Smile-n-Nod

Model sailing ship videos can look slightly more realistic by viewing them at reduced speed (which you can do, in Youtube).

PBS has a TV program called "The Ship That Changed The World" about the Gribshunden.

https://pbsinternational.org/programs/ship-that-changed-the-world/

I saw the program over the summer, but it may now require a subscription or an account with PBS.

That's too bad. This LA Times article says the ship would have to be demolished:

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-04-07/dana-point-tall-ship-pilgrim-will-be-demolished

The article says the ship is a replica of The Pilgrim, the ship that Richard Henry Dana immortalized in his book Two Years Before the Mast.

One moment I remember from the book concerns sailors who were working in the California hide trade.  They worked very hard processing hides for half a day in exchange for half a day of free time on shore.  When their supervisor saw how hard they worked, he demanded that they work a full day, so the sailors responded by working a full day but only half as fast.

On 10/6/2021 at 9:48 AM, stm said:

If Kate Cory started to venture further out to sea in pursuit of whales the owners would have then added a square rig to account for the winds behavior found further away from a land mass.

Why would a square rigger be better when away from land masses? Is it a trade-off between power and maneuverability?

9 hours ago, Roger Pellett said:

their scope is limited pretty much to Eighteenth and Nineteenth British and American Sailing Vessels.

Just for the record, Feldman does state that his list is intended primarily for those interested in ships of that era and those nations. 

What do you think of Clayton Feldman's "Compleat (almost) Two Foot Library" in Armed Virginia Sloop (also here; search for "Two Foot Library") . 

Are there some books on his list that are dated? Would you add any books to the list? 

7 minutes ago, mtaylor said:

It looks like it's not in the public domain per this:   

Thanks for taking care of that.

On 8/27/2021 at 4:03 PM, Louie da fly said:

\According to Prof John Pryor's book Age of the Dromon the waterline ram ...

Age of the Dromon is here:

(Link removed by Moderator.  See my post below as to why).

(Please remove this post if the linked file is not in the public domain)

On 8/27/2021 at 6:03 PM, Louie da fly said:

 Later (mediaeval) ships were built frame-first, and it is believed this structure was too strong for the waterline ram to have the same effect [i.e. to break the frames and separate the planks] 

At the Battle of Hampton Roads, the CSS Virginia rammed and sunk the USS Congress, which certainly was built frame-first. Maybe the Virginia had so much momentum that neither frames nor tenons could withstand it. 

On 8/27/2021 at 6:03 PM, Louie da fly said:

waterline ram was designed to break the tenons so the planks separated, letting the water in.  

Really interesting idea. I hadn't thought of that connection. Thanks. 

On 8/26/2021 at 7:12 PM, Louie da fly said:

This would make sense - apart from the amount of bronze you'd need and the effect of all that weight up at the bow, otherwise how could you fix the ram to the ship so it wouldn't come off?

 

Here's a link to a thesis by Asaf Oron of the Texas A&M Nautical Archaeology Program:

https://nautarch.tamu.edu/Theses/pdf-files/Oron-MA2001.pdf

The title is "The Athlit Ram: Classical and Hellenistic Bronze Casting Technology".

The thesis has pictures (page 84) showing how the Athlit ram might have been fitted to the bow of a trireme.

The rest of the thesis discussed how such a large hunk of bronze might have been cast in ancient times.

2 hours ago, Kevin Kenny said:

I just checked and they are there. They are in a file.i just checked and they are all working. 

Thanks. Maybe Vimeo's search is not working. 

Yesterday, Vimeo Search returned over 30 of your HMS Thorn build videos. Now it returns two. But the links in your posts in the first part of this thread still show those videos. Any idea what's going on? 

On 7/22/2021 at 7:03 PM, BANYAN said:

I wonder if/when someone will write a new book on the development/transition of building techniques based on this new evidence coming to light.  With the many new finds in recent years, it would be great to see old texts updated to reflect the new material.  (.... and no, I couldn't do it as I do not have the right skill set :)) 

Are you familiar with J. Richard Steffy's book, "Wooden Ship Building and the Interpretation of Shipwrecks"? Perhaps that's one of the old texts that you refer to.

The third paragraph starts with "The ship’s design reflects a mixture of ancient Egyptian and Greek techniques. Its builders used mortise-and-tenon joints and constructed the vessel partly out of reused wood, suggesting that it was made in Egypt."

What about mortise-and-tenon joints or reused wood suggests Egypt?

The opening of that video reads "Trireme in New York City Inc.".  Was that trireme actually rowed in New York? If so, how was it transported across the Atlantic?

I often read that "Historic Ship Models" by zu Mondfeld is full of errors.

What errors does the book contain?

Here's a PDF of a book called "Trireme Olympias: The Final Report"

http://www.ancientportsantiques.com/wp-content/uploads/Documents/AUTHORS/Rankov2012-TriremeOlympia.pdf

(I found the link with Google, and I have no reason to believe it is not free to download.)

The book is a lengthy discussion of triremes in general and the Trireme Olympias in particular.

Especially interesting to me was a chapter by Alex Tilley called "An Unauthentic Reconstruction", in which he argues that triremes may not have had three decks of rowers on each side.  (I haven't found a picture of what he suggested his trireme reconstruction may have looked like.)

 In short, the book contains much interesting and useful information about how triremes were built and used, and it contains lots of techno-detail for people who are into that sort of thing (as I am).

16 minutes ago, dvm27 said:

Personally, I do no beveling until all the frames are installed.

How do you bevel the insides of the frames after the frames have been installed?

When building a plank-on-frame model, I understand the idea of gluing a paper frame drawing to a frame blank and then cutting it out. 

What I don't understand is making the bevels.

It seems fairly easy to sand the bevel that is tilted slightly toward the paper-side of the frame blank (the inside or outside bevel, depending on the drawing), but what about the bevel on the side of the frame that is tilted away the paper? 

In the phrase "USS Cairo HSR", what does "HSR" mean?. 

(Side note: when I searched for "HSR" on this site, I got 0 hits, even though "HSR" is used in this thread.) 

17 minutes ago, mtaylor said:

I always thought it was "title" followed by "last name".  

Maybe I'm confusing "Lord" with "Sir"

Why was Admiral Horatio Nelson called "Lord Nelson" rather than "Lord Horatio"?

I spent the summer of 1987 in the UK and saw several ships, including HMS Victory and the Mary Rose. I also visited a ship that I think was the HMS Warrior, but I remember it being under an awning or tent, or in a building. If not the Warrior, it was another ship that was an early armored or metal-hulled ship. Can anyone confirm that the hull of the Warrior was under a cover of some sort at that time?