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tartane

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About tartane

  • Birthday 10/29/1949

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  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    The Netherlands, Zutphen
  • Interests
    Investigating ships 17e - 19e century in the Mediterranian.
    Building shipmodels
    Building Maquettes of old cities, castles ec.
    website www.constantwillems.nl

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  1. My Norwegian is also not very good, but I think Steve is right. I have a dictionary in ten languages, for maritime expressions. Norwegian is not the language which is in the book but only Danish. But in this language I could not find the meaning of your word.
  2. Can you post an illustration of this item. Ik do not know what a Gjoa exactly is.
  3. Thanks for all your positive reactions!

    The shipmodel I built was the skratch built ship of Willem Barents, scale 1 : 87. He sailed with it to Nova Zembla in the winter of 1496.  But I do not give names to the models, I only build types of ships. So this one is an early  Pinas. After 1500 the Pinas was a very common ship, but before 1500 it was somewhat different. Important inventions at the end on the 15e century were yet not practised on this vessel from 1496. 

    I always do a lot of research before I build my models. 

    DSCN3878.thumb.JPG.4553c6363f9f793a8b3b9502e53ec0c3.JPG

  4. Hello Ab, Nice to see you here on an other forum. I am going to post some topics, which are well known by you I guess. Constant
  5. Well done so far! I am intersted in the construction of cogs as you can see in my last topic. The rigging is different than some nowaday pictures of cogs show. I did research on this subject and discovered a kind of rigging that is similar to ships with latin sails. I would like to advise you if you want to, Constant
  6. The rigging. The rigging is less complicated than the rigging on more masted ships, but is basically the same. A big difference is the absence of lanyards and deadeyes. During my research I came to the solution that this construction is an invention which dates from the first half of the fifteenth century. Original mediaeval pictures show everywhere an other construction which is surprisingly the same as used on ships with latin sails, which were used until the last part of the nineteenth century. This cog was build in 1320, so long before the invention of lanyards and deadeyes. One of the reconstructed cogs was build in Kiel in Germany. While testing its sail capabilities it appeared the ship could sail up to 70 degrees by wind abeam. In this position the sail would grate over the shrouds. The shrouds on that ship are equipped with lanyards and deadeyes, which I believe is not correct, so the shrouds could not be removed in case of grating. Shrouds on ships with latin sails can be removed while sailing. A part of the shrouds on leeward can be removed while the ship is sailing abeam. This is possible with the help of the construction as drawn in the sketch nr 1. A stick (Dutch; knevel) can be pulled out in the connection of two parts of the shroud which both end in a noose. On both sides of the ship are mostly four shrouds as drawn in nr 2. The shrouds windward can of course not be removed, but with some of the shrouds leeward it is possible. 1 2 The model without the yard, but with the shrouds. On port-side the four shrouds are all fastened, on starboard only two. The other two are hanging alongside the mast. In this case the wind will come abeam the portside. This construction is on ships with latin sails always usual, but it is also possible on cogs. Old mediaval illustrations of ships show this solution. Ships with latin sails have a different rigging because of the possibility of setting the sails and yards in other positions which move around the foreside the masts. But the shroud construction is the same as on cogs. It is obvious that ratlines are impossible with this type of rigging. Ratlines in shrouds can not be found on ships before the first part of the fifteenth century. The rest On the model I made two anchors. Made of brass. I sawed them from brass plate, thick 2,5 mm. After filing and sanding in the correct proportions, blades of thin brass, were soldered on it. After that I painted them in colour Matt 46, from Revell. All iron pieces on the models I make are painted in this color. Never black. The sailors on the model are from “Lehman HO pirates 90-2025”. Usually I do not place figures, but this model goes to a museum here in town. For visitors it is in this way easier to compare the human proportions. I never paint my models, only the sails. The finished model gives an impression of how those ships looked like. It is a reconstruction, so there always will be the possibility of other opinions. The following pictures give an impression of teh finished model. Cogs had an unsusual construction of the hull. The ends of the beams inside the ship came out the side of the ships hull. This can be seen on the next illustrations. u
  7. Hi James, Thanks for your compliments! I made several historical boats which require a lot of research. Ik build them all on the same scale so it is possible to compare each other. On my website you can find some other boats; www.constantwillems.nl Constant
  8. The deck On two places I made openings in the deck. The deck itself consisted of a frame of beams with were formed in a rectangular pattern. Most rectangulars were planked, but a number were hatches used for loading the vessel. Probably these hatches were caulked during the voyage, to prevent overcoming water in the ship. The walnut shape of the deck which is characteristic for all cogs in that period. In the bow a part of the railing was missing. Probably to guide the anchor cable in a low position. This prevented damage on the upper part of the railing. A cleat on the foreside prevented damage of the anchor-cable. Th castles. In the wreck were remnants of the vertical beams which once supported a castle in the stern.These wooden castles were common on these ships. The ships company could defend themselves against attacs during the voyage. In none of te wrecks of cogs were sufficient remnants found of such castles. So we have to look at old illustrations on coins and document-seals of the cities which committed trade with these ships. Fortunately there is a large number of these old seals, on which castles can be seen. Sometimes there was only one castle but other seals show two of these structures. I chose for two castles, according to the seals of the city of Damme 1300 and the seal of Rye 1400. On the reconstruction on paper in the archeological publication are drawn two castles. The castle on the stem and a very large castle on the bow. The last one could impossible have stand on this place. It stands in the way of the sail when the wind blows in it. On all seals on which two castles are depicted it is obvious that the castle stand as far as possible near the bow, sometimes even on the bow. Two document-seals with cogs. Above the seal of Rye (1400) and under the seal of Damme (1300). I chose for these constructions. The back of the tower on the bow must stand at least on the half length of the yard before the mast, otherwise the sail could not be braced in the proper position during sailing. The mast and the yard. The mast and the yard were not found on the wreck. There are two reconstructed cogs on full scale on which the lenght of the mast had to be calculated. Both cogs are fully documented. So I took the three lenghts of the ships and the two lenghts of the masts of the reconstructed ships. After some calculations I found a hight of 17,3 m. above the deck. The construction of the mast is exactly as made on the two reconstructed ships. The sail. Cogs had only one sail. How this was made is not exactly known. Different solutions can be seen on the document-seals, but the details are very small and hardly recognisable. I did some research on larger illustrations, mainly before the year 1400. Even pictures dating from the Roman times. There I found ships with only one mast with a very detailed rigging. I decided to use these details on my model. Surprisingly some deatils are the same as depicted on several seals from about 800 years later. The sail I made consists of twelve horizontal strips and six vertical ropes. Each rope is led throug rings on every second horizontal seam and finally attached on the lowest seal. When you pull the ropes the sail will fold up until the entire sail ends under the yard. This construction can be seen on a reconstructed pre-Roman vessel which sails in the Mediterranean the ”Kyrenia Liberty”. The sail is horizontal longer en verical shorter than the sails which are used on the two reconstruced cogs. On both ships the sails are the results of exeperiments. On my model I used the proportions of the sail which can be seen on old original mediaeval pictures and according to the measurements of the Kyrenia Liberty. For this reason the yard is also very long. Every rope leads through a bloc in the top of the mast and ends on a jeer bitt on deck.
  9. In 2023 bouwde ik een model van een kogge, een schip dat van belang was voor de handel tussen ca 1250 en 1450. Ik bouwde hem, niet vermoedend dat het Stedelijk Museum in Zutphen daar lucht van kreeg. Men vroeg mij het model onderdeel te laten worden van een expositie over de Hanzetijd, waar dit schip een grote rol in speelde. Het verslag ga ik laten zien in drie delen. Ik maak op voorhand excuses voor mijn niet perfecte kennis van de Engelse taal, maar ik koos er toch voor dit in het Engels te doen. Er komen veel termen in voor die niet goed in computertaal in het Engels zijn weer te geven. RECONSTRUCTION OF A COG Scale 1 : 87, Built in 2023 This reconstruction is exactly based on the measurements and construction of an excavated shipwreck in Holland in 1983, registrated; Oz 36, known as Nijkerk II. The results were in 2021 published by the archeologist Karel Vlierman in 2021 ; “Coghen, kleene coghen ende schuten”.In this publication you find detailed drawings of the excavated parts and a reconstruction of the hull. The German book: ; “Die Kieler Hansekogge, der Nachbau eines historischen Segelschiffes von 1380”, written by Uwe Baykowsky, 1991, was a great help especially for the rigging and the missing parts of the ship such as the mast and the yard. The wreck is until now the most complete cog which is excavated, The starboardside of te hull was almost complete. A lot had to be reconstructed on paper but the result is very satisfactory. Combined with remains of other excavated cogs it was possible to build this model Dendrochronologycal the ship was build in 1320, and wrecked around 1355. No remains werd found of the mast, rigging and rudder. Only a few marks point to the posibility of a castle on the stern. In the publication of the excavation nothing is mentioned about the sailing capabilities, also the lenght of the mast is not reconstructed. Before I started I did a lot of investigation to Mediaeval pictures Mainly concerning the rigging, the mast and the sail. Planking the hull The model is made of Mahogany vener. Attached on a frame of triplex. The keel, bow and stern are made of pearwood, attached to the long middle frame of triplex On the middle frame I attached the frames at first on the righet side and filed them in the correct shape of the hull. After that I made exact copies of all the frames on the left side and attachede them also on the middle frame. I started planking at the keel. All excavations show that the first three planks near the keel were carvel built connected, but only in the middle. Going to the stern and to the bow this construction changed in clinker built planking. The rest of the hull is entirely clinker built. The wreck showed that the hull on each side consisted of 15 planks, clinker built. I made this amount also on the model. Every plank consists of three or four parts, just like the real excavated planks The bow during planking before sanding and filing On the sternpost curved timbers were nessesary. Here the timbers in paper, before making them in wood. Most wooden constructies on the deck consit of several layers of veneer, glued upon each othter until the exact thicknesses. Above the deck the planks are attached on a number of frame timbers which are visible above the deck. In the model I made the same amount as found in the real ship. The upper plank was needed to attache them. Before placing the frame timbers I removed stsp by step all the temporary upper triplex parts of the frames.
  10. In the last posting I showed the construction I used by replacing the railing supports. By some models the railing is also planked at the inner side. In that case the supports are invisible and are not necessary to build in the model. Chebeque has both types of railing as can be seen on the picture. This ship has also unsusual decks, owing to the construction of the hull. The main deck has on port and starboard an extra deck in order to get a horizontal place for the cannons. These decks have planks which are not attached to each other. There are open spaces between them. This means that under these decks are hollow spaces which allows overcoming water to stream away to scuppers in the side of the hull. On the pictures is to be seen that the extra decks have planks which stand square, because of this reason, to the length of the ship. The upper deck on the stern is also of an unsual construction. The deck is partly open and partly provided with gratings. The reason for it is still a mystery. I believe that overcoming waves and rain could leave very quickly the decks, otherwise it would stream on the main deck. Unfortunally these gratings are not drawn in the correct way on plans of the chebeque. Mostly is depicted that the whole upper deck was one large grating from port to starbord. This is wrong, because the deck would be very weak and heavy. On the few existing original drawings of cebebes you will never see one large grating. Galeotta is also planked at the innerside of the railing. Tartane has visible supports. This is the last posting I do to explain how I made the hulls of those three beautiful ships. If there are any questions about these ships , please ask me. Thanks for your interest, and please forgive my poor English. Constant
  11. Above the rubbing strake Tartane, chebeque and Galeotta have a somewhat lighter colored wood. And sometimes a band of dark wood, inserted in the planking of the railing. The railing supports are part of the plywood frames. On scale HO these supports are to thick and only useful to attach the planks between the rubbing strake and the the railing. Once the planks are attached and glued, I carefully remove the supports, one by one, and replace them by much smaller ones in massive wood. As can be seen on the picture the two supports on the left are the original plywood supports. More to the right the replaced supports can be seen.
  12. Hi Peter, Well done! I especially admire the way you constructed the planks on the deck. At the sides are no triangular ends, this is the correct way to do it. Beautiful! Constant
  13. The planks are the next parts of the model. I Always start below the rubbing strake. This is not always the correct way of building the real ship, but it works very well for me. Before attaching the planks I rubb the sides with a soft pencil, mostly 6B. This will imitate the caulk between the planks and the joints. The pear wood is very easy to bend. When it needs an intens bend I plunge it in hot water or I take small parts a while in my mouth. When the plank is glued to the frame (I never use nails on this scale) it will have a very dirty surface, owing to the pencil and glue. But when the entire hull is polished and varnished it will be very nice to look at. While working from the rubbing strake to the keel you will see the number of planks will not be the same midships as it will be at het bow and the stern. The lower I come the more inventive I have to be, to get the hull closed in a proper way. I Always avoid sharp triangels at both ends of the planks. In case of the real ship; in a triangel piece it is impossible to hammer a nail. Because of this the planks will not have the same width in the keel area and sharp ends are not to be seen. In the picures the dirty surface of tartane yust after attaching the planks, and the bottom of chebec after polishing and varnishing. Note the irregular course of the planks and the solution to avoid triangular ends near the keel. Constant
  14. The planks for the hull I saw from a piece of pear wood. I collect for that purpose oldfashioned drawing-squares which were formerly used by architects. I used them myself for about 40 years. The wood is of exellent quality and perfectly suitable for building models. For as far as I know all drawing-squares were made of pear wood. The parts of these instruments have a different thickness. I collected them from 4 mm till 12 mm. All depending from the measures of different drawing-squares, There were large and small ones. First of all you have to scrub away all the layers of lac and dirt from the surface. After that I saw a piece of about 20 cm. On the surface I draw lines as you can see on the sketch. With a fret-saw I saw the planks out of this piece. So in this case I obtain planks which measure 1,5 x 6 mm. There are people who say that it is impossible. Yust try it. Of course.... you have to saw several meters to obtain sufficient planks to build the model, and that will cost a lot of time. I tryed it with a sawing machine, but this went to fast and did not work. After that scrub the surfaces to get out the most disturbing deviations, and the planks are ready to assemble. It depends of the scale how broad the planks have to be. At a scale of HO it has to be 4 mm (= about 35 cm). So if I can I search for a suitable drawing-square. I do not paint my models, so I have to make choises in the color of the wood. Sometimes I obtain a different color of pear wood, but in the case of chebeque and tartane I used for some details parana-pine, which is very light. On the picture you see tartane. the rubbing strake has already been attached. In front of the model are two piles of planks. One of pear wood, the other of parana-pine. Constant
  15. At the start of the building I have to make an exact construction of frames. The scale HO is very small so it is better to make a closed hull, so I do not show the frames when the model is ready. I do this with my latest models always in the same way. I use the method of half-frames. For skratch models it is always difficult to saw an exact symmetric frame, especially when the model is very small. Little deviations are easily made, and polishing is not always the right solution. When you make half-frames you do not have these problems. Yust make one half of the model exact in the right proportions. When everything is polished, and ready to attach the first planks, it is time to copy every frame for the opposite side. When you do this very precisely and attach them on the other side you will obtain a perfect symmetrical frame. For the frames I use 3 mm plywood. Within 4 metrs (= 4,5 cm on scale) from the bow, I use plywood of 2 mm. Within this range there are in reality hardly shorter planks than 4 metrs. So in this area you do not have to make joints between two planks. All the other joints I make exactly on the frames of plywood 3 mm. Plywood 2 mm. is easier to scrub in the right shape to fit the planks properly. In the bow and the stern I sometimes make pieces of balsa-wood. This because the curves of the planks will be more intense and difficult to form on the frames. Before I attach the frames I glue on the mid-frame the visible sections of the keel, stern and bow. I make these from pear-wood, less than 1 mm thick. The mid-fame should not be made of too thick plywood, especially the bow would be unreal thick. Next pictures show how I constructed the hull of the tartane. Constant Constant
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