Louie da fly

Nice work, Matt. That looks very like the Oseberg ship, the burial ship of Queen Asa, dating to the 9th century AD. You can find a lot of detail on her (the ship, that is) if you do a google image search on "Oseberg Ship", including how she looked when she was first unearthed in 1904 and how she looks now. Though not necessary to your own model, the original Oseberg Ship had the most amazingly complex and intricate carving on the stem and sternposts - well worth a look (and a bit of a drool). The archaeological reports on the ship are also available. I'm in Victoria and I'm told the State Library here has a copy for referral (but not for loan). I don't know what State you live in but it might also have the reports. The title is something like "Osebergfundet", andI think it is in several parts, covering the ship itself, the artefacts found aboard etc (including a tent frame and a wheeled cart)

Thanks everyone. That was pretty much what I'd thought, but the belaying point for Number 1 was further forward than I expected. For number 3, I hadn't thought of bowlines -that makes a lot of sense. Interestingly, the rigging on the ships in the painting http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/collection/405793/the-embarkation-of-henry-viii-at-dover'> "The Embarkation of Henry VIII at Dover", showing pretty much the same ships as on the Anthony Roll, is quite different. Much more complex tackles. And though the painting depicts something that happened in 1520, 26 years before the Anthony Roll, it's now thought to have been painted in the 1540's or so, after the Great Harry and the Mary Rose had major rebuilds. So you'd expect the rigging to be the same. But who knows - the artist in the Dover Embarktion shows the Great Harry with a huge square course on the mizzen instead of a lateen, so who knows how accurae he got the rest of the picture. Any comments on whether or not the line to the outrigger is for the lateen mizzen sheet?

Can anybody help me work out what the tackles are that I’ve circled? They’re on the picture of the Matthew in the Anthony Roll of 1545. I’m new to rigging and have looked through several books, including “Rigging Period Ship Models” by Lennarth Petersson and “Historic Ship Models” by Wolfram zu Mondfeld and I haven’t seen any rigging quite the same as these. No. 1 - there are two tackles leading down from the maintop - one just above the yellow and black striped flag and another similar one to the right of it – the lines lead down to the break of the forecastle. I think they must be what zu Mondfeld describes on his pages 278-9 as main tackles – for lifting cargo, boats etc. However I’m not sure that’s what they are, as I haven’t seen any running at that angle and ending up at the break of the forecastle. I think no. 2 has the same function – there are two blocks with lines leading down to deck level immediately in front of the main mast - you can see them just below the top of the red circle. No. 3 - there seem to be two lines down forward from the foremast – one from the masthead and the other starting halfway between the masthead and the foretop, which lead to blocks attached to the foretopmast stay, then to blocks attached to the bowsprit and then back to the forecastle. Any ideas? No. 4 – Am I right in thinking the line leading to the outrigger at the stern is the sheet of the bonaventure mizzen’s furled lower lateen sail? I realize this is from a drawing done by someone who may not have understood rigging, and could be quite wrong. But the same features appear on all the larger ships in the Anthony Roll, and he seems to have the rest of the rigging pretty right – even to the clew lines with martnets on the (furled) yards of the main square sails. Has anybody come across these items before or know what they might be? Are they perhaps a particularly Tudor sort of rigging which had disappeared by the time the examples in the books above? I’d like to include them in a model, but I want to be happy they represent something that actually existed.