTELLATION engaged and captured the French frigate L'INSURGENTE -- the first victory by a warship designed and built in the United States.

The illustration above depicts CONSTELLATION with a rig based on the sail/spar plans for CONGRESS and CONSTITUTION. No sail plan of CONSTELLATION herself is known to exist; this rendition is modified from aforementioned sail plans using CONSTELLATION's spar dimensions of 1801 from Howard I. Chapelle's The American Sailing Navy: The Ships and Their Development. Any errors in the illustration are mine alone. Thanks to CraigH for the lines of the American national ensign -- I recolored to better match Shipbucket standards, but the shape is his.

_________________
USN components, camouflage colors, & reference links (World War II only)

WOW! Excellent work!
Wide departure from Your usual "working area", but as always top quality.

Beautiful - both your work, and the ship's design. The American
frigates were faster and more heavily armed than Royal Navy
ships of the same size. These ships were the probably the
best looking sail warships from 1790 to the introduction of
steam power.

And our resident WWII USN Camo Master proves he is a Master at tall ships as well! Excellent work, sir!

_________________

MS State Guard - 08 March 2014 - 28 January 2023

The Official IJN Ships & Planes List

#FJB

Thanks all. This has been an interesting project that's taken me entirely out of my comfort zone



This is CONSTELLATION in January of 1813 as the ship appeared during the War of 1812. CONSTELLATION, like the rest of the US frigates of this time, was repainted into the familiar black with white (or yellow) gun stripe around 1809 as a deceptive measure to aid with her role as a raider. This scheme better matched the schemes used by the European navies. It's possible CONSTELLATION's gun stripe was a yellow ochre instead of white lead, but the exact configuration is lost to history. I have chosen to portray a white gun stripe again as a matter of personal preference.

CONSTELLATION was completely rebuilt at the Washington Navy Yard in 1811 and 1812. The ship's hull was strengthened and her beam increased by 13" -- it is likely as well that she was updated with planking and bulwarks fore and aft on the weather deck similar to the other frigates at this time. The elaborate figurehead (a female head representing Nature) was replaced by a fiddlehead around this time, and the headrails have been slightly reworked. Plans of this refit have never been found (most likely they were lost when the Washington Navy Yard was burned in 1814), so my drawing of the ship as refitted is conjectural and based on contemporary plans of CONGRESS and PRESIDENT. All errors are mine alone.

_________________
USN components, camouflage colors, & reference links (World War II only)

Ian, a timely reminder to delve into the age of sail and what reminder!!

_________________
Work list(Current)
Miscellaneous|Victorian Colonial Navy|Murray Riverboats|Colony of Victoria AU|Project Sail-fixing SB's sail shortage
How to mentally pronounce my usernameRow-(as in a boat)Don-(as in the short form of Donald)Dough-(bread)
"Loitering on the High Seas" (Named after the good ship Rodondo)
There's no such thing as "nothing left to draw" If you can down 10 pints and draw, you're doing alright by my standards

Wow, that is impressive, which shows than even the best artists can operate out the comfort zone and still apply their skill well.

_________________
Hood's Worklist
English Electric Canberra FD
Interwar RN Capital Ships
Super-Darings
Never-Were British Aircraft

Excellent drawings. I don't feel within my comfort zone to say anything more than that.