jud

Good start and looking good. I suspect that the active ship in Her day was kept well swabbed with frequent Holly Stoning and her paintwork well kept and freshened. The only military ship I served aboard, '3 years', with wooden decks was a Heavy Cruiser, ' USS Helena, CA 75', she had wood over steel. That deck was a light tan, kept that way by salt water scrubbing and Holly Stoning using a salt water soap, boiler compound mixed with a lot of scouring compound, mixed the day before and allowed to work overnight in large garbage cans, it left them shining inside. Active military ships did a lot of cleaning to keep the large crews busy, the fishing boat I worked on in Alaska had a deck painted light grey, probably military surplus haze grey. Actual ships you see today are as they are because of cost considerations and their appearance because of that is unlikely to reflect totally not how it was in the day. Whatever you chose is fine as long as you are happy with it. Remember that those ships were kept up and looking good by their crews, it was a matter of pride as well as need, a box car running up and down the tracks, never or seldom being cleaned will show an age of neglect, an active warship will not, aged rigging darkened or bleached by the elements will have been replaced for reliability and safety reasons, even their sails will be kept clean and well maintained, they had the manpower to do it and they needed to be kept busy.

If you are speaking about my post about closing up the hull and mounting your Bow Thrusters on the foremast and Bowsprit, I was being a Wise ***, thought better of it so it was deleted, hoped it hadn't been noticed. What you label as compartment #2 is where, from photos I have seen would be a typical location for the thrusters. Usually there is a watertight bulkhead near the bow called a collision bulkhead, were I building a ship, I would want the thrusters forward of that bulkhead but I don't know what the practice is, never rode a ship with bow thrusters, used spring lines, wind, current or tugs to swing the bow, rudder only swings the stern. jud

Like the 3 legged hold down idea, thanks.

Later years the cook delivered the grub in a box, at least on our drives, which were 4 and 5 day affairs.

larry; only a handful of knots and hitches will be needed and you can find animated how to's on line. Also there are lots of hint, tips and how to secure blocks, pendents and other rigging to attachment points around the ship, masts and yards. So your discovery of this site and making your one post so far has probably resulted in the finding of the best source of model making data that exists in this world we live on, so hang around, read some build logs, 'there are several for the ship you are building', enjoy. jud

1:1 2D plans. OK, is your side view drawn with C/L offset measurements or along the ark, need to know, I would expect them to have been along the ark showing uniform distances between the ports, if so, do your port layout using measurements taken from the overhead view for stationing of your ports and other features. Think about a, '3, 4, 5 triangle', where the base is 4 and parallel to C/L of the keel on your model, the 5 represents a chord distance along an arc along your hull. A, ' 3, 4, 5 triangle', forms a true right angle without measuring angles using distances, it displays the relationship of distances from different view perspective, overhead compared to side views. Reason that farmer Jones gets a larger crop than his neighbor Smith, land in this country is measured horizontally, not on the slope, so Jones hillside 160 acres has more surface area than farmer Smiths flat land 160 acres does, you are dealing with the same problem when mixing views along an ark with flats from different perspectives. jud

Allen, nice pictures. Noticed in your second photo that the gun ports are opened and pulled back against the solid hull, there is one that looks like it was intended to be fully opened and held against the Chains like the rest are at the Chains it's ropes may have stretched over time or there is a hull feature it is against that can't be seen. Having some experience with Muzzle Blast and it's effect on loose as well as securely anchored items within it's area, I know that Gun Port Covers hanging out from the ships side suspended from ropes have always shouted wrong to me. Muzzle Blast from full charges would have sent those covers to swinging back against the Hulls and then the vacuum caused by the air rushing back would have brought them up back to the limits of the opening ropes, soon destroying their hinges, opening ropes or the covers themselves. Agree that showing all the guns, none or some is optional, Gun Port Covers with the Guns ran out should be opened and held against a Hull surface or other solid component of the hull when accuracy and reality is the intent of the build. Bet tradition over shadows reality of the effects of muzzle Blast and the methods needed to avoid or minimize the damage caused by it. A vessel at anchor and with boats alongside on Boat Booms might have their Gun Port Covers suspended from their opening ropes to shed rain or direct sun light away from an open port being used for ventilation. jud

Nice job. Looks like a necessary fitting to me, you get no complaining from me for placing your routed and fitted Base here.

Looks like Twisted Wire Cable, not Wire Rope or Braided Cable. With the right clamping and some good small tools you can make some small eyes without heat, I would try heat to determine if it ruined the wire as an experiment, if not, you have more options for working your wire. The most common self inflicted problem when working with cable or wire is to work too close to the end, leave plenty of handle, 'wire', and trim it back when done making the loop or connection you want. Sometimes using a piece of plain wire to hold a larger loop closed, 'frees your finger and clamps', than you wish to end up with, will allow you to work your way down to what you want, holding smaller loops with more wire as you go, when done remove the holding wires and trim your cable back to where it belongs. Sounds wasteful but you need to be able to get a hold of wire or cable to work with it. Good luck. When rigging cable often times you will find a loop on one end only and an adjusting device on the other such as a turn- buckle with a compression type cable clamp on one end and a metal loop made up of 2 side by side hooks that allow them to be opened and placed on a staple, then closed forming a closed loop, that turn-buckle allows for adjustment, often lifelines have them on both ends or use a clevis on one end so the cable can quickly be removed, all inboard lifelines I have seen are made that way. jud

Twisted wire rope is what I would expect to see aboard ship. Braided wire cable is used for flexibility and its ability to run over and through small pulleys and guides, Not used where strength is needed or for stationary applications, it stretches when being used and then shrinks back when the forces are relaxed. Both of my parallel drafting guides use braided cable but the cable on my windless on my Utility Vehicle is twisted wire rope as is on my Come Along's. You can long splice or short splice twisted wire rope and every ship I have been aboard had a splicing vise set up with the needed hand tools for splicing wire rope. Have to agree with JerseyCity on this one.

To maintain a course the sails, wind and current must be balanced. Suspect that the tiller is often used as part of the action by using forward speed and a tiller aligned off center. Holding a rudder off center requires force and the action of the sea, roll and pitch would beat up the tiller-man so block and tackles were used to aid in steering and to absorb much of the tiller shock, allowing one man to handle the tiller by moving across the deck with the bitter end of each tackle in hand. Be interesting to see what those who have used this setup say, I have only steered using a wheel, paddle or oars, never a tiller.

Many are a form of Quaker, or dummy. The ports being just cavities with the Quaker in place, some models have model guns in place. You will find a wide spectrum of materials and numerous rigging arrays. The answer for this one is, it depends, it depends on the modeler, his skills, available materials and the modelers wishes. jud

Sounds like your math is right, your assumption that the 2013 publishing date was the copyright date or the date he completed the book probably is a poor assumption. Believe a little research might reveal when the book was copyrighted and a little more the date of death, I don' have enough interest in researching it for you, more intrested in peeling some spuds for hash browns. jud

Have to admire the Auxiliary Fleet, they got little glory but worked about 24, 7s. GM 2, 7 years active. 4 year hitch + a 2 year hitch with a 1 year extension. Have a good one 'Boats'. jud

Built the Revell Cutty in 64, only did the standing rigging, damaged during dusting and gave it away, not near the job you have done with yours, a keeper.. The Navy granted all of us at NTC San Diego weeks Christmas Leave in 1959 so spent Christmas leave at home. Company 537, orders to DD 527 after graduation, born on the 27th, lots of 7s . jud

We have been able to get muzzle velocity up to and above 4000 ft/sec but at those speeds the bore erosion become excessive and the heat generated on the projectile can melt it like was happening with the 17 bee if loaded a little fast. Bore wear and rotating bands effectiveness is what limits maximum velocities at the bore, other projectile design factors will contribute to stability and down range retention of speed. Changing a gun tube is not usually done aboard ship, did change barrel's on the ready mount on the Harnett County, LST 821 because of wear, easy change, didn't even unload the loaders.

Both Black and Smokeless powder produce gas to launch a projectile, we can put more potential energy into smaller packages of modern smokeless powder than we can using Black Powder but provided enough room we can place the same amount of potential energy in a gun tube using either mix. Using smokeless powder instead of Black powder, the advantage is mainly because the rate of burn can be controlled much better and slowing down that rate of burn allows smokeless powder to deliver an increasing power push against the projectile for the full length of the bore, Black powder is packed tight against the projectile because it is much closer to an explosion, its rate of burn and the packing prevents a void from being pressurized before the projectile begins to move, smokeless powder acts on the projectile like a compound bow does on an arrow, the push starts slow and increases with travel so a void does not create an over pressure point as the projectile begins movement. Pick up a Black Powder cartridge and shake it, you won't hear the powder moving inside the case like you often can in a smokeless cartridge, there are compressed loads produced today using smokeless powder so exceptions are out there. Anyway the energy released at the time the projectile leaves the bore can be equal using either powder, the speed of the projectile will be different, the forces with black powder peak sooner and the projectile acts more like shrapnel traveling down the bore than a projectile brought up to speed slowly and pushed out. The crack or womph is sound waves emitting from the blast, there can be some supersonic crack added from the projectile and hot gasses at the muzzle passing through the air but that projectile crack is added because of velocity not pressure. Does not matter the propellant type, hearing damage can happen even when using a high pressure air gun, pressure can build unheard, the release of that pressure is always forceful. Sound waves can be caused by any number of things creating potential damage to hearing, they don't need to be accompanied by blast to compromise your hearing. Keep in mind everything I have written is out of the memory banks, I did no research while making these posts. jud

Pressure Wave, that is muzzle blast and you have it with BB guns, it is a measurable force. That blast alone can cause impact damage but it is damage caused by force, not sound waves which are directional and travel in sine type waves, the amplitude and length of sound waves can be measured and their frequency is then defined. I have observed muzzle blast blow loader covers off of 3" 50s, tear sound powered phone boxes and first aid boxes from the splinter shields. When you are on or next to the gun and attempt to record the sound all you will get is the splat from the blast forces as they impact the mike, that splat is blast effect, it overwhelms the sound waves acting on the mic., get well out of the blast area and you can then record the sound waves. Sound is detected by our ear drum being vibrated by sound waves, that vibration is detected by the nerve endings in the inner ear and we hear sound, different sound for different frequencies. Our ear drum is like a drum head or that microphone noted above, it can pass different frequencies or get blasted by the splat. That splat can cause pain or damage the membrane of the ear drum itself. What passes through the ear drum is what can damage the hearing nerves, it can happen with one episode or with an accumulation of repeated exposure. Muzzle Blast is accompanied with Sound Waves, blast can cause physical damage, sound waves typically pass by and through. Ears are designed to detect different sound wave frequencies and they all collectively feed information to our brains, when frequencies are lost, so is the ability to distinguish the finer subtleties in speech and bewilderment or request to repeat become irritating to the speaker and the listener. The hearing when lost is lost at the time of the incident, not years later, may be some exceptions to that but I know of none myself. My hearing was tested at above average in boot camp in 1959, in 68 at Cam Rahn Bay in 68 I had measurable high frequency hearing loss and was told that the ringing would never go away nor the lost frequencies return. I learned to read lips, avoid crowds or any other environment with background noise where I would be expected to interact with others. Had hearing aids only for the last 7 years, they help but do not replace the missing frequencies so my high frequency loss effect around background noise has not changed and I still need to watch you speak or I will be hearing some very strange comments coming from your mouth and spend some time attempting to figure out what you really said. No disability from the VA, although I just have started on the groundwork to make a claim. Two types of forces when working around guns, blast and strong sound waves. Each gun has different frequencies. Small arms, 40 MM, 3"50, 5" 38s and 8" 55 were the guns I was around, it was the 3" 50 and the 40 MM that did most of the damage. Was gun captain and had a headset over one ear and kept the other open to listen to the crew and loaders working, hours of this resulted in switching ears with the phone headset.

Nice Turks Head on that anchor fluke, must have been some rib pain experience triggering it's being made and secured there. jud

Was sent to the Air Force hospital at Cam Ranh Bay in 68. Watched a guy come out of the sound proof booth where he had had his hearing tested and boy did he get an *** chewing. I was sitting there thinking, I'm next. The first words that were directed at me as I was exiting that booth was a statement about having been around a lot of jet aircraft. I hadn't, just guns, same frequencies were lost as those on your flight lines apparently. jud

Sounds bad to some of us, but when you think about what is normal at the time, that's life and few or any felt sorry for themselves. I don't feel sorry for the seamen of old because of the conditions and the times they lived, they were a tough bunch. Gunfire topside is hard on your ears, an explosion within a confined space also hurts eardrums but explosions in confined spaces destroy ships and were avoided. Gun muzzles were outboard when the gun was fired and the blast wave went outboard. Does concussion from guns harm hearing, yep, I wear two hearing aids, they help a little but some frequencies are gone and no hearing aid in the world can bring those frequencies back, perhaps a vibration device implanted in bone could, but don't expect the VA to pay for such an operation. Suspect that there was more hearing damage done on the weather decks than on the gun decks under normal conditions.

Balance, good handhold, also a good place to lash rigging to while moving or securing the gun and Uncle Carly tied his teeth to them while sleeping, being a good fiddle player, allowances were made for him. jud

A quick look also answered a long standing question about Wales. The recovered and photographed hull sections show that the Wales were beveled so they could slide off of the wales of another ship, docking structure or whatever they might encounter. Shows me that instincts were right about the edge shape of these important hull protectors. Thanks for the link. jud

Capstans are devices to put a strain and hold that strain on a line. With Fair leads and Blocks a line can be lead to the Capstan from anywhere on the ship, up and down decks, forward or aft or in the rigging. Would expect may things were moved by capstans, probably some strange things like gun barrels. Rode a Caribue to an Army base out of Sigon, walked down the road to a PBR Base then two different PBR's to my new duty station LST 821. Long day and sure was glad to tie up to the boat boom, climb aboard and haul my sea bag up on deck, that is when I was ambushed. Go to Mount 41, leave your stuff here it will be fine but get up there now. There had been a fire support mission that morning and the left gun on mount 41 was wedged out of battery by it's extractor pin. That was not a common problem and that gun did not come with jacking gear to jack it out of battery against the recoil spring, the Captain wanted his gun repaired and told the Gun Boss to stay on the gun until it was, now I became part of the sad crew who did not know what to do. Didn't take me long to rig the Capstan through some fair leads and blocks with a mooring line to that gun barrel, less than an eight of an inch freed the pin, let the gun back into battery, repairs were made in time for chow. Need something pulled, don't forget the capstan, no matter where the damn thing is, this one was on the port Bow, LST's only had one anchor forward, had another aft attached to a windless, part of the beaching gear. jud

Might suggest that the thwarts be sealed on the underside as is the exposed side. Reasoning being to stabilize from moisture changes and to create a flat I beam by having the web separating two stiff flanges resisting any bending from time and weight. Double coat if it does not detract from the desired finish. Like the Davit fabrication. jud