Moonbug

Here are some shots of the finished ship.
 

Well folks... looks like she's done.  Here she is - the completed Santa Maria.  I'll edit and post more of the finished photos, then eventually her final port of call - I have to wait for the Admiral to clear off the Christmas decorations after the new year before the Santa Maria can rest in her final spot.
 
Thanks for all the likes and comments!
 

So, as I continue with many of the finishing details, I've been fretting how I'm going to handle the flags.  As the sails are furled, I need to give the impression that the flags are hanging somewhat naturally.  They also need to have some of the aging that the rest of the ship represents. 
  After scouring my local fabric store, and trying a variety of different silks and satins - I ended up going back to the "flags" that are supplied in the AL kit.  
   First, I soaked the flags in the same 'Scenic glue' that I was using for the rope coils.
  

 
   Then I hung the flags from my shelf, and shaped them with a variety of clips and gravity. To give them the shape I wanted that would imply hanging naturally.
 
 
 
    I then mounted each of the flags. The main and fore mast flags using blocks, and the mizzen using a mounting as illustrated in Pastor's book. I then aged them using some black and brown dusting.
 
   
 
 Overall, I'm pretty pleased with the outcome.

The capstan, or capstan wench, is a vertical-axled rotating machine used to apply force to ropes, cables, and hawsers. The principle is similar to that of the windlass, which is a horizontal version mostly used to raise and lower the anchors.

 



 

In its earliest form, the capstan consisted of a timber mounted vertically through a vessel's structure which was free to rotate. See the illustratoin on the left. Levers, known as bars, were inserted through holes at the top of the timber and used to turn the capstan. A rope wrapped several turns around the drum was thus hauled upon. The two pictures above compare an actual capstan from a 15th century Nao vessel, while the right picture is what was supplied in the kit. 

 

  

 

I actually tried (and failed at) several different methods before coming up with this version of the capstain. I ended up cutting very small (5mm) pieces from some leftover sapella wood. I then cut and trimmed a 5mm dowel and sanded it. I glued the sapella pieces to the dowel.  For the top of the capstain, I trimed and used the original piece from the kit because I preferred the shape. 

 

  

 

I cut and sanded to small discs of different sizes to separate the parts of the capstan and glued them all together. I needed to use different types of wood to formuate the pieces, and they all ended up being different colors and grains.  So I painted the entire capstain and stained it to even out the colors. Finally, the bars are brass dipped in the patina to color it.Similar to the forward main grate, the stern main grate needed to be constructed. The kit I'm using didn't even have a main grate toward the stern, pobably because it's not easily seen while on display. I need to get all of these main deck fixtures completed before I can mount the quarterdeck. 

 

You may recall I fashioned the forward deck with locked doors but I will make the rear grate more traditional cross-hatch.

 

  

 

 

  

 

I used the same process as the forward hatch, putting together eight small walnut pieces miter'd at the corners.  Then I cut and mounted the cross hatch wood. Finally, staining the entire piece.

Attached to the rear keel with hinges, the rudder seems like a simple part to create.  However, getting the rudder to look proper based on the time frame is a little more difficult than it looks. I referenced both Pastor's book on Columbus' ships as well as Mondfeld's book on historic ships to model my rudder for the Santa Maria.

 

  

 

 

Early rudders were made from two pieces of wood wrapped together and attached with metal strips.  There is a main part of the rudder and a smaller strip called the "bearding".  More strips then make up the hinges. It is also important for the angle of the bearding strip to match the angle of the ship's keel so it all fits together and works smoothely.

 

  

 



 

Brass strips are carefully cut and glued into place to attach the bearding to the rudder.  I also added glue, to ensure that the pieces fit properly together. More brass strips are then cut and bent into the shape of the hinges.  The angles and bends must be exactly right to make a good fit.



 

  

 

 After all the strips are in place, holes are very carefully drilled for the nails / rivets. This is a very delicate process and I went through 3 broken drill bits getting these holes in place. Nales / rivets are trimmed so only the heads are available with about 1 mm of nail so they don't go all the way through the rudder. They are nailed and glued in place.

 

  

 

 After everything is constructed, the entire rudder is blackened using the chemical oxidation process. I also touched up the area with flat black paint.  The wood is treated with dark stain then coated with tung oil and polyurethane for protection.

 

I began work on the hatch cover for the main deck.  I started with an excess piece of plywood cut into a square.  This gave me some stability for the initial framing.  Without the plywood, it's very easy for the frame to become out of squre while trying to glue the corners together. However... because the plywood adds an extra half milimeter to the bottom, it won't sit flush on the deck.  Therefore after the hatch is completed, the plywood will need to be sanded completely off.

 

  

 

 The edges are but at perfect 45 degree angles using a mitre saw.  After the initial framing is made with 3mm pieces of walnut, I added a second layer of frame using the same 3mm pieces but lined up on their SIDE against the first frame.

 

  

 

After the edges are sanded and rounded a bit, it gives the entire hatch a nice three dimensional look. The hatch "doors" are created using 5mm strips of walnut cut to size.  I've used three on each side, then separated the doors with a narrower 2 mm strip. This will give a good impression where the doors come together. 

 

  

 

Since it's terribly difficult to keep something so thin but wide stable, I first glued each of the doors using three strips of walnut. Then I glue and clamp the two doors to the center piece and keep it all stable by laying flat piece of excess wood along the top and clamping that also.

 

  

 

After it dries, the doors are sanded smooth and a "notch" it filed down the center to give the impression where the doors come together.

 

  

 

Ultimately, the details are added.  After trying to cut the hinges from brass proved too difficult, I instead used thick, black construction paper panted over with matte black.  Holes are drilled and nails added and blackened.  The handles are small brass eyelets also blackened.  Finally, Columbus' inventory for the Nina actually shows a chain and lock for the hold, so I thought it perfectly conceivable that the same would be included on the Santa Maria.  The small brass chain is blackened and the lock created from a folded strip of brass and a half brass ring.  Then a small hole is drilled simulating the keyhole.

Because planking the deck is such a tedious process (an update on planking the main deck is forthcoming), I divide my time between cutting, laying and glueing each plank, with constructing smaller details for the rest of the ship.

 

My intention is to make the poop deck either removable, or raise-able to see what inside Christopher Columbus' cabin may have looked like.  So I began fabricating items that my appear in that cabin. 

 

 

  

 

The first item is a candle on a candlestick.  To achieve this, i took a 3 mm wooden dowel made of walnut and slowly lathed it by hand with sandpaper and a pin file.  Most folks use either basswood or boxwood for carving, however I chose walnut for these pieces.  Although walnut is more difficult to carve, it is also more dense and I believe and withstand smaller incisions and carvings and still stand the test of time.

 

 

  

 

The next piece was a minature musket from the time period. I started with a 5mm wide pice of walnut and carved out the basic shape of the weapon.  I trimmed small pieces of brass for the bands, and used a small but thick brass wire or cylinder for the barrel.  The trigger and hammer are made from common wire.



 

Once constructed, I dipped the entire piece into the blackening solution (same as the anchor) which turned the brass to a blackened weathered state, but also affected the would in a positive way. 

 

 

  

 

Next I attempted to make a captain's telescope using two different diameters of brass tubing, and a flat piece of brass rolled up.  I cut the brass tubing and simply stacked the pieces on top of each other.  However, because the glue wouldn't stabilize the pieces enough, I drilled small holes and inserted pieces of a sewing pin.  The pin served to stabilize the pieces helping the glue hold.

 

  

 

Because the end pieces was wrapped brass, it automatically gave the end of the telescope the look of a glass lens.

While continuing both the process of planking the hull, as well as working with the foredeck I will take this opportunity to post a little history of the voyage based on Columbus' ship log.  Most of this information is general knowledge of course, but worth repeating in this context.
 
Out of the three ships in Columbus' employ, the La Santa María de la Inmaculada Concepción (The Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception) was by far his least favorite.  Both the Pinta and Nina were Caravels, light and fast. While on the other hand, the Santa Maria was a Nao, more suited to hauling cargo and was short, fat, and slow.  The Santa Maria was acquired (some say last minute) from Juan de la Cosa and only used as Columbus' flagship because it was by far the largest of the three vessels. She had a crew of about 50 men, as opposed to the approximately 18 crewmembers aboard the Pinta and Nina. 
 
 

From The Ships of Christopher Columbus by Xavier Pastor
 
Christopher Columbus and his trio of ships sailed from the port of Palos, Huelva in Southern Spain on August 2nd following the coast of Spain then headed out to sea on August 3rd.  The voyage got off to an auspicious start when the Pinta was damaged and sought repairs to her rudder at the Canary Islands.  After a brief separation, the three vessels continued away from the Canaries across the Atlantic Ocean.
 
Although Columbus was the first European navigator to cross this region of the Atlantic, his perception of where he was, and where he actually was began to deviate in September of 1492. After travelling about 2400 miles (at an average of 4 knots), Columbus was under the impression he was in the waters of Cipango, what is now known as Japan.
 
The miscalculations where believed to have occurred in part due to both the difficult conditions and slow headway, as well as magnetic deviations in the ships needle.  In any event, the fleet saw little progress travelling into adverse trade winds which wore on the morale of the crew.
 
According to Columbus' logs, on Saturday, September 20th 1492 the crew members saw a sea bird which rarely flies very far from a coast.  Eleven days later, four more birds were seen together, and in another two days a flock of more than 40 birds was spotted.  Amid growing fears by the crew spurred from the fact that they'd seen birds but no land, the crew began regularly seeing both birds and vegetation on October 11th.  After seeing a light in the darkness Columbus wrote in his log "It was like a little candle which rose and fell," which is the first acknowledged sighting and description of the New World. Then, on October 12th, at 2:00 am, a crewmember named Juan Rodriguez Bermejo spotted land.  That land was the coast of San Salvador, at the time called Guanahani by its inhabitants.
 

The flags of Christopher Columbus' fleet taken from The Ships of Christopher Columbus by Xavier Pastor
 
 On October 14th, 1492, Columbus and the Captains of the Nina and Pinta (two brothers named Martin and Vincente Pinzon) landed on the beach carrying the expedition's green cross flag and took possession of the land in the name of the King and Queen of Spain. 
 
After a number of short voyages between the islands and becoming separated from the Pinta, the Nina and Santa Maria crossed the Windward Passage to Hispaniolia.  When the local Indians informed Columbus that there was gold in Tortuga and Cibao island, he headed that way thinking he had found his promise land.  However at midnight, the night December 24th and morning of December 25th, 1492, while coasting in calm waters, the helm of the Santa Maria was taken by a young ship's boy who ran her aground on the coral reefs of the islands splitting the hull.
 
Notes taken from Columbus' log book and Written by Ferdinand Colon (Columbus' son):
"It pleased Our Lord that at midnight, while I lay in bed, with the ship in a dead calm and the sea as peaceful as the water in a cup, all went to sleep, leaving the tiller in charge of a boy. So it happened that the swells drove the ship very slowly onto one of those reefs, on which the waves broke with such a noise that they could be heard a long league away. Then the boy, feeling the rudder ground and hearing the noise, cried out; hearing him, I immediately arose, for I recognized before anyone else that we had run aground."
Rather than attempt to repair the ship, Columbus scuttled her and used the lumber and wreckage to create the for "Navidad" where he left a garrison of 39 men, gus, and supplies.  He also left articles to barter and trade before he boarded the Nina to continue exploring.
 
After exploring for another two weeks, the Nina and the Pinta began their trip back to Spain in January of 1493.

Planking the decks of the ship is one of the most important areas of the build.  The deck is usually the first thing people notice, and any inaccuracies or mistakes are going to be picked out immediately. 

 

The Santa Maria has a number of decks, three of which will be visible on the completed ship model.  While I'm planking the hull, I also started work on planking the smallest of these decks, the fore deck. This will give me an opportunity to experiment with which pattern, color, and methods I want to use for the entire ship.  If the smaller deck doesn't turn out the way I like, I can sand it down and re-do it without too much trouble.

 

Over the course of history, planks have been nailed down a wide variety of ways and there is no current documentation to display exactly how planks were placed in the 1400's.  Therefore, I have researched as much as possible, and have determined what I consider the most likely planking pattern for the Santa Maria.

 

This drawing is from "Historic Ship Models" by Wolfram ZuMondfeld.

 



 

Based on what research I could find, plank boards from this era were almost always made from oak, and in the 1400's they would have almost certainly been about 12" wide with each plank approximately 12' long. Based on this, my guess is that a "three butt shift" would have been the probably pattern.  This means that three planks would have separated each "butt" or where the two planks come together.



 

First, I measured and drew out the proposed pattern on the false deck. The ship's scale is 1/65, so if each plank was 12' long on the original, it needs to be about 42mm on my model.

 



 

I then cut each plank and glue it down over the top of the drawn pattern.  After gluing each plank down, I used a .5mm mechanical pencil to mark the trenails. The "tree nails" were small dowels used in place of what would presently be nails. This pattern was the likely trenail schematic for deck planks that were wider than 11 inches. My original plan was to drill tiny holes then fill them in, but I discovered that poking the hole with the mechanical pencil then breaking off a tiny bit of the lead into the hole worked very well.

 



 

Once all the planks were laid, the deck is bordered with walnut. I sanded the deck thoroughly with 600 grain sandpaper and stained it with "weathered oak" color stain.  When the stain dries it will require another sanding.  To maintain the aged look of the deck, I will sand more toward the center of the deck where the sailors would have had more opportunity to scrub, while the edges that collected water and didn't receive as much attention would remain a little more worn and darkened. 

 

There is much more work to be done on the foredeck including stanchions, railings, and a carved head beam that was used to ram other ships.  More to come on the foredeck...

Thanks very much gents!
 
    Indeed marktime.   A tragedy in many ways.
 
   In the meantime - here's her temporary home in my office until after the new year, when the Admiral will allow her to be moved a place of more prominence.  
 
  
 

 
- Bug

So, as I continue with many of the finishing details, I've been fretting how I'm going to handle the flags.  As the sails are furled, I need to give the impression that the flags are hanging somewhat naturally.  They also need to have some of the aging that the rest of the ship represents. 
  After scouring my local fabric store, and trying a variety of different silks and satins - I ended up going back to the "flags" that are supplied in the AL kit.  
   First, I soaked the flags in the same 'Scenic glue' that I was using for the rope coils.
  

 
   Then I hung the flags from my shelf, and shaped them with a variety of clips and gravity. To give them the shape I wanted that would imply hanging naturally.
 
 
 
    I then mounted each of the flags. The main and fore mast flags using blocks, and the mizzen using a mounting as illustrated in Pastor's book. I then aged them using some black and brown dusting.
 
   
 
 Overall, I'm pretty pleased with the outcome.

Thanks very much gents!
 
    Indeed marktime.   A tragedy in many ways.
 
   In the meantime - here's her temporary home in my office until after the new year, when the Admiral will allow her to be moved a place of more prominence.  
 
  
 

 
- Bug

And a few more.  I'll gather them and add to the completed gallery in a bit.
 
- Bug
 







 

Here are some shots of the finished ship.
 

Well folks... looks like she's done.  Here she is - the completed Santa Maria.  I'll edit and post more of the finished photos, then eventually her final port of call - I have to wait for the Admiral to clear off the Christmas decorations after the new year before the Santa Maria can rest in her final spot.
 
Thanks for all the likes and comments!
 

Thanks very much gents!
 
    Indeed marktime.   A tragedy in many ways.
 
   In the meantime - here's her temporary home in my office until after the new year, when the Admiral will allow her to be moved a place of more prominence.  
 
  
 

 
- Bug

Thanks very much gents!
 
    Indeed marktime.   A tragedy in many ways.
 
   In the meantime - here's her temporary home in my office until after the new year, when the Admiral will allow her to be moved a place of more prominence.  
 
  
 

 
- Bug

That is one beautiful and well detailed ship, Bug.  Looks fantastic from any angle.  Congratulations.

Congrats from me too. Looks magnificent and surely an inspiration to all who followed your build log.

One day we must talk about the carelessness that allowed the flagship of this voyage of discovery to founder upon a reef in relatively calm waters.

And a few more.  I'll gather them and add to the completed gallery in a bit.
 
- Bug
 







 

Here are some shots of the finished ship.
 

Thanks Ian!  I am indeed, turned out pretty well.  Always a bit of mixed feelings when you finish a project.    
 
- Bug

Well folks... looks like she's done.  Here she is - the completed Santa Maria.  I'll edit and post more of the finished photos, then eventually her final port of call - I have to wait for the Admiral to clear off the Christmas decorations after the new year before the Santa Maria can rest in her final spot.
 
Thanks for all the likes and comments!
 

Well folks... looks like she's done.  Here she is - the completed Santa Maria.  I'll edit and post more of the finished photos, then eventually her final port of call - I have to wait for the Admiral to clear off the Christmas decorations after the new year before the Santa Maria can rest in her final spot.
 
Thanks for all the likes and comments!