popeye2sea

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,

If the rope passes through a sheave beneath the pin the rope will go around the pin in the usual figure of eight except the first half turn will be around the top first. The rope never goes through the pin hole. If the jeer rope is actually going through a sheave at the base of the timber head I would belay it with a clove hitch at the top of the timber head. Regards,

USS Constitution: Status - no longer extant. She was anchored in deep water on the mantlepiece when she foundered in a gale of cleaning. Cutty Sark: Status - no longer extant. Snagged in the tentacles of the kraken and dragged down to Davy Jones locker off the continental shelf. Amerigo Vespucci: Status - given as a gift Soleil Royal: Status - current build. Regards,

That is a sheet and a lift block sistered together. The sheet block is the larger one with the ear. That ear is there so that the sheet will not jamb against the yard. The ear holds the block up off the yard. Regards,

A word regarding tension and my two cents on the subject. The only lines that should be tensioned are in the standing rigging. Running rigging should be only be hauled to the point that they have done their job, i.e. hoisted the yard, sheeted home the sails, etc. There should be no extra tension put on any running rigging. Once your standing rigging is set up you should not have to worry about pulling anything out of alignment with running rigging. Regards,

Looking at your original post. Line 213 looks to me to be a depiction of what to do with the studdingsail halyard if there are no sails. In any case the lead for the end after the jewel block at the yard arm is bogus. That is the end that would be hitched around the studdingsail yard. At the mast head it would not be hitched around the mast. You would need another block to send the hauling end down towards the deck. They have the whole thing backwards. The second diagram is actually closer to the way it should be rigged. Regards,

You do not need to rattle the shrouds above the futtock stave. If you have ever been aloft on an actual ship you will quickly see that they are fairly useless anyway. There is no room to put your feet between the shrouds. Sailors going aloft climb up the outside of the futtock shrouds. They are rattled in the same manner as the shrouds. Regards,

Like a lot of people on this site I love the beauty and history of these ships. I am also a constant student of history so I am very much drawn to the why, what, where, when and how ships function. One thing I learned early on is that I will never be done learning. Best wishes for a rewarding and successful journey of knowledge. Regards,

You are not going wrong. Personally, I would not use Zu Mondfield as an accurate reference. There are other, more contemporary, references available. Regards,

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Purchase is another name for a block and tackle. Purchase is old term meaning to move , haul, get leverage on, especially by mechanical means. So the purchase you are referring to is the halyard. A pendant is a length of rope used to shift the bearing point of a pulley to give better advantage or a better lead. So you will find pendants like brace pendants to give a better lead for the braces, Mast tackle pendants to be able to place a tackle over a hatch. Lift pendants to allow the lift blocks to clear the shrouds, etc. They need to be thicker because there is only one rope bearing the entire load. The purchases (block and tackles) are always smaller than their respective tyes or pendants for a few reasons. The first being that the load is distributed over the multiple parts of the tackle. Next up a smaller diameter rope is better able to bend around the sheaves of the blocks. And finally, the diameter of the hauling part of the tackle needs to be small enough for a person to hold on to and haul on. Remember, I did mention that depending on the time period, nationality, etc. the rules of thumb used to establish the rope thicknesses will vary. Regards,

The sizes of the ropes are related to the other parts of that particular piece of rigging. For example; the Main yard tye is the line that leads from the yard up through a sheave or blocks at the mast cap and then terminates in a block that hangs abaft the mast. The halyard is the line that is rove through the tye block The halyard fall provides the purchase to hoist the yard. There are various rules of thumb published for the relative sizes of these lines with the following being an example: Tye = the thickness of the shrouds Halyard = 2/3 the thickness of the tye. For the Braces it is the same idea. The brace pendant has an eye spliced in to take the yard and a block is seized on the other end. The brace runs through this block and itself terminates in a block which then has the tackle fall rove through. Brace Pendant = 1/2 the thickness of the shrouds Brace = 3/4 the thickness of the pendants Fall = 1/2 or so the thickness of the Brace Lifts can be rigged in various ways but if they have pendants: Lift pendant = 1/2 thickness of shrouds Lift = 3/8 thickness of shrouds Caveat - the above rule of thumb is just an example I have read for ships from 1600 - 1720. You can find other examples and tables of rigging for other periods. Regards,

Allan, Harland's Seamanship in the Age of Sail, page 162, states the following: "Boom Jigger and tricing tackle. To rig the boom out, a tackle was hooked between the heel of the boom and the strap of the inner iron. To run it in again, the block was unhooked from the inner iron and shifted to some convenient point near the slings of the yard." Falconers defines a jigger tackle as a light tackle consisting of a double and single block used by seamen on sundry occasions. Hope that helps. Regards,

There is a tackle that is rigged with hooks on both blocks. To run out the booms, one end is hooked to the eye bolt in the inside end of the boom and the other end is hooked to the outer boom iron. To run in the booms, one end is hooked into that same eye bolt on the boom and the other end is hooked at a convenient spot near the mast. BTW, the same tackle is also used to trice up the inner end of the booms when needed for furling the sail, etc... Regards,

Jan, I don't think that is correct. The size of the spritsail is about the same as a top gallant sail with the spritsail topsail being somewhat smaller than that. You can verify this by looking at the sizes of the rigging for those sails. That is the case even in the photo you posted. In fact, on that model, I think the spritsail is too small and the spritsail topsail is cut too long. Respectfully,