Standing Rigging Plan For USS Constitution

Here's a small but reliable plan that may have enough information on it for your purposes: www.ussconstitution.navy.mil/images/Best%20Ship%20photos%20Gallery/43-1168a.gif

If you need more detail than that, it's available all right - but may be hard to get in Britain and may cost quite a bit of money. Quite a few people have drawn plans of the Constitution over the years. A couple of books that have relatively small reproductions of rigging plans in them are Alexander Magoun's The Frigate Constitution and Other Historic Ships and Thomas Gilmer's Old Ironsides. If you need plans on a relatively large scale, the best place to start is the Smithsonian Institution. It sells copies of most of the plans in its collection, including the set by George Campbell that was the basis of the big Revell kit. The Smithsonian's prices are pretty reasonable, but they charge by the sheet - and I suspect that set of plans has lots of sheets in it. If I remember correctly, the first step in getting a set of ship plans from the Smithsonian is to order a catalog; that can be done on line. (I don't have the exact web address, but a search on the word "Smithsonian" should, with a little determination, get you there.)

Taubman Plans Service (www.taubmansonline.com) sells the set of plans published by Bluejacket for use with its wood kit. Those you can buy on line, but the price is (brace yourself) $90.00.

My other suggestion is to try the local library. Quite a few books about ships contain plans of this ship. Depending on the amount of detail you require, you may find what you need locally.

I'll exercise my senile brain cells about this one. Surely there's a simpler way to get hold of the plans of that ship without spending an arm and a leg. If I think of it I'll be back. In the mean time, maybe another forum member can help.

My aforementioned senile brain just remembered a source I should have mentioned in my last post. The late, great Howard I. Chapelle drew a sail (and rigging) plan of the U.S.S. President, which was, for purposes of rigging, virtually identical to the Constitution. That drawing appears in two of Chapelle's books: The History of American Sailing Ships and The History of the American Sailing Navy.

I don't know how easy those volumes are to find in Britain; a good public library might well have at least one of them. They're both available - in reasonably-priced modern editions - from various online used book dealers. Both of them would be excellent acquisitions for anybody building a personal library about the history of ships.

I'm thoroughly embarrassed that I didn't think of Chapelle earlier. Any project involving an American sailing warship ought to start with his work.

Courtesy of a helpful friend in another forum, here's the website for initiating ship plan orders from the Smithsonian:

http://www.americanhistory.si.edu/csr/shipplan.htm

Unfortunately the process of buying the plans is a little convoluted. You have to order one or more of the Smithsonian plan catalogs first. Then, when you get the catalog, you have to order the specific set of plans by number. All of this apparently has to be done via mail; it looks like the Smithsonian doesn't sell either the catalogs or the plans online.

It's been a long time since I've ordered any plans from this source, but I was completely satisfied. The Smithsonian has a fine reputation for reasonable prices and good service.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

I would think the least expensive option would be to get ahold of the instructions from the big Revell kit. Someone here may an extra set, or be able to scan them . You can probably order them form revell directly, too-- their spare parts service only costs $3. Another option would be e-bay-- I got an entire kit for only $20 . With a little patience, you could find a junk kit, perhaps....

Hundreds of copies of Chapelle's "History of the American Sailing Navy" can be found online using at:

http://www.addall.com/Used/

Addall is an internet search engine for online bookstores. Prices for this book range from $5.95 to $80.00 US. Most copies are from the US, but I did notice copies in the Netherlands and Germany.

While based on the British practices, I don't believe you could be called to task if you followed the general points of this book..

Rigging Period Ship Models: A Step-by-step Guide to the Intricacies of Square-rig by Lennarth Patterson

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1861760612/qid=1108388304/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/103-1796626-0495853?v=glance&s=books&n=507846


Also, the book and plans that jtilley mentioned is also available direct from BlueJacket, and as he said a bit pricey but at $69 ( shipped ), a little less than the Taubman offering..

http://www.bluejacketinc.com/kits/ussconstitution.htm

I will have the full set of Revell instructions scanned by tomorrow- if anyone needs them- email me directly and I will send to you- big files. Includes standing rigging plan and running without sails...

lrobertojr@aol.com

Len

QUOTE: Originally posted by schoonerbumm Hundreds of copies of Chapelle's "History of the American Sailing Navy" can be found online using at: http://www.addall.com/Used/ Addall is an internet search engine for online bookstores. Prices for this book range from $5.95 to $80.00 US. Most copies are from the US, but I did notice copies in the Netherlands and Germany.

I found http://www.bookfinder4u.com/used_book_stores.html also very useful.