woodrat

Just a couple of points about Jacob's ladders in latin ships. Make sure the ladder doesnt foul the yard or its tackle on going about. On my round ship I positioned the rope ladder (with rope rungs) side on to the mast. Anyone who has seen circus performers use a rope ladder knows that they clamber up the side of the ladder. This minimises "bellying out" of the ladder which would be worse if the ladder were climbed face on.


Cheers
Dick

I  actually used rope rungs but either way would be OK. I did use wood rungs on my carrack. The lower ends of the ladder are attached to rings in the deck.
Dick

Just a couple of points about Jacob's ladders in latin ships. Make sure the ladder doesnt foul the yard or its tackle on going about. On my round ship I positioned the rope ladder (with rope rungs) side on to the mast. Anyone who has seen circus performers use a rope ladder knows that they clamber up the side of the ladder. This minimises "bellying out" of the ladder which would be worse if the ladder were climbed face on.


Cheers
Dick

Just a couple of points about Jacob's ladders in latin ships. Make sure the ladder doesnt foul the yard or its tackle on going about. On my round ship I positioned the rope ladder (with rope rungs) side on to the mast. Anyone who has seen circus performers use a rope ladder knows that they clamber up the side of the ladder. This minimises "bellying out" of the ladder which would be worse if the ladder were climbed face on.


Cheers
Dick

Just a couple of points about Jacob's ladders in latin ships. Make sure the ladder doesnt foul the yard or its tackle on going about. On my round ship I positioned the rope ladder (with rope rungs) side on to the mast. Anyone who has seen circus performers use a rope ladder knows that they clamber up the side of the ladder. This minimises "bellying out" of the ladder which would be worse if the ladder were climbed face on.


Cheers
Dick

Just a couple of points about Jacob's ladders in latin ships. Make sure the ladder doesnt foul the yard or its tackle on going about. On my round ship I positioned the rope ladder (with rope rungs) side on to the mast. Anyone who has seen circus performers use a rope ladder knows that they clamber up the side of the ladder. This minimises "bellying out" of the ladder which would be worse if the ladder were climbed face on.


Cheers
Dick

The main deck completed to the midline and the bowsprit step is temporarily installed

Dick

The main deck completed to the midline and the bowsprit step is temporarily installed

Dick

The main deck completed to the midline and the bowsprit step is temporarily installed

Dick

The main deck completed to the midline and the bowsprit step is temporarily installed

Dick

The main deck completed to the midline and the bowsprit step is temporarily installed

Dick

The main deck completed to the midline and the bowsprit step is temporarily installed

Dick

The main deck completed to the midline and the bowsprit step is temporarily installed

Dick

The main deck completed to the midline and the bowsprit step is temporarily installed

Dick

The main deck completed to the midline and the bowsprit step is temporarily installed

Dick

The main deck completed to the midline and the bowsprit step is temporarily installed

Dick

I've temporarily placed the two steersmen in their positions on the poop deck, to work out where exactly the tillers should come to.
  

And I've been working on providing floors for the tops - up till now I'd left them open at the bottom except for a couple of beams each to support the framework of the top. The thing is, the halyards pass diagonally through the tops, so they can't have a full floor. But the poor lookouts need somewhere to stand. So after a bit of thought, I've come up with a solution - plank the floors, but with a gap for the halyard.
 
But first I had to work out exactly where they pass through, lining them up with the sheaves of the calcets and the knights on the deck.
 
 





Planking begun

And complete
 

 

Very fiddly, but finally got it done. Pretty happy with this solution. It may be nothing like what was really done back in the day, but it is workable.
 
Steven

Thanks, Mark.I believe the planking in a gun deck of a warship would be oak. As this was a merchantman, I would think elm or fir. The thickness of the central plankage was of the order of 90 - 100 mm and the outer planking 70 - 75 mm. Other members may be able to give much more detail on plankage. It is  said that the old forests of europe never recovered from the stripping that occurred to make the war armadas of the 16th to 18th centuries.
Cheers
Dick

Rudder’s on and many eyebolts have been installed:


 

Making progress:


The deck looks like old wood.  The outside looks like old wood and the area below the waterline is painted.
 
Next up: the wales and railings need painted and then on to most of the carriage bolt heads!

Thank you very much, Jan!
 
Esther is sealed and ready to paint:

The next step will be to paint the entire model black, after the sealant cures over night.

Thank you all very much for all the “likes” and for stopping by!
 
The head grating is on and drying:

The head bulwarks are drying under glass:


Next up is to carve the scrollwork:

Then to paint and assemble it all.
 
Sometime in there I need to make a couple of seats of ease.
 
It is also time to make belaying pins.
 
I believe that I will carve them from toothpicks using a scalpel.

The rigging.
 
The rigging is less complicated than the rigging on more masted ships, but is basically the same.
A big difference is the absence of lanyards and deadeyes. During my research I came to the solution that this construction is an invention which dates from the first half of the fifteenth century. Original mediaeval pictures show everywhere an other construction which is surprisingly the same as used on ships with latin sails, which were used until the last part of the nineteenth century. This cog was build in 1320, so long before the invention of lanyards and deadeyes.
 
One of the reconstructed cogs was build in Kiel in Germany. While testing  its sail capabilities it appeared the ship could sail up to 70 degrees by wind abeam. In this position the sail would grate over the shrouds. The shrouds on that ship are equipped with lanyards and deadeyes, which I believe is not correct, so the shrouds could not be removed in case of grating.
Shrouds on ships with latin sails can be removed while sailing. A part of the shrouds on leeward can be removed while the ship is sailing abeam. This is possible with the help of the construction as drawn in the sketch nr 1. A stick (Dutch; knevel) can be pulled out in the connection of two parts of the shroud which both end in a noose. On both sides of the ship are mostly four shrouds as drawn in nr 2. The shrouds windward can of course not be removed, but with some of the shrouds leeward it is possible.
 
 
 
1                                                                                                                                                  
 
2
 

The model without the yard, but with the shrouds.
 
On port-side the four shrouds are all fastened, on starboard only two. The other two are hanging alongside the mast. In this case the wind will come abeam the portside.
This construction is on ships with latin sails always usual, but it is also possible on cogs. Old mediaval illustrations of ships show this solution.
Ships with latin sails have a different rigging because of the possibility of setting the sails and yards in other positions which move around the foreside the masts. But the shroud construction is the same as on cogs.
It is obvious that ratlines are impossible with this type of rigging. Ratlines in shrouds can not be found on ships before the first part of the fifteenth century.
 
The rest
 
On the model I made two anchors. Made of brass. I sawed them from brass plate, thick 2,5 mm. After filing and sanding in the correct proportions,  blades of thin brass,  were soldered on it. After that I painted them in colour Matt  46, from Revell. All iron pieces on the models I make are painted in this color. Never black.
 
The sailors on the model are from “Lehman HO pirates 90-2025”. Usually I do not place figures, but this model goes to a museum here in town. For visitors it is in this way easier to compare the human proportions.
 
I never paint my models, only the sails.
 
The finished model gives an impression of how those ships looked like. It is a reconstruction, so there always will be the possibility of other opinions.
 
The following pictures give an impression of teh finished model.
Cogs had an unsusual construction of the hull. The ends of the  beams inside the ship came out the side of the ships hull. This can be seen on the next illustrations.
 

 u

Summary of the Construction of the Hull
On a  building board with the plan of the ship glued, the keel was erected.

Stem and stern posts were scarfed onto the keel.
At this stage the shape of the master frame was determined by geometric technique of the manuscript Libro de Navigar.
 
The master frame is fixed to the keel

 
A special jig was made to allow assemblages of frames with different amounts of floor narrowing

Tail-frames and every fifth frame attached to the keel.

Intermediate frames are inserted to complete the main hull framing.
 

Ribbands between the hull, stem and sternposts are used to fashion the bow and stern frames.
                                 
Internal stringers and deck clamps are installed and longitudinal wales.
This completes summary of the framing of the hull
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
The Quarter Rudders
Mediterranean vessels of the 13th century followed the ancient practice of having two rudders on each of the vessel’s quarters. The shape of these rudders is well known from contemporary pictures and recent discoveries in the Black Sea and elsewhere have confirmed the accuracy of these pictures. In essence, the quarter rudders need to have a mechanism to allow raising and lowering of the rudder. For instance, when heeled over under sail it was a common practice to raise the weather rudder and to steer by the lee rudder. A tiller was slotted into the upper end of the rudder. In addition, because there is considerable lateral force on the rudder, this must be resisted. In order to allow raising and lowering and resist lateral force, a system of curved rudder guides was built into the quarter of the ship and rigging designed to achieve this. The rigging is shown diagrammatically and the rudder guides as constructed on the model::
                        
 
The rudder in raised position:
The timoneer’s position is  in front of the sterncastle
The Deck furniture
 
The Pumps
These ships were probably fitted with log pumps. So called because the longitudinal element was made from a single log hollowed out by large augers . The pump mechanism was and expanding leather cone lifted by hand and predating  chain pumps by centuries.
This example was found in the Newport ship 
These are the pumps in the model
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The Windlass
The use of simple windlasses is well attested but probably not capstans. I doubt that pawls were installed at this early stage.

 
 
 
 
Masting and Rigging of the Round Ship will be summarised in the next post
 
 
 

I have made a new home for the vessel whom I now name La Serenissima

 

 

 

 
Cheers
Dick