colours for skiffs, long boats and dinghy's in the late 1700's (edited by admin)

[bluenose2]

Can anyone tell me if there were admiralty specs on the colours for skiffs, long boats and dinghy's in the late 1700's or was it ship specific? Also a good reference on what a long boat looked like. Thnx Les.

[mtaylor]

Les,

 

For color.... usually they seem to be white on the bottom.  As for the rest.. I think it's Captain's choice.  

 

Here's  a link to a pinned topic for Chuck's longboat kit:  http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/629-18th-century-english-longboat-by-chuck-c1760/

 

Here's the search result for longboats in the kit builds:  http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?app=core&module=search&do=search&fromMainBar=1

 

In the scratch area, there's a few builds of longboats only but most longboat builds are part of the ship project.  

Edited October 31, 2016 by mtaylor

[Roger Pellett]

In my opinion the best single reference on British ships boats is The Boats of Men of War by W.E. May. This book includes several drawings and several other illustrations of longboats. Of particular interest is the boat illustrated on page 90. Although this probably dates from the first half of the 1700's it is the original drawing that I know of that includes a sail plan and details of rigging which incidentally vary considerably from the rigged longboat model in the NMM. Howard Chapelle chose this boat as an example of a longboat in his American Small Sailing Craft. His drawing of this boat based on the Admiralty drawing reproduced in May would be available from the Smithsonian.

 

Roger Pellett

[allanyed]

Les,

 

I also like W.E. May's book which includes the same scantlings found in Elements of Naval Architecture and are also given in Scantlings of the Royal Navy. Another great reference is Lavery's The Arming and Fitting British Ships of War 1650 to 1815.  

 

There are a number of drawings that can be found at the NMM Collections.   Just write in long boat, pinnace, cutter, whatever is appropriate in the search box in the Collections section and they will come up.  Some are clear enough to use from the site, and all can be purchased digitally and are extremely clear.

 

Allan