Talk:Defense of the cutter Eagle

A fact from Defense of the cutter Eagle appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 13 April 2019 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that a calf grazing near the scene of an 1814 battle between the Royal Navy and United States Revenue Marine became the fight's only fatality?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2019/April.

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A fact from this article was featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the On this day section on October 13, 2020.

Military history: Maritime / British / European / North America / United States / Napoleonic era B‑class

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Referencing and citation: criterion met Coverage and accuracy: criterion met Structure: criterion met Grammar and style: criterion met Supporting materials: criterion met

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	Maritime warfare task force
	British military history task force
	European military history task force
	North American military history task force
	United States military history task force
	Napoleonic era task force (c. 1792 – 1815)

A possible source; "displacement"

Congratulations to Chetsford on a well-done article.

I came across this item, DEFENSE OF THE EAGLE:New Discoveries about this Coast Guard Legend, which has some good illustrations and other information. It is a marked as a draft, and I cannot find a later version-- perhaps it was retitled, or was not published. Maybe it was a project of a history teacher at the school. It would be nice to use it if we can find a final published version.

At the time of this event, and well into the nineteenth century, the size of ships, both naval and merchant, was measured by tons burthen. That is often conflated with displacement, even by military authors. I have added the burthen of one of the RN vessels, but (with some misgivings) did not change the displacement figure for Eagle as it had some support in one USCG paper. Kablammo (talk) 13:47, 6 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

While this is certainly true, the fact that displacement was not expressed as such does not mean ships did not have a displacement. By way of comparison, I'll note that all of our articles on the pyramids use contemporary measurement systems for the reader's benefit, and not cubits (or use cubits as a secondary measurement alongside contemporary systems). But I don't want to belabor the point. Insofar as the PDF is concerned, while it's interesting, we need information on its provenance before it can be used as a source. It's presently hosted on the page of (what appears to be) a high school website. Without additional details on the author, therefore, it fails WP:SCHOLARSHIP. Chetsford (talk) 23:40, 6 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]