popeye2sea

For your consideration.  The garrison flag flown over Fort McHenry in 1814 was 30 x 42 feet.  It was intended to be the largest flag ever yet flown.  The next size down from that one was the 'storm flag' at 17 x 25 feet.

Not the same thing as a ships battle ensign, I know, but it just shows that they were making them this size.

The battle ensign for the Spanish San Idelphonso at the battle of Trafalgar was 32 x 47 ft.

The one from the French Genereaux in 1800 was 27 x 52 ft.

Battle ensigns in the British Royal Navy during the 17th and 18th centuries were about 20 x 40 ft.

Regards,

Spare spars are usually stored bare.  They could be used in other contingencies when required.  For example, fishiing a sprung mast or yard.

Regards,

Marc, have you been aboard your GGG grand dad's ship?

Regards,

The diameter of the deadeyes should be about half the diameter of the mast to which they belong.

Regards,

I had this happen on my Soleil Royal build.  You can read about how I fixed it there.  Essentially I took enough off the gun carriage so that it fits through the port and re glued it back inside.

Regards,

What about actual thatching?

8 hours ago, glennreader said:

Just to mention I make thimbles in a similar way using tubing with a 0.1mm wall. Care is required. I find I cannot open 1 side fully and then turn it over and try to do the other side, it just opens the first side more. Turning frequently is required. Also I get some cracking, but most of the time this can only bee seen using x10 magnification.

 

How do you cut your 1mm lengths? I use a jewellers saw but with the wall thickness being only 0.1mm the teeth catch so I have to cut by drawing the blade backwards after starting the cut.

 

Glenn

I use a jewelers saw also, the blade I am using is about 32 teeth per inch.  I also use a the tubing cutter vise shown below.  The distance between the adjustable head and the blade guide is just over 1 mm.  It is the shortest length capable on this tool.  The blade does have a tendency to bind halfway through the cut.  I too found that frequent turning is required while swaging the ends of the tubing.

Regards,

Well, either no one is interested in this build anymore because of the glacial pace of the build, or no one wants to surmise what these are.

So, they are the stirrups that suspend the horses (foot ropes) from the yard.  The braided portion wraps around the yard and is nailed in place.  They are evenly spaced along the yard, three to a side on the main and fore yards.  As soon as I make a few more I will mount them and provide a photo.  I may want to buy some thinner wall tubing to improve the performance of the thimbles.  The thick wall may not allow a fair lead for ropes and hooks.

Regards, 

Progress in very small increments, but progress nontheless.

Here is the finished main yard parrel.  The length of the parrel has been cut to four sets of trucks.  The center rope that holds it all together is stoppered, and the tackle trusses are seized to their eyes.  This parrel actually works.  The ends of the truss are passed around the yard and then through the thimbles before leading to a tackle at the deck.  The span spliced into the center rib takes the nave line which helps lift the parrel over obstructions on the mast as it is lowered.

Next up are the materials and tools I used to make thimbles out of brass tubing 1.6 mm o.d.  The tubing is from K&S Precision metals and is stocked at my local hobby store.  I use the punch to start opening out the ends of the tubing.  The tubing is cut into @ 1mm lengths.  Once the edges have been opened out and the inside diameter of the hole has been opened to about 1mm I hammer the thimbles on the bench block to reduce the thickness a bit and further spread the edges.  These thimbles are just over 2mm  diameter

Here is another item I am working on.  I will let you guess what they are, but I will give you a description of how they are made.  An eye is spliced around a thimble at one end.  The eye is served over and the service extends form the eye a scale 30 inches along the length.  The remaining length is unlayed and then made up into a flat sennit braid. The end is whipped to secure the braid.

The one addition I made to this is that under the serving I have wormed the rope with some thin wire to make this section stiffer.  BTW this work would be impossible using the Morope I have for the main rigging.  I purchased some rope from Chuck Passaro.  It will hold together beautifully while making these eye splices and sennits. 

Crazy?   Probably!!

Let me know your guesses!

Regards,

Shoal water?  Might need to put out an anchor!

Henry

There is also a series of thicker planks interlocked along the length of, and near, the centerline that form part of the stiffening for the ship.  King planks I think they are called.  I have also heard them referred to as just thick planks.

Henry

6 hours ago, SawdustDave said:

Here's one for the historians....
I use the online Virtual Tour a lot and quite often run into things seen there that are considerably different than the plan sheets I am using to build her.
I do understand, with the numerous restorations she has gone through over the years, they have made these major changes.
So when did they lower the bulwarks amidship down to what appears to be about a foot above the spar deck?
Also noting that the threshold between the gangway boards is right down on the deck, which I assume was done for public safety.

Just curious.

Dave  

Dave,

During the refit before this latest one the goal was to bring the ship to a more 1812 appearance.  So they lowered all of the bulwarks and cut down the amidships portion to what it is now.  They also put the missing camber back into the spar deck to improve drainage.

Regards,

Your rigging is superb.  Well done!

Spongbob wrote:  the TR designated mast and yards i take it now after looking again must certainly be the back mitzen for certain

Spongbob,  The TR  is a poorly printed PR and it stands for the foremast. This is confirmed by the diagram in the lower left corner of your plans.  The ME labeled spars are for the mizzen.  That's the one that has a gaff and a boom.

Look at that diagram in the lower left.  Picture it as a complete ship viewed from the port side.  Starting on the left, the spar that points at an angle to the left is the bowsprit.  Next to it on the right is the fore mast, followed by the main and then the mizzen with its gaff and boom on the far right.

Spongbob wrote: im thinking the 80 1 80 2 80 3 80 4 are the jibb spare

The ones you are calling 80-1, 80-2, etc.  are actually labelled BO and that is definitely the bowsprit and jib

Regards,

That is outstanding work!!  You even have thump mats around the eyebolts in the deck!

The designations are from the Italian words :

Main mast - Albero Maestro

Fore mast - Albero Prodiero

Mizzen mast - Albero Mezzana

Bowsprit - Bompresso

The underlined first two letters are the designation (albero translates to mast)

Regards,

Here is the put together yard parrel.  It works, sort of.  It needs to be reduced by 1 or 2 segments.  And I probably need to lash together the eye and the hauling part so that it ends up middled at the end of the parrel .  The pull will be more even.  The center parrel rope will be finished off with a stopper knot.  The center truck is a slightly different shape in order to accomodate additional holes for the nave line

I started work on the main yard parrel.  Still trying to determine how these were rigged.  The sources I have are all confused on the issue.  There are lots of guesses but nothing definitive.  And the diagrams I have seen do not look like they would actually work.

Anyway,  here is what I have so far.  The parrel trucks are cut from .03 x .125 styrene strip.  Holes are drilled for the parrel ropes and then the trucks are given their final shape.

The parrels themselves are 10/0 glass beads I purchased from a craft store.

This is not the final configuration.  My initial thought is to reeve the parrel ropes such that there will end up being a thimbled eye splice at the top left and bottom right corners.  The other end of the ropes will emerge from the opposite corners and be left long enough to pass around the yard, through the eye, and then to a tackle at the deck.  The trucks will be painted.

Anyone have thoughts on the proper way to rig a yard parrel?  I'm eager to hear what others have done.

Another small update.

I decided that the straps for the main yard tyes were too long.  Plus I did not like the contrast of the tarred strap with the natural tye.  So here is the quick correction.

First photo is the old strap.  These straps are made on a serving machine by taking 12 or so turns between the prongs then serving over, leaving an eye at both ends.  The eyes are then lashed together end to end to make a continuous loop.  This results in an unserved gap over the eyes that is then served manually (not using the machine).  The result is called a selvagee.  I also use this method, or variations of it, to make the strops of blocks.

The second photo is a comparison of the new and old straps.  The blocks on either side are the main sheet blocks rose lashed in place.   The other unfinished loops are place holders for blocks that still need to be installed.

Here are both of the new straps installed.

This last photo will give you some idea of how the tye attaches to the strap.  When installed on the ship a seizing will be clapped on above the hitch to secure it.

Slightly on a side topic.  A square rigger can not sail closer than about 6 points to the wind.  For example, with the wind from the North the ship could sail no closer than ENE or WNW.

Regards,

It is my opinion that the flag halyard should be your thinnest possible rope and come down all the way to the deck.

Regards,

In a previous post I spoke about shifting the fore halyard knight off centerline.  Here are the promised photos.

The knight is removed and the hole is lengthened to starboard approximately it's own width.  A strip of styrene is glued beneath to hold up the new deck.

This photo shows the old centered location of the knight.

A small section of matching deck was cut from a spare forecastle deck (old kit).

The section is trimmed and fitted.

Gaps filled and deck painted.

Knight remounted in new location and paint touched up.

Regards,

P.S.  I really like the new set up I am using for photography.  I am using a macro lens filter attachment and photo flood lamps. Post processing using Adobe photoshop.  Still think there is room for improvement with the lighting and shadows.

The halliard forms a continuous loop.  The flag has a type of bolt rope running through the hoist side with an eye at the top to take the toggle on the halliard.  The bottom of the bolt rope is left as a long tail on the flag terminating in a toggle that engages an eye on the other end of the halliard.  The halliard passes through a block at the peak of the gaff.  When the flag is run up the two parts of the halliard are taken together around one cleat.

Hope that is understandable.  I don't have a picture.

Regards,

I think going with the full beard is the better option.  I would put the hole right through the mouth.  In my opinion, there would be another smaller hole further down to take the spritsail sheet.  This could pass through the beard.

Regards,

Henry

Here are a couple of pictures that might help.

Regards,