Comments by "Alex" (@Alex-cw3rz) on "USS Constitution - A Tour from Keel to Upper Deck" video.

22:43 the issue here is that 4th rates have two decks and that means that it would be very hard for Constitution to board the ship. This is why 2 decker 50 gun HMS Leopard made one of 6 American frigate allowed itself to be searched after just one broadside where she suffered 4 dead and 17 wounded, which is very high casualty rate for a single broadside.
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35:22 hi Drach I'm interested where the source was for the UK taking information from USS President, as I have read about the notes they took from her and they were not positive in the slightest, they did say a strong hull, was it that they took. As I haven't found anything positive about them as by the time of 1812 they were 2 decades old and out of date. HMS Endymion which wasn't that new a ship, which captured President was a better ship in every way from speed 14 knots which was a lot faster than any of the 6 frigates, to matching firepower with President in all but the type of oak and possibly cross bracing (although Endymion may have had that) and Britain didn't have access to that type of oak anyway. And Endymion had a class made from her lines, however that was before the war of 1812. I can imagine the initiative hull deisgn being taken but I was under the impression that by even before 1805 other ships were already using it.
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I would say about the old ironsides is probably a myth as there is only one ship ever that found the sides of the 6 frigates hard to penertrate and that is Guerriere and it was American accounts that say this, even other ships taken by constitution don't mention it at all. In the battle of HMS Shannon and USS Chessapeake shot bounces off, but it's Shannon's hull. Endymion has no trouble at all the longest ranges possible for a cannon ball and it's just merrily blasting President apart with not one hint of the hull being tough. When both President and Chessapeake are captured and looked over, no one mentions anything about the hull being able to stop shot, or shot being embedded. It's interesting that their is only one account, maybe shot did bounce off, but this was probably due to an issue with the powder on Guerriere or just like Shannon the shot hit the thickest part of the hull
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@genericpersonx333 well what really damns the design is when President and Chessapeake are looked over by the British apart from the hull being tough, they rip apart the deisgn as out dated having a lot of defective wood and surprising slow. You need to remember by the war of 1812 they were 2 decades old they were out of date, a year after they were design they were already outclassed by HMS Endymion.
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@genericpersonx333 yeah but the conversation isn't about them being good enough. It was about their ability to take on a 4th rate, when the answer is just they couldn't. Also I think the fact the Royal Navy was at war with France was the actual trouble, not 6 frigates being slowly bottled up, but the 100s of brigs, frigates and ships of of the line of the French navy.
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@nmccw3245 yeah and they made a copy as a propaganda tool and specifically not as a testament to the design, they admitted this upfront.
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