Louie da fly

I like the idea of the shields, Hans. The one in the middle bears the Greek letter lambda, which signifies Lakedaimonia, the city-state of Sparta, and would only be seen on a Spartan ship. As far as I know, the other doesn't have any particular significance. Steven

I thought this link http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/9295-medieval-top/ from the Nautical History and Research section might be useful when it comes to rigging the carrack.. Steven

This is a fascinating build, particularly the mechanics of getting the oars to actually row. Following this with great interest. Oh, and the ship is beautiful, too.

This build never fails to bring up the interesting and unexpected. I knew there'd be an offset bowsprit, but the narrowness of the forecastle and the gaps in the planking are a fascinating surprise. Steven

You're doing amazing work, Alan. I only have AutoCAD LT, and I envy you the ability to work in 3D to work out problems before they arise. (On the other hand, I'm a bit of a dinosaur - I learnt my trade on a drawing board with pencil and ink-bow pens, so I'd probably feel uncomfortable with 3D - I tried it and though it was interesting and obviously had great potential, I felt happier with the old standard.) I'm really looking forward to seeing you putting this one into physical form. Steven

Wow! Steven

Looking really good, Michael. If I can even approach this level of skill I'll be more than happy. Steven

So, a svabel would be a swab, I suppose. As in "Arrrrh yer scurvy swabs!" A magnificent build, Matti. A pleasure to see. Steven

DAMN that's good! And there it is, the foremast stepped on the stempost. Seems so wrong, but that's what they did, all right. Your usual excellent standard, Dick. I love the deck fittings. Steven

Sherry, that's a very beautiful build, and the level of craftsmanship (or craftswomanship) is superb. Truly a build to be proud of and an inspiration to the rest of us. Steven

Very nice pics, Dick. I'd found copies of that picture on the Net, but not in anything like so much detail. You can even see the boarding nettings in the tops! And a very merry Christmas to you and yours as well. Steven

Amazing stuff, Sharpie. That's a really impressive balista. It's amazing the forces involved in such weapons, even at this small scale. I think a blackened metal spindle for your string should be fine - strong enough to do the job and thin enough to look right. At that scale know one will ever know the difference. If you have any trouble, you might try contacting the Grey Company's Tossers, who have a long history of making trebuchets, onagers and springalds (though I don't think I've seen a ballista on their page). However, I haven't been in touch with them for years, so they may not be at it any more. They even have miniature table top trebuchets colloquially known as cheesechuckers - see the section called "Models and Prototypes". Steven

Yes, that's the beauty of it. This information seems to be as rare as hen's teeth. Oh, and here's another carrack from a 1482 chart by Grazioso Benincasa. Might have some useful details. Steven

I just came across another carrack picture. This is from Botticelli's 1485 painting of the Judgment of Paris, and shows a carrack being careened - she's leaning over with her deck toward the viewer, so you get a view that is almost directly from above - the ships overall shap is very clear, and you can see the deck fittings. I believe Botticelli to be one of the more trustworthy artists, so I'd be willing to take his painting as being pretty much spot-on. But what's that wooden thing in the foreground? And how do you get to the poop deck and the forecastle?

It's looking really good, Cristiano. I especially like the third photo in your most recent post. It feels like you're actually on board the shp, standing on the deck!

John, My sympathies, but all is not lost. I find when something like this happens, it's good to leave the project for awhile, go off and do something else, give yourself a chance to take stock and gain a fresh perspective, and often a solution will present itself when everything originally looked hopeless. I think Nigel's advice is very good. You have a lot of assets there that can be re-used - all those frames are still fine, and it looks to me that the keel is too. It takes more work, but I find the painful learning experiences stay with me longer than the easy ones. By the time you start your next build you'll have worked out how to avoid this problem and you'll be that far ahead of where you started out with this one. This is a good build. Best of success with it, and keep your chin up. Steven

Looking very good, Hans. Very impressive. Steven

I recently bought a second hand book called The Great Explorers by Samuel Eliot Morison. If you'd believe it, I got it while visiting a Buddhist monastery that has a celebrated rose garden, and they had a bunch of tables with all kinds of old books for $2 each. I got a Hornblower and a few others, and the Morison. It's amazing! It was published in 1976 and has all kinds of fascinating stuff. Some of it's a little dated, but mostly it's pure gold. The most recent things I've found in it are references from a source called "The Complaynt of Scotlande", written in 1548, and which is available in full on-line at https://archive.org/stream/complayntofscotl00leyd#page/n9/mode/2up . It begins with a 292 page preliminary dissertation written in the 19th century of which pp 110-122 contain quite a bit of information on sailing usage and terms from the 16th century. Then in the main body of the work, pp61-65 contain a description of a galeass (local name for a 3 masted square rigger with oars, apparently, not the Mediterranean galleass we all know and love) getting under way, along with the sea chanteys used, the sequence of raising sails etc. Warning - this is in the English used in lowland Scotland in the mid 16th century, so it's a bit hard to follow. But after a while you start to get the hang of it. For example, on p62, the master cries "Two men above to the foretop to cut the ribands [holding the sail furled] and let the foresail fall. Haul down the starbord luff hard aboard. Haul aft the foresail sheet, haul out the bowline . . ." etc. Amazing stuff. Steven

I haven't actually taken the time to look at them. I was just after a particular reference. I'll have to follow up on this myself as well. Speaking of links, you might like the one here, too.

Dick, I just came across some pictures from the so-called "Hastings Manuscript". There has been some disagreement about the dating. The latest theory is that the picture of the single ship is from about 1450, while the one with multiple ships is from 1520-1530. Not sure I agree, but a picture of a carrack casting the lead is instructive, if nothing else, and you might find some useful details there. For instance, the boats in the second picture are double ended and are using a steering oar, not a rudder - something I've seen also in the Anthony Roll's depictions of Henry VIII's ships and The Embarkation at Dover, both from 1545. Interesting that this kind of boat was in use this late, so probably appropriate also to your own ship. Steven

Tarbrush, when you get to the stage of masts, sails and rigging, you might find the 1543 picture of Ships near Dover helpful - you can't get a picture on the Net without someone's logos all over it, but nonetheless I think it's got lots of worthwhile information. There are links to it here and here. Hope this is of use to you, as it's only 2 years away from the date Mary Rose sank, and depicts, if not English ships, at least ships in English waters.

Sharpie; Thanks for the link to that lecture. Some of the engineering was way over my head, but the information was fascinating. Steven

Hans; The Age of the Galley doesn't mention colours at all. And all the illustrations are in black and white. You might try looking for Ancient Greek representations of galleys, which could have colours. I did a google image search for "ancient greek ship art" and among all the modern pictures there were some genuine Ancient representations. Unfortunately most of them are on pottery in "red and black ware", in which everything (including the people) is either red or black. So not much help there, but for what it's worth, the link is here. Steven

Nice one. It's on my wish list as well. Lots of good reading there, and very detailed and comprehensive. I've been through it twice (from the library) and I feel like I've barely scratched the surface. Steven

Could be, but the upright is on a bit of an angle to vertical, which I don't usually expect to see on bitts. But I can't think of anything else it could be - it certainly seems the likeliest possibility.