Wikipedia:WikiProject Ships/Assessment/USS Chesapeake (1799)

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The following discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

USS Chesapeake (1799)[edit]

This should be the last original frigate ACR for at least a few months. The article passed GA a couple of months ago and since then I've managed to find more information to add. The DANFS article on this ship was recently overhauled and posted on 12 September requiring that I make some adjustments and updates. There has always been some debate over the gun rating for this ship; either 36 or 38 but I have a majority of sources that rate her at 38 and only one (Beach) that claimed 36. The DANFS article previously claimed 36 but the refreshed article goes with 38. Majority rules in this case. I'm sure that the article needs a good copy edit but I'm becoming cross-eyed over 19th century period ship descriptions. --Brad (talk) 22:51, 23 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

  • Comments This is a very good article, but needs a little bit more work. My suggestions are:
    • Some of the text is written in the passive tense (eg, "A sailing contest with her sister ship President during this cruise would result in Chesapeake being soundly defeated", "Captain Alexander Murray would keep Constellation far offshore", "Chesapeake would sail for home on 6 April", "Morris would remain in the Mediterranean until being recalled", etc) and should be changed to active tense.
    • Should there be apostrophes in '36's were re-rated as 38's'?
    • How did Thomas Truxton enforce Stoddert's directives?
    • "Barron found Chesapeake in much disarray from her several year period of inactivity and he left Master Commandant Charles Gordon in charge of the preparations" does this mean that Barron avoided his responsibility to fix the ship?
    • "Some sailors from Constitution joined Chesapeake and together they filled the crew with sailors of all nations" seems an overstatement - 'several nations' perhaps? Nick-D (talk) 22:35, 24 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for pointing out what you found. That was the slap I needed to find the poor prose and I have gone over the entire article. Hopefully it should read better.
As for Truxton, his actions were nothing more than to sit around and act important. His assignment to the yard by Stoddert was nothing more than to appease Truxton's ego. There was no ship available for Truxton at that particular time and with a war going on and Truxton threatening to resign over the silliest things, Stoddert did whatever it took to keep experienced Captain's in the service. Stoddert sent him to Gosport to act as "though you were the commander in chief of the Navy." to get some ships completed. What he actually did while there is a mystery but when he found out that Stoddert wouldn't give him a Flag Captain, he resigned. Stoddert was tired of Truxton's crap and called his bluff by not appeasing him again.
As for Barron, yes, he apparently was only aboard the ship twice before she sailed to her doom with Leopard. I had thought that his ensuing suspension from the navy was enough to explain the overall negligence on his part. --Brad (talk) 08:01, 25 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  • Support above comments now addressed; great work. Nick-D (talk) 07:09, 6 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  • Comment: alt text is present, all refs have been consolidated and there are no dab links. There was, however, one external link that would not connect according to the Featured article tools. It is the pdf of Gordon Calhoun work. Sorry, could you please investigate? Cheers. — AustralianRupert (talk) 01:05, 31 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]
The link has loaded fine for me. It does link directly to a PDF so I'm not sure if that could foil the link tool or not. The PDF is large and takes a while to load. --Brad (talk) 21:46, 31 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  • Support. I've cleaned up the text a bit, but it looks good. Just wondering, are you planning for a FT on the six frigates and Six Original Frigates of the United States Navy? – Joe N 01:39, 5 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Yes; featured topic is a goal for these articles. One is already FA from last year and I've this one and two others that should be FA by years end. That leaves three more articles to work up. I estimate featured topic by early 2011. --Brad (talk) 03:21, 6 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page, such as the current discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
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