BANYAN

She coming along great Dave; that a very sound base/skeleton developing. cheers Pat

Another interesting subject you are undertaking Greg; look forward to seeing this come along. cheers Pat

She is really looking great Keith, a lot of well crafted unique detail. cheers Pat

Hey Dave, great to see you back at it, and with another classic build with particular interest to Australians. Looking forward tio following your progress. My build is a little stagnant at the moment for various reasons, but I really hope to get back into it this winter. cheers Pat

Paul, I think we should give a little more credence to people working with official records/documents to accurately reflect the intention/content. I take your point that sometimes errors were made, but I think on the whole people working in these institutions try to reflect the content fairly accurately when summarising them. I am certainly finding that with our Records Offices here in Australia (and in NZ). Like Bruce, I have rarely had to address any inaccuracies, but the staff were more than helpful and keen to update the online descriptions when I have raised something. I too am guilty of not trusting many statements on record without seeing them myself; that is where I run into some issues as many people state or quote information with inadequate citation. From a pure personal (selfish) interest, I would love to get access to Hotham's private correspondence which was returned to the UK , but is now available (not digitised) through some library/Uni over there. I have the location but not the means unfortunately As I said my comment is an excerpt from a LETTER from the Build Superintendent (Commander Lockyer RN - an experienced former CO of HMS Medea -on the China Station) to the Governor of Victoria (Captain, Sir Charles Hotham, RN, KCB - a well credentialled Naval Officer of some repute who took a very active interest in Victoria's build and design) - I think that based on Lockyer's comments/first-hand (eyes-on) observation of the vessel as she was built, that it can be taken as an accurate description. That said though, his language is a little ambiguous in that it infers rather than states that the false keel was not coppered. However, he clearly states that the keel was coppered over before the false keel was put on. I attach a copy of the first and relevant page of that letter (see first paragraph of the latter). I am making the assumption that as Lockyer was very particular in pointing things that were done, that the absence of a statement along the lines that "the false keel has been coppered" infers that it wasn't - he was careful to say the underside of the keel had been coppered. These letters, along with an equal number of personal notes from Lockyer to Hotham) were a regular report from Lockyer to Hotham almost on a weekly basis at times). I hope this helps to satisfy your curiosity a little? cheers Pat

Very nice work John, she is coming along very well, and I should add congratulations on getting her to the standard the Museum has accepted it. As to ownership/part of collection, I have come across this conundrum down here in Melbourne also. Large donations of models from other organisations/authorities are passed along, but not actually part of the new owners actual collection. Usually they only act as their custodian - we have an area (tunnels really) where there a load of models collecting dust that have not even been listed/identified yet alone curated. Victoria still remains the only State in Australia without an official 'Maritime Museum' - sorry I'll get off my soap box now - sorry to hijack your thread John. cheers Pat

Which documents are you referring to Paul, the original identified by Bruce, or the one I refer to. If mine, it is a letter, not so much a document. The original record is held in the Public Records Office of Victoria (PROV) Australia. I provided the path/location at the bottom of my post, but it is not digitized and can only be read in their premises unfortunately. If Bruce's original find, he provided the link, as does Thukydides above, as you can see below, the comment is merely a small part of the 'summary' of the document, not the actual document as it also has not been digitized. If anyone actually goes in and finds this document, I would appreciate a copy. cheers Pat

Yeah mate, absolutely a compliment: "The jocular Australian-English expression 'the ant’s pants' denotes an outstandingly good thing" The model is looking great and you've done a grand job with it. WRT the cows and snakes (and other critters crawling or slithering) - well they don't get too much to eat in our outback paddocks - so this is sort of a 'dietary supplement' Maybe you should start feeding these to your herd? They may not be so skittish about those 'B' words cheers Pat

Dan, based on a letter (report) written by the ship's build superintendent (Commander Lockyer, RN) to the Governor (Hotham) of 4 June 1855, about the progress of HMCSS Victoria's (1855) construction: … About two thirds of the False Keel is on, the main Keel having been first coppered on the underside, ... This suggests, that least in 1850s, the coppering passed under the keel but the false keel (Lang's safety keel in this instance) was not coppered. Not for the exact time period you are looking at, but I hope this helps? cheers Pat [i] PROV; VA 475; VPRS 1189/P0000; 580, Unregistered Correspondence; Lockyer second Letter to Hotham, 4 June 1855.

Thanks Bruce, that's quite useful to have confirmed. Is this an online record? I tried a quick search of TNA Admiralty 1782 but nothing came up. cheers Pat

Nice recovery on the trysail mast and rigging Glen, she is looking 'the ants pants' Also happy to hear you were able to celebrate in style. I must add that I hope "your chooks don't turn into emus and kick your dunny down" - sorry folks an in-joke based on a very corny Aussie song - you really don't need some oversized chickens running amok when working on this little beauty. cheers Pat

Impressive workmanship and results Ilhan; that skylight looks stunning. cheers pat

Great photos and some significant progress on the rigging Glen. You're doing a great job with her. Enjoying following along with your rigging journey. cheers Pat

WRT the lanyards, they were possibly 'white rope' which is a general term for untarred plain-laid natural fibre rope; it can be of any type including jute, manilla or sisal hemp. According to Luce (1868), page 49, white rope is used for lead and log lines, ensign, pennant and signal halliards; and for making block straps and tackle/purchase falls. Trevor may have better information as to whether used with deadeyes though. cheers Pat

Great info; many thanks for posting Pat

Absolutely stunning 'smithing' Ilhan - they look great. A very well executed bit of metalwork. cheers Pat

I found the local Railroad Modelling clubs to be the best source as they do a lot of PE in making their locos and rolling stock. cheers Pat

Nice result Eberhard. I am enjoying following your foray into the unknown with these materials. cheers Pat

Agree with Trevor. The contract for Victoria called for mats as well as baggywrinkles. The best I have been able to determine so far,. is that the mats were usually laid across yards whereas the baggywrinkles were applied to lines (both at any point of contact or potential contact with sails). cheers Pat

That looks so good Ilhan. I now have to go back and possibly adjust the funnel on my Victoria as I didn't even think on hand rungs to climb the funnel. Great seeing more of your quality work. cheers Pat

That a great achievement Bob, and you didn't even go cross-eyed. cheers Pat

Be over in a jiffy mate - just have to save my pennies for a while. Seriously though, your rigging is looking great, clean and proportionate in scale - well worth celebrating. cheers Pat

Hi Richard, I actually do all my spars on my Sherline (long bed) lathe. I first cut the required square and hex shapes slightly oversize, the (very roughly) shape them to a hex taper using a plane and then set it up in the lathe and use small machinist jacks and a follower rest to shape the final profiles. I use a combo of rasps, files and sandpaper for that process constantly checking the profile with calipers etc. For shorter sections I sometimes use the duplicator, especially about the hounds and masthead doubling. I then refine the squared and flat surface manually using a file rest and fine needle files to get them to the final dimensions. You can see some of my earlier dings (collision scars) between the Y cross-slide and the chucks before I made a stop for it Well, one has to learn some lessons the hard way; I put it down to the experience of learning. PS: Sorry, I should mention that I mainly work at 1:72 so, at your scale you might have some difficulty setting up spars etc. cheers Pat

A great diorama Greg, looks good and nicely detailed. I wonder though how they drink those beers on the Quarterdeck table with all that protective gear on I have enjoyed following this build. cheers Pat

Sorry to hear the news of the delayed recovery mate; best wishes for a better progress. cheers Pat