Jim Lad

Either there was more wind than it looks in that first photo, Mark, or you were sinking! John

Toni, the usual method of fastening clinker planking on a larger ship was by either iron rivets which were fastened over a 'rove' or washer on the inside of the hull or by iron nails driven through with the ends clenched over on the inside. John

'Anti-skid' paint was certainly used on some ships where better footing was needed. The old and rather grotty photo below shows the fore deck of one of my old ships - MV 'Meringa' - with a strip of 'anti-skid' painted. it was needed on this ship as she was a sugar carrier and the deck was a death trap with wet sugar on it. The paint was made by simply adding copious amounts of sand to ordinary deck paint. As Ken has advised, old phots of the actual ship would be helpful in sorting out proper placement. John

Hello Kimosubby and a warm welcome to the forum from 'Down Under'. John

Hello and a warm welcome to MSW. I wish you all the best with the restoration of your "galleon". John

Hello Robby, and a warm welcome to the forum from 'Down Under'. John

Bob, I think I have to disagree with you a little. It was important for seamen to know exactly where each line was on their ship - in an urgent situation on a pitch dark night it was no good trying to leisurely try and follow a line down to the deck or to wonder just where a line might be. It was vitally necessary (for the safety of the ship and your fellow crew members) to know instantly and without thinking that THAT line was secured THERE and to be able to throw it of its pin the moment the order was given. Consider a ship leaving port. A brand new crew has just signed on and as the ship clears the port and prepares to cast off the tug the 'Old Man' says to the Mate, "Make sail, mister". He immediately starts issuing a string of orders to get sail on the ship and he expects his orders to be obeyed NOW (or possibly even a couple of minutes before he issues them). No time to try and work out what goes where or which line is secured to what pin - just do it - NOW. In view of the above, sailing ships had a pretty standard rigging system. There might have been very minor innovations or changes, but the belaying plan had to be largely standardised from ship to ship to allow for the immediate efficient working of the rig by any new crew member - especially considering that a sailing ship had no other motive power than it sails and was crewed by the absolute minimum number of men to operate the rig. There are several good books available that provide details of the rig of ships from about the seventeenth century onwards; so it's worth getting hold of a copy of a good book that covers the period of the model and to study it closely. John

G'day Sjors! It's great to hear from you and to see some progress on your lovely tug. John

Never mind how long you've been working on her, Mario, she's looking first class. John

Hello Gazzalene, and a warm welcome to the forum from 'Down Under'. John

Hello Jandrus, and another warm welcome from down in the Southern hemisphere. John

Your first image is vaguely correct, but the lower block should be attached to a hook in the lifeboat with the running end of the fall secured to a cleat on the davit. John

What do you mean, no one will ever see it? YOU know it's there! John

Very realistic looking lifebuoys, Gary! John

But if you look at a modern book of ship construction, you'll find camber as the transverse curvature of the beams as per below from HJ Pursey's "Merchant Ship Construction": Camber: is the curvature given to weather decks to help them to shed water. Tween decks are not usually cambered. The standard camber 1/50; that is, a rise of approximately 1/4 inch for each foot of the length of the beam. John

That's a very nice looking rudder, Toni! John

Hello Richard, and a warm welcome to the forum from 'Down Under'. John

hello Matthias, and a warm welcome to MSW from 'Down Under'. John

Hello Gerry, and a warm welcome to the forum from 'Down Under'. john

Hello Wayne. I can't help with card models either, but welcome to the forum. John

Hello Kevin, and a warm welcome to the forum from 'Down Under'. John

Two comments on the above: Yes, ropes that are right handed (most rope on a sailing ship) is always coiled right handed - if not coiled 'with the lay' it will kink, which is not what is needed when running it through a block. "are only normally coiled in pretty flat coils for Admirals to look at." See the painting of HMS 'Deal Castle' below as proof of this! John

What a great Pigeon pair! John

There' another painting of the 'Mermaid' showing her encounter with an Indonesian ship in northern waters. It too shows the boat secured from stern davits, but doesn't really add anything to the discussion. Carrying boats on deck on these cutters was evidently pretty common, as is evidenced by the contemporary painting below of the cutter 'Stag' chasing a French smuggler. The boat on her deck looks very large, but was no doubt essential for a revenue cutter. It will be good to see a model of her carrying her boats - I don't think I've ever seen a cutter model with boats on deck. John

Hello Uwe, and a warm welcome to the forum from 'Down Under'. John