Barbara Lange

Ok, I'll use that argument 😂 I have not read about mast trucks yet. To me everything is new. I feel like a brand new baby... But I will look for them. The thing is, Dad really likes working on the ship but he cannot figure out anything on his own anymore. Working on the ropes of the rigging is basically impossible for him, because every rope goes somewhere else. That is too hard to visualise for him. Making the wooden parts is much better, because he can make a design and the process repeats several times. That way he is busy, even when I am not around. So I'll look for the mast trucks. All of the blocks and the anchors are finished, waiting to be attached.

Dad has been working on the shroud cleats these last few weeks. I had a fair amount of travelling to do and yet to go. So, progress has been even slower than usual but that's OK. We had a huge discussion over the cleats. Longridge is very tight lipped about the size of them and McKay only mentiones the length. Dad wanted to calculate the size of the actual ones from the pictures we took when we were in Portsmouth, taking the camera angles into account. That didn't work out too well. So I finally begged him to let artistic freedom rule and go with that. Ok. Fine. So he finished the first set with measurements we sort of eyeballed. The second set needed to be thinner. Now he asked me what I thought about the new sizes he had invented, because - hey, this is artistic freedom, right? Now I was the one to be a bit anal about sizes, because I felt that 18" shrouds at the fore mast should be just as long as 18" shrouds at the mizzen mast, even though they are thinner. He in turn argued that that would look awful. I have to mention he is the engineer. I am more the artistic type. I finally gave in, after a 1/2 hour heated discussion, thinking a) he has more experience in model ship making that I do and so far he did a great job, b ) threre is no model ship police to my knowledge c) and it is his ship after all. Looking at them now, I think he did a fabulous job. And I learned a lesson. They are between 10 and 18 mm long, the thicker ones are 2.5 mm , the others are 1.9 mm. Ebony wood. Now working on the trucks. Absolutely no information on the size, or on the number of pieces and only one mentioning of a rope that passes a truck. Back to artistic freedom. Oh well. We can handle that.

HI Marc, I totally agree with you - finding this site has added so much to our building experience because it gives us the feeling of not being alone on this. We do not know anybody else who bulds model ships. But we know pleanty of people who say:"what, you'e still not finished? You started rigging it 6 months ago!" The internet and this group really add to the quality of this experience.

Hi Greg, No, I am not a ship model maker at all. I am a passionate quilter and I dare say I am pretty handy with needle and thread but that is it. But growing up in a household with this ship model being built you cannot help but pick up one or the other skill. When we started out on this adventure, Dad had to tell me what the fore mast, the main mast and the mizzen mast ist, where to find starboard and port side and so on. I mean the real basics. Now we have intense discussions about how to attach the martingales to the knight head and so on. I am really enjoying the process - but no, I do not believe that I will ever attempt to make a second ship. What i basically do is read "Anatomy of Nelsons's ship", compare it with John Mc Kays "The 100 Gun Ship Victory", and "Rigging period ship models" and go from there.

Yay! The parral dividers are done and the first one is already mounted! Dad made the cutting blade for the router and then made the boxwood rods which he then sliced. The booms for the spritsail and spritsail topsail are up😊

Today was odd. I am waiting for Dad to make the dividers of the parrals. He is willing but I had the impression he had no idea of how to go about it. I had him show me the router and how it works, hoping that would help him remember. It did in a way. But then he decided he wanted to make the blade himself. Fine, I thought. No. Not fine. At one point he asked me what he was doing here at all. "A blade for the router so you can shape the wood before you start slicing it. We need parrals." - "Oh, yes, right. I forgot." So I sort of talked him through the process of making the blade. Tonight he wants to sharpen and then harden it. Progress is slow. I am sorry to bore you with stories of dimentia. But the thing I have learned in this journey is: - get a hobby early - show your kids what you are doing, what kind of tools you use and how they work. He is happy when he is working on the ship, it gives him something to do and makes things much easier for my mom. Progress is S.L.O.W. - but who cares? Doctors tell us that the ship is the best medicine he could possibly get. Oh - and I sorted the booms today. One ring on the main yard obviously broke off a few years ago. He already made a replacement. We just need to attach it one of these days. ..

The story of the buckets... I spoke with Dad about the buckets. He rememers making them with leather which he hallmarked with gold leaf. A friend of his had the metal embossing tools ( I'm sorry, I don't know if I am using the correct vocabulary here). He still has a few spare buckets. The handel is a piece of string, the leather edges are butted up against each other, no overlap. He ist enjoying your comments very much. If any one wants to see the model in real life and is willing to come to Germany/Munich, you are more than welcome to visit us.

Peter, you are hilarious, you just made my day! 😂😂 I am sure Dad will get a kick out of that reply!

Hi Isalbert, feel free to ask. I will in turn ask my father. The problem is that he is forgetting so many things that I cannot guarantee that he will remember. Sometimes he does, sometines he doesn't. Sometimes he remembers three weeks later... it is a very interesting ride we are on...

Ok, I guess I am going to go backwards. These are pictures of the ship taken in January 2018, before we started working on the standing rigging together.

Ok. I can try. But that will take a while. As I said, it is my father, who is building it for 36 years now. I have to try and find pictures in his stuff. I already found a typed letter from Alexander McKay in which they discussed sanitary facilities for the crew. 😊

What in particular are you interested in? As you can tell from the new members introduction, I am new to this world and don't know where to start....

Good question. It has taken 36 years to build it by now - so finding the answer was never really a concern. It has to be finished to make that a real issue and we don't know if we will ever make it there. So why worry now😉 Maybe some museum. Or not. I have a big house...

Vielen Dank!

I never measured, but it is about 2,50m long and 1,80 m high. The widest boom is about 75 cm.

First step on our way to complete the running rigging. The sprit boom is up 😊. Don't ask how many times I attached it to the bowsprit, though. Today I was so frustrated that I tore it down one more time, adjusted the martingales and now I am happy with the result. Dad is busy winding the white ropes for the running rigging.

Thanks for your help. That was the initial post which led me onto this group. 😊 It is a good starting point but it does confirm what I mentioned: there are no sail plans in those books. Of course, I can go ahead and measure when we have the booms up. But.... arghh...

Hello, the topic sort of says it all. My father has been building a modell from scratch for the past 36 years. The scale is 1:38. He is 78 years old now and is starting to suffer from dimentia. Before Chirstmas 2017, he was at a point where he had stopped building for about 1 1/2 years. The standing rigging was about 1/4th of the way. The problem way, he was stuck and could no longer make any sense out of what he was reading in his books. That is when I stepped in. We have now completed the standing rigging together. He can still make ropes, make thimbles, blocks, you name it. But he gets confused when he tries to atach ropes on his own so I am sort of the one who decides what we do next and then we do it together. He can help when I tell him what needs to be done, but that is the problem: I do not know, either. So I am reading, doing research, we even did a trip to the original ship in Portsmouth in January together. His background is electronic engineering and he has been doing woodwork as a hobby as long as I can think. I am a teacher and quilter - which sort of helps with the rigging, as I am good with thread work. One goal is to get it done. Someday. Maybe. The more important goal is to challenge his memory and his manual abilities. I think we have every book on the planet about the ship. The one thing I cannot find is a precise description about the size of the sails. You know - being a quilter, I sort of like patterns ;-) . Any suggestions? Barbara