Louie da fly

But no mention of his wishes regarding Lady Hamilton? Probably censored for PR reasons. Steven

Welcome Kukular. Where in WA do you live? I grew up in Perth and have very fond memories. Steven

This looks very good indeed, Dick. A beautiful build. Steven

Certainly it's hard to believe certain things weren't always in use, but in the case of footropes there are contemporary pictures of ships being worked by sailors without them - they're actually sitting astride the yards to furl/unfurl the sails, and quite a few are standing on the yards! It's always struck me as weird that Mediterranean ships in the 15th and 16th centuries had no ratlines, though shipbuilders must have been exposed to northern ships that did have them. It seems so obvious to me that ratlines were superior, but apparently not to Mediterranean skippers! Steven

Bienvenue! Steven

Beautiful detailed precise work, Jack. Steven

That's a beautiful effect you've achieved with the water, mkash. It looks very convincing. A lovely job over all. Steven

Hi Hotswarf (love the name!). There are quite a few build logs of the Artesania Endeavour on this forum. Do a search (top right of the page) using those keywords and you should be able to access them. I think they should be able to answer a lot of questions you may have and help you along your way. Good luck with it all, Steven

Hi Nikiforos. Do youknow where that pic of the tripod mast comes from? I googled ancient egyptian ship bas relief but I haven't been able to find the original anywhere, the only ones I've found have been either single or bipod masts. In fact, finding any photographs of the original bas-reliefs of Egyptian ships meets with very little success - you mostly get drawings of them, which could have added inaccuracies, above and beyond those the original Ancient artists may have perpetrated. However, if this is an accurate rendition of the original, I can't off the top of my head think of a good reason for a tripod mast except to add strength, but it seems very awkward, and the only thing I can think of for the tensioning ropes and bars is to "weld" the three masts into one structural unit, also for strength. (Those twirly rope things would also hold the mast down into the mast step, so it doesn't lift off under anti-gravity and fly into the air . . . ) There are two tensioning bars for each outer mast; the upper right-hand one goes in front of the outer mast and behind the central one, which is totally ok; but the lower goes behind both right-hand and central mast, and the two left-hand bars both seem to go behind both left-hand and central masts. To my eye, there's nothing keeping these three from just unwinding again. If, say, the lower right hand bar had gone in front of the outside mast and behind the middle mast it would have balanced the forces acting via the upper one, and equally I'd have expected the left-hand pair to do the same sort of thing, perhaps in reverse. Is this detail correct, or is it a mistake by the copyist, or by the carver of the bas-relief? The heavy cross-bar at the top of the twirly ropes seems to be for tying the three masts together; certainly, the twirly rope on the right goes around it and the right-hand mast, tying them together. But the left-hand one doesn't go around the cross-bar, just the mast, and as far as I can see that wouldn't achieve anything structural. Again, is the discrepancy artist error, or is it accurate? Perhaps the central "mast" is nothing of the sort, and is shorter than the other two (if only we had the top of the picture!) There are some apparent similarities with the mast reinforcements/wedges in the mediaeval Spanish ships of the Cantigas de Santa Maria, where there is a central mast reinforced by lashing to posts either side - maybe the "tripod" mast is the same sort of thing, but with two actual masts and one central post? By the way, apparently herons don't quack, they sound like this - Steven

Glad to see no horned helmets! Steven

Looks good! Steven

The detail of the Mora model is based on the representation of her in the Bayeux Tapestry. Given the complete lack of other information available at the time, not a bad effort. Certainly if you wanted to kit-bash a Mora, I'd recommend you duplicate at least the figurehead, tail decoration and lantern at the top of the mast (which if I recall correctly is described in contemporary accounts). On the other hand, the caveats at https://www.vikingeskibsmuseet.dk/en/professions/education/viking-knowledge/the-longships/picture-sources/the-bayeux-tapestry/ should be taken into account (though the explanation of the "triangular" sails is surely just a matter of square sails seen from a particular angle). The progressive simplification of the images in the Tapestry mentioned in the page above also applies elsewhere. Have a look at the first three armoured figures in the narrative (frame 16 at https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Bayeux_Tapestry_tituli ) and then at later ones - the rings of the mail become much larger and sometimes degenerate into criss-cross patterns, which would have been quicker to sew and much more economical in thread (which was hand-spun, hand dyed and hand-sewn). This has led to all sorts of theories about large-ringed "Russian tractor armour", and various alternative types of armour (which have never been found in archaeology) based purely on these representations, when it seems to me they are all conventionalised representations of normal mail (popularly known as "chain" mail, though it was never called that at the time). Which leads us away from the reconstruction of Mora. And in that, I'm afraid you just have to go with a lot of educated guesswork based on the best information currently available. It will almost certainly be wrong in many details, but will nonetheless probably be a pretty good representation of the ship as it was. Steven

Wow! The last person who got one of those was Belisarius! I'm honoured to be in his company . . . Going very well, Nikiforos. I've used ramin many years ago when I was a schoolkid. Nice timber. I'm enjoying following this build. Steven

Good work so far, Nikiforos, and I love your attention to historical detail and correcting stuff the kit manufacturers seem to have missed. I'm a scratch-built guy myself, but I agree it would be good if there were more (accurate!) kits out here from ancient and mediaeval periods. Several people on this forum have expressed the same wish - any kit manufacturers out there listening? Steven

How did I miss this build? I once played with the idea of doing a diorama of Tasman's ships anchored off Tasmania, but too many other projects to get past the idea stage. Beautiful job, Marcus. Steven

mhkash, it's totally ok to show us your diorama. Just put the word "diorama" into the search function at the top of the page and you'll see some others. Personally, I love them - they add a wonderful feeling of realism to a model. Nice diorama, by the way. Steven

Just found another mediaeval ship picture which may be of use, though its 14th century rather than 13th - it's at https://www.italianartsociety.org/2016/12/on-30-december-1365-painter-andrea-di-firenze-signed-a-contract-for-the-decoration-of-the-chapter-house-known-as-the-spanish-chapel-of-santa-maria-novella-in-florence/ Some nice clear detail. Steven

So the colzhexe is the same thing as the calcet on the previous page of this build log? Steven

Me too. Many thanks, Alberto. Looking forward to a good read. Steven

Fascinating stuff! Steven

Brilliant work! And your workmanship is also superb. I want to be you when I grow up Steven

That's incredibly narrow! The dromon's calculated length is only about 30 metres for a breadth of about 4.5 (= 6.6:1). Amazing it didn't break its back. Does it have any strengthening longitudinal stringers/wales/whatever? Steven

Fascinating research, Binho. I knew almost none of it. I knew about the attempts of Harold's sons to re-take England from the Normans, but not in the detail you've presented here. The differences between the above ships are quite marked, and perhaps the speculation about Byzantine influence is correct. The timing's about right, and just because it didn't make it into anyone's chronicle or saga doesn't mean it didn't happen. After all, nobody's likely to have written down that a Viking shipbuilder went to Miklagard ( = The Great City - i.e. Constantinople), was impressed with the ship designs there and came home inspired to try out some new ideas in his next ships. At the battle of Svolder in 999 or 1000 AD King Olaf had several long ships, including the Ormen Lange (long serpent). To quote Wikipedia (yes, I know it shouldn't be relied on too much ) " Though the sagas agree that Olaf Tryggvason had only 11 ships in the battle, some of them quote a verse by Halldórr the Unchristian saying that Olaf had 71 ships when he sailed from the south. The sagas explain the discrepancy by saying that some of the 71 ships belonged to Jarl Sigvaldi, who deserted Olaf, and that others sailed past the trap at Svolder before it was sprung. The sagas describe three of the ships in Olaf Tryggvason's fleet. According to Heimskringla, the Crane was a large swift-sailing warship with thirty rowers' benches [i.e. 30 oarsmen], high in stem and stern.[33] It was commissioned by King Olaf and used as his flagship for some time. Olaf confiscated the second of his great ships from a pagan he had tortured to death for refusing to convert to Christianity. King Olaf "steered it himself, because it was a much larger and finer ship than the Crane. Its stem had a dragon's head on it, and on its stern, a crook shaped like a tail; and both sides of the neck and all the stern were gilded. That ship the king called the Serpent, because when the sail was hoisted it was to look like the wing of a dragon. That was the finest ship in all Norway."[34 Olaf's third flagship, the Long Serpent, was a legendary vessel mentioned in several anecdotes in the sagas. So very long ships (compare thirty-four sets of oarbenches in the Ormen Lange - though historians argue about whether or not this is an exaggeration; it would make the ship almost 40 metres long - with the 25 in a dromon - 25 oarsmen each side of the ship in each of two banks of oars, to make a total of 100) were being used by the end of the 10th century. However, since the Vikings were certainly trading down the rivers of Russia to Constantinople in the early 10th century, this would still support the contention that Byzantine design may have had an influence on Viking shipbuilding. I'm loving the research element of this build. It opens a fascinating window on the history and development of these vessels. And to me, the research and speculation is half the fun, like a good detective novel. Steven

You probably saw that in my dromon log. Apparently a shrill tone carries far better than a deep one (such as a drum - , Hollywood!) which tends to get drowned out by other low-pitched noises such as the groaning of the oars on the tholes, sloosh of the water creak of the masts etc. Note that the rowing master on the reconstruction used a whistle to give the rowers the time. On the other hand here's how NOT to do it! OUCH! Steven

There was a lot of discussion relating to just that problem when they were working out the design of Olympias. Apparently even after the design had been finalised and the ship built, they discovered there was a certain amount of fouling between oars of the different banks, resulting in broken oars. Ben Hur was pretty bad. Have a look at the reality of rowing a multi-banked galley at Oh, and the Romans didn't have galley slaves - neither did the Ancient Greeks; that didn't come in until the Renaissance. The ships were rowed by freemen. Steven