popeye2sea

I doubt that the anchor cable was tied off anywhere in board. The bulk of the cable would be below deck coiled on the cable tier. Stoppers would be employed on the deck to check the movement of the cable. The stoppers are what would be eye spliced to ring bolts in the deck with their ends hitched around the anchor cable to hold it fast. Perhaps the bitter end of the cable was made fast to a ring somewhere in the cable tier but, this is just a last ditch measure to try to prevent the complete loss of a cable overboard. It was never used to hold fast the cable in regular use. Regards, Henry

These would make a convenient attachment point to hook mast tackles into. Regards, Henry

Well, they would properly be towed astern during battle or be used to communicate between other ships in the battle line. So, since I am not making a diorama, then I will just eliminate them completely. Truthfully, I am not pleased with the way they look and I do not want to spend the additional effort to correct them as I am with the rest of the ship. This build has already taken 40 years to get to it's current state. Regards, Henry

Bill, I am omitting the spare wood stock from my kit. I am also debating whether to use the boats as they do not fit in with my chosen display of being rigged for battle. Regards, Henry

My set of instructions call your part number 75 a sponge tub and your part number 73 a sand barrel. That makes more sense to me than a match tub, which would not be enclosed. Presumably there would be a sponge tub, a match tub, and a sand barrel near each division of guns. PS. In my instructions they are assembly J part #160 and assembly H part #261 and 262 Regards, Henry

They look great. I might just borrow your method to do mine. Regards, Henry

Those are supposed to represent chicken coops. They were usually placed on the poop deck. I do not know why they have one placed on the quarter deck. I have not placed mine yet, but I will be placing them next to each other on the poop (uppermost deck). I will be painting mine to simulate grating, not a solid color top and sides. Regards, Henry

This is also the period when riggers went crazy with crows feet everywhere: braces, backstays, lifts, bowlines, martinets. Your conjecture fits right in. Regards, Henry

Just a quick note on my draping of the rope coils across the barrels. I do not know if that was actually done. It was a bit of artistic license to highlight the difference from the cannons on the other side that are run out and in -battery ready to fire. The coils draped over the barrels are intended to show cannons that are readied on the un-engaged side of a battle. Regards, Henry

Regarding your question about the fall of the tackle. The fall is the rope that gets rove through the blocks. There are two ends to every piece of running rigging; the standing end which is fixed to an object, and the working end which is the end that gets hauled upon. In the case of the tackle fall, the standing end gets hitched to the loop (the becket) at the bottom of the single block. At the other end of the block an eye in the strop takes the hook. The fall is then rove through one hole in the double block, back through the hole in the single block and thence through the second hole of the double block. The working end (hauling part) of the rope is then coiled (flaked) on the deck. What I was referring to in my previous post is that if you make that hitch overly large you will not be able to get your blocks close enough together. The hitch takes up some of that space being part of that first leg of the tackle from the single to the double block. The other place that will eat up your available space is if you make your hooks too long. You will then not have enough room for the tackle between. When I was making my hooks I modified a pair of I think they are called ring nose pliers. I ground down one tip to about a half millimeter round. That is the tool I make all my hooks and eyes with. The hooks end up being about 1.5mm or there about long. So if you are using 2.5mm blocks with the hooks, just the hardware without the strops and fall is already 8mm long. You may quickly run out of room for your tackles. One other thing to note. I see you are using blocks with only one hole. A common mistake is how you orient the blocks when rigging. The hole represents the throat of the block that is at the top of the round sheave that the rope rides around in the block. This hole will always be at the eye end of the block. In other words you want the holes of the two tackle blocks to be furthest away from each other. Visually the rope will have the appearance of laying along both sides of the block. If your rope appears to go through the hole and then immediately away from the block with the bulk of the block hanging out beyond then you have your blocks rove and stropped upside down. Regards, Henry

Your analysis is 100% spot on. The breeching is not usually removed from the carriage or bulkhead so it is semi-permanently attached with a hitch and seizing. The tackles are frequently removed and/or shifted so they have hooks in the eye of the strop. 2.5mm blocks should work as long as you are careful with the attachment of the tackle fall to the single block and the length of your hooks. You may find that there is insufficient drift between the two blocks to look good. The ring bolt on the deck can be substituted with a plain eyebolt. Regards, Henry

Yes, the in-haul tackle is the one on the rear of the carriage. The other two are the out-haul tackles. The breeching rope is a heavy rope. Much thicker than the tackle falls. It has to resist and check the recoil of the cannon when fired. The length should be enough to allow about 12 to 18 inches between the muzzle and the gun port sill to allow for loading. The gun tackles falls are flaked down on the deck before firing the gun so that when the gun recoils the rope will not kink and bind when the the fall runs through the blocks. The tackles act as sort of a brake to absorb some of the energy of the recoil. I would not zig-zag the position of the cannons. Perhaps you can do what I did and show the guns run out into battery position for firing on one side of the ship and run in for loading on the other? Regards, Henry

If you notice on mine. The tackle fall was left long enough to make a coil or to flake down on to the deck ready for running. If you decide to do this, make sure the hauling part of the tackle fall comes out of the block away from the gun carriage. It will lay down for the coil much easier that way. For the in-haul tackle it does not matter what side the fall comes out on. Rigging the tackles is fairly straightforward. Installing them is just a matter of putting a drop of CA glue on each hook to fasten it to the ring. Otherwise the hooks tend to jump out of the rings as you manipulate the tackles. For me the hardest parts were hitching and seizing the breeching rope to the ring bolt and also getting the flaked coils to lay correctly on the deck. You may also find it a bit fiddly to hitch the tackle fall to the becket of the single block. The becket is the loop at the bottom of the block opposite the eye where the hook is. Easiest is to attach the tackle fall to the becket while you are stropping the block. That way the single block is completely ready for reeving the tackle with the hook in the eye and the fall attached. I hope that makes sense. Regards, Henry

I think they call this the third battery deck, the ones below being the first and second battery decks. Above that is the quarter deck then the roundhouse (?) then the poop deck. Regards, Henry Oops, sorry Marc, I didn't see that you had already replied.

Two-blocking is when the two blocks that make up the tackle are drawn together until they touch. The result is a jambed up tackle that needs to be manually overhauled to work again. BTW, the wrapping of rope around the ring of an anchor is called puddening. Regards, Henry

I raised the exact question in my build log. Never did find and answer. Regards, Henry

Bill, I went crazy making my own carriage bolts by hand. Extra points for craziness awarded for peening each carriage bolt head by hand with a miniature ball peen hammer on a jewelers anvil. You certainly do not need to do all that. Could probably achieve the same effect with a blob of plastic or even glue, painted black. I got smarter (lazier) making the cap squares for holding the trunnions down out of black paper (not installed yet). Use the smallest blocks and rigging rope you can find for the gun tackles. My blocks are 2mm from Syren. I know it is kind of too late, but, it is much easier to seize the breeching rope through the ring bolt and then just insert the ring bolt into the bulkhead to install the cannon. Alternatively, at this point you can make small rings and seize the breeching to them. When you go to install the cannons you can just spread the ring a bit to fit through the eyebolt you have already installed in the bulkhead. It all takes a bit of finesse and a lot of patience. Regards, Henry

I still say it's impossible. Let's go the other way. Say you are lowering the main yard. You have a six part tackle at the mast head. In order to bring that yard down to the deck you need that hauling part to be at least 6 times longer than the distance the block needs to travel. You would get stopped as soon as the block from the lower tackle reaches the lower jeer block and not be able to go any further. Regards, Henry

You all make some fine points about different tackle systems, especially about the necessity for a lead block to change the direction of the pull. But the point I was trying to make about having a tackle up at the yard and also down at the deck is this. It is not done. For example, what would happen if you haul the line. The two blocks of the tackle move closer together right? Now what if the upper set, or the lower set, two-blocks (touch each other) before the haul is finished. That tackle would then jamb and your hauling is done until you un-jamb the blocks. Plus, it is overkill. Even for the very heavy lower yard, the two treble jeer block tackles provide sufficient purchase to raise the yard. Why go through all the extra effort and material for the additional tackles. Regards, Henry

I think the rigging instructions are incorrect (what a surprise). There should not be an additional tackle at the deck level. The tackles at the mast heads will suffice. The hauling part of the halyards should come down aft of the mast and belay to the fife rail. Regards, Henry

Check out the build log by GJDale. You will find some excellent hints and tips. Regards, Henry

I agree wholeheartedly with Marc. The join between the stern balconies and the quarter gallery is very tricky. It is best to mount the quarter galleries first and then match the balconies up to that. You can achieve a much better alignment. Once the outside edges are glued up, flow a line of plastic cement along the inside edge where the balcony meets the stern plate with a small brush to complete the join. Regards, Henry

I ignored the instructions and completed the stern with all the decorations except for the lanterns at the top of the taffrail. It makes no difference in the build order. Regards, Henry

The waterway was a necessary feature to avoid exposing the end grain of the planking to standing water which helps to minimize rot. Regards, Henry

Don't worry about the anchor cable. It doesn't need to be attached to anything inside. You can just let the end sit inside. There will be no tension on it. Or simply glue it into the hawse hole. Regards, Henry