Twang content: guess who.
--
Geff King * [EMAIL PROTECTED] * http://www2.ari.net/gking/
"Don't let me catch you laughin' when the jukebox cries"
- K. Friedman, "Sold American"
>from 'Wooden Ships and Iron Men', appearing in "Oceanographic Ships,
>Fore and Aft", and published by the Oceanographer of the Navy.
>
>Note: This publication documents a cruise of the 204-foot frigate USS
>Constitution (more commonly known as 'Old Ironsides'), in 1779.
>
>It reads (in part):
>
>On 23 August 1779, the USS Constitution set sail from Boston loaded
>with 475 officers and men, 48,600 gallons of water, 74,000 cannon
>shot, 11,500 pounds of black powder and 79,400 gallons of rum. Her
>mission: to destroy and harass English shipping.
>
>On 6 October, she made Jamaica, took on 826 pounds of flour and
>68,300 gallons of rum.
>
>Constitution reached the Azores, where she provisioned with 550
>pounds of beef and 6,300 gallons of Portuguese wine.
>
>On 18 November, the ship set sail for England where her crew captured
>and scuttled 12 English merchant vessels and took aboard their rum.
>But the Constitution had run out of shot. Nevertheless, she made her
>way unarmed up the Firth of Clyde for a night raid. Her landing party
>captured a whiskey distillery, transferred 40,000 gallons aboard and
>headed for home. On 20 February 1780, the Constitution arrived in
>Boston with no cannon shot, no food, no powder, no rum, no whiskey.
>Just 48,600 gallons of water.
>
>Detailed analysis:
>
>Length of cruise -- 181 days
>Booze consumption -- 2.26 gallons per MAN per DAY
