Mark P

Good Evening Mark; See below extracts from a few contracts which give some detail of what was done. Warspite, William Wells, Deptford, contract date 17 Nov 1755: Furnace & Fireplace. To put up Jambs, and lay Cants for the Furnaces and Fireplace; to line the Jambs, Wingboards, overhead, round the Chimney and the foreside of the after Bulkheads of the Fore Castle, with double Tin plate, and to Cover the Deck with Lead Seven pounds to the Foot Square, and to put up such Convenient Dressers & Lockers as shall be necessary. Resolution, Henry Bird, Northam, contract date 28 Nov 1755: (repeat of the above) Culloden, specification for Deptford Dockyard, 1770: As you can see, they all seem pretty much of a muchness. Not much variation. Earlier contracts speak of lead and bricks on top of it; but probably best here to just rely on lead. There seems to have been a raised border around the edges of the hearth, which might give the illusion, viewed from the side, of a raised hearth. All the best, Mark P

Good Morning Louie; Thanks for posting a very interesting picture. It looks to me as though the last four words on the second line say 'von den turken skafft' or something very similar. I stand to be corrected, though, by someone with a better knowledge of German than mine. All the best, Mark P

Good Evening Pat; Thank you for your reply; I suppose it could be referring to a knee used as a fairlead for setting up the shrouds in the bows. Whisker booms themselves, when used on the catheads, were only a fairlead, as I am sure you know. But I don't think that the spread would be sufficient. However, to come at it from a different angle, I note that it is referred to as the 'head knee'. The 'pointy bit' in the bows is normally called the 'knee of the head'. Could it be that the author is actually referring to the cheeks, which are like knees, and function to support the head. A metal bracket could be fixed to the cheek. all the best, Mark P

Good Morning Pat; This is outside my era, so unfortunately I can't give you any definite help. However, it does seem to be rather odd. The bowsprit shrouds need a decent spread, or they will not perform any kind of bracing function. What the contract seems to describe is rather like fixing the mast shrouds to eyebolts in the deck each side of the mast, thereby rendering them useless. Is there any chance that the author is confusing the shrouds for the bob-stays, or the martingale back-stays. Alternatively, is the knee referred to not the actual knee of the head, but the knee supporting the cat-head. All the best, Mark P

Good Evening Gentlemen; I would not be surprised at all at the need to change the facing of the crosspiece at fairly regular intervals. The force exerted by many hundreds of tons of ship being pulled up short at the end of the cable, in any but the calmest weather, would have rubbed away at the wood fibres almost continuously. This would have applied both on active service, wherein ships frequently spent periods of hours or days at anchor; and also when laid up in ordinary; although being more sheltered and moored both ends, this latter would have been a slower process. The hook and eye are mentioned in many contracts, although I don't think it is in any much earlier than those Allan mentions above, and continues throughout most of the 18th century. I cannot give a date when it ended, as my interest stops in the last decade of the century. See below an extract from the draught of Dorsetshire 70 guns, 1757. This shows details of the fastenings. Note that the eye is above the centre line, which would help it to better resist the turning moment from the greater projection of the crosspiece. Just about all crosspieces shown on as-built draughts are shown with the dashed line, indicating a facing piece applied separately. This is the only draught I have which showed the hooks, although I am sure I have seen at least one other example. The iron fire-hearth detail is interesting, and must be an early example, as not long before this they were still made of brick. All the best, Mark P

Beautiful work Hyw; Your work bench and shop look like an operating theatre; I take it that Frankenstein was re-vivified there not too long ago! Congratulations and all the best with the rest of the build. I shall watch with great interest. Mark P

Good Evening Mark; On the topic of ivory, there is a nut grown in South America, called the Tagua nut, which when worked looks very like ivory. I have some of them, and they are very hard and dense, although I have not yet carved any to see how it looks. Might be worth obtaining a few and seeing how they look. All the best, Mark P

Good Evening Siggi; Thanks for the pictures above. Is it SLR0472 which has the black spirketting. Looks like a very nice model; and you are right: the spirketting is indeed black. I would still maintain, though, that black spirketting is much rarer than red on models. I have photographed 20 models out of their cases, and all of these have either red or natural wood spirketting, except for the Ajax, which you list above. I have pictures of the Warrior model in the Science Museum, and this also has red spirketting, on both gun-deck and upper deck. Did you see a different Warrior somewhere? The Minerva I don't have any pictures of, but there are several contemporary models of her in existence, and at least one of them has red spirketting (it was copied for a recent model shown in 'Shipwright 2012', which has red spirketting) Even if one of the other models of Minerva has black spirketting, that would still be much less common than red or natural colour. Ajax, Minerva & Victory black, compared with 20 others red or natural. All the best, Mark

Good Evening Vladimir; The inboard panelling is looking very impressive. Nice work indeed. As Brian says above, it looks very real. Keep up the good work, and maintain the standard you have reached. All the best, Mark P

Good Afternoon Gary; Look for Georgian decoration or simple panelling in the rooms of Country Houses or town houses, owned by the National Trust or similar, as shown online. There are certainly some examples there. All the best, Mark P

Thanks Druxey; As you say above, the Captain's cabin most often received special treatment. The more mundane parts of the ship were normally painted with whatever was available, or cheapest. Mark is right about the spirketting in the Princess Royal; but that is seemingly much less common. I have not seen it in any of the models I have photographed. Not that I doubt your memory, Druxey (I do doubt my own quite often, though) See below for pictures from the Bellona model in the NMM. The red inboard planking of the gun-deck can be seen between the upper deck ledges. The dark area above it is a shadow from the planked portion above. Note also the red faces of the beams (not the ledges, though) and the vertical sides (the strings) of the ladders. Interestingly enough, it would appear that the Captain's cabin is painted a different colour, see also below. Note the colours of the doors, the beams, and the difference between the small cabin afore the Captain's quarters, and the area aft of it. If you decide to paint this white, do not use a pure, modern white. Georgian white paint was off-white. All the best, Mark P

Good Afternoon Michael, and welcome to MSW and England; My only tip is take your time and work to the very best of your abilities. The only sure thing is that in later years, no matter how high the standard you try to achieve now, you will look back at this model, and think 'why did I not do it this way instead of that!' Research the subject as thoroughly as you can, and understand what needs to be done as much as possible, before you try to do it. If in any doubt, ask! There are thousands of years of combined experience available on this great forum, and never forget a very large thank you to all those who work in the background to make this possible, by keeping this site working so well. All the best, Mark P

Good Morning Mark; I am slightly surprised by your desire to paint the spirketting black. Just to be sure, this is inboard works, and the Bellona model in the NMM has its gundeck spirketting painted red (and the quickwork) All other models I have seen have their spirketting red, or natural wood colour. Do you have a reason for choosing black. I am fairly sure that I have seen references to gundeck sides being painted in a stone colour (a pale buff) and perhaps yellow ochre also; but I have never seen any mention of black being used. All the best, Mark P

Thanks Druxey for posting this; It is an ongoing tragedy: the dive team are banned from removing any objects from the sea-bed, however exposed they are; while the English Heritage 'experts' sit on their hands over what can be done with the site. They make an arthritic snail seem like an Olympic sprinter in the speed of their progress. I heard Mark Beattie-Edwards give a fascinating talk on this earlier this year, in Southend, along with Richard Endsor and other interested parties. I would be certain that EH have not advanced one syllable from what they had achieved then; which was nothing good. I just hope that the divers will manage to retrieve material which the prop wash has moved further away, out of the 'protected' (read 'rapidly deteriorating') wreck-site. All the best, Mark P

To respond to Jaager's comment re the additional cost of labour to provide a taper, I don't think that this would be a consideration. The essential point is that a tapering keel can be obtained from less costly, smaller sections of rough timber. The actual creation of the taper would be done when the timber was sawn. Many of a ship's timbers were sawn to both the sided and moulded dimensions, as it was much quicker than dubbing. A gentle taper would be no problem for skilled sawyers. All the best, Mark P

Thanks Louie; An excellent review; I am always on the look-out for new books for the ever-expanding library (one can never have enough; although my dear Admiral might disagree, bless her) It sounds as though the professor is more comfortable 'sailing' in Northern waters, and knew less of the Med, perhaps. Nonetheless, I will keep an eye out for this, as my main interest is English vessels. All the best, Mark P

Good Afternoon Bruce; This is a much-debated point. I did once see an explanation of where the taper began, but I cannot for the life of me remember where it was. However, to answer your question, but only in respect of the Royal Navy methods (however, merchant builders would almost certainly have followed a technique which allowed them to use thinner timbers at any part of a build, thereby saving money) the central section was parallel-sided. This extended some distance fore and aft, and seems to have taken up approximately half the keel length. However, that does not mean that a quarter of the length each end was tapered. As the keel at the bow was much less tapered than the stern, the length of the stern taper is much longer than the bow. if you split the remaining half of the keel into thirds, and allow two thirds at the stern, and one third at the bows, you will be about right. Another point is that the taper is not constant (judging from the body lines on draughts) but becomes sharper towards the extremities; so that the narrowing is actually slightly curved. I would be happy, though, to hear from other members who know anything more precise. All the best, Mark

Good Morning Gentlemen; One thing to keep in mind is that nautical terms often shifted meaning over the years. Sir Henry Manwayring's Seaman's Dictionary, written ca 1630, lists and defines quite a few words which later came to mean something different to his description. The curve in the decks, as seen from the side, was also sometimes referred to as the 'Hanging of the deck'. With reference to Hamilton's question, as Druxey says above, the curvature of the hatches (referred to as the 'round up') varied. In the absence of any verifiable information, though, the best approach is probably to give them a curvature somewhat greater than the deck, as this seems to have been the most usual. All the best, Mark P

Good Afternoon Vladimir; I see that you are still as productive as ever; that's fast work on the deckhouses. Nicely done with the panelling and doors, it is all looking good. Nice photograph of her outside, she looks very impressive. Keep up the good work; it is all very interesting to look at. All the best, Mark P

Good Morning Gary; Thank you for the pictures of the earlier stages of building. Excellent quality work as always. Mark, the jointing of the two strakes of spirketting is a 'tabled' joint, and is referred to in some contracts, either for spirketting, or for deck clamps. If you do have the Berwick draught which Gary mentions, look at the method of jointing the string in the waist to the forecastle deck clamp; it's very interesting. All the best, Mark P

Good Evening Allan; I have seen similar references in contracts, to the wedge system you show in your picture. The sentence you quote does not necessarily ask for the saddles to be fixed immovably, in my opinion. Essentially, it only stipulates that they must be strong and able to withstand stresses. The 'To Fix Saddles..' beginning need only mean that they are located across the keel, below each mast, and able to move as is customary. The 'Fastenings' could equally well refer to the wedges and bolts, which fix the mast in the desired position for the rake. Navy officers are on record as experimenting with various angles for the masts, to discover what angle gave the best results; so adjustability was important, and is likely to have remained so until the end of sail. All the best, Mark P

Thanks Bruce; I had never heard of that before. They were normally hoisted up and outwards to a block on the yards, I believe; and left hanging in slack folds, which made them harder to cut. Shipman, I think you are referring more to nets spread across what was called the spar deck, which in the first half of the 17th century, and for some time before, was a light framework of timbers which formed a roof over the upper deck. It was unarmed (no cannon) and was used for soldiers and, as mentioned, to prevent falling debris hitting the crew. It was supported by rafters which spanned from side to side, and I believe that this is the origin of the later term rough-tree rail, deriving from rafter-rail especially as rafter was sometimes spelt raftre All the best, Mark P

Good Morning Bruce; I am not expert in this particular field, but I believe that boarding nettings were obsolete by Nelson's era. They may have prevented an attack on a ship by boarders from another vessel, but this worked both ways, as they also prevented the ship's own crew from boarding another themselves. All the best, Mark P

Good Evening; Does anyone know how things are going. I ordered a couple of books and have had no confirmation email or anything. The payment has been processed, so someone is presumably still watching the orders come in. Just an order acknowledgement would be a tremendous comfort. If health problems are still an issue, then it would be considerate towards the purchasers if a notice was put on the website announcing that there is no cause for concern, orders are being processed, even if one does not hear anything. That cannot be too hard to organise, surely. Overall, it's a great shame, because they publish some wonderful books and I want to carry on buying when I can afford some more. All the best, Mark P

Good Evening Dali; That's some very good quality work you have done for your project. Congratulations and well done indeed! All the best, Mark P