Dubz

Oh I forgot to tell you about the opened window :-)
 
Did you already spot him?
 
Who???
 
Sir Archibald of course, who would have made a mess with the air in the mess if his comrades would´t have asked him to enhace air quality inside the ship by opening the window :-)
 

 
So into the cabin, putting the coat onto the hook and sit down and hang loose ...
 

 
... and there he is sitting on his lower end at the lower and of the ship and enjoys life and being - and especially the thought, that he does not have to sit on the seats of ease at the head :-)
 

 
Him looking a little bit strained is due to the dignity and the sincerity of his task - and due to the fact that while being painted ...
 
... ouch, have a look and feel with him:
 

 
Ok, we let him now concentrate onto his task, even though I have the feeling that he will be sitting there for a while ...
 

 
Three cheers for Sir Archibald, 
 
sincerily yours, Daniel

Hi all!
 
Like most members I don't have a backup of my (lost) logs but since I have a log in a German forum in parallel as well I can re-create it nearly as it was (without the replies from other members of course) by translating the German version, but this will take some time. But to begin with here is a picture of my model as it looks now:
 

 
 
Introduction:
Data and sources  of the model and the ship:
All (or better the little) I know about the frigate Berlin goes back to the appropriate chapter (by Hans Szymanski) in the book Buch „Risse von Schiffen des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts“, Verlag Delius Klasing (now out of print) and the plans attached the book. These plans are a re-construction done by Horst Hoeckel in the 1930s
 
. 
 
Dimensions:
 
Length:        80 ft – 22,65 m
Breadth:      22 ft – 6,23 m
Armament: 10 four-pounders, 2 three-pounders and 3 two-pounders
 
Horst Szymanski mentions in the book that Hoeckel came to slightly different dimensions when making his re-construction.
Unfortunately no sources are mentioned in the book.
 
There is a contemporary painting (1684) by the Dutch artist Lieve Pietersz Verschuir showing the fleet oft he elector of Brandenburg on which also the Berlin is shown (relatively small in the background – marked in red)
 

 
I don’t know if the original painting is large enough to show sufficient details as basis for a reliable re-construction.
I could not find any other sources or information for the original ship. All kits or plans of Berlin which I have seen seem to go back to Hoeckel’s re-construction. This again obviously is based on a contemporary plan of a Dutch pinnace in the Scheepvaartmuseum (maritime museum) in Amsterdam.
 

 
There are no original plans of Berlin and no other contemporary painting of her exists and I believe that from the painting shown above it is even not clear if Berlin was really a single decked pinnace or a small twodecker (as other Brandenburgish frigates were). So maybe Hoeckel was right in assuming that Berlin looked similar to this Pinnace, maybe not. I believe however that a full size replica built according to Hoeckel‘s plan would not have looked odd in a Dutch harbour in the second half of the 17th century.
 
Short history oft he ship:
 
The ship is a pinnace and was built 1674 in the Dutch province Zeeland on account of Benjamin Raule, the organizer of the navy of the elector Friedrich Wilhelm of Brandenburg, who has then chartered the ship from Raule.
From 1676 to 1678 the ship operated in the Baltic Sea against Sweden. In 1679 six Brandenburg warships - one of them the Berlin - seized several merchant vessels of Hamburg, 1680 Berlin together with four other frigates captured the Spanish 50 gun ship „Carolus Secundus“, afterwards until 1681 the Berlin together with some other ships operated in the West Indies, were three Spanish ships were taken. In 1687 Berlin sailed as ship of the „Brandenburgish Africa Company“ to West Africa and was confiscated by the „Dutch Westindia Company“ in 1688 and this was the end of Berlin’s career as a Brandenburgish warship.
The model:
I have built the model in the particular style oft he English Navy Board models. I am aware that it is to some extent a contradiction to build a model of a Dutch ship in the way English Navy board models were built in the 17th century) but this model is a way for me to study this building method and to learn about the difficulties connected with it by building a small model (without doing a lot of research) before turning over to something bigger (what I have in mind is building a Navy board model of HMS Resolution 1667 based on my own re-construction)
length oft he model:    approx. 450 mm (17 ¾“) from figurehead to taffrail
scale:                          1: 64 resp. 3/16 inch per foot
material:                      pear
                                    maple fort he green stained klinker planking and the blue stained planking of the stern and some carvings
 
Framing of a Navy Board model:
 
Before I begin the actual build log I‘d like to explain shortly the particular style of framing of English Navy Board models:
 
The frames consist of floor, first and second futtocks (toptimbers), the hull is not planked below the main wales. The decks consist of deck beams, carlings and ledges and are only partially planked to allow a view to the interior. Some experts believe this method of framing is just stylized, others believe that English ships were really built like this in the early 17th century. This particular style of framing has however been retained (with some small alterations) for Navy board models until about the mid 18th century.
The following picture shows the typical arrangement of a frame of a Navy board model consising of floor, first futtock and second futtock.
On the left hand side the midship frame (in this case my own re-construction of HMS Resolution), in the center the side view and on the right hand side the individual parts, the red marks show the position of the feet of the first and second futtocks
 

 
And this shows the same in wood:
 

 
There were different variaties of Navy board framing but it is not the object of this log to describe them all. For all interested in this subject I recommend the book Navy Board Ship Models 1650 – 1750 by John Franklin.
 
Navy board models were not planked below the main wale. The decks were built accurately from all required parts i. e. deckbeams, carlings, ledges, knees etc. but the planking was carried out only partially.
The next part will deal with the building of the framing of the model
 
cheers
 
Klaus
 

Late summer 1805, the sun is burning inexorably from above, the wind is completely asleep, the sea is smooth as glass.

The dispatches have already been exchanged. The master of the small cutter has just returned to his tiny vessel. Behind it there is towering the enormously massiv silhouette of the huge black and ocher striped three decker. Through the open gunports the lashed up guns can be seen. Also the officers' cabins ports are wide opened by the order of the Captain's to ensure an optimal ventilation of the hot and steamy lower decks.

Clatter of activity on some guns being ran out cuts through the silence. The rumble of the heavy guns rolling over the decks and the trampling of countless bare feet and the short shouted commands supported by a multitude of hand signs originate from the ordered gundrill for new gun crews and their officers. In competition between the three decks they are fighting for the fastest rate of firing. The rest of the ships crew is occupied with cleaning and mending duties. The holystone are scratching on the decks.

Above all the sails hang slack in their yards. No breath of wind moves them. They are nestled heavily over stays and fighting tops. The captain took advantage of the hot calm to put up all the canvas possible for airing. One of the studdingsails is taken in, the spar tied up with its inner end against the shrouds, in order to mend something on its fittings. Sitting on a swing seat pendent from the fore top, a crew member just is finishing painting over with ocher the originally black coloured mast loops.

On the poop Captain Hardy monitors the young cadets´ training in navigation, supported by Lord Nelson, who uses the opportunity to entertain the cadets with stories of his actions and the ideas of his tactical concepts.

But in the back of everybodys mind there is just one question - When will there be wind again ...