rybakov

Waiting for the glue to dry on the port upper cheek assembly, I looked more carefully at the area around the figurehead, double checking on the heights for clearance for the bowsprit, and also where the rigging will begin to fasten. Better to catch problems now, as parts are beginning to fall into place. I redrew the Bellona figurehead, with more detail that might begin to lead into the carving--at the very least, a blank to make sure everything fits.
 
And, I did discover a mistake from 25 years ago. I marked and cut the slot for the gammoning in the keel when I first started construction. Now I see that I thought was the fore end was actually the aft end of the slot. So it is exactly its own distance back from where it ought to be!
It will take some fine work to fill the slot and cut a new one. Don't tell anyone!
 
Here is an updated drawings with the new Bellona figurehead, and the beginnings of rigging at the bow:
 
 

 
 
 

Greg's and druxey's gluing ideas worked well. Tiny drops of carpenter's glue between the piece and a sheet of plywood held everything firmly enough to sand fair on three sides. Isopropyl removed it from the ply, and as the British say, "Bob's your uncle!"
 
Good trick for refining small delicate parts.
 
Glued together on the hull, still not fully faired to each other:

then glued down on plywood:
 

 
Faired, and pinned back on the hull:
 
 

This piece reminds me of the great quote on Remco's HMS Kingfisher site: "Treat each part as if it is a model on its own, you will finish more models in a day than others do in a lifetime."
 
Mark
 
 

The cheeks saga continues. I finally got both cheeks, both sides, close to finish size and pinning in place:
 

I made the cheeks up in two parts, hopefully to get the grain to run roughly parallel to the scratch moulding still needed to be done on each outboard surface:

I also used, for the first time, my handy vise attachments that hold irregular pieces. I don't know how else I would ever have held these multi-curved surfaces for shaping:

Then came the awful discovery that I had cut the top of my knee at the head to the wrong profile. Fifteen years ago I made my best guess at this shape (photo from 2008):

And then as the cheeks neared completion, I started wondering how the moulding continuing on from the top cheek--the hair bracket-- would be supported for its full length to the scroll at the top. I looked again at the original Bellona model, and saw there had to be a much higher core up from the knee of the head, between the hair brackets and abaft the figurehead:

I tried making one piece, with a slot to slip over the knee, but soon gave up on that as pretty impossible to cut a slot tapering in two directions while keeping it aligned athwartships and fore and aft:

I finally realized that the top of the knee should have looked more like this upper left piece in the drawing below:

So tomorrow, I will see how I can fit my retro piece onto the top of the knee, between the upper cheeks:

Wish I had understood that 15 years ago, and good thing I am not in a hurry....
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Press release March 1, 1760; "The Admiralty just learned that the proposed Cole-Bentinck chain pump will not be available for another 10 years. The HMS Bellona currently being fitted out in Chatham Dockyard will have to install a standard pump". 
 
I bothered me that I was recently showing a pump designed a decade after the Bellona's launch, even though I am trying to show her as she was designed. I looked again at sources, and found information I had overlooked in Lavery's Arming and Fitting, page 71; a redrawn section through the Resolution of 1708. It is the only drawing I have found of a pump before the Cole-Bentinck, and so I will go with the idea that this pump was probably closer to the one installed in the Bellona in 1760.
 
Lavery points us to some drawings in Blanckley's Naval Expositor of 1750. Taken from the Gutenburg permission free ebook online, here is the key idea at the upper wheel. These sprockets are driven into a solid elm wheel, over which the chain rides.
 

With this, and then interpreting as best I can the drawing of the Resolution, here is my best shot at the design of a pre-Cole-Bentinck pump, ca. 1750. Distinctive elements: 1) the return tube does not go all the way to the lower end of the pump; 2) the bottom of the pump rests right on the outboard planking, set into a deep slot beside the keelson; 3) it has a bottom roller, like the later Cole-Bentinck design. I can see how the chain and burrs would bump over that, tightening and loosening the chain and causing the problems mentioned in various sources regarding this traditional pump. And the chains have no mechanical hook to the sprockets, allowing the slippage mentioned earlier.
 
But at least this is closer to authentic for 1760 than I have managed so far. Unless anyone has come across a contemporary drawing of a circa 1750 pump, this is my best bet...
 
Mark
 


 

 

While waiting for steaming and glue to dry, I tackled a drawing project I had long, long put aside, the pumps. I am not installing anything except the cisterns, but I was always curious about these. So I did a little digging in Lavery's Arming and Fitting of English Ships of War (pp. 66-76), Peter Goodwin's Construction and Fitting of the English Man of War (pp. 138-142), David Antscherl's Fully Framed Model (vol. II, pp. 96-102) and Dodds and Moore's Building the Wooden Fighting Ship (p. 100).
 
The year of the Bellona's completion, 1760, appears to be in a transitional period from earlier, inefficient pumps to the much improved Coles-Bentinck which was first tested in 1768 and underwent a number of improvements over the next few years. There is less information available in these printed resources for the pumps before the Coles-Bentinck, so I was left wondering what the Bellona pump more exactly might have looked like.
 
The only primary document drawing I could find closer to the launch of the Bellona is plate VIII in Falconer's Dictionary of the Marine published 1769, which I have shown here from the Guttenberg ebook project. Brian Lavery says this has features in common with the Coles pump, but with some notable differences like the cogged wheels which are not in the later Coles-Bentinck pumps. He says that "Either this is an early version of the Coles pump, or it is one of many other inventions of the period." (p. 72 footnote).
 
Falconer's clearly identifies this illustration as the "naval chain-pump, by Mr. Cole, under the direction of Capt. Bentinck", which Falconer says works much better than the earlier pumps. It must have been one of the very earliest versions, since the cogged wheel disappears in later versions. And Falconer is publishing this just a year after the initial test of the Coles-Bentinck pump.
 
Lacking detailed information on pumps before this one in Falconer, I decided that this would at least be closer to the Bellona date than the later, well illustrated Coles-Bentinck pumps. Shall we assume that the Bellona installed this improved pump when it first become available a decade after launch?
 
I quickly discovered that this drawing is not an accurately scaled drawing. The distance from top to bottom is way too short relative to the sizes of the cisterns and pump tube diameters. So I took features from this drawing and tried to accurately scale it to the actual hull.
 
Things I learned in this exercise.
1. The cogged wheels do not engage or drive the disks as they go around. There are bolts at the point of each tooth that actually engage hooks on the chain links. I see why they quickly abandoned the cogged wheel and kept the bolts and hooks.
2. The disks are of a smaller diameter than the tubes everywhere in the pump EXCEPT at the most critical part, a chamber at the outboard base of the pump where the disks have a tight fit (last illustration below). This makes sense, after thinking about it. A tight fit all along the pump would have created a great deal of friction in the machine. It only needs to pull up water within this chamber which then holds up the column of water from the chamber to the cistern. Very, very clever.
3. This drawing curiously holds the bottom chamber up from the floor, indeed, hanging off the keelson. Later pumps try to get right down to the floor or even cut into the frames so the point of pulling up water is as close to the bottom as possible. This pump will leave a good puddle in the bilge that it cannot reach. However, when one considers that the hull is usually heeled over, it is probably getting close enough to the bottom of the bilge water.
 
If anyone has come across sufficiently detailed drawings of pumps in service just before this pump, please share and I will redraw. Until then, the Bellona gets a pump refit....🙃
 
Oh well, back to the model....
 
 

 
 
 
 

Thanks so much, Gary and Alan, just when I think I know the name of everything, then I discover yet more to know...
 
The lining proved yet more difficult to fasten than I expected. I could not get a clean shot at clamping the outboard end firmly to the hull. So I made a special clamp, with a pad shaped to the end of the lining. either my clamps could not reach that far over the edge, or they were so fat I couldn't see if things were bedded home or not. So thin legs on the new clamp gave a good view and also applied pressure at just the right place.
 
Then it all worked out:
 


And a first look at the second layer, which still needs steaming. And the hawse holes penciled in:

Mark
 
 
 
 
 

According to The Construction and Fitting of the Sailing Man of War 1650-1850 by Peter Goodwin
Page 179 figure 6/10
The backing piece was called the LINING.
The front piece that bottomed against the lower cheek and rose to half the hawse hole and had a radius in it that the holes for the bend of the cable passing over it was called the ELM BOLSTER.
The hawse hole had an oak lining in barrel stave fashion, between 8 and 12 segments.
This was covered with lead or heavy gauge copper, the latter being used in the 2nd half of the 18th century (1750+), in some cases lead only.

Hi Mark. Here is a couple of photo's of the cheeks and they items made for them. Its been awhile since I made them but believe I used a piece of curved wood to get the right curve on them using a heat gun after putting water on them. Hope it help's Gary 

Hello and many thanks for your nice comments and likes.
Today only a little update, the boomkin cleats are installed.

@wefalck
Hello Eberhard,
thanks for the nice comment.
 
Continuation: For topsail yard - studding sail boom iron
In the meantime I also made the outer studding sail boom irons for the fore topsail yard. Like the inner irons, they were made of brass strips with a width of 1.3 mm and a thickness of 0.25 mm. For brazing with a silver brazing paste I fix the pre-prepared parts on a ceramic plate, as already shown several times.
With the following picture I show how the assembly of the inner studding sail boom irons is done. The brass wire ø 0.4 mm, which still has to be shortened, takes over the function of a safety pin.


The next picture shows the outer iron of the fore topsail yard. The end of the yardarm is square with dimensions 2.2 / 2.2 mm.


In order to be able to carry out the assembly and rigging work on the yards comfortably, I made myself this holding device.


And finally, an overview of the construction status of the fore topsail yard, with the studding sail booms, which in the meantime has each received a hole at the octagonal end. At the outer end, a notch has been added for fastening the blocks.

The next step is the studding sail boom irons for the main topsail yard, the dimensions of which are somewhat larger.
To be continued ...
 

@druxey
Thanks for your nice comment.
Thanks also to all for the many LIKES.
 
Continuation: Equipping the yards - studding sail boom irons
After initial problems and a failed attempt, I set out with new courage to make another one. Probably to avoid the mistakes of the first attempt, such as brazing the fine parts of the hinges too much heat, so that they then ultimately become brittle and break off (see picture). In principle, it would also have been possible to make these joints with soft solder. However, for reasons of strength, I chose brazing.


On the next picture I show a photo collage, where single steps for making the studding sail boom iron are shown.

On the next picture you can see the studding sail boom iron still in uncleaned condition after brazing. The outer ring is still missing the hint of a hinge, which I will fix with soft solder.


Here a picture with spar:


And finally the result for the two inner studding sail boom irons of the fore topsail yard.


Making the outer studding sail boom irons should be much easier.
To be continued ...
 

Hello,
the bowsprit is now fast and the last „seats of ease“ are installed. The next things are the boomkin cleats. But that may take a little time.
 
Should I tar the gammoning? I'm not sure 

Hello,
the gratings are finished and the boomkins build. 

Thank you Jim!

At the weekend was "Dafi home alone". As children are, there was again goofing around to be done.

On the agenda was the doll's house in the back. In the kit there is only the bulkheads to the captain's cabin. But contemporary sources still show the bulkheads of the wardroom and the pantry for these two areas. Since the Constitution seems to me like a mixture of French and English influences, I looked at the various templates in the Boudriot as with all the England girls.

Also interesting is this Englishbeauty from the NMM, one of the few contemporary models where you can see the internal bulkheads.







The adaptation of the vertical structures to the inclined ship's side is very nice, but I ended up going with the classic vertical version. Interesting also the change of the height of the subdivision: at the ship's side at the level of the lower edge of the gunports, otherwise almost in the middle.

The first print came out quite usable.



The basic layout looks like this, the bulkheads in the captain's cabin are still missing.



And here are just a few impressions of what can be done. Focus on the bulkhead to the captain's cabin.







And here are a few pictures of the forward bulkhead and pantry.







Now it's on to the right fitting 🙂

XXXDAn

Continuation: Equipping the yards - studding sail boom irons
Since I am also interested in how studding sail booms work, that is, how to deploy and attach them, I tried to find more information in the relevant literature and on the Internet. In particular, the book "Seamanship in the Age of Sail" by John Harland describes, among other things, the handling of studding sail booms. This naturally results in various details on the spars themselves (of which later) and in this case on the studding sail boom irons.
 

Source: Seamanship in the Age of Sail, John Harland, p. 147
 
The preceding picture from this book explains very impressively that the studding sail booms, which were a handicap when sailing, were taken up and attached to the shrouds. To make this possible, the inside boom irons were hinged to open, which can also be seen in the contemporary drawings below. As can also be seen, these examples have different angles, depending on their chronological placement. This also corresponds with the observations of the photographs of contemporary ship models of the Musée national de la Marine.
 

Source: Internet_MSW_Archives_G. Delacroix_ca.1830
 

Source: Atlas_Brest_1850
 

Source: Atlas_Toulon_1854
 
As mentioned before, the Paris Museum has kindly provided me with a high-resolution overall image of La Créole, from which I can obtain additional information to Jean Boudriot's monograph. Especially in the case of the studding sail booms, it can be seen that they were clearly arranged in front of the yard, without angles as shown in the monograph. This also corresponds to the temporal context.
In this respect I orientate myself for my model on the drawing, which I received thankfully from G. Delacroix via MSW. Similarities between this drawing and the original Paris model, as shown below, are clearly recognizable. Also I see there the already described details on the historical drawings confirmed.

Now I will get to work on the realization for the model. I hope to find a way to produce these difficult details as far as possible. A special challenge is the mounting of the inside studding sail boom iron, because I have to choose a two-piece design for it due to the expansions at the yard arms, if possible with hinges like on the original. I have already made comparable hinges for this model as attachment for the front fishes. But this time it has to go one size smaller.

I decided to make the studding sail boom irons for the fore topsail yard first, because they have the smallest dimensions.
Bigger is always possible...
More about that soon ...
 

As always thanks for the clicks and comments to the gentlemen and of course the ladies 🙂

At some point I noticed again the dark hole to the orlop and also how painful I still have to suffer on my Vic because of a similar omission 😉

So I prepared two matching blocks, took out the big tweezers ...



... and sank the blocks from above through the hole into the depth, with huge amounts of glue positioned underneath. In addition, also fixed supports to sides, so that they do not end up later as shaken goods.

Of course, there was a stowaway right away ...



.... which my little brave sailor had to drive away with death-defying courage.



Then prepared the deck ...



... for this purpose photographed a piece of deck and printed it out tiled.



Colorwise I could have done some corrections, of course, but for this purpose it does quite well. I'll put a grating or something similar over it later anyway.



But how to get the parts in there? The prepared piece of deck was fixed with a little double-sided tape to a long ruler ...



... luckily I had spotted the small gap in the stern and with a loud *yikes* rammed it inside ...



... and pressed it into the right place into the glue waiting there, aligned properly ...



... and let the gentleman of the quality control look over it 🙂

Was accepted so, luck!

XXXDAn

Continuing on with another small update. The aft seats have been added to the ship. This was tricky stuff and there were a few attempts needed. So, yeah, Nothing new. I used a tapered a dowel inserted into the hole as a helping hand when test fitting and gluing them in. Only a small amount of PVA at the notch surrounding the moulding and along the edge that sits against the false rail.

Mike

Moving along. .
 
An easy way to align the first two sides of the poop scoops is to use a jig similar to what was used to round up the coamings.

The poop scoops are completed. The alignment being that they are parallel to each other vertically and the tops are flat across the top. I found that the best way to do that was to set one first, before moving onto the other one. The three battens on the outside really help to hold them firmly in place.

Mike
 

One thing I almost forgot to mention. .
 
I think that It's very important to keep the two inner battens parallel or at least at the same angle relative to the center line of the hull. It's quite noticeable if one batten is at a different angle than the other. Just something to be aware of when you get to this stage of the build.

Mike

More grating work completed this week. As you can see I have not spent a lot of time on paint work. It's just too easy for things to get scratched while working in this area. I lowered the notched batten at the hull around 3/64" since the angle appeared just a bit too steep.

Mike

I've started on the head gratings. A few of these battens are quite small, yet none of them managed to fly off into nowhere land. All of the joints needed a bit of wood filler before painting. I added the first coat of black paint of which more are sure to come.
 

Mike

Well, I'm not sure if I would call it a milestone, but it does feel good to have finally finished the head timber work. It's challenging and sometimes tedious work. The secret to any kind of success is to just slow down and think things through as much as possible. The head gratings are next.


Mike
 

Work continues with the completion of the cathead rail. A ton of fitting, tweaking and re-fitting in order to get something that I liked. It would be great if one could add the thin outside layers in one piece instead of a splice. Of course that would be more difficult to do since both halves of the rail would have to be glued together first, while matching the shape of the hull at the same time.
 
Anyway, here you go. .


Mike

I've been looking forward to getting the cover boards completed, not necessarily doing them. I had to file down a few of the head timbers or change the angle slightly before I could glue the boards in. I recommend using slow drying CA and not PVA. I also removed some of the moulding under the frieze to make things easier when it's time to fit the lower rail.
 
Anyway, now that they are done I am feeling pretty good about how they turned out. Now its onto the lower rail.
 

Mike

I finished up the second main rail today. More black touch up needed and then onto the head timber cover boards.
Mike