clarkt

Glad your business is doing well, and hope you will continue to make cotton rope.

I have also wondered about custom laser cutting, but of sheet brass rather than wood. I'm thinking particularly of preventer links for the chains (on deadeyes) and swivel gun yokes. But if I was making an order I could probably think of other parts. Are such services available?

I built a model of Victoria, based largely on the plans for Santa Maria in Xavier Pastor's "Ships of Christopher Columbus" in the Anatomy of the Ship series, but with some significant alterations. According to my research, the stern construction had changed from the "stern tuck" to a transom style. There was a substantial main topsail and a fore topsail. (Elcano's log records that the fore topsail was carried away off the coast of West Africa on the last leg of the circumnavigation.) The ships had cressets, rather than lanterns on the stern. A boat on the Victoria normally had a crew of twelve. These are some of the best items I found while researching the ship, in S. E . Morison"s "The Great Explorers," J. H. Parry's "The Age of Reconnaissance" (Parry has written several good books on the subject,) Joseph Wheatley's "Historic Sail," and many others. I also read the Pigafetta account but it has virtually no information about the ships. Of course, there is a lot of conjecture but you can make a reasonable representation and learn a lot about the ships in the process.

The tool I use virtually every day is my Mitutoyo digital calipers.

You might try using the Sculpy to make a "maquette," to get an idea of how your figure will look and to become familiar with the body proportions. Then make the piece out of boxwood. David Antscherl describes the process very well in The Fully Framed Model, HMN Swan Class Sloops 1767-1780, Vol. II, pp 243 to 255. I think the Sculpy is too gooey to make a finished piece that you will want to display. I also tried to shape a piece of Corian countertop material, thinking that it would be easier with no wood grain issues, but it was too hard and didn't work well. The boxwood is, of course, great to work with. While it is a difficult project, the results can be rewarding. All this at 1:48 scale. Smaller might be unrealistically challenging, although I'm sure it's been done.

Phoenician ships were known to be, at least partially, black. They had the great good fortune to have access to natural (petroleum ) tar, still a good sealant, if you have nothing else. I think paint in the early days of sailing was used solely to change color and add decoration. At some point, as quality improved, they realized that it could also seal the wood against the deteroriating effects of the weather and seawater. It would be natural for captains to protect whatever they could, that way, and I imagine that some went pretty far with the technique. The idea of painting anything not moving, I believe, came along with the all steel ships.

The Anatomy of the Ship series book The Ships of Christopher Columbus by Xavier Pastor has a fairly comprehensive rigging plan for Santa Maria, although any plan from this period has got to be speculative. It would probably be worth it to use more than one source.

I have really enjoyed casting anchors, and some other things from soft metal. Micromark has everything you need.

The corded Dremel was one of the first tools I got when I started building models and I still use it almost every day. It is hung from the ceiling along with a flex shaft. I use most of the same bits and heads as Mr. Bordelau shows in his post, especially drill bits, mostly the carbide type, lately. I have thought of replacing it with a Foredom if the Dremel ever wears out. Still going strong after about 25 years. Also, the Dremel handpiece seems to be smaller and handier than any of the ones available from Foredom. A friend gave me a small rechargeable Dremel but it has no power at all.

Several years ago, I bought some blackened annealled steel wire and used it to make some hooks, etc. Since then the cut ends have rusted. It was a mistake. If you want an unfinished steel look, inconel safety wire is available which will not corrode at all.

I made blocks using the method shown in Zu Mondfeld for a few years but it was always pretty haphazard with varying results. However I went all in for the very systematic process developed by William Sproule which he described in the Nautical Research Journal (Vol. 61, No. 3, Fall 2016.) It does require a good mini table saw, and an X-Y table with some sort of drill press, but the blocks can be excellent.

The levers are an interesting idea. Never saw that before.

What you say makes perfect sense. I had considered the difficulty of moving the backstays but know that the crews were capable of some amazing things. You could drop the gaff and move quickly but probably not quickly enough. I intend now to put backstays on both sides, although I'm still surprised the draftsman left out those details when he was so thorough, otherwise. Thank you for your helpful input.

Thanks for that link. It will be helpful. The ship is the same configuration, pretty much.

I've found that information and details of fore and aft rigging is considerably harder to locate than for a square rigged ship. My question, at the moment, is this: Could a single backstay have been shifted from one side of the ship to the other as needed to support the mast/topmast in changing conditions? The ship is a single-masted sloop, a rather large example, at 94 tons, of a Hudson river-type sloop. The profile and rig plan shows (from starboard) both topmast and topgallant backstays running, one from the topmast, one from the topgallant mast, to a single double-block. (That, in itself is surprising) That block is part of a tackle hooked to an eyebolt in the top of the planksheer aft of the shrouds. the running end is then belayed on the bulwarks inboard. The mainmast "running" backstay, runs from the lower masthead to a large single block which is part of a tackle that hooks to an eyebolt in the hull placing it just forward of the other backstays. It too belays inboard on the bulwarks. A section drawing at the waist shows the topmast/TG backstays only on the starboard side; the main, running backstay is shown only on the port side, possibly for the sake of clarity(?) In a similar way, a different section drawing shows the crossjack lift only on the starboard side channel, the boom lift only on the port channel. Obviously the crossjack lifts would be on both sides. Another picture indicates that the boom lifts are also on both sides, the very large boom/sail presumably needing both. Can anyone clear this up? Thanks.