rybakov

I believe those to be Top Rope scuttles Daniel, I scribed them into the decks on my Victory.
 
Wouldn't normally be in use except when raising or lowering the topmasts.
 
M.

Historic docks and shipyards in Denmark.
 

The first in Denmark dry dock located on the waterfront in the Christianshavn.
Dock was constructed in 1739. (National Museum of Denmark)

Part of wooden dock structure.

The Royal Arsenal in Copenhagen (The Royal Naval Museum)



The Royal Navy base at Holmen Island.(The Royal Naval Museum)

Shipyard in Copenhagen (The Royal Naval Museum)



Ship on the slipway ready for launching (The Royal Naval Museum)

Mast crane at Holmen Island
 
Tadeusz

Hi Nils -
 
Checking in after the summer and love what I am seeing.  I second the compliments from everyone else and look forward to following your progress.
 
As for the deck chairs, here is a photo of the same photoetched ones that I used on the SS America.  I did decide to paint them with a simple brown spray, holding them down by sticking them to masking tape laid face up on some wood scrap.  They came off easily after painting without destroying the CA joints.
 
Be well
 
Dan

Hello people from MSW
 
After some radiosilence I hope to continue this buildingreport. I can't promise updates every week but my goal is to start building again in a slow but steady pase.
 
After my time in hospital I had no energy to do anything and the models were collecting dust and so did the hobbyroom. So when I found some motivation again to do anything I dicided to clean the room first but that got out of hand a little. Because my medical conditions I had to work very slow and it took me lots of time to do everything but last weeks I finished 'cleaning'. All the tools have their own place now in the new toolcabinet I made and instead of heaps of tools and bulks of junk I have now a beautifull new workplace for the heavier jobs. Also the 'gates of the cave' got a re-styling with some nautical objects I collected over the years and I created more space in the hobbyroom by replacing a big wooden desk for a smaller cabinet on wheels (for the lathe).
 
 

I've got four wales made and fitted onto the plug for the dromon now. I looked again at the Yenikapi archaeological finds and realised that I was trying to merge the wales of two different ships, so I had more wales than I should. So instead of having 5 wales each side, she'll only have three (including the "gunwale" (not really a good name - guns hadn't been invented).
 
This is something of a relief, as I'm finding it rather hard going getting them to the shape I want, and I'm rather glad to be getting rid of 40% of my problem. I'm hoping to get the other two wales bent this weekend, and then tweak all of them so they're exactly the right shape.
 

 

 
 
 
I've also done more on the flute player and one of the steersmen. The flute player's pretty much complete except for smoothing off. I won't be able to complete the steersman until I have the steering oars in position so I know exactly where his arms and hands should be.
 

 

 
The flute is a separate piece, as there's no way I could carve it all from one bit of wood. So there's a hole for the flute to go through. 
 

 

 

 
Actually this is just my trial flute, to see if it worked. I'll be making a better one.
 
 

 

 
When I'd got this far I so pleased with him I was very tempted to leave him as he was, but the photo makes him look a lot rougher than he looks to the naked eye. So I suppose I'll have to smooth him off after all.
 
Here's the picture I modelled him on. He's the one in blue. I realise this could be taken as some sort of horn rather than a flute, as it doesn't have holes in the barrel as does the one held by the guy in the stern. But flute is the word the sources use, so as far as I'm concerned that's what he's playing. And anyway, I don't think there's any point putting finger holes in the flute at this kind of scale . . .
 

 
By the way, note the tiller on the steering oar.
 
Steven 

I’ve now finished all the frames – 124 of them, each with its little paper tag to tell me where it goes.
 

 
And I’ve so far carved 30 oars of the 50 needed for the upper bank. This means I’ve got enough upper deck oars for one whole side of the ship, with some left over. I'm a lot happier with their consistency - they all look very much the same now, instead of having differences that were obvious to the naked eye. Maybe I'm getting better at this stuff!
 

 
 I’ve had my first experiment with bending the wales. I don’t have a steamer so I soaked each wale in water and fixed it in place using large headed screws as clamps, and then ran a heat gun over it. It worked after a fashion – the wale took the shape of the plug reasonably well, but not completely. Particularly at the ends the curve wasn’t tight enough – it sprang back a bit. The one I worked with was one of my “throwaway” wales – if I stuff it up it doesn’t matter – and it’s a little shorter than the others - too short to get a good purchase on the ends to bend them properly. However, even the longer ones will have the same problem.
 
 

 

 
I needed a way of putting bending force on the ends and clamping them there. So I put together a simple jig to tighten the curve after the initial bending, just using a bit of wood and some nails. And it works!
 

 
So now I’ve started using my ‘good’ wales, and I’ve done the initial curving on two of them. There’s still some adjustment and tweaking to be done, but it looks like I’ve got a workable technique.
 
While I’ve been working on shaping the frames and wales I’ve also been looking at how the superstructure will work. According to the 10th century treatise “On Sea Warfare” by Emperor Leo VI:
 
The dromon should have a siphon (flamethrower) in front at the prow . . . . Above this siphon there should be a kind of floor of planks fortified all around with planks, so that marines can stand on it to fight the enemy attacking from the prow . . .                          
 
So dromons had a forecastle raised above the siphon for marines to stand and fight from.
 
Moreover, they should set up xylokastra [wooden castles], fortified with planks, on the large dromons  ‘towards the middle of the mast’, so that men can stand on them and throw into the middle of the enemy [ship] great millstones or heavy iron [weights] like sword-shaped blooms . . ..
 
The statement ‘towards the middle of the mast’ implies some sort of fighting top halfway up the mast.  But it was usual practice for dromons to lower their masts before going into battle, as ships of the time had weapons designed to cut shrouds so the mast came crashing down on deck. A fighting top would be a liability.
 
Professor Pryor in Age of the Dromon proposes that the passage above has been incorrectly copied by a mediaeval scribe, and that the original Greek is more likely to have read “around the middle mast” or “around the middle [i.e. halfway between] of the masts”, or even “around the mast of the middle” (i.e. a mast stepped midships).
 
He proposes two castles, one either side of the ship, with a catwalk between allowing easy access between bow and stern. This would also allow room for the lateen yard, which would have been obstructed by a single central castle. This idea is supported by Leo’s reference not to a castle, but to castles.
 
I took the forecastle and xylokastra from the illustrations in Age of the Dromon, but I had to make some adjustments. Their floors are higher off the deck – the forecastle needed room below it for access to the siphon apparatus, and the xylokastra had to be high enough for the oarsmen below to row without hitting their heads. And their sides had to be higher to properly protect the marines standing on them, so I placed the bulwarks at chest height, with battlements on top.
 
In my original drawings it sort of looked ok, but once I made up cardboard mock-ups and put them on the hull, it looked totally wrong. The forecastle was too big and too high, and the castles were too high and too far forward. And all that superstructure so far forward would weigh the ship down by the bow.
 

 
I started by removing the battlements – after all a dromon’s primary purpose is attack, and the battlements would have interfered with the marines lifting their “millstones and heavy iron weights” high enough to drop them onto the enemy ships.
 
I made the forecastle shorter – it still left plenty of room for the fighters. I also angled the forepart of the triangle forward, in line with a dromon illustration found in Malaga in Spain. It started looking better.
 
The floor of each xylokastron will be about a metre (3’3”) above deck level. they can’t be too long because galleys are notoriously unstable, and too many marines standing above decks along one side, as they would be when fighting another ship, would make it even more unstable. (a galley can only heel about 10 degrees before the oarports are under water).
 
I shortened the castles moved them aft, half way down the ship. It looked better still, while allowing enough room for 5 or 6 marines to stand and fight from it (any more might capsize the ship).
 
 
At the prymne (poop) - though this may or may not be an actual raised deck – there is a krabbatos (berth) for the captain, probably with an arched awning over it, as both earlier and later galleys had. There’s still enough room either side for the steersmen to stand. 
 

 

 
 
 
You can see the little guy standing on the castle. I've worked up designs for two more crewmen - the helmsman and the man who gives the oarsmen the time with a flute/trumpet thingy, plus a lion's head for the siphon to look out of and scare the enemy. But that will take a while to do.
 
The word used for the captain's berth is one usually used for beds, so perhaps it was some kind of day-bed the captain could either sleep in or sit on for councils of war. An 11th century Byzantine picture of refugees shows two people carrying beds (and one with a table). Perhaps it was like this?
   
 
 
 
I’ve made the castles about 1.3 metres (4’3”) wide, which should give enough standing room on top as well as space on deck to walk between them and enough room for the oarsmen to row. They’ll be open at the back with a railing to stop the marines falling off backwards. There’ll be an opening at one end of the railing with rungs to climb up.
 
The forecastle is about 0.9 metres (3 feet) above the deck to give space for the siphon and its equipment. Access from the deck will be the same as with the xylokastra.
 
 
The mid-12th century copy of the Chronicle of John Skylitzes held in the Biblioteca Nacional in Madrid contains many illustrations of warships, and one illustration shows a ship with a xylokastron. I’m using that as a model as well.
 

In general, you would never run the strop of a block directly through an eyebolt.  For two reasons: first the blocks were normally stropped off the ship in a rigging loft, and second, if you had to shift that block from it's location for repair, maintenance or otherwise, it would necessitate cutting the strop.  Then in order to re-employ the block it would need to be re-stropped.  The strop of a block should be seized to an eyebolt.
 
The bitter end of a pendant or other line may have been passed through the eyebolt and seized to itself.  This affords you with the same facility for shifting the line if necessary without damaging the line.  All you would have to do is cut the seizing.
 
Regards,

Back to the deadeyes and chains.
 
First up was creating a test piece to determine the look and fit of the channel deadeye strops and to use that to see how much material to cut out of the channels to slide the strops into.  The strops are made from 20 guage steel wire, which seems to fit the groove of Syrens 6mm deadeyes nicely.

Note:  The deadeye on the right is an upper deadeye.  I filled in the groove on the left hole.  This will be the hole on the inside face that the mathew walker knot on the end of the laniard bears against.

 
For anyone who chooses to go this route...caution!!  The 20 guage steel wire is relatively hard to bend around the deadeyes and fills the groove completely. Any sideways torque when bending the wire WILL split apart the deadeye.  Although this ability to split the deadeye face off came in handy later when I had a couple of solder joints break!
 
After the concept piece was done I pulled it apart to measure the length of wire for the strop and went into production mode.  The wire was cut, the ends cleaned up and the strop was formed into a wide loop (big enough to fit the deadeye) and silver soldered closed.  Then the pieces were blackened in a bath of Blacken-it.  The strops were then bent into final shape around the deadeyes.

 
Appropriate size slots were cut into the channels to fit the strops.

 
The stropped deadeyes were offered up to the channel and a line was run from the main masthead to determine the proper angles to bend the strops to.
More caution here.  My original thought was to hide the solder joint in the channel slot.  Bad idea.  This is where the bending occurs to get the strops pointing in the right direction.  I should have planned it better so that the solder joint fell in the lower straight portion of the deadeye strop.  The solder joints are barely visible anyway.  I had a few joints open up on me and being at the bending point right beneath the deadeye the only way to re-do the solder joint was to pop the face off the deadeye, remove it, re-solder the joint and then re-assemble the deadeye in the strop.

 
The chains were made up and blackened in the same manner using 24 guage wire.  The deadeye strops were inserted into the chain loops before soldering closed.  I also made up some backing links from the 24 guage wire.  These are the same style of elongated loops but with the center portion squeezed together and then the whole thing is bent so the the end loops are offset in order to fit from the wale to the hull planking below the wale.

The sharp eyed of you will note that some of the deadeyes are not set straight in the strops.  The ones for the aftermost shrouds have a slight angle to accomodate the angle of the shroud.  The pins in the above photo are bending jigs set for the size of the chains and the backing links.
 

 
The eyebolts in the hull were prized open, a backing link was put on each one, and then the chain/deadeye assembly.  The deadeye strop was then swung up into place in the slot in the channel.  A little flat black touch up paint was used to cover up some spots were the blacking was rubbed off with the pliers.

 
Still to come... filling the holes cut into the edge of the channels and pinning the lower loops of the backing links to the hull.
 
See you next time.
 
Regards,

Next, the flag lockers. Pontos does not address these at all, but Flyhawk supplies 5 open boxes. A few open source photos from the net show the details.. I considered getting individual cotton threads of different colours to represent the flags, but it would be just a bit too much. I used WEM grills cut and folded into the open boxes and some painted foils to represent the covers.
 
I already added several belaying points for when I rig her out for flag halyards.

So after I had no time to continue on the mystery part, here  some addendums to the poop skylight.
  Even captains and admirals needed some privacy. That is why the skylight was fitted with sliding blinds in between the deck beams to give seclusion ...     ... and for enlightenment.     But then I remembered the partitions of the cabins. That meant for the sliders to pass over the bulkheads, so I got this sorted.     And once on the run, the two small cabins beside the wheel were added too.     And two more remarks: The flag pole - a very subtle hint to skip the plastic spars and to make wooden replacements.     And I was asked to also show the Heller original parts - here they are :-) One more nice enlightenment I had too. Heller positions 4 eyebolts around the mizzen mast: one left, one right, one fore and one aft. i first had them and already moved the fore and aft half a planck thickness to the side to not sit on the seam. Then I realised the Vic in P. has 3 bolts in a row on each side. Doing the beams underneath the poop deck I realised why, the rings are sitting on the small carling beside the mast and can be fixed much better that way.     XXXDAn

With regard to dafi's post above two opposite forces act on a submerged object. Gravity equal to the open air weight of the object is pulling it down. Buoyancy equal to the weight of the the water displaced by the object is pushing up. The force on the anchor cable is therefore equal to the net of these two forces.
 
If water is one seventh as dense as wrought iron, then the force on the anchor cable after being broken out is 6/7 not 1/7 of the anchor's weight.
 
Roger Pellett

Besides tilting the hawse holes down and lining them, the French sometimes put rollers under the lip of the holes. Most often in larger ships, but frigates got them as well. Bolsters (bull noses) were common if they didn't use rollers.
 

 
Ciao. John

Jud,
On the angles... the hawse holes were not typically parallel to the water or decks.  There is an angle downward from inside to outside which seems to have varied depending on country, shipyard, etc.   The hawse holes were also lined with lead to ease on the chaffing and wear and tear on the ship and the cable.  And lastly, somewhere I read that in hoisting the anchor, there was some greasing of the hawse holes/cable... but I'm sure how common that was.  It may have been anecdotal for one incident.  When I remember where I read it, I'll dig it out.

There is also a bolster fitted below the hawse holes.  Sort of a quarter round moulding to ease the cable around that 90 degree angle.
 
Regards,

Actually it's Portuguese, but you're quite right. As Woodrat has demonstrated, there could be vast differences between the ships of various regions, and the Atlantic ships (including Spanish, Portuguese and Basque) were markedly different in shape and construction from the Mediterranean ones such as the Venetian one of this build log.
 
As far as sail plans and rigging go, the differences seem to be equally marked.
 
By the way, I've realised that the Santa Caterina's mainsail is actually made up of a course that only extends down from the yard a relatively small distance, plus two bonnets, each as wide as the course itself. A sensible thing in the days before reef-points. You could get rid of a lot of canvas relatively easily when it came on to blow. And with a mainsail that big, the forces involved could be quite dramatic in a strong wind.
 
Steven 

Hi Jud
 
I agree that there's a lot of chaffing in the the final meters or feet but I think that would not be much more than the wear
from the cable on the bottom to and fro as the ship keeps swinging. I recall reading somewhere (can't place it right now) that
the part of the cable nearest to the anchor was reinforced to resist chaffing on the bottom, which would also protect the cable in the hawse.
 
 I stand corrected on my thoughts about the force necessary to start the ship moving according the the link bellow, it  seems that
they used "dead slow ahead" too.
 
https://books.google.pt/books?id=4bYoCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA88&lpg=PA88&dq=hms+victory+dimensions+anchor&source=bl&ots=3wfmia38p4&sig=b6wZodd96O1ObvDaZwQ8e2cOiw0&hl=pt-PT&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjfoumRwpvNAhXMiRoKHXNHAJkQ6AEIYjAM#v=onepage&q=hms%20victory%20dimensions%20anchor&f=false
 
pages 89 and 90.
 
On page 91 I would rather say the cable paid out to be three to five times the depht of water depending on the type of bottom
and weather conditions.
 
I would say they were very much aware of the problem you raise, so much that as soon as they could place the hawseholes in a less awkward 
position (as we now have them placed) without compromising the strenght of the bows they did - iron construction.
 
Zeh

Hi Jud
 
When you start heaving the anchor you're trying to get an object weighing about 1500 tons moving.
That's the moment the chain or cable is under the greatest stress, once you get the ship moving it's easy.
When the anchor is up and down you have to contend only with someting like 3 tons, unless the anchor is fouled 
on the bottom, that bend really acts as a brake, but is not under enough stress to damage the cable.
As an aside, on ships with weak anchor winches or capstans we would go dead slow ahead as we started heaving to
overcome the inertia of the ship then stop  and let the capstan carry on.
 
The cat can only be used once the anchor is out of the water so that the tackle can be hooked to the anchor and the main purpose 
is to move the anchor from the hawseholes (where it would eventually end) to the side of the ship to then be stowed.
 
 
All the best
Zeh

Hi Jud
 
I agree that there's a lot of chaffing in the the final meters or feet but I think that would not be much more than the wear
from the cable on the bottom to and fro as the ship keeps swinging. I recall reading somewhere (can't place it right now) that
the part of the cable nearest to the anchor was reinforced to resist chaffing on the bottom, which would also protect the cable in the hawse.
 
 I stand corrected on my thoughts about the force necessary to start the ship moving according the the link bellow, it  seems that
they used "dead slow ahead" too.
 
https://books.google.pt/books?id=4bYoCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA88&lpg=PA88&dq=hms+victory+dimensions+anchor&source=bl&ots=3wfmia38p4&sig=b6wZodd96O1ObvDaZwQ8e2cOiw0&hl=pt-PT&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjfoumRwpvNAhXMiRoKHXNHAJkQ6AEIYjAM#v=onepage&q=hms%20victory%20dimensions%20anchor&f=false
 
pages 89 and 90.
 
On page 91 I would rather say the cable paid out to be three to five times the depht of water depending on the type of bottom
and weather conditions.
 
I would say they were very much aware of the problem you raise, so much that as soon as they could place the hawseholes in a less awkward 
position (as we now have them placed) without compromising the strenght of the bows they did - iron construction.
 
Zeh

Hi Jud
 
When you start heaving the anchor you're trying to get an object weighing about 1500 tons moving.
That's the moment the chain or cable is under the greatest stress, once you get the ship moving it's easy.
When the anchor is up and down you have to contend only with someting like 3 tons, unless the anchor is fouled 
on the bottom, that bend really acts as a brake, but is not under enough stress to damage the cable.
As an aside, on ships with weak anchor winches or capstans we would go dead slow ahead as we started heaving to
overcome the inertia of the ship then stop  and let the capstan carry on.
 
The cat can only be used once the anchor is out of the water so that the tackle can be hooked to the anchor and the main purpose 
is to move the anchor from the hawseholes (where it would eventually end) to the side of the ship to then be stowed.
 
 
All the best
Zeh

Hi Jud
 
I agree that there's a lot of chaffing in the the final meters or feet but I think that would not be much more than the wear
from the cable on the bottom to and fro as the ship keeps swinging. I recall reading somewhere (can't place it right now) that
the part of the cable nearest to the anchor was reinforced to resist chaffing on the bottom, which would also protect the cable in the hawse.
 
 I stand corrected on my thoughts about the force necessary to start the ship moving according the the link bellow, it  seems that
they used "dead slow ahead" too.
 
https://books.google.pt/books?id=4bYoCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA88&lpg=PA88&dq=hms+victory+dimensions+anchor&source=bl&ots=3wfmia38p4&sig=b6wZodd96O1ObvDaZwQ8e2cOiw0&hl=pt-PT&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjfoumRwpvNAhXMiRoKHXNHAJkQ6AEIYjAM#v=onepage&q=hms%20victory%20dimensions%20anchor&f=false
 
pages 89 and 90.
 
On page 91 I would rather say the cable paid out to be three to five times the depht of water depending on the type of bottom
and weather conditions.
 
I would say they were very much aware of the problem you raise, so much that as soon as they could place the hawseholes in a less awkward 
position (as we now have them placed) without compromising the strenght of the bows they did - iron construction.
 
Zeh

It may be worth a read of the process for "Getting up or Weighing an Anchor" published in Steel, D. 1795. Seamanship, Both in Theory and Practice. Printed and published for, and at, Steel’s Navigation-Warehouse, Tower-Hill. docs.lib.noaa.gov/rescue/rarebooks_1600-1800/VK541S81795.PDF. 
 
The description begins on page 154.  It is fairly brief, reflecting the process previously described (raise using the hawser until the anchor is clear the water then catted and fished).  He also describes using additional mechanical means when necessary:
 
When the strain is so great as to require other purchases, the top tackles may be used thus : The double block is lashed to the main-masl or topsail-sheet bits, the treble block is lashed on the cable, and the fall brought to the capstern. If the top-tackle falls are thought insufficient, any hawser may be used that will reeve through the blocks.
 
 

I am not sure if it is relevant to the discussion, but I wanted to point out that it is not the weight of the anchor which secures the ship.  Rather, it is the flukes of the anchor digging into the seabed (or lakebed) that does the work.  The cable is paid out to allow the anchor to lay almost horizontal...the design of the anchor does the rest.
 
When the anchor is set, hauling the anchor in does not bring the anchor to the ship.  It brings the ship to the anchor.  Once the cable is up and down the flukes break free from the bottom and the anchor can be raised.  Sailing or driving the ship to the anchor allows the cable to slacken and puts less strain on the cable.

I think one gets easily tricked by the fact an iron anchor as a very heavy object. 
 
Just some thoughts to jud´s interesting question: The cat hook is to be hooked in as soon as the ring breaks the surface. This can be seen nicely on the famous picture of the Royal Sovereign with the little man standing on the anchor´s stock handling the cat block´s hook.
 
At this moment the weight of the anchor is far less as it is not its weight of iron but only the one of the displayed water, which is - if I am right - 1/7th of the weight of iron. Afterwards the cathead, cat tackle and all the other rigging parts of the fishing rigging have to take the whole weight of the iron.
 
As the ship is always drifting with wind and current, the anchor cable always will have a certain direction a forehead. The ship should neighter run over the anchor, so a turn backwards of the cable was less favoured. Also breaking the anchor was often done by the big boats means there should usually not be the pull spill-hawse-downwards. 
 
So the pull downwards is far less than expected imho, but I do strongly believe, that a ship an a long cable, especially in a strong gale, will pull with a multitude of the anchor ´s weight. So it makes for me perfect sense to have the hawsers horizontal for that case, means in the direction of the ship pulling on the cable and having the minimum of breakage risk or chafing in those moments :-) 
 
XXXDAn

Hi Jud
 
When you start heaving the anchor you're trying to get an object weighing about 1500 tons moving.
That's the moment the chain or cable is under the greatest stress, once you get the ship moving it's easy.
When the anchor is up and down you have to contend only with someting like 3 tons, unless the anchor is fouled 
on the bottom, that bend really acts as a brake, but is not under enough stress to damage the cable.
As an aside, on ships with weak anchor winches or capstans we would go dead slow ahead as we started heaving to
overcome the inertia of the ship then stop  and let the capstan carry on.
 
The cat can only be used once the anchor is out of the water so that the tackle can be hooked to the anchor and the main purpose 
is to move the anchor from the hawseholes (where it would eventually end) to the side of the ship to then be stowed.
 
 
All the best
Zeh

There was no way to reposition the cable to the cat, and (particularly on larger vessels), the messenger was below deck, not on the upper deck with the cat. As Zeh pointed out, the cathead was for final stage as the anchor cleared the water for stowage.