popeye2sea

I can't believe it has been 5 months since I posted anything here. That pesky thing called work keeps getting in the way. Don't worry the build is still active. As soon as I can I will get back to it. Regards,

He is on the Fine Scale Model Forum

Also known as man ropes or monkey lines. Regards,

Tension was achieved with a small block and tackle between the euphroe and the stay. Regards,

If you make your robands out of one piece of rope as shown in my diagram above you only need to put a square knot in the ends on top of the yard or jackstay.

My guess would be rat boards and not ratlines. Regards,

I always understood there to be one hammock per man, but they were hung two hammocks per set of hooks from the deck beams. That way there were two men sharing the same space, watch on and watch off. Each man would spread his own hammock between the two hooks. Stowage of personal items was not in the hammock , but in a ditty bag. Regards,

Ships also sometimes cockbilled their yards when they were made fast alongside a wharf to give more clearance for buildings and other obstructions on the wharf. Regards,

The photo you show seems to have the robands in two parts with eye splices in each end. Probably way too complicated for a roband. I do not know what size rope to use but it should be smaller than the bolt rope of the sail. The diagram below shows robands made in one piece. The roband is doubled and the loop passed through the sail from back to front and then the ends lead as shown in the diagram and are finished with a square knot at the top of the yard. If you are bending to a jackstay then the roband will lead as in the figure below. Regards,

I have seen it done so that you end up with a reef point at 1/3 (or 8") intervals on each cloth, but I am sure there are other ways. I read a description whereby robands are put in two to a cloth with one falling on the seam, perhaps reef points could be done the same? You will end up with different patterns across the sail. The first produces groups of two with a larger gap between groups. And the second will produce an even spacing. Choose the one that looks best to your eye. Regards,

Chuck, the standard in the last post is for the Kingdom of Great Britain, established and adopted by Queen Anne in 1707. Queen Anne first used the Royal Standard you show in the earlier post ( Fleur-de-lis and lions in the first and fourth quadrant). This was called the Royal Standard of England, first adopted in 1603. Regards,

There were generally 2 reef points in each sail cloth, evenly spaced between the seams. Regards,

There is also a bolster fitted below the hawse holes. Sort of a quarter round moulding to ease the cable around that 90 degree angle. Regards,

Instead of a clove hitch try a constrictor knot. Tie the constrictor knot around the stay and snaking, but do not haul completely tight. Get the snaking into the proper position being careful to not draw the stay and preventer closer together then do a final tighten on the constrictor. It should not move after that. Regards,

Navy leadership took the ever-present threat of fire seriously, and from the beginning wished to provide fire-fighting equipment for each of the frigates. As early as November 1794, Commissioner of the Revenue Tench Coxe began to pester Secretary of War James McHenry for fire engine specifications. It took two months before McHenry addressed the issue by requesting Naval Constructor Joshua Humphreys to transmit the ideal dimensions for the engines to Coxe. At the beginning of February 1795 Humphreys obliged. He proposed that the boxes or cisterns of the engine be five feet long, two feet wide, and 18 or 20 inches deep. The chamber would be six inches in diameter with pistons of composition metal. They would come complete with 50 feet of leather hose and a 30 foot long suction pipe for drawing seawater from alongside the ship. The common land-based fire engines used in towns of the time were too bulky for ship board use, so Humphreys suggested a few modifications. “The levers of these Engines should be so constructed as to open in such a manner as to admit a number of men to work the engine & to fold up into a small compass when she is to be stowed away. Every fastening of the box and every other part of the Engine should be of copper or other metal that will not corrode with the sea water." Here the matter rested until 1797. As the first three frigates neared completion, Tench Francis, Purveyor of Public Supplies, let contracts for the fire engines to manufacturers in Philadelphia, but not one of them was able to deliver on time. Captain Samuel Nicholson, superintending Constitution’s construction in Boston, suggested that the engines for his frigate be procured from a Mr. Thayer in Boston. As an endorsement, he claimed Thayer made “the best Fire Engines in America, and on the simplest principles.” Excerpted from USS Constitution Museum Log lines. Regards,

Glad to hear that this works. I had thought about trying that but never got going with the attempt. Regards,

Lines are not normally belayed to a ring. If a line does terminate at a ring bolt it is normally the standing (not hauled on) end of the line. In this case the line is put through the ring, a half hitch is taken and then the end is seized to itself. You see this on sheets and tacks where the standing end is hitched to ring bolts on the hull exterior. Also in the channels for the halyard tyes. A lot of rigging plans do have sparse belaying plans, but most lines would belay either near the base of the mast on pin rails, at knight heads on the deck, or at cleats, kevels and pin racks at the ships sides. Sometimes lines, particularly on older vessels, would belay directly to a rail. Regards,

If you really want to be something of a purist about rigging, very very few "knots" are used in actual rigging practice. The few that I can think of immediately include the matthew walker knot, the manrope knot, the tack knot, and the spritsail sheet knot. Everything else on the ship are hitches, bends, splices, seizings, and lashings. Each performs very differently from what is traditionally called a knot and share an important difference. A knot, once tied is relatively permanent. The others, although very secure, can easily be un-tied. Remember, a ships rig is a working system with parts needing to be unrigged and shifted easily and sometimes with a moments notice. Depending on how detailed you want to make your model rigging, it may be to your advantage to learn a few of these ways to fasten ropes to various objects. Regards,

I very much enjoy the rigging portion of a build. Although, I might change my mind after this build. I've set myself to a very big challenge. I intend to rig this ship as close as possible to actual practice. Meaning all of the appropriate bends, hitches, splices, and seizings. No glue in the rigging. And, lines of the proper length to work the rig. I should be able to change the set of the sails at any time (not that I would ever do that in the future.) At 1:100 scale we will see if I have set the bar too high. Regards,

I agree. Not all ships should be mothballed or are capable of being upgraded. However, there are significant numbers of non-combatant and fleet support ships that are almost routinely mothballed for future use. Their capabilities never go out of date. Most of the ships in our mothball fleets are in this category. Regards,

Just as an aside. Every major conflict we (the U.S,) have been in we have reactivated ships from the mothball fleet. Up to and including the last gulf war. It has always been less expensive than building new ships. Look at the four Iowa class battleships. They were modernized to bring them up to current standards three times over their long careers. Currently they are museum ships, but under conditions and terms by which they can still be reactivated if needed. Regards,

I am not so sure that Anderson has based his descriptions of rigging practices on the Royal Louis model. He certainly uses that model as an example of what he describes. He also uses several other models as examples. He himself points out some of the rigging on the model that he finds questionable. I think you can take Andersons work as being a very good reference for the period. Regards,

Good point!

Keith, Another way to go after the research would be from the other direction, so to speak. Check out the development of the anchor. See if you can find out when they got too large to be hauled up without using some kind of purchase. Regards, Henry

The purpose of a leading block (or fairlead, chock or roller chock) is to change the direction of the working part of the line. While it does not multiply the force of the pull, there is a mechanical advantage. How many men can you employ to haul on a line if the pull is vertical as opposed to horizontal? Regards,