Questions about the USS United States

so basicly the 2 ships are the same except for minor details, like the deck house for that period of the Capt's command to the next, are they the same length, width, & height and the same hull shape?, in other words I could get a model of the Costitution and call it the United States?

Correct,

The raised deck house was removed when the ship was given a new capt. I could be wrong but around 1802 it was removed, so you need to figure what period you want to duplicate.

Jake

The line drawings will be the same, however, like Jake pointed out, the ships take on different details when fitted out. Every Nimitz class carrier has some details that make it unique. There is not much in way of scale reference material on the United States, in fact, there is a debate on one website to the actual details of the raised deckhouse and exactly how long it stayed on the US since it wasn't on the ship for the entire period it was in service.

Scott

One of the most striking differance was that the first Capt. of the "US" decided to take his wife with him to sea and had a cabin built on the aft section of the ship. This raised "deck house" added about 2 tons deadweight right over the rudder. It ruind the handling qualities (she turned like a drunk pig) according the ships sailing master.

The Revell model in 1/96th. 36" version, was the only model to have the extra section included to add to the model. The nickname of the ship was "The Old Wagon" because of her sailing problems.

Theoretically yes. They were both 44-gun frigates designed by Joshua Humphreys. However the Constitution was built in Boston, and the US was built in Philadelphia. So I'm sure minor differences exist.