Richard Braithwaite

Excellent model of an interesting subject. The morticed planking is a feature also found in much older vessels such as the Kyrenia ship (4th cent BC) and is also thought to have been the construction method that enabled long slender ships such as the fast Triremes of the 6th century BC to be built (effectively stopping the planks from sliding over one another and making the planking into an effective engineering shell able to withstand the high sheer stresses in such a vessel). (Ref The Athenian Trireme, Morrison and Coates) Also interested to see that your rig has a similar system of brails as fitted to the Trireme reconstruction Olympias.

Waterline looks great. What material did you use? 1/4" acrylic?

Since turning the handle on this oar production line doesn't use up much mental bandwidth I've been listening to podcasts as I go. I've been finding the style of "The Rest is History" just about the right level to make the hours fly by... They have done a good series that gives the historical background to the significance of the Trireme in enabling the golden age of Athens and the development of their democracy, philosophy and art that has influenced Western Civilization so significantly in the centuries that followed. Thermopylae and Salamis: Athens and the Birth of Democracy: Herodotus, the birth of history: Sparta:

Or, I suppose one could use silver solder and then get the whole thing gold plated! A nice consistent colour finish? (if a little shiny...)

I actually find this production line stuff quite theraputic. Once all the thinking is done and I know what im doing I can just sit in my workshop and go through the motions, one after another. Not so much of an issue now Im retired, but I used to find it very relaxing after a stressfull day at work!

This is what I need to make, its at 1:24th scale for my model of this Trireme ("Olympias") which makes its total length about 50mm. It fits over the wooden ram structure and will be about 0.5mm thick. Quite a challenge to fabricate, with a lot of joints...

Next steps: Jig fixing tabs removed from blades and blades shaped to plan view using a ply template pattern (that same 0.5mm ply I was originally planning to use for the blades...) Blades fixed to oar shafts between prongs. As the slot between the prongs was milled to 0.5mm the prongs flare to accomodate the long taper on the blade (0.5 to 1mm thickness...) as can be seen in the upper part of the image below. Prongs tapered along the long taper of the blade to remove the flare (see sketch reconstruction of blades in previous post) the side taper (to bring the edges of the blade down to 0.5mm all round) was then done using a file and sandpaper by hand, as can be seen in the lower part of the image below. Total time taken for all this approximately 40 mins/blade. Quite a lot longer than just fitting 0.5mm ply blades and probably almost impossible to see the difference once they are finished and painted white, but so be it...

Your silk rope is indeed spectacular!

Yes (about £10/5cm length) but only small quantities would be needed...

Has anyone tried 9 carrat gold solder for brass? I guess it might give a better colour match? If so how does it age? (I.e colour of solder as surrounding brass oxidises and darkens)

Tapering of oar blades: Image top left: jig, made of holly to make it (hopefully ) robust enough for use with all 62 Thranite oar blades. Top right: set up in machinists vice on Unimat with spacers cut to incline the top surface or the jig correctly for the taper to be cut. In hthis case it is set up for the short taper which means a 1.25mm difference over the 30mm length of the vice. (0.4mm difference for the long taper). Bottom left: Long taper being machined (both sides) Bottom right: Short taper being machined (both sides) Finally 62 Tranite blades tapered (about 16 mins/blade...)

The silk looks superb, unfortunately we have clothes moths here and anything I make out of natural fibres is instantly consumed!

Your rigging is spectacular. Im still in the early stages of working out what is possible and you seem to represent the limit. What material are you using for your rope? Those rope coils seem to hang very naturally.

Finished fitting 62 handles to the Thranite oars... Now rethinking the blades. I havent been able to find drawings of the original Thranite oars in the Trireme Trust Archive. However there is a drawing showing how these were modified in 1989 to reduce their weight from 17kg to 6 kg by shaving down the shafts, and reducing the thickness and area of the blades. Extracts from the Midhsip Section (Plan 8 ) and the Modified Oar drawing (Plan 15e) show how the form of the blade was altered. The upper plan view is of the original form and the lower plan and section shows the modified blade. Extracts from Plan 8 and 15e( © Estate of John F. Coates, reproduced with permission) The oval form of the blade was also intended to make them slide over one another more easily to reduce entanglement. As you can see from the section view the blades were not simple flat pieces of wood, as I had originally planned for my model, but were tapered. The form of this tapering in the original design is sugested by this image of the full size ship. Ive reconstructed this form in the following sketch for my model: The lines in the plan view radiating from the end of the shaft prongs show the edges of the tapered faces which I will need to machine in the blades, although the photograph sugests that the inner faces were faired to remove any hard edge. So, I now need to make up some more jigs...

Im certainly getting practice at spar making!