woodrat

I have roughed out the keel plank as well as the stem and stern posts out of lacy she-oak.
The shaping of these members will be the most difficult part of the build because of the complex 3-D shape. I will endeavour to include some rocker to the keel plank.

Cheers
Dick

I have now received the monograph of Harald Akerlund 1963

It is in swedish but does have a useful english abstract and the plans are well printed.  I have looked at the original reconstruction by the excavator Engelbrecht 1863 and by Shetelig and Johannesen 1929 and it is my opinion that Akerlund's reconstruction is the most likely to approximate the true shape of the hull. He also cogently argues that the present display of the hull is inaccurate as the stern has been displayed as the stem and vice versa. He concludes that the rudder was installed on the port side.  The retrieved rudder seems to support this as well as some holes in the sternpost (as he calls it) which may well be supports for the rudder. I am not convinced of this as I think he may have put the aerofoil rudder back to front. Nonetheless, the rudder side need not be starboard as in the later viking vessels. Indeed, there evidence from stone carving from Gotland of both a quarter rudder at the rear and another one at the fore quarter.
 
In any case, I will go with Akerlunds lines and orientation although I may put the rudder to starboard. He also justifies the presence of a sophisticated central strengtheing frame and hogging truss. Otherwise the extreme thinness of the hull planking would lead to failure of the hull, I think his reconstruction of this is good and explains the profusion of unexplained carved wood pieces found with the hull. I will include the hogging truss as I did with my mycenaean galley.

Dick

Thanks J11, most kind. But I don't think so as it breaks too many academic preconceptions .
Cheers Dick 
 

Thanks J11, most kind. But I don't think so as it breaks too many academic preconceptions .
Cheers Dick 
 

I am really not happy with the octopus. There is no iconographic evidence for its use on galleys or any other ship, so it is gone. I have gone instead for a more austere look. I am happy with the figurehead. Prof Wachsmann has published his thesis that these figureheads reprsent birds' heads and that may be so in most cases but in the case of the Tragana ship the backward curved protuberances on the "beak" resemble no bird I know but would be consistent with a crocodile.

Dick

Thanks, Steven. This tends to confirm that there was some sort of deck in these vessels, they were shallow draft and were indeed sailed.
Dick

Night view of Royal Caroline

The after deck framing
 

The central thicker deck planking in place
 

The outer thinner deck planking in place. Gratings in place.The waterway will be added when the deck is finally attached
 

The two upper decks are removable which allows completion of the main deck and facilitates finishing off the upper deck furniture etc
 
Cheers
 
Dick

This shows the attachment to my cross-sled for making the gratings. The slats are to be the thickness of the saw blade(1mm.). A  1mm. thick brass strip is glued to the slot to allow a spacing of 1mm.
This allows slots to be cut in a block slightly deeper than the planned grating

The grating is turned through 90 degrees and shallower cuts are made for the upper slats

The 1mm. thick upper slats are glued in place . They are deeper than required and the excess will be sanded off later.
 
double sided tape (wondeful stuff!) is glued to a block of wood and the grating stuck face down .

The excess depth is sanded off. (But Use a thicker block of wood than I did to avoid burnt finger tips). This exposes the lower slats.

T
 
The grating is detached from the tape, turned over and the excess of the upper slats sanded off

 
the grating just needs trimming to size now

Cheers. I apologise for teaching you to suck eggs but I have seen some awful gratings in my time. Usually with way over size holes that a sailor's foot would fall through.
Dick
 

The after deck framing
 

The central thicker deck planking in place
 

The outer thinner deck planking in place. Gratings in place.The waterway will be added when the deck is finally attached
 

The two upper decks are removable which allows completion of the main deck and facilitates finishing off the upper deck furniture etc
 
Cheers
 
Dick

The after deck framing
 

The central thicker deck planking in place
 

The outer thinner deck planking in place. Gratings in place.The waterway will be added when the deck is finally attached
 

The two upper decks are removable which allows completion of the main deck and facilitates finishing off the upper deck furniture etc
 
Cheers
 
Dick

This shows the attachment to my cross-sled for making the gratings. The slats are to be the thickness of the saw blade(1mm.). A  1mm. thick brass strip is glued to the slot to allow a spacing of 1mm.
This allows slots to be cut in a block slightly deeper than the planned grating

The grating is turned through 90 degrees and shallower cuts are made for the upper slats

The 1mm. thick upper slats are glued in place . They are deeper than required and the excess will be sanded off later.
 
double sided tape (wondeful stuff!) is glued to a block of wood and the grating stuck face down .

The excess depth is sanded off. (But Use a thicker block of wood than I did to avoid burnt finger tips). This exposes the lower slats.

T
 
The grating is detached from the tape, turned over and the excess of the upper slats sanded off

 
the grating just needs trimming to size now

Cheers. I apologise for teaching you to suck eggs but I have seen some awful gratings in my time. Usually with way over size holes that a sailor's foot would fall through.
Dick
 

Hello, and thank you for your kind comments and likes
 
Today I build the rudder boss and I'm happy that I got it!  First I turned it with some surplus, and then fit it to the ship. That was the hardest part. The rod has 1mm Ø. I'm still looking for the drill bit I first used. There must be a black hole somewhere.

Then I glued it with ca to a piece of wood, to file it to the final shape.

That was then the easiest part, gluing it to the ship.

The after deck framing
 

The central thicker deck planking in place
 

The outer thinner deck planking in place. Gratings in place.The waterway will be added when the deck is finally attached
 

The two upper decks are removable which allows completion of the main deck and facilitates finishing off the upper deck furniture etc
 
Cheers
 
Dick

This shows the attachment to my cross-sled for making the gratings. The slats are to be the thickness of the saw blade(1mm.). A  1mm. thick brass strip is glued to the slot to allow a spacing of 1mm.
This allows slots to be cut in a block slightly deeper than the planned grating

The grating is turned through 90 degrees and shallower cuts are made for the upper slats

The 1mm. thick upper slats are glued in place . They are deeper than required and the excess will be sanded off later.
 
double sided tape (wondeful stuff!) is glued to a block of wood and the grating stuck face down .

The excess depth is sanded off. (But Use a thicker block of wood than I did to avoid burnt finger tips). This exposes the lower slats.

T
 
The grating is detached from the tape, turned over and the excess of the upper slats sanded off

 
the grating just needs trimming to size now

Cheers. I apologise for teaching you to suck eggs but I have seen some awful gratings in my time. Usually with way over size holes that a sailor's foot would fall through.
Dick
 

It's been quite a while since I've posted. I've been busy - life does tend to get in the way. But I re-thunk the sliced 3D shape.
 
And I thunk - the one I've done was sliced into every second frame. But the frames are 5mm apart and the dropsaw's kerf is only about 2mm wide. I could have cut a slice for each frame - they should each end up about 3mm thick - and not have to interpolate between slices to work out the shapes of the ones in between!
 
So I did it all over again - made another 3D model and sliced it into individual frames. And it worked!





Now of course I have to transfer that onto paper and mirror it to get the full frames, but all good!
 
There are a few glitches in the shapes of the frames nearest to the stern - the curve seems to go upward at the keel instead of downward. I'll just have to fix that when I transfer it to paper.
 
Steven

Hello, and many, many thanks for your nice comments and likes
Because we had here the last week the finest summer weather, I was't very often at the ship yard. But today the weather shanged and I have worked a little at the yard. The preparations for the following work I made during the week. These bars where for fastening the shields or tent to the wall.
 
The battens are 0,6 X 1,2 mm. The drill bit has 1 mm Ø


And that is what I finished today. The worst part of this is, gluing them to the gun wale

Thanks, Steven. This tends to confirm that there was some sort of deck in these vessels, they were shallow draft and were indeed sailed.
Dick

I am really not happy with the octopus. There is no iconographic evidence for its use on galleys or any other ship, so it is gone. I have gone instead for a more austere look. I am happy with the figurehead. Prof Wachsmann has published his thesis that these figureheads reprsent birds' heads and that may be so in most cases but in the case of the Tragana ship the backward curved protuberances on the "beak" resemble no bird I know but would be consistent with a crocodile.

Dick

Thanks, Ahmose.
Apart from logboats with side extensions, the only survivong example of sewn construction remain the egyptian boats such as the Khufu barge , Dashur boats etc. Itw ould be interesting experimental archaeology to attempt a sewn bronze age levantine hull 
but I will leave this to someone like you. You may be interested in the model by Sceatha of an egyptian "Byblos" ship:
https://modelshipworld.com/topic/23895-byblos-ship-by-sceatha-finished-25th-century-bc/
I have included some sewn elements in my mycenaean galley including a detachable stern piece a la Khufu barge.
Cheers
Dick

Thanks, Steven. This tends to confirm that there was some sort of deck in these vessels, they were shallow draft and were indeed sailed.
Dick

Thanks, Steven. This tends to confirm that there was some sort of deck in these vessels, they were shallow draft and were indeed sailed.
Dick

I have roughed out the keel plank as well as the stem and stern posts out of lacy she-oak.
The shaping of these members will be the most difficult part of the build because of the complex 3-D shape. I will endeavour to include some rocker to the keel plank.

Cheers
Dick

You may well be right but I will be able to test this . Certainly the Hjortspring vessel  had hogging issues and the Nydam, being pre-viking also may have had them. But the later viking vessels may have overcome this problem.
Dick