wefalck

There is another interesting arrangement that seems to have been quite common on somewhat larger ships, such as schooners or small brigs, in the earlier decades of the 19th century, where a steering-wheel was put onto the tiller and the endless rope wound around the drum. This made the helmsman to walk with the wheel while the tiller swung around.

The above example is from the model of an 1839 brig from Altona/Hamburg, but it seems to have been a quite common arrangement on Dutch ships of that age.
 
I think the arrangement with an endless rope is more conducive to be operated by a single helmsman on merchant vessels with very small crews. 
 
 

Same for me, I need to work out how things work, before confidently being able to model them. Some people just take things at 'face value', but I am not very comfortable with such approach.

Perhaps you should have brought in the mother-in-law to clean out the dust ...🙃

Thank you for all there Christmas and New Year messages, much appreciated.
 
Well the grandchildren are gone and the weather has turned very wintery. The workshop is currently at 5 deg C - 41 deg F so my time working is somewhat limited. I have however been progressing the aft guest cabin.
 
I needed a couple more bedside lights.

I also started gluing the mahogany doors to the various panelled walls, followed by door knobs, handles, lamps etc. I also made the large mirror ( currently protected by blue masking tape).

With the panels completed I was able to glue them in place with PVA - using more Starbuck sticks and various clamps to hold them.




The side panels for the bunks and the various door fronts, shelves etc, went in next. The step (bottom left in the next photo is my best guess at what this area looks like. As explained earlier I don't have any photo's of this location.


Next a bit more carpeting. The floor has a slight step in it, presumably to accommodate the curvature of the hull or to trip up the mother in law. (see later comment).

With everything in place I did a few shots with the phone camera (restricted by quite limited access).


Once again I forgot to clean out the dust.




The following it the best shot I could get of the portholes.

I then glued in the external port holes (made earlier).

Re the floor step. I once spent 2 weeks in the Caribbean on a Dufour charter yacht. I learned to hate it. One of its design innovations was to mount the hot water tank below the starboard bunk. This would have been fine in the arctic but in the Caribbean it rendered it totally unbearable. Unfortunately I drew the short straw and hence spent the fortnight sleeping on deck. This however wasn't its most wonderful design feature.  The designer had managed to place a shallow step right across the middle of the cabin (presumably to gain a little addition head height). The step was perfectly positioned to catch the unwary crew member every time they either ascended or descended the steps to the deck. Everyone at some time ended up sprawled across the cabin floor or with their heads wedged between the ladder rung, both events being accompanied by choice expletives. 
 

It seems to have been a very common arrangement until the end of the 19th century on smaller vessels, before steering-wheels were also introduced into them (often only together with motorisation and cutting down the rigs).
 
@Dr PR is right with his interpretation. It's a kind of dampening device and allows a single man to control the tiller on relatively large vessels. There is enough slack in the rope to take a turn or two around a pin (which only protrudes on the top) or knob at the end of the tiller to effectively stop it. Slackening the turn allows one to adjust the rudder. Casting it loose allows faster movements. Two blocks at the end of the tiller seems to have been more common than the sheaves.
 
Many more or less contemporary models show the pin/knob, but the control rope is not always rigged. Sometimes, it seems, only simple ropes, without tackle were used, to simply steady the tiller.

Perhaps you can find a 'pissoir' instead - somehow the whole French scene reminds of 'Clochemerle' (novel by Gabriel Chevallier), that has been cast into a British TV series - the cast-iron pissoir was blewn up eventually.

It seems to have been a very common arrangement until the end of the 19th century on smaller vessels, before steering-wheels were also introduced into them (often only together with motorisation and cutting down the rigs).
 
@Dr PR is right with his interpretation. It's a kind of dampening device and allows a single man to control the tiller on relatively large vessels. There is enough slack in the rope to take a turn or two around a pin (which only protrudes on the top) or knob at the end of the tiller to effectively stop it. Slackening the turn allows one to adjust the rudder. Casting it loose allows faster movements. Two blocks at the end of the tiller seems to have been more common than the sheaves.
 
Many more or less contemporary models show the pin/knob, but the control rope is not always rigged. Sometimes, it seems, only simple ropes, without tackle were used, to simply steady the tiller.

It seems to have been a very common arrangement until the end of the 19th century on smaller vessels, before steering-wheels were also introduced into them (often only together with motorisation and cutting down the rigs).
 
@Dr PR is right with his interpretation. It's a kind of dampening device and allows a single man to control the tiller on relatively large vessels. There is enough slack in the rope to take a turn or two around a pin (which only protrudes on the top) or knob at the end of the tiller to effectively stop it. Slackening the turn allows one to adjust the rudder. Casting it loose allows faster movements. Two blocks at the end of the tiller seems to have been more common than the sheaves.
 
Many more or less contemporary models show the pin/knob, but the control rope is not always rigged. Sometimes, it seems, only simple ropes, without tackle were used, to simply steady the tiller.

It seems to have been a very common arrangement until the end of the 19th century on smaller vessels, before steering-wheels were also introduced into them (often only together with motorisation and cutting down the rigs).
 
@Dr PR is right with his interpretation. It's a kind of dampening device and allows a single man to control the tiller on relatively large vessels. There is enough slack in the rope to take a turn or two around a pin (which only protrudes on the top) or knob at the end of the tiller to effectively stop it. Slackening the turn allows one to adjust the rudder. Casting it loose allows faster movements. Two blocks at the end of the tiller seems to have been more common than the sheaves.
 
Many more or less contemporary models show the pin/knob, but the control rope is not always rigged. Sometimes, it seems, only simple ropes, without tackle were used, to simply steady the tiller.

This metal-work looks so convincing 👍🏻
 
Indeed, welded construction is not so easy to reproduce. Perhaps, I would have soldered this over a mock-up of the bow to give the flanges the right angles and distances. There are solders of different melting points, which requires a temperature-controlled soldering iron. The railway modellers who build locomotives from PE brass parts are masters of this art. 

I agree, seemingly to scale, it still seems out of proportion. Also, they are more likely to be found in larger towns or cities.
 
These columns were invented by a Berlin printer named Ernst Litfaß and the first one was installed in that city in 1854. From there the concept spread all over the world. They often had dual uses, e.g. as transformer stations or covering access staircases to the sewer system. There is a famous scene in the film The Third Man, when Harry Lime slips into one in Vienna - the grand sewer-sytem was notoriously used by criminals to hide or gain access to houses. The Vienna police used to have a specially trained and equipped 'Kanalbrigade' to combat this (they appear also in the film). 

Thanks everyone.
 
More metalwork: this time the bowsprit chain plates. The whisker stay chain plates are pretty straightforward, note the portholes openings have been cut. 0.8mm brass sheet, which is probably a little heavy.

 
The bobstay chainplate is more complex, & it became clear that with my simple kit multiple solder joints in this case would be very difficult, so I made the main parts from one sheet (0.5mm), with back-mitres so it could be folded & then soldered to fill & stabilise the folds. Then the chainplate cleat was soldered to the edge, tinned etc (cleat 0.8mm thick). A paper template was used to confirm the fold angles, as brass is only happy to be folded once, & solder never.... The fixings are some 1mm diameter brass rivets approximately 7mm long, so a 1mm hole, add some CA glue & press the rivet into it. The back-mitring was done with a jeweller's saw & also a small file with a square cross section. The mitre is also slightly wider towards the edges, so that the main piece could be curved to suit the stem profile.
 
The side flange fixings are some unbelievably tiny brass nails, too small & I could hardly pick them up.
 

 

 
 
 

I think your scene is pretty crowded, busy and colourful as it is, the column seems to both disappear in the activity while reducing the “breathing space”. 
 
It might fit better in a simpler, larger, scene.
 
Andy

Thanks, all!
 
I next marked out the remaining strakes. The uppermost looks narrower because it will extend up to cover the edge of the false deck.

 
And I added the next strake. At this point, I'm having a difficult time clamping at the transom. It's also worth noting that, while I've been able to get the visible lower edge of the planking fairly smooth, I'm still having trouble getting the upper edge smooth where the planks join. Not that it matters, as it ends up covered, but still. Hats off to those who have done a clinker-planked open boat, that would be a lot trickier!

Excellent metal work as usual.
 
What do you use as heat-sink to prevent parts already soldered from falling apart?

Getting the rudder together, finally. A glue-up of some cedar (Western and Port Orford) scraps will do nicely.  The sinuous tiller is a 5-ply lamination of some sapelé strips from a salvaged kit. 

I use dots of glue to mimic drift ends and other fasteners; they diminish a bit while drying, but if they are nice round drops they approximate hammered rivets or drifts nicely. In the back ground are the pintles, formed of bamboo and paper. 

Below, the rudder has its pintles in place. 

Mostly completed rudder and tiller below, former with first coat of paint, and latter with integral sheaves, belaying pin, and ring bolts.
Stanchions for the steering ropes are also shown. I hope to hang it and rig it by this time tomorrow, then more rigging aloft. 

Personally, I swear by silkspan. You can buy it all over the United States, and I'm sure eBay or Amazon sells it. I have used multiple different thicknesses of silkspan and never, ever had any issues even when the material was wet. The only tears I have had using silkspan sails were completely my fault and not that of the product, and were pretty easily fixable because they were small. Making a scale-accurate sail never takes me more than about a day. You can even replicate things like tarpaulins using silkspan- really any cloth product present on a real ship can be accurately represented. 

Thank you for the advice re the glazing of the portholes, & I have taken that advice. Also, I did pick up an error in the portholes as previously made, which has now been corrected. I went to the boat to confirm the setout of the portholes & saw that the glass is actually set back from plane of the hull, I assumed it was in the same plane - soooo, back to the drawing board. I was able to salvage the rings, they were the part that took some time. So, now remade & awaiting some 1mm acrylic sheet.
 
I will work out some way to increase the gluing surface area for the acrylic, probably some tabs that glue to the outside back part of the tube.

 
And all done. Some of them in the photo below  appear to have flaws in the soldering joint - that's just a trick of the reflections, the joints all came out well.

I welcome all forum members to the new year, and I hope it brings only good news.   
And I'm continuing construction of the cruiser model. Wooden deck planking.

Happy New Year to all !

Two hours and forty minutes to go for us

Wasn‘t it particularly used to obtain weather reports and when getting close to home to get orders to which port to go?
 

Completed the rigging on the masts. I will not glue the masts. They will have a tight fit.
I used diluted white glue for the rigging. Takes time but better than CA which is too stiff and probably not durable. 

Zu Mondfeld or not is a question of what you are looking for, information to a specific period or a general introduction? In his later years he tried to stylise himself as the guru of shipmodelling, but a single person can hardly cover all the periods in sufficient depth. So, one has to take what is written in the books with a pinch of salt and corroborate the information against period books for instance.

Zu Mondfeld or not is a question of what you are looking for, information to a specific period or a general introduction? In his later years he tried to stylise himself as the guru of shipmodelling, but a single person can hardly cover all the periods in sufficient depth. So, one has to take what is written in the books with a pinch of salt and corroborate the information against period books for instance.