By Al Blevins
1/192 USS Alligator topsail schooner (scratchbuilt)
The attached photos are of my scratchbuilt 1/16 inch=1 foot scale model of the naval schooner USS Alligator of 1821. The hull is basswood bread and butter construction while the deck furniture and fittings are of maple. The rigging is braided copper wire painted black and tan to reflect standing and running rigging. The cannon barrels are turned from brass round stock.
Alligator was launched at the Boston Navy Yard in 1821 part of a building
program to produce topsail schooners to suppress piracy in the West Indies.
After a short but active career Alligator was wrecked on the Florida coast
near Miami.
