RMS Gigantic

The HMS Victory may be the oldest commissioned warship in the world, she's stuck on dry land. Until she reaches drydock later this month and again once she leaves drydock in 2018, Constitution is and will be the oldest commissioned warship afloat in the world! What's interesting about this is that within the US Navy's official register(s) of currently active ships, Constitution shows up and ends up creating some very unusual entries, like this one: http://www.nvr.navy.mil/nvrships/details/oldiron.htm Some examples of information that seem pretty funny when compared to the other ships in the register: Delivery Date: 10/01/1797 Age (since delivery): 216.9 years Draft Limit: 0 ft Hull Material: Wood Propulsion Type: Sails And a piece of information that I think is pretty funny when you realize we're talking about the USS Constitution: Fleet: Atlantic So I suppose if they ever ordered a complete mobilization of the entire Atlantic fleet, that would require Old Ironsides to leap into action, too, technically. I simply find it interesting to see the US Navy describe such a historic ship in purely bureaucratic terms. Based on this document, if it weren't for the highly unusual dates associated with the ship and the unusual materials and propulsion method compared to other currently commissioned Navy vessels, you wouldn't even think twice about this ship!

Thanks for the response! You got me all giddy!

Thank you for all of that information, Alex! I confess that I am very new to the business of Age of Sail combat; I'm a bit better-versed in terms of 20th century naval combat, but there's a lot more I want to learn there as well. These ships probably weren't parts of a "class" just like the original six frigates of the US Navy weren't a class, but I figured there might have been enough similarities between them, like the similarities between the original six frigates, to name the thread title what I did. I was under the impression when I made this topic that these ships would be more akin to Naval Action's equivalent of the USS Montana (post-Iowa battleship) compared to certain other navies' Yamatos than being in a league all their own. I realize now that I was most likely wrong by thinking that.

Indeed, I like the imposing look they give. I would compare it to a lizard opening up its flaps when it scares away predators.

I'm a newcomer to this subject, so all I have are public domain documents (the Internet), and don't know where to search for plans of lesser-known or incomplete vessels, but the ships got along rather far in their construction, to the point where it was claimed that the ships were run up in 42 days. I would think that there would be some plans to these ships in an archive somewhere. Apparently, New Orleans in particular remained in this state in the navy yard that was building her for almost 70 years: There's even a picture online of the document that ordered the construction of these vessels: More information to this effect can be found at http://www.hazegray.org/danfs/line/sotl.htm#1813-2 and at http://www.usskidd.com/ships-no-usn.html So yeah, I can't find plans of these two ships, but then again, I can't even find plans of the Constitution that are as detailed as what the developers were shown using, so there's a real possibility that those plans are residing in an archive out there, un-visited due to a lack of interest, especially given how close these ships came to completion before the War of 1812 ended.

Yeah, that's the video series I watched. I would quite like more videos like that, if there are any.

Once again, the Pennsylvania was 1837, while the Chippewa and New Orleans were laid down in 1815. This thread is about the Chippewa and New Orleans, not the Pennsylvania.

The problem with Ohio is that she's a ship from 1820, which is undeniably after the Napoleonic Wars. And hey, I rather like stern galleys of the six original frigates! They're decorative, but not over-designed to the point of tackiness!

I was focusing on the Chippewa and New Orleans, which were planned to fight in the War of 1812 (essentially the American equivalent to the ending to the Napoleonic Wars), and were laid down in 1815 in anticipation of doing so. They fit the era far better than Pennsylvania would; I only display the Pennsylvania so much because she was the only ship of this class to actually be completed, and therefore the only ship of the class that I can find multiple pictures of. The first naval gun designed to fire exploding shells came almost a decade after these two ships were laid down.

This might be a gray area as to whether these ships fit the era of the game or not, since these ships were laid down within the last year or two of the Napoleonic Wars, and thus they teeter on the edge of inclusion, not to mention the fact that the ships that were laid down in that time weren't finished, but I am outlining these ships just in case they're allowed in. The first two ships of this class, the USS Chippewa and the USS New Orleans, were laid down in 1815 but were never finished. The finished ship was laid down considerably later, but she was finished, so it is this third ship, USS Pennsylvania of 1837, which I will be showing pictures of to visualize this class of ships of the line: Given that the United States Navy used heavy frigates as capital ships for much of its early existence, ships of the line were rarely built for use by the US itself (I know of at least one ship of the line that was built and then immediately given to France). Combine this with how late into the game's time period the United States came into being, this leaves very few options for US ships of the line. Thus, I believe that the USS Chippewa and USS New Orleans could at least somewhat fill a gap in the US Navy compared to the nations of Europe, as these were the only 100+ gun United States ships of the line that I know of! They were designed to carry 74 to 100 guns according to the shipbuilding contract, but one newspaper, after the ships were cancelled, described them as "lake monsters" with "102 and 110 guns." They might fit in the game as well, since USS Chippewa and USS New Orleans were originally meant to fight in the War of 1812, and were only cancelled because Britain surrendered as they were nearing completion! The Pennsylvania was built far later, and she carried some 140 guns: If you stacked these ships up against the British rating system, between their deadweight tonnage and their armament, they would be first-rate ships of the line through and through!

Each of USS Constitution's guns, if not crew, moving according to, or in a similar manner to, this gun drill on the actual ship during reloads: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQSBxQiLSyQ#t=1m44s (0:43 in the video shows a drill from overhead and explains each step) Also, an option for Constitution and her sisterships to unfurl all of their sails for even more speed, as they were used to outrun a squadron of British vessels during the War of 1812: I have yet to see any screenshots or game footage of Constitution using these extra sails.

I was always a fan of CGI- and/or reenactment-heavy documentaries. Are there any such documentaries that can teach me a thing or two about the maneuvering physics of sailing ships? I'm used to the later powered ships, and have only seen one video on some of the basic maneuvers (tacking etc.) of a sailing vessel. I'm still not quite sure how a sailing vessel would maneuver if it wished to travel in the direction that the wind was blowing! (such as if it left a port with the wind in its sails, and then wished to turn back without the wind shifting by very much). I also very much like to see documentaries that focus on where ships were within a given battle and how they maneuvered. I figured this was an appropriate topic to request suggestions for such documentaries?

How about PvE combat scenarios involving shore bombardment? For example, the attack on Fort McHenry (although the bombarding side were not successful in making the fort surrender): Or the shore bombardment of Tripoli during the First Barbary War: Shore targets could have an HP meter, and challenge can come in the form of the defending ships or shore installations, either of which can fire back at the player!

USS Constitution is a beautiful and powerful frigate, but she often overshadows her five less-successful sisters. I imagine Constitution might get lonely if Chesapeake, Constellation, President, United States, and Congress were all left out! I don't know of any other game out there to have all six ships together (or even any other ships of this class besides Constitution), but it can give the US a slightly larger variety of ships even though the US didn't use the British six-rate system for frigates! I say this because even though they're all technically the same class and are all collectively referred to as the six original frigates, there were actually nuances and differences between them, even among ships with the same gun rating! For example, President and Constitution were both 44-gun frigates, but President had a raised gun deck (which, if the developers so wished, could have a gameplay effect of a somewhat faster reload time, since even though it's just a 2-inch difference, that's still less of a chance of some crew members hitting their head or needing to worry about hitting their head) and a relocation of the mainmast 2 feet to aft. These changes might sound trivial, but they were important enough changes to be specifically altered from the previous ships' design! The more obvious changes involve the numbers of guns, with half of these ships ultimately being rated as 44-gun vessels while the other half were 38-gun (despite the original proposal being for two 36-gun frigates and four 44-gun frigates). Completing the six-frigate family would give those players looking to play early American more ships to choose from (what with Britain's first- through sixth-rate frigates, most European nations would probably have a far greater variety of ships than the US from the get-go) and would, as mentioned before, bring a video game first in the form of having all six of these ships present. Implementing this accurately would require more effort than just changing the ship's name in most cases, but still less effort than making a brand new ship from scratch! On top of all of this, this would reduce the number of duplicate Constitutions that would be floating around on a multiplayer server while still satisfying the players who want a ship like her. On a final, tangentially related note, I want to complement the developers on their extreme accuracy and attention to detail with the national flags they've shown so far! The stars on the Star Spangled Banner are even oriented correctly! It's a detail that can easily be messed up (and often is), but the stars are properly oriented on the American flag shown in-game, not to mention the stripe number!