garyshipwright

Bonjour à vous,
pour faire un suivi de ce chantier de la Belle Poule,je  viens apporter à ceux qui peuvent être intéressés, une suite de photo qui se rajoutent à ce dossier pour actualiser les travaux en cours.
Si l'avancement reste trop modeste à mon goût, la motivation reste bien présente.
 
 
Hello to you, to follow up on this La Belle Poule site, I am bringing to those who may be interested, a series of photos which are added to this file to update the work in progress. If the advancement remains too modest for my taste, the motivation remains very present.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Completing the rigging
 
Kind of you to say Glenn, although I would defer to some of the real experts on the forum (and I don't normally suffer from modesty!). Anyway, I'm hurrying this along a bit as I'm keen to clear the decks before setting off for the Antarctic next week.
 
The rest of the running rigging went smoothly for the most part and the process was almost identical to the description in my Speedy log. The only really tricky task I found was rigging the main topsail yard braces. These are set up with brace pendants on the yard and a pair of 3mm blocks on a long strop fitted round the mizzen mast, just above the crossjack. The space between the latter and the mizzen top is very tight so I'd fitted the blocks before I'd even stepped the mast. However I realised too late that the standing ends of the main topsail yard braces had to be seized to the strops between the blocks and the mizzen yard. Hopefully this is clear from this shot and the following close-up:


The only way I could find to do this was to twist the strop round so the blocks faced aft, i.e. away from the crowsfeet and other obstructions on the fore side of the mizzen mast. It was still tight, but I did eventually manage to a seize a brace just behind each of the two blocks then twist the whole affair back round to the other side of the mast after which it was comparatively simple to take the braces up through the brace pendants on the topsail yard, back through the blocks stropped to the mizzen, then through the top to belay on the mizzen bits.
 
One point where I departed slightly from the plans was in belaying the mizzen topsail braces. Unless I misinterpreted them, the plans show these reeving through blocks at the aft end of the lateen yard then running forward at quite a sharp angle to belay on the mizzen bitts. I chose to belay the braces on the quarterdeck rail near the transom, where the near-vertical line from the lateen yard seemed more natural. 
 
I've just got a bit of tidying and touching up to do, and a few more rope coils, but I'm not sure I'll get all that done before disappearing to the frozen wastes so here's a few shots of the almost complete model. I'll do some proper shots and a fuller write up when I get back, and also give some proper thought to her display.





 
HMS Sphinx is calling!
 
Derek
 
 
 
 
 
 

Thanks Albert that is exactly the one I am hoping to get in the very near future. Thank you Clay and Jaager for the information it should help the NMM find the print. Email on the way to them. Gary

I sent a email to the Royal Museum Greenwich, for a print of the Intrepid, 1770, Intrepid /Magnanime Class for the Frame print, which Anson is part of. It's a side view much like the one you have on the wall. Should come in handy if they can find it.  Gary

Thanks Albert. Do you by chance have the ZAZ  and J number of that plan? Am trying to order it but so far can not find it and will come in real handy when building the ship.  Hard to frame one when you can't see how the frames look on the side. I sent a email to the Greenwich requested that plan but so far they have not come up with any thing. Thanks  you sir and you are outstanding.  Hope your having a good day  and look forward to watching your outstanding build  come to life. Again thank you.  Gary

Looking good Siggi. Have always enjoy your build's and enjoy the crew who are building it. Outstanding job. Gary

Hi Mark. Here is a couple of photo's of the cheeks and they items made for them. Its been awhile since I made them but believe I used a piece of curved wood to get the right curve on them using a heat gun after putting water on them. Hope it help's Gary 

I sent a email to the Royal Museum Greenwich, for a print of the Intrepid, 1770, Intrepid /Magnanime Class for the Frame print, which Anson is part of. It's a side view much like the one you have on the wall. Should come in handy if they can find it.  Gary

Looking good Siggi. Have always enjoy your build's and enjoy the crew who are building it. Outstanding job. Gary

Looking good Siggi. Have always enjoy your build's and enjoy the crew who are building it. Outstanding job. Gary

Thanks Albert. Do you by chance have the ZAZ  and J number of that plan? Am trying to order it but so far can not find it and will come in real handy when building the ship.  Hard to frame one when you can't see how the frames look on the side. I sent a email to the Greenwich requested that plan but so far they have not come up with any thing. Thanks  you sir and you are outstanding.  Hope your having a good day  and look forward to watching your outstanding build  come to life. Again thank you.  Gary

Thanks Albert. That will come in handy and will be watching your Anson build. Gary

Thanks Albert. That will come in handy and will be watching your Anson build. Gary

Hi Albert. Your building and dry dock are out standing. If you don't mind just a question but the wood on your base looks like pear but what is the top made of ? It looks like rock by the color and this is the same type of base I want to build for Montague/Alfred. Another question how wide is the opening of the back of the slip and how deep did you make it at the back end and front end.  Have the book you talk about and will come in real handy and thank you again very very much for sharing your build with us. Gary

Thanks Albert. That will come in handy and will be watching your Anson build. Gary

Hi Albert. Your building and dry dock are out standing. If you don't mind just a question but the wood on your base looks like pear but what is the top made of ? It looks like rock by the color and this is the same type of base I want to build for Montague/Alfred. Another question how wide is the opening of the back of the slip and how deep did you make it at the back end and front end.  Have the book you talk about and will come in real handy and thank you again very very much for sharing your build with us. Gary

Albert the plan you have on the wall in you last post of the ship in frame is that one from the NMM or one you drew up  for the Anson to help you build her? Looks good. Gary

So, all the aft cant frames are fabricated; some still need pre-fairing and tree-nailing.  29F is being glued in so I should get to the straight frames by the weekend (touch wood)

Hi Dave  Am just a little late to the party but have one other book that will make a good addition to you small library. Peter Goodwin has a very wonderful book and I use it and Brain Lavery  all the time and would be a good asset for you. It's called  the Construction and fitting of the English Man of War.  Do believe you will be very happy with this one and really has lot's of good infor that one need's for building them.  Have fun. Gary

We have missed you Albert and very happy to see you back. Gary

Continuation: Equipping the yards - studding sail boom irons
Since I am also interested in how studding sail booms work, that is, how to deploy and attach them, I tried to find more information in the relevant literature and on the Internet. In particular, the book "Seamanship in the Age of Sail" by John Harland describes, among other things, the handling of studding sail booms. This naturally results in various details on the spars themselves (of which later) and in this case on the studding sail boom irons.
 

Source: Seamanship in the Age of Sail, John Harland, p. 147
 
The preceding picture from this book explains very impressively that the studding sail booms, which were a handicap when sailing, were taken up and attached to the shrouds. To make this possible, the inside boom irons were hinged to open, which can also be seen in the contemporary drawings below. As can also be seen, these examples have different angles, depending on their chronological placement. This also corresponds with the observations of the photographs of contemporary ship models of the Musée national de la Marine.
 

Source: Internet_MSW_Archives_G. Delacroix_ca.1830
 

Source: Atlas_Brest_1850
 

Source: Atlas_Toulon_1854
 
As mentioned before, the Paris Museum has kindly provided me with a high-resolution overall image of La Créole, from which I can obtain additional information to Jean Boudriot's monograph. Especially in the case of the studding sail booms, it can be seen that they were clearly arranged in front of the yard, without angles as shown in the monograph. This also corresponds to the temporal context.
In this respect I orientate myself for my model on the drawing, which I received thankfully from G. Delacroix via MSW. Similarities between this drawing and the original Paris model, as shown below, are clearly recognizable. Also I see there the already described details on the historical drawings confirmed.

Now I will get to work on the realization for the model. I hope to find a way to produce these difficult details as far as possible. A special challenge is the mounting of the inside studding sail boom iron, because I have to choose a two-piece design for it due to the expansions at the yard arms, if possible with hinges like on the original. I have already made comparable hinges for this model as attachment for the front fishes. But this time it has to go one size smaller.

I decided to make the studding sail boom irons for the fore topsail yard first, because they have the smallest dimensions.
Bigger is always possible...
More about that soon ...