USS Chesapeake (1799)

This article has been the bane of my existence for a couple of years now. About a year ago it made A-class but since then it's been almost entirely reworked because I kept discovering more sources and more discrepancies to work through. This ship has one of the most confusing and contradicting collection of sources and heavy explanations have been necessary to make everything clear. I don't feel this article will make it through FAC in its present condition so I'm looking for input about things I may have missed. The essential facts are all in the article now but I'm concerned about how they present themselves to the uninvolved reader. Thanks. Brad (talk) 15:23, 13 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

XavierGreen

The one area that i see a bit lacking is the Quasi-War section, though i understand that her service in this conflict was quite uneventful i was able to glean a bit more information about it through a quick google book search. For example in regards to the action with La Jeune Creole Emmons here [[1]] lists the action occuring off Barbuda and that the Frenchman was manned by 45 men. Spencer Tucker's Injured honor: the Chesapeake-Leopard Affair, June 22, 1807 mentions that she carried 16 guns. I don't know if these details could be worked into the section or not, but if they can be it would give it a little more length.XavierGreen (talk) 04:46, 18 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I appreciate the looking but I really don't see much value in adding information about a capture that was uneventful. USS President had even less Quasi-War experience to the point where I combined it with her First Barbary War service. Brad (talk) 17:40, 24 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

 Done

Sturmvogel 66

Comments

• I found this paragraph confusing because you didn't initially specify that the 28 guns were the main battery and then added in all the other guns. Also you're not consistent about spelling out numbers. Regardless what the MOS may say I find spelling out the number when it's adjacent to a size is easier to understand than 18 44-pounder, forex. Yet, gun ratings did not correspond to the actual number of guns a ship would carry. Chesapeake was noted as carrying forty guns during her encounter with HMS Leopard and fifty guns during her engagement with HMS Shannon in 1813. The fifty guns consisted of 28 x 18-pounder (8 kg) long cannon on the gun deck, 14 on each side. This main battery was complemented by two long 12-pounders, (5.5 kg) one long 18-pounder, eighteen 32-pounder (14.5 kg) carronades, and one 12-pound carronade on the spar deck. Her broadside weight was 542 pounds (246 kg).
  • WP:ORDINAL actually does say to avoid "18 44-pounder". - Dank (push to talk) 05:10, 4 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]
• It's always worthwhile to give gun counts for enemy ships, IMO.
• Do you have any information on why Chesapeake's masts were feared for off Tripoli?
• Together who? Some sailors from Constitution joined Chesapeake and together they filled the crew with sailors of several nations.
• How can two full broadsides from Shannon, how many guns?, equal 362 shots?--Sturmvogel 66 (talk) 22:00, 25 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • That whole section probably needs to be looked at again.
• Can you specify which are the chase guns? Or did that change with regularity too?--Sturmvogel 66 (talk) 22:14, 25 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Kirk

Comments

• I appreviated perpendiculars as lpp based on the USS Congress (1799) article.
• That article has a note which has a quote you should incorporate: "The US Navy officially carried only three rates of frigate during the period 1794–1826: 44-gun, 36-gun, and 32-gun. The rating was independent of the size of the ship or the weight of its armament, but important in terms of crew size, pay, and money spent to support the ship".
• The Chesapeake vs. Shannon action was depicted in fiction in the Patrick O'Brian novel The Fortune of War - worth a mention.
• Constellation wasn't a principle of the constitution either - the flag dates from 1777. after a principle of the United States Constitution.
• From my searching for images for USS Congress, I recall a lot more pictures of the Chesapeake in the National Archives if you wanted to add some more images to the article.
• The first sentence of the lead should be more similar to the USS Congress article. USS Chesapeake was a 38-gun sailing frigate of the United States Navy and one of the original six frigates authorized for construction by the Naval Act of 1794. vs. USS Congress was a nominally rated 38-gun wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate of the United States Navy. Basically, put the second phrase in a new sentence, and put 'wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate' in place of frigate.

Overall, the article looks for FAC to me, but what do I know! Kirk (talk) 12:45, 5 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]