bruce d

Just to add a bit more light on the subject, in 1746 the master of HMS Lys (1745), a 24-gun sixth-rate vessel, sent this request: "Captain Thomas Knowler, the Lys, Sheerness. Request to have grating tops made and as the hammocks are not sufficient to barracade the netting on each side, asks for bags filled with oakum." The source is a file in the The national archives UK ref ADM 106/1030/301 dated September 15 1746. Perhaps a ship of your size would have sufficient hammocks but clearly this smaller craft did not. HTH Bruce

Hello Simon and a warm welcome to MSW. Looks like a good start, will be interested in how it develops.

Hello Pat and a warm welcome from the UK. Glad to hear from someone from Texas in these difficult days, hope you share a build log with us. Bruce

Bonjour Mic and welcome aboard MSW. I look forward to seeing what you choose.

Very nice, it will be an attractive model. 👍

A good looking model and a neat workbench: who would have thought it? 👍 Bruce

Hello Jas and welcome to MSW from the UK. As you have probably already seen, a lot of newcomers to this hobby are experienced in other types of modelmaking. You will find most of your head-scratching moments have already been addressed and solved by someone else. My only advice is: choose a subject that holds your interest and that you want to see sitting on a shelf in your home. Looking forward to seeing what you choose, enjoy it! Bruce

B E, I really enjoyed this build. Your approach to the problems ( Problems? What problems? ) kinda puts my 1/48th CAFModel longboat build to shame. The display works well. good job.

!!! What a great subject. I look forward to the curtain raising for the performance.

Hello Henry, can you narrow down the date a bit? Anything else you know will help to get the right craft. Bruce

Who hasn't? Welcome to MSW!

Hello Steve, welcome to MSW. Great advice from Chris and Mark, hope to see your build. Regards, Bruce

Hello Alan and welcome to MSW from Sussex.

Kris, welcome to MSW from Sussex.

Hello shortgrass, have you checked out this? https://modelshipworld.com/forum/89-cross-section-build-logs-for-hms-triton/

Many thanks Lester, may take you up on that 😊. Just a bit of advice: to keep the scalliwags out of your life I suggest you edit out your email address, there is a really good PM function on MSW.

Me neither, but ... I seldom hear of duck hunting without thinking of a Dornier Libelle, the ultimate 'duck blind'. This 1920's aircraft actually included in it's sales blurb that the well-heeled owner could land it on his favorite lake, taxi to a shore and fold the wings: then, using the wings as shelter take up position on the sponsons and wait for the ducks to arrive. http://www.histaviation.com/Dornier_Do_Libelle.html I always imagine rich German arms dealers having a boozy lunch from a wicker hamper with their shotguns while sitting either side of the cockpit. BTW, I am enjoying your canoe build 😁

Welcome to MSW.

They are absurdly cheap on fleabay from China. I got one (didn't need it but had to look) and there is absolutely nothing wrong with what arrived in the post. This image is used by several sellers on the site: It is iron so store it somewhere dry. I have several ways to index/divide in my shop and have to admit this is as good as some much more expensive methods. Cost about £4 = $US 5.

Oh wow, imagine those evening photographs!

Hello Chris, Nice job, you really captured the look of a Bermuda boat. Also, a reminder that there is no need to rush! Bruce

Wow.

Just looked back at what I wrote. Seemed a bit harsh, sorry about that. I haven't really found anything that says what happens to the ballast on commercial ships except (I think) a couple of times in the contracts. IIRC, one of the contracts just said the slate ballast 'to be set fair on fir and stayed' which I took to mean placed on battens and wedged into place. Whether the slate was shaped or not wasn't mentioned. I didn't take notes so I can't call it up again but I am pretty sure it was a Colonial (Virginia?) craft mid 18th c.

The elephant in the room: this ship made it back to port because the copper sheathing held. Who knows how many other other ships that had been lost without trace had the same problem but a different outcome? The episode provided first hand evidence of what happened when ballast was treated in a sloppy manner and probably saved several other ships from the same fate. By the way Druxey, perhaps you can correct me but I do not believe the gazzilions of transports pressed or hired into naval service had automatic dockyard upgrades to install ceiling planks. So yeah, the purpose built warships followed the same general rules but the privateers and commercial craft were built to whatever contract the owner stipulated.

I have not found the answer but here is an example of why it is a good question: "Danger of Shingle Ballast. The following is to be added to the many instances of injury arising from the use of shingle ballast: - The Mysore, an Indian Ship of large dimensions and uncommon strength, lately, on her passage from Bengal to Bombay, sprung so serious a leak, that unremitting exertions at the pumps were for several weeks necessary to keep her afloat. On arriving at Bombay she was docked, when water was observed running through a part of the copper which covered the bottom sheathing abreast of the chess-tree, and the nails of the copper partly drawn. On removing some of the sheets, a hole was visible in the sheathing plank, which being taken off, the plank of the garboard streak on each side the keel was found to be quite cut through, and an aperture in them sufficiently large to admit a man's arm from the outside. On the timbers being cleared inside, this was discovered to have been occasioned by some round stones, nearly the size of a twelve-pound shot, having fallen betwixt the floor-timbers in this place, and by the constant motion of the Ship, perhaps from the time she was launched, had grooved their way through the garboard planks and sheathing, over the keel, which was likewise indented upwards of three inches, and through the two next bottom planks. As the stones were found in the timbers, and exactly fit the groove, and as several of the other floor-timbers had stones betwixt them, which had occasioned a similar effect, although not in an equal degree, no doubt can remain of their being the cause of the circumstance which had so nearly proved fatal to the Mysore; for, had the sheets of copper, of which the nails were partly drawn, fallen off, no exertion of the Officers and Crew could have saved the Ship. Naval Chronicle, Vol. iV (1801), p 270. "