el cid

In my experience (minimally-manned FFGs) the underway watch rotation varied by steaming condition (where we were and what the threat level was) and by the particular manning of each division. For example, on a particular deployment the FCs managed a “normal” watch rotation (4 on, 8 off) but the OSs were short qualified watch standers and had to run 6 on, 6 off.
 
But then we FCs also had to maintain and repair our equipment between watches. The OSs just broke stuff then called the ETs to come fix it while they slept.
 
On deployment the needs of normal watch rotation; equipment maintenance/repair; UNREPs; flight ops; GQ, fire, DC, and engineering drills (and actual events); housekeeping, training, etc, ensured that everyone was sleep deprived…always.

I was a Division LPO for half of my 20-year naval career and had to write many an underway watch bill. The process is determined by the nature of your deployment and subject to change as world circumstances evolve. For most peacetime deployments you can go to a three section watch with everyone standing 8 hours of watch in a day, have 8 hours of rest time and 8 hours to complete shipboard housekeeping duties. Underway replenishment and GQ drills of course put everyone not on watch into work mode. In a quasi-battle mode the watch bill goes port and starboard with the schedule now 8 on 4 off, 4 on 8 off to accommodate getting rest but maintaining mental acuity. I used to sit down with my division chief and Division officer before any underway time to establish what we were expecting during a deployment and always had a backup plan. It is much easier today to plan such things than back in the age of sail. 

HM Ships Princess Royal and Tiger at Scapa Flow. V/W Destroyer with Observation Balloon and Drifter full of Libertymen off to sample the delights of Kirkwall 
w/c 16" X 11" 

Fleet with Pheasant Scapa Flow WW 2 watercolour 16" X 11"

Flying operations from a QE class BB at Scapa Flow. Seaplane Carrier Ben my Chree about to secure to a buoy

 
w/c 16" x 11" 

Ship Grace Harwar and Steamer Miltiades 
w/c 16" X 11"

Standing order of the day: "If it moves, lube it. If it doesn't move, paint it!"  

Sullom Voe

Shetland Bus
Norwegian Subchaser escorts a 'Shetland Bus' fishing boat passing Sumburgh Head 
w/c 16” X 11” 

Becalmed

I have always struggled making rope hanks. I've tried every method I can find on this forum and on YouTube, but it always boils down to the same problem. Every method seems to work for me until that point at the end when it calls for "a small dab of glue." Well, for me diluted PVA glue never seems to hold and a small dab of CA glue never seems to hold the whole thing together either. So I end up using enough glue to hold everything together, but the result is usually the glue wicking into the line, darkening and hardening it and it generally looking terrible. The best I have ever been able to do is to try to minimize this effect, which means that at least half of the hanks I make for every model end up in the garbage and I'm only somewhat happy with the ones I do use.
 
So here is the result of my experimenting yesterday and I think it just might be a good solution to my problem. I was trying (for the umpteenth time) the method outlined by Tom Lauria in his YouTube video. I was having the best luck with this method of any of the others I've tried, but still having the glue problem at the end, so here's how I adapted his method to try to avoid the glue problem.
 
I wrapped the line five times around three nails - two at the top, with a narrow space between them and one at the bottom. The distance apart is the length I need excluding the loop that goes over the belaying pin; in this case 3/8".
 
Tom outlines a perfect oval with a series of closely spaced nails, but I found it's not necessary to do that. The hank comes out more or less the same with the three nails as it does with several. Many methods only use two nails anyway, one top and bottom. However I found it necessary to have a space at the top, hence two nails at the top.
 

Then I wrapped a length of matching sewing thread around the coils at the top and tied a knot. I'm not worrying about the loop for the belaying pin at this point. This knot around the coils ensures that they will not come apart and it's actually easy to get a small dab of CA glue on this knot without touching the main line. The glue only has to hold the knot; the thread is holding the coils.

When the CA glue was set in a couple of moments, I trimmed the threads off, leaving just the knot.
 
Then I pulled one of the long ends of the line underneath the coil at the top and up through the centre -
 

Made a loop out of it and pulled the end back through underneath the coil at the top -

And then, just like Tom Lauria did, I secured the loop with a drill bit in a previously drilled hole and pulled the loop snug against the drill bit -

Here I took a length of matching sewing thread in a needle and stuck in down through the middle of the line on one side of the loop and through, at least part of, the coil below -
 

Then I transferred the needle to the other end of the sewing thread and did the same thing on the other side of the loop -
 

This ensures that when I tie the two ends together, the knot will be on the back of the hank -

Then I just tied the sewing thread into a knot on the back side of the hank. Just like before it's easy to put a small dab of CA glue on this knot without touching the main line.
 

When the CA glue sets, it's just a matter of trimming off all the lines -
 

This hank cannot come apart because the coils are tied together in a bundle and the loop for the belaying pin is sewn directly to the hank. There's no glue visible on the surface and the sewing thread is completely invisible. I think this is the best hank I've ever made and the process didn't end up with the garbage men wondering  "what's with all the gluey coiled thread coming out of this house?"
 
So that's my good news for this weekend.
 
Happy Thanksgiving to the Canadians out there! ( or should I say "Happy Hanksgiving?")
David

Centurion 
C class Empire Flying Boat. 16” X 11”

Ocean Artist
Based on several Ocean Class ships  W/c 16” X11”   

Port Caledonia was a four-masted steel barque built in 1892 by Russell & Co., Greenock 

 
W/C 16" X 11"

HMS Hermes 1982 w/c 16” X 11”

Lt. Eric 'winkle' Brown in his Martlet approaches HMS Audacity.11.5” X 8.5” watercolour. HMS Black Swan in back ground.

Down among the Bergs
Didnt like the Albatross so changed it

The iron ship 'Fulwood', 2170 tons, under sail iron ship, 2170 tons, When under Norwegian flag went missing in 1919 on a voyage from Buenos Aires to Korsor

More postcards

 

Abandoned 
No SOS In thos days 
w/c 16" X 11" 

Should have said, It is supposed to be 'Off Gourock' on the river Clyde, an assembly and dispersal point forConvoys.
 

Not to highjack the conversation, but want to also thank you for sharing your CAD images, especially the somewhat obscure weapons, directors, and other antennas. I have the 1/350 Orange Hobby USS BOSTON (CAG-1) in the stash and your research will help me modify the kit to a 1964-66 fit (my dad’s tour as AA gunnery officer and then navigator). So thanks again for sharing all of your hard work.
 
Cheers,
 
Keith

Sorry,I no longer do commissions. This is the only one I’ve ever painted, and it’s part of a Diptych which is in the Russian Arctic Convoy Museum at Loch Ewe 

Square rigger 'down south' 
w/c 16" X 11" 

Tug just cast off from Steel Barque 'Francois' anonymous coastal schooner in the Clyde estury
w/c 16" X11"