1/50 USS Niagara Clipper Frigate (LEGO)
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by Jens Feierabend |
1/50 USS Niagara Clipper Frigate (LEGO)
This is the American Clipper Frigate Niagara, scratchbuilt using Lego bricks only. The model is about 2,40 m (7'8'') long. All parts, threads and figures by Lego, no glue or paint used.
Authorized in 1854 and designed by George Steers, the (second) Niagara
combined the largest sail area possible on a three-masted vessel with wooden
masts (58,756 square feet resulting in a sailing speed of up to 20 knots)
with an all big gun battery of twelve 11 inch (28 cm) Dahlgren cannons,
the largest shell guns then in existence, all mounted on the spar deck.
When launched in 1856 at New York Navy Yard, Niagara was not only the biggest
american warship, but also the largest frigate and at 114,3 m the longest
warship in the world. Commissioned in 1857, Niagara first task was laying
the first Atlantic cable with HMS Agamemnon. The following year she returned
200 freed slaves to Africa. In 1860 Niagara circumnavigated the world,
carrying Japan´s first diplomats to the US. In the American Civil
War she served as flagship of East Gulf Blockading Squadron in 1861, capturing
three blockade runners, and took part in the bombardment of Confederate
Fort McRae. Niagara was refitted and rearmed at Boston Navy Yard in 1962
to enable her to fight british ships of the line in the high seas. Gunports
were cut for a battery of an additional twenty 11 inch (28 cm) Dahlgren
cannons on her gun deck. When she emerged in 1863 as a 32-gun frigate,
she was able to throw a heavier broadside than the new british ironclad
battleship HMS Warrior.
