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old hand
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OP
old hand
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 866 |
Hardly a word post - but I found it interesting....
The U.S.S. Constitution (Old Ironsides) as a combat vessel carried 48,600 gallons of fresh water for her crew of 475 officers and men. This was sufficient to last six months of sustained operations at sea. She carried no evaporators (i.e. fresh water distillers).
However, let it be noted that according to her log, "On July 27, 1798, the U.S.S. Constitution sailed from Boston with a full complement of 475 officers and men, 48,600 gallons of fresh water, 7,400 cannon shot, 11,600 pounds of black powder and 79,400 gallons of rum."
Her mission: "To destroy and harass English shipping". Making Jamaica on 6 October, she took on 826 pounds of flour and 68,300 gallons of rum.
Then she headed for the Azores, arriving there 12 November. She provisioned with 550 pounds of beef and 64,300 gallons of Portuguese wine.
On 18 November, she set sail for England. In the ensuing days she defeated five British men-of-war and captured and scuttled 12 English merchantmen, salvaging only the rum aboard each.
By 26 January, her powder and shot were exhausted. Nevertheless, although unarmed she made a night raid up the Firth of Clyde in Scotland. Her landing party captured a whisky distillery and transferred 40,000 gallons of single malt Scotch aboard by dawn. Then she headed home.
The U.S.S. Constitution arrived in Boston on 20 February, 1799, with no cannon shot, no food, no powder, no rum, no wine, no whisky and 38,600 gallons of stagnant water.
GO NAVY!
stales
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Holy cow, talk about coincidence--just today I happened to have the opportunity to talk with a man who retired from the Naval Ordnance plant here in 1990, and one of the things he told me was that he had helped re-fit the cannon barrel of Old Ironsides so it could be set off for show.
Your post made me think of this song verse:
What do you do with a drunken sailor,
What do you do with a drunken sailor,
What do you do with a drunken sailor,
Ear-lie in the mor-nin'.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
U.S. Naval secret declassified. USS Constitution was
first naval vessel with auxiliary steam engine burning
alcohol.
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 866
old hand
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OP
old hand
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 866 |
Found an official USN website for the USS Constitution and, whilst surfing, found reference to the ship's "orlop deck". Not a word I'd heard before (the stales's being well know for their land-lubbing tendencies) so LIU. Here's the definition.
"The Orlop Deck and Hold were used for storing the necessities of a long voyage - food, fresh water, spare sails, ammunition, clothing, personal effects and alcohol - the latter with a permanent Marine guard! The ship's supply of gunpowder was kept in fore and aft magazines, lined with copper to prevent stray sparks from igniting it. The "powder monkeys " - boy sailors who would pass the charges up through hatches in the ceiling - worked in near darkness, their only light coming from candle lanterns behind thick glass bull's eyes. On this deck too was the Carpenter's walk, a narrow passage to give the ship's carpenter access to any damage below the waterline."
So there you go!
stales
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Joined: Mar 2000
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old hand
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old hand
Joined: Mar 2000
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Hi stales,
If the replenishment on October 6 corresponds to the quantity consumed since departure, this works out at slightly more than two gallons of rum per person and day. You certainly know the naval meaning of the word "yarn".
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
Nautical terms are so often attractive and mellifluous, and, if not so tonally pleasing, interesting because of the mental associations.
That 'drunken sailor' Jackie mentions, for instance, I once heard was actually a term for either a wet or some kind of unattached sail--I've forgotten the particulars.
'Futtock shroud' is my favorite term, next followed by 'bilge blood.'
Now, Stales. I must confess. I am horribly gullible. The story you wrote about the Constitution and the taking on of all that alcohol. Was it a joke or the truth? Either way, it's a great story.
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Joined: Mar 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
yeah, stales. What's yer source?
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624 |
More seriously, perhaps, the orlop deck was usually where the naval surgeon and his "mates" worked during battles on frigates and line of battle ships during the Napoleonic wars. It was convenient to the gundeck (where most of the casualties would occur), and was relatively protected, i.e. there were two wooden walls between the orlop and the incoming cannon shot.
I have never understood, and it has never been satisfactorily explained to me, why naval ships didn't have armour plating (iron sheeting) on the outside of the hull along the line of the gundeck. It would have saved hundreds, if not thousands, of sailors from maiming or death. And it wouldn't have been so heavy as to make the ship unmanageable (i.e. top heavy) in bad weather.
- Pfranz
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Joined: Nov 2000
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old hand
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OP
old hand
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 866 |
You're questioning my source!!![indignant toss of the head]
Why - it was none other than that ever reliable, always factual source - My email Inbox!!
Standby shipmates - I've asked the USN to verify....
stales
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
orlop
n.
5ME ouerlop < Du overloop < over, over + loopen, to run (see LEAP): so called because it covers the hold6 [Now Rare] the lowest deck of a ship with four or more decks
As for use of steel plates - the manufacture of steel plates didn't begin until about fifty years later. Little coal was available, little iron ore. I tried hard to find dates, had no luck.
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