So how much did a frigate cost in 1780?
 

Wow, building a replica today costs $27 million. http://www.denverpost.com/breakingne...ts-sail-boston

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financi...olutionary_War States, if correct, that France, Spain, and the Netherlands loaned us over $10 million during the war so this replica frigate costs more now than double our loans back then? Wow!

You forgot inflation. For example $10 million in 1913 dollars is $238.5 million in 2015 dollars. I didn't find inflation calculator capable of going back to 1780 but that loan was huge back then.

EDIT: ...or perhaps not. I didn't take into account the fact that U.S. was new republic back then so estimating value of 1780's dollar in today's dollars isn't that straightforward. Anyway directly comparing $10 million dollar loan back then with construction costs in today's dollars is misleading unless I misread you and that $10 millions is in today's dollars.

Come over to Dundee - you can see the Frigate Unicorn, an original.

http://www.frigateunicorn.org/

So, have they found the original paperwork for the original frigate? You, know the one with the dubious change orders and cost overruns?...

...and signed by Dick Cheney?...



<O>

http://navysite.de/ships/Image81.gif General Characteristics: Awarded: March 1, 1794 Keel laid: November 1, 1794 Commissioned: October 1, 1797 Builder: Col. George Claghorn, Edmont Harrt’s Shipyard, Boston, Mass. Length: 204 feet (62.16 meters) Length at waterline: 175 feet (53.32 meters) Beam: 43,5 feet (13.25 meters) Mast height: Foremast: 198 feet (60.33 meters) Mainmast: 220 feet (67.03 meters) Mizzenmast: 172,5 feet (52.56 meters) Displacement: approx. 2.200 tons Speed: 13+ knots Cost: $302,718 (1797 dollars) Armament: 32 24-pounder long guns; 20 32-pounder carronades; and, two 24-pounder bow chasers Boats: one 36-ft. long boat; two 30-ft. cutters, two 28-ft. whaleboats; one 28-ft. gig; one 22-ft. jolly boat; and one 14-ft. punt. Crew: 450 including 55 Marines and 30 boys (1797) Homeport: Boston, Mass.

And that's a difference - the poor old Unicorn is massively underfunded and busy rotting away, whereas the USS constitution looks in great condition.

Interesting! HMS Unicorn was never rigged http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...MS_Unicorn.jpg she was laid up "in ordinary", serving as a hulk and a depot ship for most of the next 140 years. Her lack of active duty left her timbers well preserved as opposed to her near sister ship HMS Trincomalee built in Bombay of teak instead of scarce oakhttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi..._-_1605077.jpgalso a museum ship at Hartlepool The Trincomalee holds the distinction of being the oldest British warship still afloat. HMS Victory is 52 years older but is in drydock. All three are having a better day than Cutty Sark (restored) which burned a few years back!:wah: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi..._Sark_fire.jpgCutty Sark ablaze.

The thing though, is that replica ships will cost far more than the period in which the original ships were originally made. People don't build ships like this any more, so the people with the skill set to do it are rare, shipyards are not optimized for building ships like this, and labor costs would be a lot higher (as now it is specialists that build these ships, and they cost a lot more then the shipwrights from the time period). Build times I would also expect to be longer, especially if using traditional methods, because fewer people would be working on building the ship (again as not many people would have the skills needed).

Aye, it'll be nice if she can get the funding needed for proper restoration, to something like this:

http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs17/f/20...ectricfox5.jpg

Right and that's not counting modern systems and conveniences they might add like engines, electronic equipment safety gear and the like.

I'm a fan of USS Constitution as it seemed overbuilt, which is something I can't usually help but try to do. It's a German thing. lol $300,000 seems a deal, oh for the days before the military industrial complex and airplanes without guns(cause that worked really well in Vietnam) Shhh, treason talk. LMAO

Poor Unicorn looks like a prison ship.

Hah! You can (or could) book it for meetings and weddings and so on. In the same dock is the North Carr Lightship (also needing money)
http://www.northcarr-lightship.org/

..and just along the river, the Discovery, of Scott of the Antarctic fame
http://www.rrsdiscovery.com/index.php?pageID=129

Blimey, I sound like a tour guide for Dundee.

One thing they have NOT got, is a submarine. There's a memorial but nothing else (and even that is a bit hard to find).

http://www.secretscotland.org.uk/ind...ets/HMSAmbrose

U2326 surrendered in Dundee and some of the officers were taken aboard the Unicorn.

Another issue is the disparity in wages of that time to ours. Not the inflated value of currency but the real value of time. The men of that age didn't have the house, the car & the wife that they couldn't afford like we do.

Its one of the main reasons projects like say the Golden Gate Bridge could not be made again.