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Showing results for tags 'mediaeval'.
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In the church of San Marco (Saint Mark's) in Venice is a series of mosaics celebrating the so-called "translation" of the body of Saint Mark from Alexandria to Venice, where he became the city's Patron Saint. "According to legend, Saint Mark’s body was taken from Alexandria, Egypt, in 828. Two Venetian merchants travelling in Alexandria, obtained the relics of Saint Mark from Priests at the church of Saint Mark, where the saint’s body was interred. The Priests feared Saint Mark’s relics might be damaged or destroyed by the Saracens during the persecution of the Catholic community in Alexandria. Promising to safeguard the Saint’s relics, the merchants convinced the Priests to allow them to return to Venice with the body of Saint Mark. The body of Saint Mark was taken out of the sarcophagus and unwrapped from its silk shroud, the relic being substituted by another and less eminent Saint. It was then placed in a chest and taken on board the Venetian ship, the merchants first ensuring, that the Saint’s remains were covered by a layer of pork and cabbage. When the Muslim officials asked to inspect the chest, they cried out ‘Kanzir, kanzir’ (Oh horror) at the sight and smell of the pork. . . . Thus the Evangelist was safely conveyed to Venice but not before a number of miracles eased his passage across the Mediterranean.” There are five mosaic panels showing the ship itself at various stages of the voyage. They are all very much the same - three masted, lateen rigged, with two side-rudders - but with minor variations in the shape of the aftercastle, the stempost, the line of the gunwale etc. Some of these variations don't make a lot of sense and I am going to have to reconcile them and come up with a version that I'm happy with. This is a rather difficult ship to get a good concept of, but I was inspired by a couple of sketches on a Facebook forum by Wagdemar Lookomsky (I hope he doesn't mind me posting them here) which finally suggested a configuration for this ship that made sense. I'll be using these as a basis for my own reconstruction, but I won't be copying them exactly. I will be basing the hull shape mainly on that of the 14th century Contarina ship which Woodrat has already used for his 14th century Venetian Round Ship (see https://modelshipworld.com/topic/17991-venetian-round-ship-13th-century-by-woodrat-132-scale-fully-framed-completed/ ) and I will be shamelessly copying much of his technique in building my own (though at a smaller scale). However, this is at the research stage at the moment. First I want to get a lot more done on my Great Harry restoration, which as languished while I built my nef. But this is a bit of a heads-up for those who are interested. Steven
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Despite the better angels of my nature, I feel constrained to go where the prudent would fear to venture. The nautical archaeologists have despaired of one particular ship type: the "mysterious" hulc (also spelt hulk in english). This is a type of ship depicted on town seals, coins, illuminated manuscripts, baptismal fonts, church pews and probably toilet walls during the late mediaeval period. It seems to have largely supplanted the cog but also predated it. Having plodded through many learned disquisitions on the subject and squinted at dozens of poorly done illustrations of vessels which look strangely like those in the "Owl and the Pussycat", I have decided to dive down the rabbit-hole. The problem is that no-one has found a single wreck which can with a straight face be identified as a hulc. And this is a vessel said to be widespread from the baltic to Portugal and beyond for centuries. Curiouser and curiouser. And what are the supposed characteristics of this apocryphal beastie? It was, on the basis of town seals etc. to be a largeish banana-shaped vessel with often depicted reverse-clinker planking (reverse lapstrake), no keel, no stem or stern post, square sails and a funny looking collar round its neck. If you told a five year old " draw daddy a sailing ship", this is what they would draw. Nonetheless, whole forests have been denuded by learned nauticals writing exhaustive academic blatherings on this unicorn of the oceans. Academic reputations have risen and fallen on the deck of the Incredible Hulc. Here are some typical examples of the elusive animal which seems, like the Cheshire cat, to have faded away leaving only a quizzical grin. Is it possible to do a model of one of these things based on the above? Maybe not but perhaps it would be fun to try. As a first toe in the ocean, I spent last weekend at the drawing board trying to pull all the elements together into something that looked sturdy, workaday and able to withstand storms in the Baltic and Bay of Biscay. It also had to be somewhat banana-like. Here 'tis: I think it looks like your generic mediaeval ship and lacks only castles. I don't think it quite catches the eccentricity of the banana boats and I plan to rethink. "I see nobody on the road" said Alice. "I only wish I had such eyes" the King remarked in a fretful tone. "To be able to see Nobody! And at that distance too!" Cheers Dick
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- keelless
- reverse clinker
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I have some questions regarding chain pumps. Apparently these are the most appropriate pumps for my Byzantine dromon (as remnants were found on the contemporary Byzantine Serce Limani wreck). As I'd never heard of chain pumps before this week, I've done a search through previous posts and they've cleared up the worst of my iggerance, but I still have a few questions. * In the models I've seen, chain pumps always seem to come in pairs - a port and a starboard one. Was this always the case? There were never any single chain pumps? * In all the pictures and models I've seen the pumps seem to be cut off at the outlet (the dale?). Am I right in thinking this leads to scuppers via a pipe or hose? * The dromon only has one deck; the upper deck (if you ignore a little poop deck). So would the pumps and dales be on this upper deck? * In an earlier thread which dealt with chain pumps Druxey replied I realise this is a very different kind of ship from a completely different time and culture and I do have the Serce Limani ship still to check, but lacking surviving evidence to the contrary, would I be safe enough putting the chain pumps "a few feet aft of the main mast"? Any help with these questions would be gratefully received. Steven
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- chain pumps
- dromons
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Has anybody else seen this? https://www.livescience.com/53744-photos-medieval-dutch-shipwreck.html It was discovered in 2012 and (I think) raised in 2016, but I never saw it. How did I manage to miss it? So, we have another cog to study and learn from. Very exciting. Steven
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