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jbshan

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Everything posted by jbshan

  1. jbshan
    Check the angles of your bulkheads against the plans. This type of vessel might have a slope to the keel with the bow higher than the stern, and they have set the bulkheads square to that slope rather than the keel. As John intimates, there may be no relation to reality.
  2. jbshan
    My current project, Philadelphia, from Model Shipways, has masts made in sections from sheet stock. The taper is already there, you glue the pieces into square form, then do the rounding from there. I haven't gotten to that point yet, but I think it is a technique accessible to all modelers and manufacturers that should produce more accurate spars with less fuss.
  3. jbshan
    Dunno how accurate it is, but in 'Henry V', Shakespeare has the fleet departing from Southampton. Portchester, just inland from Portsmouth, has a fortified castle, some of which dates to Roman times. As the harbors (there are several) along that coast silted in, or ships got larger, they moved the principal port to take account of changing situations. In other words, Southampton, not Portsmouth may have been the Naval port in the 1400s. A dock might be dug out enough to get a ship in on the highest tides, then the end blocked and the water pumped out. When the work was done, the block was removed and the tide allowed to come in and float the ship out. The block might be an earthen dike in early times. The one at Smallhythe might well have been of this kind. Buckler's Hard, on the Beaulieu River, just to the southwest, was used even for quite large ships up into the 1700s, and still has a maritime role.
  4. jbshan
    Water levels now are possibly quite different from 1400s. There is an inn in the town of Smallhythe, some 10 or 15 miles inland from Rye, with what was a shipbuilding dock in the garden. The stream that runs from there to the sea was much deeper and some quite large ships were built there. The dock was excavated and quantities of clencher nails found. The Hamble was undoubtedly a fine river to use for storing old vessels, whether for future use or for salvage of the iron fittings.
  5. jbshan
    The British had some bomb vessels, but except for the first few, in the late 1600s, they were not ketches, rather ship-rigged sloops which role they could perform when not in use with mortars.
  6. jbshan
    Lever's '85 fathoms' is for merchant ships in the coal trade. A cable as a measurement is 100 fathoms or 600 feet. NOTE to the wise: Darcy Lever, 'The Young Sea Officer's Sheet Anchor' is practically required reading, a comprehensive compendium of the things a new seaman or young officer needed to know. Lever covers most things above decks, not concerning himself much with the building of the ship, but with the setting up and operation.You can get it in a Dover publication for not very much $$. When the cable is not entirely out, it is wrapped around the bitts and set up with stoppers, lashed to eyebolts on deck or on the knee of the bitts. The stoppers are to prevent the wrap from coming off. Belaying it to the mast below decks is to prevent the whole thing going overboard and being lost. The bitts might be 'buried', but that is because the ship rises above the level on which the hawse holes are. The bitts are normally on the same deck as the hawse holes. Duff, about halfway up, where I89 and I91 cross.
  7. jbshan
    Trace that line onto your board and use more nails on the sharp part of the curve. Make the wood strip like wet spaghetti and with enough pins it should go around OK. You could perhaps use a strip of plastic to form a stiff line to bend to. Make a positive/negative mold (cut on a scroll or band saw) to make sure the right bend is being followed and help hold the curve when you put the strip in.
  8. jbshan
    Around the mast. You could use the same hitch as used on the anchor ring. I do through the ring (or around the mast), twice around the standing part, then the two rings thus formed lashed to each other, the end lashed to the rings. Remember this cable is very stiff. When I say the anchor cable is three-part I mean that it is made of three three-strand ropes made together into one. Note the texture of the larger anchor cable compared to the three-strand line atop it. When you then tar it, worm it, perhaps parcel, serve, keckle it, it becomes like iron. You couldn't use a hitch that was intended to close down upon itself, and the coils in the tier need to be kept quite open, like a racetrack shape.
  9. jbshan
    I make the gundeck length to be something like 108 ft. on the draught. Any length given for a model is likely to be from the tip of the bowsprit to the taffrail or tip of the boom, whichever is longer, so you know how much room you need on your mantle. Sometimes they will call this length over all or O. A. This is not a measurement ever used in the period and you won't find it on any document.
  10. jbshan
    Yes, the bitter end was belayed to the foot of the foremast. Most representations I've seen show coils of cable in sort of a rectangular form, smaller coils inside larger ones. These were very stiff things, think of almost rebar what with the triple rope construction and all the tar and serving, parcelling and keckling they put on them. If there is a platform or orlop deck, there would be battens on the deck to keep the cable well-aired to aid drying.
  11. jbshan
    Duffer, a ship with 24 ft. breadth would have cables of 12 inch circumference so about 4 inch diameter. She might have had up to 7 cables. A cable was 100 fathoms so 600 ft. Probably Bounty, sent around the world where there were no bases, would have had a full complement. Once out of 'soundings', in water too deep to anchor that is, the cables would have been taken off the anchors and stowed below, the anchors fished and lashed to the side, if not struck below. I'm not sure why you think you need the full length of cable. Is the hull cut away to show the interior?
  12. jbshan
    That's the book, Charlie. $9 is a pretty good price. I read somewhere that the 'typical European kit' was meant to be displayed on a mantle as part of the decor and that the mix of woods was because wood tones were popular. As long as it looked like a ship that was all that mattered. The back story was concocted to attract the buyer in the store, not to fulfill any sort of historical accuracy. To my mind, better to do your own research into a prototype that actually existed than waste time on those 'decorative' models.
  13. jbshan
    Dover Publications did a volume of Chapman's draughts. The Plates are at a reduced scale, but the printing is quite clear. The title is 'Architectura Navalis Mercatoria'. His complete name is Fredrik Henrik Af Chapman. The Volume was first printed in 1768.
  14. jbshan
    Pure copper such as they use in electrical wire tarnishes quickly. Try small gauge brass instead. You can get fairly large spools from your model sources.
  15. jbshan
    OK, Martin. Here's one showing the quarter light with a boat and officer to give scale. I made a scraper/shaper to form the moldings. The light is a little different from the one Clay used. I checked my books and this one seemed appropriate.
  16. jbshan
    "a personal preference to ships in that 1750-1810 bracket" Well, I do, fer shure. There is probably a marketing bonus if you can say 'the famous ship of the war of 1812' rather than 'the last purely sailing warship built to use up excess timber stocks in 1853'.
  17. jbshan
    You seem to be on the right track with those barrels. I had that issue with one model and checked carefully with the next. I had to lower the deck beams (top of bulkheads) to get enough clearance. I wonder if that is checked carefully enough. The Royal Navy would land guns when a ship went into ordinary. Sometimes they got the same guns and carriages back. Perhaps the customization done on board is one reason.
  18. jbshan
    There has been so much controversy about Constellation's appearance that it isn't that surprising there has been no kit of her. For years there was a group pushing for her inclusion in the 'original' frigate club, in competition with Constitution. If the link above (which didn't work for me) is the 'Fouled Anchors' article read it and you will find this group forged documents in their attempt to legitimize their claims. Part of the work of this group included remaking the hull into a 1790s frigate. In doing so, they butchered up the hull. Now that it has been settled that the vessel currently at Baltimore is the 1853 vessel, the curators are trying to restore her to that appearance. With all that going on, possibly manufacturers were reluctant to invest in a vessel in flux. There is a kit by one of the European companies, but I'm not sure how faithful it is to any version of the ship.
  19. jbshan
    I checked Chapman, 'Architectura Navalis', and there is only one drawing showing deck plank. This is Pl. LVIII showing an Algerine Chebec. This vessel is a galley with four 12 pounder guns firing forward and 16 6 pounders firing on the broadsides, 8 per side. The guns are on a small deck forward and a 'spar deck' on the broadside. The forward platform is planked fore & aft, the 'spar deck' is planked athwartship. This drawing is not of much relevance to Royal Navy ships of 1760, as the question was. Chapelle, in the volumes I have of his, shows deck plank in only perspective views, some of which are labeled 'drawn for model construction' or to help delineate the surface of the deck or to make it more decorative. In any case, it is only a portion that is shown and not the deck edge. The only really close look I have at undisputed period models is Princess Charlotte as presented in Rob Napier's book of her restoration. This model is only planked in sections, and those are panels with the individual plank scored on. In the stern, there are enough panels to show tapered, straight plank. This may or may not be correct; it could be a simplified version. Don't give up on me, there is one more installment.
  20. jbshan
    I'll do this in installments. A few general comments first. There seem to be few actual plans of the deck plank. I looked through my library and the only source material from the time I could find were a very few perspective drawings by Chapman. Chapelle did mostly the standard plan views, only a few perspective views, and he is noted for reconstructions which he doesn't document. We can discount replica vessels, even surviving vessels I think since much has had to be replaced since their active service days. Supposedly Victory has some original plank on the lower decks, but photos don't show the edges because of guns and other equipment. The same goes for later warships, in the photography era. Fishing schooners which do show deck plank in photos are not 1760s warships and not relevant. Most wrecks are piles of ballast stones; even Mary Rose doesn't have much deck left. That leaves us with Vasa.
  21. jbshan
    The round bow was actually used in the earlier part of the 1700s on frigates and other smaller ships. It took much longer to appear in ships of the line which used the beakhead bulkhead until long after Victory built in 1765.
  22. jbshan
    Bottom color as others have said, though probably not white stuffe as it was the most expensive. Topsides with one or two coats of pine tar mix, a nice honey golden color. The one flag not flown would be the Union flag, as it had become reserved to the Navy. St. George and red ensign with St. George in the canton should be OK.
  23. jbshan
    I have made spar stock by gluing 4 square sticks together. If you watch carefully for any warp in your square stock, you can position them so the warps cancel each other out. From there, just make the square into a circle. Or octagon, whatever is required.
  24. jbshan
    Alex, I found my notes. It'll take a little time to put them together into understandable form.
  25. jbshan
    I once checked a number of old sources, and most of them used tapered plank for the decks, especially aft. I can probably find my notes, if you want to go that far into it.

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