I am well into construction of my Caldercraft Aggie, but I modified the construction along the way, by framing out all the gunports before planking, instead of cutting them all out later (thankfully it worked!). The hull is now planked and coppered, and I've begun working on the innards.
I am about to start fitting out the gun deck, and here is where I ran into a problem. According to the kit instructions, the big riding bitts go here, just in front of the stove. But according to my references, on two-deckers these bitts should be one deck lower, on the lower gun deck. This is the arrangement (stove on the gun deck, riding bitts on the lower gun deck, below the hearth) according to the fold-out plans of the 74-gun ship in Rees ("Naval Architecture"). Furthermore, Peter Goodwin ("construction and fitting of the English Man of War 1650-1850, p. 175) is quite emphatic; "They were always found on the lower gun deck of two-decked ships and on the gun deck of frigates and sloops."
Sorry if this has been discussed elsewhere, but I would like to know if there is evidence that Agamemnon's design differed from other two-deckers in this respect? Has anybody seen the original plans? Should I leave off the riding bitts? Seems a pity, because they add a nice detail.. but not at the expense of accuracy.