This in scale model represents the U.S.Navy Brig Eagle that participated and won an important battle during the 1814 Anglo-American War of Lake Champlain, on September 11, 1814. She was built under instructions of Lieautenant, later Master Commandant, Thomas Macdonough, and her command was given by the Secretary to the Navy to Master Commandant Robert Henley. The new commander, unaware of the name Eagle, already assigned by Macdonough, gave her the second name of Surprise.
The ship was built at Vergennes, Vermount, by the shipwright Noah Brown in the same shipyard where Saratoga and Ticonderoga have been built few months before; Eagle Brig was launched on August 11, 1814, just 19 days after the laying of the keel.
Her dimesnsions were: 117 feet, 3 inches (35.74m) in lenght and 34 feet (10.36m) in beam and her normal crew was of 150 sailors..Armament consisted of 32-pounder carronades and 18-pounder long guns.
The supplied 3d model can show two different arrangements: guns in position with gun-ports open (ready to fight) and gun ports closed (ready to sail bent under strong wind); both ports elements, open and closed, are present in the EAGLE Layer and can be easily shown/hided activating relevant Hide commands.It is advisable, whith closed ports, to manually move back the guns an slide back the carronades or, more simply, to hide both sets.
According to official drawings, the hull has been armoured with a triple wood layer for the part above the deck and with a double layer just down the floating line.An additional wooden layer is present inside the hull within the two decks.
A simple rough sea plan and a landscape are present in the Default Layer; it is necessary, to show them in the scene, to un-check relevant Hide commands.
All necessary image textures, using about 6 Mbytes, are present in each format file supplied.
Sea, landscape and all interior meshes can be easily removed, togheter with relevant textures, to reduce file dimensions without reducing the overall aspect of the ship.
