Hi, this is Scott Bradner.
A friend pointed me at this blog when he noticed that there had been some discussion about my plans for the Flying Cloud that I posted. https://www.sobco.com/ship_model/fc/Flying_Cloud_plans_bradner.html In particular, he pointed me to a discussion about naval hoods from about a year ago. The question being ‘Did the Flying Cloud have naval hoods?’
Until I read the discussion, I had never heard of naval hoods and I could not figure out from the discussion just what they were, so I did some research. I found mention of naval hoods in a number of documents published in the late 1800s. They generally indicated that naval hoods had something to do with the hawse pipes. For example:
“Navel Hoods. Those hoods wrought above and below the hawseholes, outside a ship, where there are no checks to support a bolster.” (Sailor's Word-Book: An Alphabetical Digest Nautical Terms, 1867)
The best reference I found was in “An Outline of Ship Building” by T D Wilson, published in 1880. (Available from the Internet Archive.) This document mentions naval hoods in a number of places, most detailed on page 243 it also has a useful drawing on page 422 .
The description on page 243 of this book is:
“The naval-hoods are the filling pieces placed between the cheek-knees extending to the rabbet of the stem, on which the outer flanges of the hawse-pipes rest.
The trail-boards abut against the naval-hoods and run up to the billet; they are carved or plain, to correspond with the finish of the billet. They are mitred where they abut the naval-hoods, and are secured with screws, so that they can be removed to caulk the hood ends”
And here is the drawing:
The text and the drawing (along with all of the other descriptions I found) make it clear that the naval hoods are constrained to be right around the hawse pipe(s). If the ship has trail boards, they extend from the naval hoods up to the billet or figurehead. Note that Duncan McLean’s detailed article about the launching of the Flying Cloud specifically said that the ship did not have trail-boards.
The photo that was used in the discussion on this list was of the bow of the Glory of the Seas:
Based on the definitions I found in the 1880’s documents and the description and drawing in Wilison, I do not see naval hoods in the Glory photo.
It seems to me that naval hoods on a ship that does not have trail-boards, such as the Flying Cloud, would be short beams below, above or both, the hawse pipe(s). The Glory photo does not show any such beams. It does show the bottom edge of the trail-board close to the top of the hawse pipe but it does not look like it could be used to support the hawse pipe in any way.
In my searching have not found any evidence that the Flying Cloud did have naval hoods. But even if she did, they would likely not be visible, just like the photo of the Glory shows.
Well, that is what I understood from the references I found. Please let me know if I’ve misunderstood what naval hoods were.
