Dr PR

On larger ships the loading tackle (burton tackle) ran down from the topmast head (assuming there was a topgallant mast). On smaller vessels without burton tackle came down from the lower masthead.

Beautiful schooner, with a classic sail plan. It will make a great model!

Sascha, You have created a beautiful model! And it is even more impressive knowing you used simple tools, and you have great skill working with them.

It is a beautiful ship, and the model deserves to be finished! How large is this model? What scale? From the photo looking down at the decks it is clear from the chair beside the model that it is pretty large! The ship had a lot of sails (the first photo). The square sails appear to be typical late 19th and early 20th century clipper rigs, but the mizzen mast is different. I knew that some vessels used a two-part driver on the mizzen, but I think this is the first picture I have seen. I am not sure what the upper "driver" sail is called. Underhill (Masting and Rigging the Clipper Ship and Ocean Carrier, page236) describes a "unusual rig" on the barquentine Transit that had three fore-and-aft sails on all but the fore mast. Underhill says these were called the "course," "topsail" and "topgallant." These were gaff sails and not square sails. The lower were two four-sided gaff sails, and the top triangular sail a more or less normal gaff topsail. I haven't see these terms used for fore-and-aft sails anywhere else. But the Transit was unusual in almost every way, so unusual terminology can be expected!

Planking the deck is simpler than you might think. The question is whether it will nag at you if you don't try to make it "authentic" (whatever that means). We learn from every build we do. If you plank the deck on this build, the next time it will be "old hat."" Here is a link to the deck planking I did on my current model: https://modelshipworld.com/topic/19611-albatros-by-dr-pr-mantua-scale-148-revenue-cutter-kitbash-about-1815/?do=findComment&comment=605072

I have a question for you all. I first load all of the images I want to use. They are already formatted to "thumbnail" size (about 1000 pixels wide). Then I put the cursor where I want a picture in the text and click on the image I want in the images below. So far this is what everybody else has said. Then I double click the image and resize it to about 900 pixels, or 400 pixels wide for placing two pictures side by side. These will fit easily on a small size screen. However, if you click on the image you can see them full size. Sometimes I place the first image left justified, and a second image beside it with no justification. Or maybe I put a tall image on the left and two shorter images beside it on the right, or maybe another small image and some text. This looks OK on my screen, but I have no idea if others can see these side-by-side images. Does it come out OK on your screen? Here is a link to an example post with photos and text mixed in several ways. https://modelshipworld.com/topic/19611-albatros-by-dr-pr-mantua-scale-148-revenue-cutter-kitbash-about-1815/?do=findComment&comment=1029254

The futtock shrouds transfer forces from the topmast shrouds to the mast. Therrefore, I would think they would be the same diameter as the topmast shrouds. Lees' Masting and Rigging of English Ships of War says the futtock shrouds were the same size as the topmast shrouds.

Nils, That is a clever idea! The letters do look good!

There is another way to create lettering. 1. Paint the surface area around the lettering with the color of the letters. 2. Use rub-on letters as stencils, positioning them where you want the letters. 3. Paint over the letters and surrounding area with the background color. 4. Remove the rub-on letters. This produces lettering only as thick as the paint, and it will not age, become discolored and peel off with time. You can make any color letters from any size and font rub-on letters you can find. And the lettering paint will conform to any surface features.

We had one of these in the shop at work - back in the corner collecting dust while all the work was done on a larger lathe. It came from one of the fellow's dad who bought it back in the 30s or 40s. I disassembled it and cleaned it. Then I put it back together and aligned it and it worked really nicely. Very solid! Yours should last forever.

Glue isn't needed. After all the rigging is installed the masts and bowsprit aren't going anywhere! I prefer to install the cradles for the bases of the mast on the keel/keelson and frames for just below the deck planking while the hull is open to work on. I get everything aligned so the masts are aligned and raked correctly. Then when the masts are finally inserted into the hull they will be aligned correctly. The same is true for the bowsprit. It should have a heel and tenon that fits tightly between the bitts/knightheads, timberheads (whatever you want to call them). This should prevent the bowsprit from slipping backwards between the posts, and it should hold the bowsprit in alignment. If the bowsprit can slip between the posts drill a hole down through the assembly and install a pin to hold it in place.

Bob, Thanks for the information on the pig stick!

It is interesting that this topic came up now. Yesterday I watched a video of the ketch Bessie Ellen sailing the Hebrides Islands recently. Tall Ship Sailing the Hebrides: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mElJHueAUmM When they neared port a pennant with the vessel's name was flown from the main truck. So the tradition is still used in England (the vessel was registered in Plymouth). If I remember correctly (it was just a brief bit of the video showing them raising the pennant) the pennant was on a short spar. It appeared one end of the halyard was attached at about the middle of the spar, below the pennant. It lead up to the truck and back down (like a flag halliard), where the other end was attached to the bottom of the spar. As it was hoisted some drag was applied to the line on the lower end to hold the spar upright. When it reached the top both ends were belayed together at a pin rail. The pennant was triangular, and I think it was white with a red border and red lettering. There are lots of images of the ship with the pennant flying right at the beginning of the video, especially at time 3:55.

John, Nice work on the sails, and nice attention to details. Isn't it interesting how a simple triangular sail with just a halliard, two sheets and a tack can turn into a plethora of blocks, hooks, lines fairleads, pins and cleats - not to mention the hanks. Oh yes - the downhauls with even more of the same!

Aha! Better late than never! I wonder of the topsail rig shown on the Jolie Brise is a sliding gunter rig? See posts #84 and #85. In this topsail rig the sail peak, and often the upper part of the forward edge (luff), is attached to the vertical yard. The lower part of the luff hangs free. The yard slides in rings near the top of the mast. A halliard hoists the spar to it's upper position, taking the sail up with it. A line on the sail tack pulls the sail down taut. To lower the sail the spar is lowered so it no longer catches the wind. It is a popular rig on smaller vessels. The clew is attached to the end of the gaff and the tack is pulled down by the tack line.

Coiling lines on deck is a popular modelling technique, especially for gun tackle rigging. It is "pretty" but would never happen on a ship at sea. The lines would soon scatter into a tangled mess on a rolling deck. Lines would be coiled only in port, and then only when the ship was undergoing inspection or open to the public for special visiting days. At other times the decks would be cleared and the gun tackle might even be stowed below. How are you planning your model? Is it rigged for action at sea or just idle and tied to the pier?

You were talking about making sails and looking for a material of approximate scale thickness. I am currently working on sails for my 1:48 schooner and I am using the thinnest #00 silkspan. It is 0.0015 inch (0.0381 mm) thick. Here are some scale thicknesses for comparison. Scale thickness inch mm 1:1 0.0015 0.0381 1:24 0.036 0.9142 1:48 0.072 0.3048 1:64 0.096 2.4384 1:72 0.108 2.7432 1:96 0.144 3.6576 1:200 0.300 7.6200 1:350 0.525 13.335 So silkspan is a reasonable scale material for sails at scales from 1:40 to 1:96. It may be a bit too thin for 1:24, and too thick for 1:200. Another thing you might try is parchment paper (used for cooking). It is only 0.0005 inch (0.0127 mm) thick. The resulting scale thicknesses are 1/3 of what is shown for silkspan. It might work for scales down to 1:200. However, it is fairly stiff and might resist any complex shaping - especially for furled sails.

Copper plating was introduced in the last half of the 1700s. But it was expensive and not used on many smaller vessels. A common anti-fouling surface was a mixture of turpentine, white lead and tallow. This is the "white" bottom you see on many vessels of the 1700s and 1800s.

Like everyone else I have no idea what he is talking about. "Z" dimension? Is that vertical, longitudinal or transverse? Short in height? Lower in the middle?? Is the propeller amidships?

Bruma, There was no hard fast rule where any particular line free end (running end) was belayed. But there are some general suggestions for all lines. 1. If a line descends from a position near the mast it should belay close to the bottom of the mast (fife rail, pin collar, cleats, etc.). 2. If a line originates from a position near the end of a yard (yard arm) it should belay to a point on or near the bulwark (pin rail, cleat, etc.). 3. Lines coming from positions lower down in the rigging belay to positions forward on fife rails, pin rails, etc. 4. Lines from positions higher up in the rigging belay to points farther aft. Of course, rules are made to be broken and it was common on ships with lots of sails (like clippers) for some lines originating higher up near the masts (for topgallants and royals) to be lead outboard through thimbles on the shrouds and then down to pinrails at the bulwarks. 5. There was one rule that must never be violated - all lines will be routed so they don't tangle with other lines or parts of the rigging. One other thing - sometimes two lines were belayed to the same pin. For example, when a sail is fully set flying the bunt lines and clue lines are slack with no strain. They are both used at the same time when the sail is being pulled up for furling. Then when the sail is furled to the yard they are slack again. So these lines can be belayed on a single pin (port and starboard). I wish I could be more specific for the Cutty Sark (I am pretty sure I built a plastic model of that ship when I was a kid). This is all complicated enough on a small vessel like the topsail schooner I am modelling. You are working on a ship with more sails than the laundry at a hospital on wash day! There are many more lines, and therefore, more opportunities for fouling the lines. Study the ways Campbell and Underhill routed the lines and do your best to rig your model in a similar way. When you are finished, if everything runs free without fouling you will have done it right!

Many printers do not print 1:1 automatically (be sure "Fit to Page " is disabled). Even though you may be using a CAD program and draw things very accurately the printer may screw it up. Draw a line* that is about as long as the long dimension of the paper you are printing on. For example, a 10 inch line on a normal 8 1/2" x 11" letter size page. Print it and measure it to see if the printout is the right length. If not, determine the percent error and use the scaling factor in your computers print drive to correct it. Print again and check. Be sure to check both X and Y dimensions on the paper. For example, I had an expensive Hewlett-Packard color laser printer that always printed at 95.877% of full size, so I set the print scale to 1.043:1 and it printed correctly. On the other hand my current cheap Brother color "laser" printer prints exactly 100% so I don't need to correct the scaling. * Note: It would be better to actually draw a ruler with multiple equally spaced marks so you can be sure the printer advances the paper correctly, and doesn't screw up the spacing along the page length. **** If you create a PDF drawing you can use the free Acrobat Reader program. The MSPaint program that comes with Windows will also print most bitmap file types (Windows/System32/mspaint.exe) and you can use it to scale drawings. Your LibreOffice Draw and GIMP programs should be able to print anything you create with them.

One of the best - if not THE best - sources of information about clipper ship rigging is Harold A. Underhill's Masting and Rigging the Clipper Ship and Ocean Carrier (Brown, Son and Ferguson, Ltd., Glasgow, 1972). It has detailed descriptions and illustrations of all parts of the rigging, including complete rigging and belaying plans for a clipper ship. It is an excellent reference with a great index of about 1500 entries for just about everything he describes.

I have found very little about ship colors before the mid 1800s. There really wasn't a "standard" color scheme in the US until the 1830s when the Navy adopted some rules. Before that it was up to the builder/owner/captain what the colors would be. I have found nothing about Revenue Service ship colors in the late 1700s and early 1800s. Howard Chapelle (The Baltimore Clipper, Edward W. Sweetman Company, New York, 1968, page 170) says the colors "varied widely, as yellow, black, green and blue were used, with white or black bands." "Yellow and black were popular colors, however, for pilot boats, in 1812-1814. They had yellow sides with black mouldings, wales or trim. Very few were painted white ..." Many ships followed the Royal Navy colors with black hulls and yellow stripe along the line of the gun ports. In the 1820s or 1830s white started replacing the yellow for the gun port stripe.

In some older kits the instructions were: "Build the hull, add the masts and put on the sails and rigging."

Blue mold acid trip!