Bob Legge

More planking. I've decided that 4 isolated planks each side is enough for my purposes - more than that looks wrong. So I've started on the other side.

 
Here's the first anchor under construction.
 
 
It's almost complete - compare it with the pictures on the previous page. I will blacken it and add a stock in due course.
 
The dromons of the Crete expedition were to be provided with 6 anchors each. Anchors of the time were relatively light - the Serce Limani wreck had 9 wrought iron anchors ranging in weight from 50 to 65 kilograms (100 to 130 lb), all to the same basic design, arranged in two stacks on the foredeck. It appears that the snapping of the stern anchor (the snapped anchor has been recovered) as the ship sought refuge in the bay from a storm was the cause of the ship's loss - they didn't have time to drop another anchor. 
 
And the anchor on the foredeck to give an idea of scale.

 
And here's one of the spars of the lateen yard in progress.

Steven

Thanks for all the likes. It's good to feel others are following along with the build and enjoying it, and perhaps even think I'm on the right track, (something I sometimes have doubts about).
 
Though the argument for dromons being fully decked is as usual based on far too little information and indirect references in contemporary records, from the evidence he provides I am satisfied that Prof Pryor is correct in stating that they were fully decked. The most telling in my view is the testimony of John Kaminiates who had been forced to row in a dromon captured by Arabs in 904: 
 
“ ... the barbarians with us put themselves on the upper benches and left the lower [benches] to us, which were full of deep gloom and evil smells, and could only be described as a floating grave”.
 
However, I don't believe this invalidates my idea of planking with small gaps between - below decks would still have received little light under these circumstances. I'd been hoping that his using the word "gloom" instead of "dark" would have reinforced this idea, but unfortunately that's how it was translated, not how it reads in the original Greek, which has "much darkness" (or perhaps "great darkness").
 
By the way, I was recently lucky enough to be shown a number of pinus nigra (black pine) trees growing in a forest planted over 100 years ago in Creswick, about 20 minutes drive from home.

This is the timber the planks of my dromon should have been made of if I'd had access to it, instead of the ubiquitous pinus radiata from the local hardware shop I was obliged to use. I took home a (small) fallen branch and was pleasantly surprised to find the two timbers look very similar.
 
Steven 

Thanks everybody for all the likes, and Christos and Druxey for the kind comments. The scarph is of course conjectural, based upon the hull planking, because to the best of my knowledge no deck planks have ever been recovered from Byzantine ships.
 
More planking.

And now I'm going way out on a theoretical limb, doing something for which there is absolutely no evidence, archaeological or pictorial. But to me it seems  necessary. According to Professor John Pryor, the author of Age of the Dromon, a rower needs 0.5 cubic metres of air flow per minute to enable sweat to evaporate sufficiently to keep at peak performance. For a trireme he proposes oarboxes open at the bottom and louvred decks overhead to allow this amount of airflow.
 
Unfortunately, dromons didn't have oarboxes - the lower oars go through the sides of the vessel. Professor Pryor states that the 50 lower deck oarsmen of a dromon would need 4250 cubic metres of airflow per hour with a complete replacement of the air below decks about 30 times an hour. He proposes forced ventilation using "some contrivance such as wind sails or cowls".
 
I've no idea how that would work in a large enough scale to achieve what he suggests. What I decided to do is make openings in the deck above the oarsmen and hope it's enough. I'm putting three deck planks 2.5mm (125mm/5") wide running the full length of the main deck each side of the centre planking, with gaps 1mm wide (50mm/2" in full scale) between them, and on either edge next to the fully planked sections, making 8 gaps in all, providing ventilation for the lower oarsmen. Here's a test run to see how it would look. (In the final form, the fully planked section would also continue to the sides of the ship).
 


And here's the first plank going into place. I used a bit of plank on edge as a guide to form the gaps.

   

 

The planks are wide enough to give good footing and a 50mm gap is narrow enough not to be a major trip hazard. Though Prof Pryor recommends that the airflow come from below I can't see any way to do this on a dromon. However, as I see it in any sort of a breeze, or even with the dromon on the move,  there should be pretty decent airflow from bow to stern and from one side of the vessel to the other. I'd intended to have these openings run only as far as there were oarsmen so the maindeck at the bow would be fully decked. But I couldn't figure out how to make the transition, and the gaps would still have run almost the full length of the deck, so I ran them all the way.
 
I'm aware this presents a risk of flooding in heavy rain, but perhaps they would have covered the gaps with tarpaulins under these circumstances. And in any kind of heavy seas a galley was so vulnerable anyway it would make straight for port, and the extra openings in the deck should make very little difference to its chances of survival in a storm. In any case, that's the best I can come up with to solve the ventilation problem.     

More planking:
 
As the planks are now out past the opening for the companionway, they have a longer run. So I've put in scarph joints similar to those on the strakes.
 
I faked the first one - I just cut the plank into two lengths with a curved line and glued it back together.

But the second one is the real thing.
   
Adding yet more planks, including completing the scarph joint:
 
 
And I've made a start on the anchors. Photocopied to scale and glued to a 1mm thick sheet of brass.

And cut roughly to shape. 

Next thing to do is file it to shape, except where I'll be leaving it a bit wide where the real anchors are a little thicker, so I can bash it a bit sideways to make it more than 1mm thick at those points.

More deck planking. I'm following Druxey's suggestion to have the planks different widths. It doesn't look all that different (widths vary from 3.5 to 5mm), but it's closer to the likely reality.

The socket for the spur. I've made it out of pine, and will smooth it off and paint it to resemble iron.
 
I've had to cut it away in places to allow for the stempost and the wales. There also will be reinforcements to the socket following the line of the wales, perhaps to be made of wood, but painted to resemble iron.

I've also made a trial piece for the iron-shod head of the spur. Not very happy with it. I'm thinking of doing it in aluminium sheet instead, because wood really doesn't do the job or look good.
 
Steven
 
 

According to Age of the Dromon:
 
". . . there were also periboloi on either side at the prow, from which the anchors were lowered. Periboloi were also listed in the inventories for the Cretan expedition of 949 . . . Our best suggestion for the meaning of peribolos is “cathead”. On Greek triereis the epotides, the transverse “cheek timbers” of the outriggers at the bows, had apparently served for this purpose; however, with their passing something like catheads must have become necessary on galleys. Other ships of any size must always have had something like catheads. Leo VI . . .  said that it was the duty of one of the two oarsmen at the bow to cast, (ballein), the anchors into the sea."
 

 
In this picture there are two vertical pieces of wood at the bow which I believe are the periboloi. Not catheads as such, but performing a similar function. The anchor cables would have run around these, leading thence to the windlass at the break of the forecastle.
 
And here's my interpretation of them:

The edges are rounded to minimise chafing, and they are fixed to the beam shelf and, at the bottom, to the nearest frame.
 
Steven

First deck planking. Beginning the decking on the prymne. 
 
Also I've run a temporary batten tacked in place with a few spots of glue, with one edge running along the centre line of the ship to fix the run of the main deck planks.


And I've completed the plating on the spur.
 
Prymne decking complete and partly sanded. One plank has been glued next to the batten between the break of the poop and the hatch; once all that line of planks are in place the batten will be removed.
  
I still have to complete the sanding on the prymne and cut off the planks in a straight line at the break of the poop. And then get onto the main planking in earnest. (It's important to be Earnest - ask Oscar Wilde)
 
Steven

 

Ciao e grazie a tutti.
Hello and thank you all.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Un Saluto

Ciao e grazie a tutti, altre foto.
Hello and thanks to everyone, more photos.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Un Saluto

Beautiful, precise framing. Very well done, Daniel.

Ciao a tutti, altre foto.
Hello and thanks to everyone, more photos.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Un Saluto

Good morning.

Thanks for the patience on this build, the advice, and the likes.
 
It's been slow going what with personal issues, re-cutting some pieces, etc.   Here's where I am on the this first ship's boat.  The build jig has been built and the keel and the two risers on each side are installed.  The risers still need a bit of tweaking as to some bits and pieces where the planking will run and then glue them into position.  I'm pretty pleased with how it's going just need more time and focus.   After the tweaks, the next step is to cut out the ribs and install them.  I see from the photos, I need to do some more clean up of the char on the keel and the risers.
 

Hi, and tanks, Amalio🙂
anoter pictures:

Rigging sizes
Noel C L Hackney in HMS Victory Classic Ships No 1 by Airfix, 1970 gives a variation on method of calculating sizes (counting rather than measuring).
 
He made marks on a pencil  1 inch apart. He then wound the line around the pencil, counting the number of turns to fill 1 inch. Calculating back (or using a small spreadsheet) gives the circumference.
His results as printed for Airfix Victory - Scale 173
Thread or line size                               TPI     Rope size (inches) Scale 173
12 lb 3-strand nylon salmon line             38          14
No 12 Super Gimp                                40         13 1/2 
No 50 synthetic                                    60          9
No 24 merc cotton/No 70 synthetic        70          7 1/2
No 90 synthetic                                    80          7
No 16 waxed                                        85          6 1/2
No 24 waxed / No 36 merc cotton          90          6
No 40 merc cotton                               100         5 1/2
No 110 synthetic                                  104        5 1/4
No 120 synthetic/No 120 spun tereline   110        5
No 60 soft cotton                                 115        4 3/4
No 140 synthetic/75 denier teryline      120        4 1/2
Monofilament nylon fishing line         0.2 mm      4
Monofilament nylon fishing line         0.175 mm  3 1/2
Monofilament nylon fishing line         0.15 mm    3
Monofilament nylon fishing line         0.1 mm      2
 
He first states "the diameter of threads  ... is not related to the thread number shown on the reel except in the most general way. That number is simply the count of how many hanks of that thread of a given length are needed to total a given standard weight, and it therefore follows that two threads of the same number can differ considerally in thickness if their basic material (cotton/man made fibre) of their treatment (waxed / mercerised) makes a variation in their weight per yard. Thus the standard No 40 cotton, No24 waxed thread and No 110 synthetic are almost the same thickness".
 
Regards,
 
Bob.
 

Rigging sizes
Noel C L Hackney in HMS Victory Classic Ships No 1 by Airfix, 1970 gives a variation on method of calculating sizes (counting rather than measuring).
 
He made marks on a pencil  1 inch apart. He then wound the line around the pencil, counting the number of turns to fill 1 inch. Calculating back (or using a small spreadsheet) gives the circumference.
His results as printed for Airfix Victory - Scale 173
Thread or line size                               TPI     Rope size (inches) Scale 173
12 lb 3-strand nylon salmon line             38          14
No 12 Super Gimp                                40         13 1/2 
No 50 synthetic                                    60          9
No 24 merc cotton/No 70 synthetic        70          7 1/2
No 90 synthetic                                    80          7
No 16 waxed                                        85          6 1/2
No 24 waxed / No 36 merc cotton          90          6
No 40 merc cotton                               100         5 1/2
No 110 synthetic                                  104        5 1/4
No 120 synthetic/No 120 spun tereline   110        5
No 60 soft cotton                                 115        4 3/4
No 140 synthetic/75 denier teryline      120        4 1/2
Monofilament nylon fishing line         0.2 mm      4
Monofilament nylon fishing line         0.175 mm  3 1/2
Monofilament nylon fishing line         0.15 mm    3
Monofilament nylon fishing line         0.1 mm      2
 
He first states "the diameter of threads  ... is not related to the thread number shown on the reel except in the most general way. That number is simply the count of how many hanks of that thread of a given length are needed to total a given standard weight, and it therefore follows that two threads of the same number can differ considerally in thickness if their basic material (cotton/man made fibre) of their treatment (waxed / mercerised) makes a variation in their weight per yard. Thus the standard No 40 cotton, No24 waxed thread and No 110 synthetic are almost the same thickness".
 
Regards,
 
Bob.
 

Rigging sizes
Noel C L Hackney in HMS Victory Classic Ships No 1 by Airfix, 1970 gives a variation on method of calculating sizes (counting rather than measuring).
 
He made marks on a pencil  1 inch apart. He then wound the line around the pencil, counting the number of turns to fill 1 inch. Calculating back (or using a small spreadsheet) gives the circumference.
His results as printed for Airfix Victory - Scale 173
Thread or line size                               TPI     Rope size (inches) Scale 173
12 lb 3-strand nylon salmon line             38          14
No 12 Super Gimp                                40         13 1/2 
No 50 synthetic                                    60          9
No 24 merc cotton/No 70 synthetic        70          7 1/2
No 90 synthetic                                    80          7
No 16 waxed                                        85          6 1/2
No 24 waxed / No 36 merc cotton          90          6
No 40 merc cotton                               100         5 1/2
No 110 synthetic                                  104        5 1/4
No 120 synthetic/No 120 spun tereline   110        5
No 60 soft cotton                                 115        4 3/4
No 140 synthetic/75 denier teryline      120        4 1/2
Monofilament nylon fishing line         0.2 mm      4
Monofilament nylon fishing line         0.175 mm  3 1/2
Monofilament nylon fishing line         0.15 mm    3
Monofilament nylon fishing line         0.1 mm      2
 
He first states "the diameter of threads  ... is not related to the thread number shown on the reel except in the most general way. That number is simply the count of how many hanks of that thread of a given length are needed to total a given standard weight, and it therefore follows that two threads of the same number can differ considerally in thickness if their basic material (cotton/man made fibre) of their treatment (waxed / mercerised) makes a variation in their weight per yard. Thus the standard No 40 cotton, No24 waxed thread and No 110 synthetic are almost the same thickness".
 
Regards,
 
Bob.
 

Rigging sizes
Noel C L Hackney in HMS Victory Classic Ships No 1 by Airfix, 1970 gives a variation on method of calculating sizes (counting rather than measuring).
 
He made marks on a pencil  1 inch apart. He then wound the line around the pencil, counting the number of turns to fill 1 inch. Calculating back (or using a small spreadsheet) gives the circumference.
His results as printed for Airfix Victory - Scale 173
Thread or line size                               TPI     Rope size (inches) Scale 173
12 lb 3-strand nylon salmon line             38          14
No 12 Super Gimp                                40         13 1/2 
No 50 synthetic                                    60          9
No 24 merc cotton/No 70 synthetic        70          7 1/2
No 90 synthetic                                    80          7
No 16 waxed                                        85          6 1/2
No 24 waxed / No 36 merc cotton          90          6
No 40 merc cotton                               100         5 1/2
No 110 synthetic                                  104        5 1/4
No 120 synthetic/No 120 spun tereline   110        5
No 60 soft cotton                                 115        4 3/4
No 140 synthetic/75 denier teryline      120        4 1/2
Monofilament nylon fishing line         0.2 mm      4
Monofilament nylon fishing line         0.175 mm  3 1/2
Monofilament nylon fishing line         0.15 mm    3
Monofilament nylon fishing line         0.1 mm      2
 
He first states "the diameter of threads  ... is not related to the thread number shown on the reel except in the most general way. That number is simply the count of how many hanks of that thread of a given length are needed to total a given standard weight, and it therefore follows that two threads of the same number can differ considerally in thickness if their basic material (cotton/man made fibre) of their treatment (waxed / mercerised) makes a variation in their weight per yard. Thus the standard No 40 cotton, No24 waxed thread and No 110 synthetic are almost the same thickness".
 
Regards,
 
Bob.
 

… following 3 drawings of 7P, than some other Dutch ships from this age.
 
English ships have less fittings on van de Velde drawings.




Otte Blom has even 11 in his plans.

  Dražen

Thank you!


 
The number of fittings above the waterline is actually 4. The plans from Lelystad show 6 (2 above the waterline). Still, in long discussions, I went for the original from the paintings - even other ships of the size like Witte Olifant 1666 or smaller have 4 above WL.


 
Below: plan from Lelystad


 

 
Dražen

… mounting the whole on the sternpost…


and the rudder is ready.


 
Dražen

After 6 thin layers of paint and longer drying periods in-between, the rudder was ready.


 
I am using the Royal Talens Rembrandt Titanium White with some Ochre to give it an off-white effect. Talens Rembrand Yellow Ochre Light showed to be not covering well, so I switched to Old Holland Ochre which is excellent.


 
Dražen

That is how looked like before painting....
 
Dražen

Making the wedge for fixing the tiller.
The hole for the wedge was square in form and, after drilling a small hole, I needed to nail a metal part in it to make it square before setting the wedge. It seems to be easy, bit was not.


 
Dražen

… and making the reinforcements in the tiller area on the upper part…


The nails were slightly smaller.

 
Dražen