popeye2sea

I have never been able to get an answer to the same question regarding stowage of jeer or halyard lines. Yes, that is true for ships from the late 17th century on. But the same conundrum would occur for earlier periods where the lower yards were shifted much more frequently and consequently the halyards were probably left rigged. Would you then have a very large coil on the gun decks fouling the cannons or capstans? Would you lead the bitter end down to the cable tier for coiling? Again, I have no answer. Regards,

For belaying line directly to a rail a clove hitch will work just fine. I don't know how accurate it is, but I have seen on modern replica ships like L'Hermione that the jeer falls were made up with long hanks into a gasket coil and hitched vertically to the falls so that they hang abaft the mast. Regards

I would have an eyebolt on the back of those bands to seize the strop of the blocks to. Regards,

Something like a sheer hulk. Except this one is still able to sail. Regards,

It's not clear from your question what parts you are referring to. Are you asking how to attach the strop of a block to a mast band or are you asking how to attach a line coming from the block? The strop is the rope that passes around a block and allows the block to be suspended from a fitting or spar. Not sure where you are referring to, but blocks would not normally be attached directly to a mast band. There would have been an eye bolted through or into the band. In which case the eye of the block would be seized to the eye on the band. The seizing would take the form of a lashing between the two eyes. If the block was stropped with a hook, then the hook would be hooked into the eye on the band. Another method for attaching a block to a mast would be to have a long strop with eyes on both legs of the strop. The legs were passed around the mast and the eyes lashed together on the opposite side with a rose lashing. Regards,

Perhaps the rigging diagram has just omitted the tackle for the other pendant for clarity. It is often the case that rigging plans only show one side and you just assume the duplication on the other side. The function of the truss, or parrels was to confine the yard in to the mast. Slacking the truss would allow you to either brace the yard hard around or allow the yard to come away from the mast for lowering. Regards,

It seems to have a very large tackle seized to it. So my guess would be a cargo boom. Regards,

I am not at all certain that spares were carried for the course yards. If one of those were carried away your ship was in deep sh t. Spares for the topgallant and royals could be carried lashed vertically to either the topmast or lower shrouds. Regards,

It is a long rope strop with the entire length between the heart and the bowsprit covered with the seizing or serving. Regards,

Check out EngelsCoachShop videos on YouTube. He often makes wheels where the spokes are set into the hub at angles. Especially for larger wheels and those intended for heavier loads. Regards,

Braces and lifts are not sail rigging, so they would be there regardless. Even if you do not wish to include lines for the sails like the sheets and clews, bow lines and leech lines, the blocks on the yard would have stayed in place even after unreeving the lines. Just in case you were not aware, in your rigging diagram above, the lines in red are the braces and lifts. They will stay rigged with or without sails. Regards,

Beautiful work as always. The color scheme is really coming together. Regards,

I can see this for use in a fort for quickly shifting a gun to another emplacement. And it looks like it is for a small caliber weapon. Regards,

Don't Regards

What a great little diorama. Nice job! Suggested title: "Just waiting for my Uber." LOL😉 Regards,

It conflicts with an 1812 Marines event. But I may be able to get out of doing both days of that event. I really would like to go to the meeting. I have not been to the last few. Regards,

When installing my cannons I put the breeching through the carriage then seized the complete ring bolts to each end. To install I just located the carriage in the correct spot and glued the shank into the holes in the bulwark. All of the work for the cannons was done off the ship. Another small hint: when opening split rings never open by pulling the ends directly apart. Open the ring by, for lack of a better word, shearing one end to the side. This will preserve the shape of the ring when you then bring it back in line to close. Otherwise you may end up with a oblong or slightly flattened ring. Regards,

Well, Longridge is 1955 vs Steel, 1805. I think one could trust the contemporary source. This is why I don't use as reference material anything with a title like 'The making of..., How to..., Tips for...', etc. Regards,

From Steel, Art of Rigging, Part II Directions for the Performance of Operations Incidental to Rigging; and for Preparing It On Shore: "The bights of shrouds are seized together to the circumference of the mast heads; the seizing of the first shroud is put on below the bolster, or the trestle trees, with seven under and six riding turns, and a double cross turn over all. The seizing of each shroud is to be laid its breadth below the next, and clear of each other to prevent chafing. Vessels having four pairs, the foremost shroud and pendant are one." In this section he also mentions that the shroud were wormed one fourth the length from the center to the eye on each side. Parcelled one and a half fathoms on each side of the middle, then served for one fourth the length. Regards,

Go with the way it was done in real life for square riggers. First things first. The seizing should not be snug up to the mast. It properly falls just below the bolster on the trestle trees. That in itself will give you some wiggle room for errors in placement. To make up the shrouds for fitting. Measure the length of your shroud pair. Middle the pair and make a mark at the mid point. Now worm and serve the center third of the shroud pair. On many ships the forward most shroud was served its entire length. So, for the first pair of shrouds on each side you will be serving two thirds of the shroud pair. Measure from the center point the distance that will place the seizing at or near the bottom of the bolster and clap on a round seizing. Your shroud pair is now ready to go over the mast head. Put the eye up through the lubbers hole and over the mast head and snug it down over the mast tackle pendants which should be fitted in the same manner. For each subsequent shroud pair slightly vary the location of the seizing so that each seizing comes below the previous one. If all works out correctly, your seizing will fall at or near the bottom of the bolster and your service should extend to slightly below where the futtock stave is lashed onto the shrouds. You also get the benefit of doing all this work off the ship. You can even remove the whole thing easily to turn in your deadeyes off the ship. Just number your shrouds so they go back in the same place. Regards,

Since you are going to have a do-over. I would suggest that you only use one train (in haul) tackle and shift it to the lower rear of the carriage. Single train tackles were appropriate for this size gun. 2mm blocks are the perfect size for this scale. This photo was taken before I shifted the location of the train tackle eyebolt to the center of the carriage and removed the second eyebolt. I made the same mistake you did. Also, it helps to think of the holes in the block as the space above and below a round sheave that the rope must over as it reeves through the block. The way you are reeving your line the rope would be passing under the sheave and jamming in the shell of the block. Regards,

I used that gap to hide the ends of the eyebolts that I used to secure the chains to the hull. After pushing the eyebolt through holes in the hull I clenched the pins over into that gap. Then I filled the gap with putty and painted. Nice fix with the forward cleat and the housed sheaves for the sheets. Regards,

I believe most of the lines should go through the lubbers hole. In fact, later era full rigged ships had fairlead holes in the top for all of those lines. The problem arises from the position of the blocks. A lot of these lines would have leading blocks at the yard that were near the mast or attached to the trestle trees that would make them come down directly adjacent to the mast and so properly lead through the lubbers hole Some lines did indeed come down outside of the top. Particularly those that belay to pins at the rail. Then they would often have fairlead thimbles or blocks attached to the shrouds or backstays to make them run parallel to the shrouds. That being said, all ships were uniquely rigged at the whim of the captain and the bo's'n. Regards,

I agree with all that has been said above. Something to also throw into the mix? Ships no longer worth prize money for capture? Although I have not ever read that that was a factor, it is a fun conjecture. Regards,

That is correct. The timber head is the carved indentation at the top. The purpose of the indentation is to stop the hitched rope from sliding up or down the timber head, thereby preventing inadvertent slacking or unhitching. On some timber heads the multiple sheaves at the base are actually what would be the lower block of a multi-part tackle. If there are two separate lines belaying to the the timberhead, more than likely they are lines that would be worked at the same time and cast off together anyway. BTW, the reason I differentiated between a sheave located directly below the belaying pin versus at the base of the timber head is because you would prefer to have your rope pass vertically, or nearly so, to the pin and not cross and therefore chafe against the shell of a fixed block or sheave in the rail. Regards,