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Ditto above praise! From sunny Arkansas (73 degrees today).

Wow...

Looking good, Popeye! Sjors - I have your first order ready - where should we send the bill?????

Goodness, Sjors - it has been nearly 2 weeks and no updates??? Are you ignoring Le Mirage to pamper the San Ildefonso??? Will she not become envious or feel neglected???? Take your time, Sjors - both are looking very nice!!!

Very nice work on the Bennet, Josh! Looking real crisp. Have heard of the graduate program you are in - it is a challenging one! best of luck with it!

By Jove, I think he's got it! Found the exact picture using the ship named by Cristiano. Well played, sir! Now to wait for the call by Spyglass!!

Indeed - more pictures are always good, Sjors.

The problem with all of these is being sure that (1) the book is for the correct time period and (2) the right types of vessels (and nationality). Biddlecombe is great for Royal Navy rigging during the late 18th and first half of the 19th century (he basically took a lot of the info from Steel), but not so good at American or merchant rigging. Underhill's Masting & Rigging The Clipper Ship & Ocean Carrier is wonderful for that style of ship during the mid and late 19th century. Marquardt's Eighteenth-century Rigs & Rigging is a wonderful complement to Steel for that time frame - and in many ways much more comprehensive, though a European focus and not much American. Of course, the other challenge is that two similar ships could be built (let's assume 2 merchant clippers built in New York in 1855), but the rigging can be drastically different - the skipper had a lot of latitude in how he chose to rig his ship. Not only that, but the Bosun had a lot of say in which lines belayed where as the ship was rigged. Sigh...life would be so much simpler if they stuck to a plan!

The request has been made!

Very sharp looking, Popeye! No water skis on this one I take it??? ;)

Sarah - Looking really good! I have been bogged down in making spars and rigging the foremast for probably 3 months now...usually get to put in only a few hours each week so progress is glacial, but there is progress! Popeye had given me some good advice about the standing rigging and shrouds when I had the first foremast demasted, so to speak. I am going from memory here (and mine is decidedly befuddled at times), but something along the lines of pre-tensioning the lines before installing. Basically find their neutral tension point before putting them on the model so that they won't tighten (like mine did) or slacken. He can definitely describe the process much better than I can! Your deck furniture is looking very good - well done!

Somewhat related, would a warship with cannon maintain their cannon rigging in the neat coils on the deck when not either in port (subject to some form of inspection) or readying for combat? It seems a bit of an odd way to keep the lines when the area around the guns is constantly in use for other purposes, whether handling the sails or, on the gun and berth decks, living and eating space for the crews. If not in the neat coils, how were they stored when not in use? It looks handsome, but not practical if the guns are run out for combat or if actually working the ship. Just one of those random thoughts...thanks!

That lengthy community tale of mystery and suspense (with the occassional dry pun thrown in for good measure) was among the most entertaining stories I have seen in many a year. Would love to see it resurected (the story, not the Captain, that is)

Harvey & Kevin - Thanks! Will do some digging there. Fenous - you are more than welcome to apply for any open positions, though the accomodations may be a tad cramped for you... Andy Taylor - appreciate that - you are in my old stomping grounds there! Went to College at Roger Williams (back in the "good old days" when it was a much smaller college!) Maury - will send you a message, and THANKS!!!

The fore Top Mast is a single spar - none of the contemporary drawings show any cap and trees so used the total dimension as a single spar. It measures 51 feet (4 1/4"). The diameter at the mast cap is same as lower mast (3/32") tapering to 1/16" at the peak. To make this one, I started with a piece of 3/32" square basswood cut to the right length plus about 1/2", and then used a plane to get an octagon from about 1/2" above the heel to the upper end. I then sanded the octagon to round it and obtain the taper. Since this is so small, I hold the mast in a piece of sandpaper (started with 80 grit) and rotate while drawing through the paper. Once it is rounded, I continue but move progressively up the spar for my starting point for each cycle. This takes more off the top part resulting in the narrower top. Continued until I had a gradual but consistent taper to the desired diameter at the top. Took about 20 minutes with measuring. Finished with 400 grit paper. As mentioned above, I re-built the mast cap. I wasn't real happy with the britania metal one provided. Dimensions on the cap are as follows: Width is twice the diameter of the topmast (3/32" x 2 = 3/16") Length is twice the width (3/16" x 2 = 3/8") Thickness = 5/6 the diameter of the topmast (5/64") The top of the lower mast was squared off to about 5/64" Hope this helps!

I am going to back up here and discuss the process I used for masting the Harriet Lane. The plans and instructions are rather basic concerning the masts. Since the HL is built by one of the more famous American Clipper Ship builders (William Webb of New York), I used the information contained in Underhill's Masting & Rigging the Clipper Ship & Ocean Carrier. On page 249, he provides a set of formulae that can be used to determine the size and tapering (also in Table 5, page 250). The total length of the lower fore mast above the deck from the plans is 4.5" (converts to about 54 feet). Extending this down to the heel tenon (where it mounts to the keelson) is 5.5" or 66 feet. The given diameter at the base using Underhill is 22 inches, the first quarter tapers to 21 5/8, second quarter to 20.5, third quarter to 18 7/8. The diameter is 16 1/2 at the hounds and at the head is 13 13/16. Where the lower foremast passes through the deck, the diameter is about 21 5/8 inches or 5/32" diameter at scale. This tapers toward the top to about 3/32" that gets squared off to fit the mast cap. I wound up replacing the mast cap that was supplied with one carved from some of the extra wood in the kit. Nice and confusing, huh? Basically, I sanded the provided dowel to get a smooth finish, then tapered it via sanding from 5/32" at the deck to 3/32" at the mast cap. The same process is used for the main mast - which has, essentially, the same dimensions. I did things a bit differently for the topmast - used the same reference in Underhill, but since I had a systems failure (my original topmast broke) I built the new one out of square stock, which was handy since the base of the topmast where it fits into the tree is square. Will describe that process in a later post!

You are too kind, Sjors! Sarah - to avoid cluttering your build, I am going to add some info to my build log on the masts and yards. That work for you?

The instructions are rather generic - a couple of drawings in the instruction book, the plans sheet, but since it is at such a small scale (1:144) and the topmast and top g'lant yard are very small diameter, the detail can get lost or overwhelm the spars. tapering the topmast is a very delicate operation since it starts so small.

Dang - no pressure here I used a couple of books to figure out the taper and arrangements - Underhill's Masting & Rigging The Clipper Ship & Ocean Carrier, Murphy & Jeffers Spars and Rigging from Nautical Routine, 1849 and Biddlecombe's The Art of Rigging. Each is a good reference for different aspects of the masting and rigging. Let me pull some info together and will post a bit later this morning concerning tapering etc. As to the boom rest - the fore mast is completely square rigged so no boom rest nor gaff. Only the main mast is rigged with a boom rest and gaff driver (spanker). Here are a couple of pictures that may hel slightly. I will go back and get the info on tapering and fittings a bit later today. Rigging as shown on the plans sheet Rigging the bowsprit from Underhill

Thanks, Andy - will give that a try. Those are about 1:29 scale give or take?

Looking for a source for either shipyard or nautical (19th to early 20th century) figures. My model is 1" = 32" scale = figures would ideally be between 2" & 2.25" in height. Any idea where I can find some? Many thanks!

Hmmm...can rule out tug boats and clipper ships right off the bat...very pretty vessel, Anja - gonna need to do some pondering to find this one!

Hmmm...from Popeye to Alice's Resturant! Nice recovery, Augie!

Absolutely beautiful job - boat and painting!

Looks really good, Frank! Not bad for a non-seamstress!