popeye2sea

Those decks are outstanding !! 

Those decks are outstanding !! 

Shrouds were not unprotected.  Protection from rot and water penetration was achieved by tarring.  I would think that, especially om military ships, extra worming, parcelling and serving would not have been done because it costs money.  Ships captains were held to strict allowances for stores and replacements.  I would also tend to believe that most would be, like most sailors, practical, prudent, and conservative.

Marc,
It's not the fore most shroud of each pair.  It is only the fore most shroud for that mast on each side, port and starboard.  The purpose of the serving was to reduce chafe from the sails and their rigging against the shrouds.

Lest anyone think that the shipyard has closed, let me assure you that after a brief time off for the holidays the laborers have been put back to work diligently forging iron and stropping blocks for the cannons.  Unfortunately, I only get a couple of hours of work a week on the ship.  Progress has been slow!   ( I do hope that his royal highness King Louis does not object!   Thirty plus years is a long time to wait for completion of a ship  )
 
Progress thus far:
 
All cannons mounted on the full gun deck.  These are pinned in place through the bottom of the carriage and the deck so that I did not have to scrape the paint under each wheel and glue.  The breeching ropes are seized to the ring bolts prior to gluing the ring bolts to the hull through holes I drilled near the base of each gun port. Additional holes were drilled and eye bolts installed at the sides of each port for the gun tackles.  Ring bolts were also installed in the deck for the train tackles.
 

 
One cannon has been fully rigged so far.  I still have to coil the ropes.  The cannons on this side are run in and the coiled ropes will be layed over the top of the gun.  On the other side, where the cannons are run out for firing, the tackle falls will be faked down on the deck.
 

 
One thing I noticed with the way that the kevels are placed is that it would be extremely difficult to work the lines belayed here.  The lines that go to these kevels are the sheets and tacks for the courses and the sprit sail.  Another problem... the main sheets come inboard well aft near the quarter galleries and then belay amidships on one of the kevels.  Do I run the sheet over the tops of the cannon barrels or down on the deck beneath the barrels.  Either way it looks like they would foul on the cannons when worked.
 
Perhaps this is the reason why the sails set for battle did not include the lower courses?
 
Still to come...16 more cannons on the fo'c'sle, quarter deck and cabin deck( not sure what the deck between the quarter deck and poop deck was called).
 
Enjoy

Those coils look great, Jay.  Very realistic.  They would not be perfect on the real ship either.

Those coils look great, Jay.  Very realistic.  They would not be perfect on the real ship either.

Those coils look great, Jay.  Very realistic.  They would not be perfect on the real ship either.

One can usually, by getting plenty of separation on the two parts of the halyard at deck level, get enough slack and untwist it enough to lower the ensign.  If you are good at it you can get it accomplished without too much delay.  Delay is never good in the military.  Sometimes it takes going aloft if the flag is jammed on something else.  It is just rather embarrassing when the flag is not lowered smartly for some ceremony, like a change of command, and you have dignitaries and other brass aboard. The captain usually starts the **it chain which rapidly rolls down hill to the signalman of the watch who embarrassed him.
 
I once had a situation when we were conducting a signal drill while the weather was blowing almost a gale.  The uphaul got away from the operator and blew aloft into the radar and radio antennas.  I had to go aloft and untangle it all.  That was quite the thrill; underway, rolling, pitching, out on the yardarms.  Once again the CO was pissed because we had to secure both from radiating the radars and transmitting radio while someone was aloft.
 
Not sure which story I told you about the admirals flag.  

Jud, you are correct.  The correct procedure for flag signalling is thus:  The originating ship hauls the signal closed up ( fully raised to the yard arm).  The ship receiving the signal answers with the same signal 'at the dip' (about half way up to the yard arm).  If there are ships further along the line those ships also answer at the dip.  The last ship in the line, having answered the hoist at the dip, indicates that the signal is acknowledged and understood by closing up the signal (raised to the yard arm).  The repeating ships in turn back up the line to the originator close up their hoists which tells the originating ship that all ships in the line acknowledge and understand the signal.  The signal to execute the maneuver is when the originating ship hauls down the hoist.
 
Sounds complicated when written out but not so in practice.  And it ensures accurate communication between all ships and coordinated action.
 
 
Jay, signal flags have been placed in a number of places over the centuries.  At one time there was no standardized set of signal flags and the national ensign flown in different positions indicated the signal.  For example, raising the red ensign at the main mast head might mean close with the enemy while the same flag flown from a yard arm might mean Captains report to the flag ship.
 
Today signal flags are flown primarily from halyards on a yardarm, although they can still be flown from the mast in some circumstances.  The signal books dictate the order of precedence for reading hoists.  Just going from memory, flags are read from the yardarms first, outboard to inboard, then from the mast head, then from the triatic stay (a stay which ran from the fore mast to the main mast.

John,
You should think about coming up to Boston again in July.  The Morgan will be sailing in.  I'm on the coordinating committee so I'll keep you posted.

Lest anyone think that the shipyard has closed, let me assure you that after a brief time off for the holidays the laborers have been put back to work diligently forging iron and stropping blocks for the cannons.  Unfortunately, I only get a couple of hours of work a week on the ship.  Progress has been slow!   ( I do hope that his royal highness King Louis does not object!   Thirty plus years is a long time to wait for completion of a ship  )
 
Progress thus far:
 
All cannons mounted on the full gun deck.  These are pinned in place through the bottom of the carriage and the deck so that I did not have to scrape the paint under each wheel and glue.  The breeching ropes are seized to the ring bolts prior to gluing the ring bolts to the hull through holes I drilled near the base of each gun port. Additional holes were drilled and eye bolts installed at the sides of each port for the gun tackles.  Ring bolts were also installed in the deck for the train tackles.
 

 
One cannon has been fully rigged so far.  I still have to coil the ropes.  The cannons on this side are run in and the coiled ropes will be layed over the top of the gun.  On the other side, where the cannons are run out for firing, the tackle falls will be faked down on the deck.
 

 
One thing I noticed with the way that the kevels are placed is that it would be extremely difficult to work the lines belayed here.  The lines that go to these kevels are the sheets and tacks for the courses and the sprit sail.  Another problem... the main sheets come inboard well aft near the quarter galleries and then belay amidships on one of the kevels.  Do I run the sheet over the tops of the cannon barrels or down on the deck beneath the barrels.  Either way it looks like they would foul on the cannons when worked.
 
Perhaps this is the reason why the sails set for battle did not include the lower courses?
 
Still to come...16 more cannons on the fo'c'sle, quarter deck and cabin deck( not sure what the deck between the quarter deck and poop deck was called).
 
Enjoy

Lest anyone think that the shipyard has closed, let me assure you that after a brief time off for the holidays the laborers have been put back to work diligently forging iron and stropping blocks for the cannons.  Unfortunately, I only get a couple of hours of work a week on the ship.  Progress has been slow!   ( I do hope that his royal highness King Louis does not object!   Thirty plus years is a long time to wait for completion of a ship  )
 
Progress thus far:
 
All cannons mounted on the full gun deck.  These are pinned in place through the bottom of the carriage and the deck so that I did not have to scrape the paint under each wheel and glue.  The breeching ropes are seized to the ring bolts prior to gluing the ring bolts to the hull through holes I drilled near the base of each gun port. Additional holes were drilled and eye bolts installed at the sides of each port for the gun tackles.  Ring bolts were also installed in the deck for the train tackles.
 

 
One cannon has been fully rigged so far.  I still have to coil the ropes.  The cannons on this side are run in and the coiled ropes will be layed over the top of the gun.  On the other side, where the cannons are run out for firing, the tackle falls will be faked down on the deck.
 

 
One thing I noticed with the way that the kevels are placed is that it would be extremely difficult to work the lines belayed here.  The lines that go to these kevels are the sheets and tacks for the courses and the sprit sail.  Another problem... the main sheets come inboard well aft near the quarter galleries and then belay amidships on one of the kevels.  Do I run the sheet over the tops of the cannon barrels or down on the deck beneath the barrels.  Either way it looks like they would foul on the cannons when worked.
 
Perhaps this is the reason why the sails set for battle did not include the lower courses?
 
Still to come...16 more cannons on the fo'c'sle, quarter deck and cabin deck( not sure what the deck between the quarter deck and poop deck was called).
 
Enjoy

The shipyard is always open, but I only get a couple of hours a week to work on the model.  Plus cannon rigging is getting tedious.

Chains and deadeye lanyards look great, John!  Based on that the rest of your rigging should be first rate.

John,
You should think about coming up to Boston again in July.  The Morgan will be sailing in.  I'm on the coordinating committee so I'll keep you posted.

John,
You should think about coming up to Boston again in July.  The Morgan will be sailing in.  I'm on the coordinating committee so I'll keep you posted.

Nope.  Too cold for me.

Nope.  Too cold for me.

Nope.  Too cold for me.

Mike, I find it even more amazing when you read further and find that the model is made that way (with removable masts) for delivery purposes.  I would hate to have to re-rig that ship.

This could mean that the eye was welded closed.

The worm that we use on our working 1812 era cannon is made from cast iron and the head looks like a spring.  The arms really do not scratch the bore of the cannon at all. The pitch of the helix is smaller than you have depicted. The 'arms' make more that 2 complete revolutions.  The sponge and rammer are on opposite ends of another pole.
 
In addition to unloading the gun the worm is used as part of the regular gun drill.  Here is the drill we use.  It was standard during the war of 1812
 
1.  "Search your piece"  The worm is inserted down the barrel and given several turns to snag any unburned wadding or cartridge left over from the last shot
2.  "Sponge your piece"  The wet sponge is run down the barrel to extinguish any burning embers
3.  "Search your piece" 
4.  "Sponge your piece"
5.  "Advance cartridge"  The cartridge is brought to the loader
6.  "Load cartridge"        The cartridge is inserted into the barrel and rammed home
7.  "Load with shot"       The round shot (or other shot)  is inserted into the barrel a wadding is inserted after and the shot rammed home
8.  "Prick and prime"     The gunner inserts the prick down the touch hole to pierce the cartridge bag and then fills the touch hole with powder.  A lead apron is the placed over the touch hole to protect the powder.
 
The gunner then sights the gun and the crew uses handspikes to train and elevate the weapon.
9.   "Make ready"        The gunner blows in the linstock to make sure it is burning well.  The apron is removed from the touch hole.
10.  "Fire"                   The gunner touchs the linstock to the touch hole.

The shroud has three seizings clapped on.  The first is a throat or cross seizing put on where the end  of the shroud crosses behind the standing part (when looking from the outside of the ship). On this seizing the turns of the seizing are vertical.  Then the end of the shroud is brought up beside the standing part and two additional round seizings are put on the first is called a middle seizing and the second is called an end seizing.  The end of the shroud is whipped and cut off just above the end seizing. You will end up with a small gap above and below the throat seizing due to the diameter of the rope.
For right hand laid rope the shroud passes around the dead eye counter-clockwise.  For left hand laid rope the shroud passes around the dead eye clockwise.
The laniard starts from the hole in the upper deadeye furthest from the end of the shroud.

My general principle with the rigging is to try and do all of it without resorting to glue.  That means rigging as close as possible to the real thing:  whippings, seizings, ends tucked into or under strands, etc.  That mouse will never come apart, it's woven together.  The ends of the serving lines are pushed through the strands of the stay with a needle.  Tension on the stay will just hold it tighter.