Louie da fly

That's a very good point, Mark. So maybe I did the right thing after all, albeit unknowingly. Certainly, there is a lot of bracing in the hull in the shape of stringers and wales,and in fact Prof Pryor did make the point that the decking would have provided much needed stiffness to a hull that was very long and thin - I'd just forgotten that he'd done so (a senior moment,perhaps?). Steven

Wow! Amazing work! I'd never heard of the Girona, so I looked her up. Fascinating history. Apart from the treasure, was much of the wreck itself recovered? Steven

Thanks for all the likes. It's good to feel others are following along with the build and enjoying it, and perhaps even think I'm on the right track, (something I sometimes have doubts about). Though the argument for dromons being fully decked is as usual based on far too little information and indirect references in contemporary records, from the evidence he provides I am satisfied that Prof Pryor is correct in stating that they were fully decked. The most telling in my view is the testimony of John Kaminiates who had been forced to row in a dromon captured by Arabs in 904: “ ... the barbarians with us put themselves on the upper benches and left the lower [benches] to us, which were full of deep gloom and evil smells, and could only be described as a floating grave”. However, I don't believe this invalidates my idea of planking with small gaps between - below decks would still have received little light under these circumstances. I'd been hoping that his using the word "gloom" instead of "dark" would have reinforced this idea, but unfortunately that's how it was translated, not how it reads in the original Greek, which has "much darkness" (or perhaps "great darkness"). By the way, I was recently lucky enough to be shown a number of pinus nigra (black pine) trees growing in a forest planted over 100 years ago in Creswick, about 20 minutes drive from home. This is the timber the planks of my dromon should have been made of if I'd had access to it, instead of the ubiquitous pinus radiata from the local hardware shop I was obliged to use. I took home a (small) fallen branch and was pleasantly surprised to find the two timbers look very similar. Steven

Looking great, Christos! Steven

Great to see this one under way, Chris. A whole new adventure! Steven

It is said that Queen Elizabeth the First had a bath once a month, whether she needed one or not. 😝 Steven

I agree. The colouring looks really good and lifelike. Steven

Thanks, Pat. On reflection and referring back to Age of the Dromon, I'm actually wondering if I shouldn't have made the whole deck this way. Prof Pryor states that a dromon should have at least 8 square metres for air entry and somewhat more for it to exit. I'm struggling to get 8 overall, even taking the hatch and the companionway into account. However, as I've already committed myself and I'm not prepared to rip up the planks I've already laid, I'll leave it as it is. I might increase the number of isolated deck planks to four or even five, but I'll have to see how that looks. Another consideration is that I want solid planking beneath the upper oarsmen - I certainly wouldn't want to be sitting below a bunch of guys dripping with sweat . . . Steven

The only thing I can think of is to do an image search on tree class trawlers and see if there's enough information in those photos to get an idea of what Juniper would have looked like. Perhaps they were all built to the same design? If so, there should have been only minor differences between them. Best I can do. Steven

Getting "water" to look realistic is a very difficult goal. The first photo - the long shot - has a very lifelike look to it, with the blending of the brown at the shoreline. I look forward to seeing your progress on it. It's certainly off to a good start. Steven

Thanks everybody for all the likes, and Christos and Druxey for the kind comments. The scarph is of course conjectural, based upon the hull planking, because to the best of my knowledge no deck planks have ever been recovered from Byzantine ships. More planking. And now I'm going way out on a theoretical limb, doing something for which there is absolutely no evidence, archaeological or pictorial. But to me it seems necessary. According to Professor John Pryor, the author of Age of the Dromon, a rower needs 0.5 cubic metres of air flow per minute to enable sweat to evaporate sufficiently to keep at peak performance. For a trireme he proposes oarboxes open at the bottom and louvred decks overhead to allow this amount of airflow. Unfortunately, dromons didn't have oarboxes - the lower oars go through the sides of the vessel. Professor Pryor states that the 50 lower deck oarsmen of a dromon would need 4250 cubic metres of airflow per hour with a complete replacement of the air below decks about 30 times an hour. He proposes forced ventilation using "some contrivance such as wind sails or cowls". I've no idea how that would work in a large enough scale to achieve what he suggests. What I decided to do is make openings in the deck above the oarsmen and hope it's enough. I'm putting three deck planks 2.5mm (125mm/5") wide running the full length of the main deck each side of the centre planking, with gaps 1mm wide (50mm/2" in full scale) between them, and on either edge next to the fully planked sections, making 8 gaps in all, providing ventilation for the lower oarsmen. Here's a test run to see how it would look. (In the final form, the fully planked section would also continue to the sides of the ship). And here's the first plank going into place. I used a bit of plank on edge as a guide to form the gaps. The planks are wide enough to give good footing and a 50mm gap is narrow enough not to be a major trip hazard. Though Prof Pryor recommends that the airflow come from below I can't see any way to do this on a dromon. However, as I see it in any sort of a breeze, or even with the dromon on the move, there should be pretty decent airflow from bow to stern and from one side of the vessel to the other. I'd intended to have these openings run only as far as there were oarsmen so the maindeck at the bow would be fully decked. But I couldn't figure out how to make the transition, and the gaps would still have run almost the full length of the deck, so I ran them all the way. I'm aware this presents a risk of flooding in heavy rain, but perhaps they would have covered the gaps with tarpaulins under these circumstances. And in any kind of heavy seas a galley was so vulnerable anyway it would make straight for port, and the extra openings in the deck should make very little difference to its chances of survival in a storm. In any case, that's the best I can come up with to solve the ventilation problem.

It goes even further than that. The words Knecht and knight have the same origin, and in England before the Norman Conquest of 1066 a cniht was a servant or henchman. Mounted warriors weren't part of the Anglo-Saxon environment, and for this new idea (probably because these mounted warriors owed service to a Norman lord) they used the word for servant and called them knights. In such countries as Germany and Holland, the word kept its original meaning. As far as I know, English is the only European language that doesn't use a word connected with horses to describe a mounted warrior. Everyone else calls them something that means horseman - caballero, chevalier, ritter, ridder . . . Steven

That's the true test of a genuine fan - the bad times, not the good ones. It's easy to be a fan when your team is winning, but to stay faithful when they're losing time after time, and keep the faith no matter what, that's what it's really all about. I support (naturally enough) the West Coast Eagles. We do ok, but it's a long time since we won a Premiership. Steven

More planking: As the planks are now out past the opening for the companionway, they have a longer run. So I've put in scarph joints similar to those on the strakes. I faked the first one - I just cut the plank into two lengths with a curved line and glued it back together. But the second one is the real thing. Adding yet more planks, including completing the scarph joint: And I've made a start on the anchors. Photocopied to scale and glued to a 1mm thick sheet of brass. And cut roughly to shape. Next thing to do is file it to shape, except where I'll be leaving it a bit wide where the real anchors are a little thicker, so I can bash it a bit sideways to make it more than 1mm thick at those points.

Hmm, I think I can call myself an Aussie Rules fan, but as I'm a sandgroper and came to Victoria late in life I'm not sure I get the reference - unless it's the grandstand railings at Brunswick St Oval? Steven

Looking very good, Chris. So many railings - you have amazing patience. Steven

Well, I'm even more impressed. You've produced a beautiful model without the benefit of formal plans. My hat's off to you. Your figurehead is looking good, too. You've made a good beginning - keep at it. I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out. Steven

More deck planking. I'm following Druxey's suggestion to have the planks different widths. It doesn't look all that different (widths vary from 3.5 to 5mm), but it's closer to the likely reality. The socket for the spur. I've made it out of pine, and will smooth it off and paint it to resemble iron. I've had to cut it away in places to allow for the stempost and the wales. There also will be reinforcements to the socket following the line of the wales, perhaps to be made of wood, but painted to resemble iron. I've also made a trial piece for the iron-shod head of the spur. Not very happy with it. I'm thinking of doing it in aluminium sheet instead, because wood really doesn't do the job or look good. Steven

A beautiful restoration, performed with admirable persistence, attention to detail and refusal to accept second best. I take my hat off to you, sir. Steven

How did I miss this wonderful build? Beautiful work throughout Christos, and those sails are a real treat! Steven

According to Age of the Dromon: ". . . there were also periboloi on either side at the prow, from which the anchors were lowered. Periboloi were also listed in the inventories for the Cretan expedition of 949 . . . Our best suggestion for the meaning of peribolos is “cathead”. On Greek triereis the epotides, the transverse “cheek timbers” of the outriggers at the bows, had apparently served for this purpose; however, with their passing something like catheads must have become necessary on galleys. Other ships of any size must always have had something like catheads. Leo VI . . . said that it was the duty of one of the two oarsmen at the bow to cast, (ballein), the anchors into the sea." In this picture there are two vertical pieces of wood at the bow which I believe are the periboloi. Not catheads as such, but performing a similar function. The anchor cables would have run around these, leading thence to the windlass at the break of the forecastle. And here's my interpretation of them: The edges are rounded to minimise chafing, and they are fixed to the beam shelf and, at the bottom, to the nearest frame. Steven

You could be right, Druxey. None of the Yenikapi galleys had deck planks because they were only single-banked. The archaeological drawing of YK4 has hull planking widths which do vary somewhat, from about 350 to 500mm. However, the wider planks are closest to the keel, and it's a bit hard to tell whether the variation is real or an illusion caused by looking straight down on the curve of the hull at the turn of the bilge. I don't know that there is any particular reason the deck planks should all be the same width, but I'll think about it. Steven

Thanks, Mark. Very informative and helpful. Steven

First deck planking. Beginning the decking on the prymne. Also I've run a temporary batten tacked in place with a few spots of glue, with one edge running along the centre line of the ship to fix the run of the main deck planks. And I've completed the plating on the spur. Prymne decking complete and partly sanded. One plank has been glued next to the batten between the break of the poop and the hatch; once all that line of planks are in place the batten will be removed. I still have to complete the sanding on the prymne and cut off the planks in a straight line at the break of the poop. And then get onto the main planking in earnest. (It's important to be Earnest - ask Oscar Wilde) Steven

Thanks, Druxey. I was really just after a ball-park sort of figure, and what you've provided is very helpful. The TAMU paper I have contains some archaeological finds of links which I'll also have another look at, though if I remember correctly they're from several centuries too late. Still, any information that helps me to a decision is worthwhile. A dromon with a crew of over 100 shouldn't have too much of a problem finding enough men to man the pumps. They weren't always rowing and even when they were, much of the time not all the oars were in use. Steven