Life On Board a Sloop of War
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- Опубликовано: 25 окт 2020
- What were the living conditions like on board a wooden sailing ship of the 19th century? Join us in this special episode from on board USS Constellation.
In this special episode, we're on board USS Constellation and we're taking a close look at armor on a wooden ship as compared to a steel ship.
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Yes, I did about 720 overnights on the USS Constellation. But not on the older one. Aboard CVA-64.
seems like you should add one more.
When my family went down to the Baltimore aquarium we went on the Constellation. It was, so cool and got me loving maritime vessels
Historic Ships of Baltimore is great. I participated in some of the restoration work on the Constellation back in the mid 1990s.
My father was stationed on Constellation, then being used as a barracks ship, after graduation from recruit training at Newport News in 1939. He shortly thereafter joined U.S.S. Texas and was later transferred to U.S.S. Chicago (CA-29).
My Uncle brought home a navy hammock after his service we used to sleep on it in the woods outside our home as kids as a treat. Still remember that
For a little while after each of Our Kids were born I would sling a heavy canvas hammock in a covered back patio area. Slept there through all kinds of weather and loved it.
How terribly interesting!! I’m glad to take a break from WW2’s steel titans to vicariously walk through history! Many thanks for a fascinating vid!
The Connie is such a beautiful ship. I'll have to look into doing an overnight! As a Civil War reenactor, shivering in my tent, I've always wondered what a night in a hammock would be like. Probably a case of "the grass is greener". Or maybe it's "water is greener"?
On a calm night, probably. In rough seas, I bet it was terrible - boat is rocking, sailors are seasick, water splashing in everywhere. I'm not sure how insulated those ships are, but can't imagine it being any better off the coast of Maine, Cape Cod, or the North Atlantic in the winter, or the tropics or the Med in summer. Or traversing Cape Horn or the Cape of Good Hope
@@joshuasill1141 warmer then you would think.... with all bodies on the deck and hatched closed.
@@Elios0000 You also have to account for sleeping in a hammock. If you ever have, it's alot more cold then sleeping on the ground. Air flowing beneath you makes pretty mild nights alot more cold. Even without wind.
A friend sailed on the tall ship BOUNTY ~15 years before she went under _(Hurricane Sandy, 2012)_ . It was said that after a couple weeks, it was possible to identify shipmates in close quarters by smell.
"sent to do diplomatic missions"
"such as Commodore Perry's trip to Japan"
Lol, hell of a mission
Despite the original mis-idenfication of Constellation, It is a great ship. I love to see that you were involved in it.
I got to tail a capstan for a demo on the ship. Stupidly fun for how easy it is.
Great content as always. Let me say, that hammocks were and are also used as a flotation device. For example the German Navy has a drill on its well known sailing vessel Gorch Fock where the boatswain checks the correctness of hammock lashing for this very reason every day (the sailors need to present their lashed hammocks to him on deck).
Its only well known because it Was a massive waste of taxpayers money
Have the camera person pan around more. Especially when u point to various equipment have the camera point to that sector as opposed to constantly just showing u.
I realize maybe it's only u doing both the camera and the hosting
Great channel. Thanks and keep it up.
I think when he's doing videos on NJ he has someone filming him but when he's out and about he might just have a tripod
Gilligan's Professor kicked back in the hammock gets an instant thumbs up.
Both of my berthing spaces were well forward. The 1st cruise the berthing was about frame 40; 2nd cruise was about frame 100 and on the 3rd deck. I could easily feel the pitching and rolling. I loved it. I got rocked to sleep when at sea. On 3rd deck, I could hear the water going past the ship, more so during FlightOps when we went to 20-25 knts. I liked it. It was a soothing sound.
that looks a great tour of such a historic ship - ive been aboard Trincomalee and Unicorn (frigates) and they were magnificent - Trincomalee being built of teak smelt of super new wood - Unicorn being oak was musty and really smelt her age!!! the great guns were fibreglass but looked real!!!!
One of my favorite videos!
That was fun, thanks.
So, the captain of the USS Constellation, was much like Captain Kirk from USS Enterprise. Exploring new places, contacting new countries as an ambassador from the Federation. Cool.
You used the term for officers in line to command a ship. The term "Line Officer" is still used and on their shoulder boards and sleeves (in Blues) have a star. Non line officers have a different emblem for their specialty. One of the questions asked of new people is the four officers in a row boat, a line Ensign (01) a supply Lieutenant (03) and a Medical Corps Admiral (07). The answer is the Ensign. Non-line officers cannot command at sea.
When coming back from the Med aboard the USS Randolph in December in the North Atlantic was interesting. We were facing 60 foot waves head on, taking green water as far back as the island. In the bunks, we could feel the shudder when she buried her nose in a wave and hear the whine of the screws when they came out of the water. Since we were in the Junior Officer Bunkroom right under the Port Cat, we had a interesting ride. Some went down to the Squadron Ready Room (second deck right under the hanger deck) but was close to the amidships and the movement was very slight. We felt for the guys on the DDs with us, as they were less than half as long as the Randolph (888 feet).
I'm loving all this content. Keep it up!
Fun fact. The cutter was named after Roger Taney, former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. His surname is pronounced TaWney. I found that out when I moved to Maryland and was immediately corrected when I said TaYney.
I did not know that the US Navy didn't invest in tables and benches at that time. Good information! Was this the same situation on USS Constitution?
Yes. All USN sailing ships crew ate on a mess cloth on the berth deck.
@@pauloneil8531 Time to build some. For those poor guys.
@@studinthemaking Why? They would just take up room and weight that could be used for something else like powder, water, or provisions.
This Constellation replaced the original 1797, 38 gun frigate (somewhat smaller than the 44 gun Constitution.) In her own right she is a treasure, being the last fully sail powered warship built for the USN and despite being 'rated' as a Sloop of War was somewhat larger and much more powerful than the original frigate due to those heavy guns Ryan mentions.
Like her 1797 predecessor this ship was *fast* and was bequeathed the original's nickname "The Yankee Racehorse," fast enough to catch some of the speedy slave transports of the era. Prior to the Civil War Constellation captured two that I know of, one of which was loaded with human 'cargo.' Those newly freed slaves were landed in Liberia to begin new lives.
As Ryan pointed out, this Constellation spent most of the American Civil War in the Mediterranean. One has to wonder what the outcome might have been if she had been able to engage the raider CSS Alabama. The raider was steam powered but I don't think was as heavily armed as Constellation.
They kept Connie out of the fight because she just couldn't fight the more modern ships. She could be fast if the wind cooperated. But if it didn't, she was a sitting duck.
@@BattleshipNewJersey True, the Navy kept her and some other pure sail warships 'out of the fight' for the most part for the reason you state. But Alabama was a threat and I suspect that late in her cruise Alabama wouldn't have been as fast as she had been reputed to be right out of the British yard where she was built with a very dirty bottom and tired engine. Also, much of her ammunition was suffering from prolonged damp which is one reason she did so little damage to USS Kearsarge in that final fight. One shell in particular lodged in Kearsarge's stern, had it detonated it probably would have wrecked her tiller head and very possibly damaged her propeller shaft.
If Constellation's skipper and crew were lucky enough to catch Alabama in a situation where she couldn't avoid coming within reach of Connie's guns (Gibraltar Strait for example) and they had been aggressive enough to press an engagement, Alabama's cruise might have ended then and there from battle damage even if she wasn't destroyed outright and managed to escape.
I write sci-fi and alternative history as a hobby and am something of a naval historian. I visited Constellation in 1975, before her rebuilding and preservation and was impressed enough with her even back then to research her. Baltimore was advertising her as the original 1797 frigate and the few guns mounted at that time could have dated from around that time. There had even been talk of 'sawing off' the baywindow like rounded stern and 'giving her back' the squared off stern cabin of the original. I'm very happy they didn't. To my knowledge, this beautiful lady is the last Civil War era Navy ship still afloat.
@@robertf3479 ALABAMA was steam powered and all they had to do was steam into the wind. In addition it had a 100 pound rifle gun on pivot. CONSELLATION's only chance would have been a lucky hit from their 30 pound Parrot Rifle, which was their Bow pivot gun.
I do believe Constellation was one of the ships that trapped the raider CSS Sumter in port however
I get the reasoning...but putting the surgeon's office in the part of the ship that rocks and moves the most seems...like not the best thing for patients ;)
Can you do a video on the Olympia and Becuna on Penns landing?
interesting that no frigate or Man of War, or Sailing Sloop, or other type of pre-battleship carries the name of USS New Jersey. I would have thought it be a fairly common name given the history of the state.
It seems insane how much room and weight is used up on creature comforts for the officers, meanwhile the crew doesn't even get to sit down comfortably to eat.
It would be fun to try to sleep in one of those hammocks while the ship is underway. My father sleep under a vent, so he could get fresh air. He said that often it is smell of ship that made you noisome.
I was hoping you would say USS Constellation was also going to dry dock for repairs?
She will be back in drydock soon, and we will likely be there for it, so stay tuned!
It may or may not have prevented people from faking sick, but could you imagine if you really were injured or ill of some sort and the sea was crazy. That would have been miserable lol
Since the common sailors did not have rooms, how were their personal belongings (if any) were secured?
Cubbies and sea bags stashed along the side of the ship or in the hold.
Are sloops and sloops of war the same size? If so, would the USS Constellation be representative of the size of a sloop from the French and Indian War? I was reading a book on local history, specifically the Sunken Fleet of 1758, and among the ships submerged was the sloop Earl of Halifax. The British didn't have enough people to defend their boats from the French over the winter so they scuttled them and shallow water and retrieved most of them in the spring.
Those are fore/aft rigged sloops, not the same as a sloop of war.
A Sloop of War is a 3 masted square rigged ship that had 14 to 22 guns, all of which were carried on the gun deck. A sloop is a fore and aft rigged vessel.
"Sloop of War" is a phrase that encompasses every ship that wasn't a "rated" ship... generally that meant that they had less than 20 guns. In the early days of the age of sail, such ships tended to be fairly small vessels (which may have been rigged as sloops in the other sense of the words with one mast, or brigs with two masts). But by Constellation's time, the meaning had changed a great deal... because the new shell firing cannons of the day were much bigger than older cannons, so wooden ships could carry fewer of them. Thus, a ship like the Constellation which is as large as some frigates, carried less that 20 guns.
Where did the sailors bsth?
Sailing ships' crews didn't get many opportunities to bathe, but when they did, it was usually in the sea. The ship would heave to when the weather was decent and the seas calm enough, and some of the men would rig a sail into a sort of impromptu kiddie pool alongside (because a lot of sailors back in those days couldn't swim). Alternately, such a temporary pool could be rigged on deck and filled with the ship's pumps, but just putting it in the water alongside was a lot easier.
How many times have all four Iowa's been together , and what a site it must have been
According to my research it was just a few times that they were together at one time, I have seen the one and only photo of all four sailing side by side together and it is a very impressive photo.
I think their was only one time when all four sisters where together and they were in the Atlantic in 1957 which was photographed.
@@budguy8829 I think you are correct on that, because there has been only one photo of all four turning together ln unison.
When did you start hanging sheetrock on ship?
Hang on, Sloopy! You said the Constellation was still under construction in 1855? Meaning repair or something, or did I hear that wrong?
USS Constellation is a Sloop of War, commissioned 28 July 1855. Her namesake, the frigate USS Constellation (1797), was being broken up at the same time, and some parts may have been reused in the newer ship's building. However, she is a completely different ship design from keel to topsail from the 1797 frigate.
To add to what Ardun said, they often would be denied the budget to make an entirely new ship and cheat by calling a new build a repair of the old ship, using some or none of the old ship to do it.
I’m curious then if we had steam powered warships and shells and all that during the Civil War why would the US government want to send that out the constellation out overseas because when they just venting are gunships were inferior if we still had ships of sail with cannons.
The steamships of the day were slow and refueling was tough, for overseas trips you're better off with sail boats even if they can't maneuver to avoid the enemy as well
@@BattleshipNewJersey well and that most countries didn't have steamships/ironclads. For the most part, showing up to a 3rd world country with a ship of the line even if under sail only was enough.
In the 1850s, some naval authorities were still doggedly convinced that steam was a fad anyway, and before long the navies of the world would come to their senses and go back to sails like God intended. Nobody else resists change with quite the degree of willful pigheadedness as an admiral. :)
I am disappointed at the video for ruining a joke the docents conducting tours of the Surprise at the San Diego Maritime Museum make. The Surprise -- the ship used to film the movie "Master and Commander" -- has a significantly oversized main capstan (for visual impact), and the docents would point this out and then comment that you could tell from the capstan whether a ship was built in the US or Britain -- British ships had square holes for the capstan poles, and American ships had round holes. This was, as they described it, to reduce the number of decisions American sailors had to make when inserting the poles. At 2:05, the capstan poles can be clearly seen stowed in their hooks on the side of the ship, and they have squared ends.