AON

Pennants used to identify individual vessels, be they naval, merchant, or pleasure craft, were commonly carried prior to the wider use of code signals (flags) to indicate the code (usually "five level" - five letters and or numbers) assigned to the vessel by navies, marine insurance companies, and national documentation agencies.
 
Pennants were rarely opaque with lettering on both sides. Actually, in practice, it was much easier at a distance to identify a signal that wasn't opaque because the sun would shine both on it or behind and through it. If a pennant or signal were opaque, its "shaded side" would appear black at a distance. Additionally, there are advantages to a pennant or signal being made of light cloth which will readily "fly," in light air. In fact, when a square-rigged vessel is running downwind, her signals, ensigns, and pennants on the ship moving at close to the speed of the wind itself, would cause the signals, pennants, and ensigns to "hang limp" and be difficult to see at any distance.
 
Even today, when racing sailboats routinely show "sail numbers" on their sails to identify themselves, the numbers must appear reversed on the "back side" and no attempt is made to overcome this. The international racing rules require that sail number and class logo, if appropriate, must be shown on both sides of the mainsail in that case each side of the sail will have the number shown "in the right direction." There are very specific universal regulations for the placement of sail numbers on racing yachts which specifically dictate how the obverse and reverse lettering must be applied to a vessel's sails. (See: TRRS | Identification on sails (racingrulesofsailing.org) Today, adhesive-backed numbers and letters are applied to synthetic fabric sails. In earlier times, the letters and numbers were cut out and appliqued to the sail. 
 
 
 
In earlier times, several systems, other than identification code signals, were in common use and these are what we commonly see on contemporary paintings. The two primary signals used were a large flag or pennant with the vessel's name on it, or the owner's name, or company name, on it, or a logo of some sort. The latter were usually called "house flags" which designated the identity of the owner of the vessel. When steam power came on the scene, these owner's "house flags" were supplemented by painting the funnels of the steam ships with the colors and logos of the owners' house flags as well.
 
House flag chart from the 1930's or so: 
 

 
The house flags and ship name pennants we see in the contemporary paintings serve to identify the vessel in the painting, but in order to fully appreciate the purpose of "naming pennants" and house flags, it has to be understood that until radio communications came into being (first Marconi transmission at sea by RMS Lucania in 1901 and first continuous radio communication with land during an Atlantic crossing ... RMS Lucania in 1903.) there was no way for a ship owner to know much of anything about their vessel until it returned home which, in the case of whaling vessels could be two or three years. Shipping companies, marine insurers, and maritime shipping companies, among others, had a desperate need for news about their ships, but they could only know the fate of their ships, crew, and cargo (though not necessarily in that order!) when the ship showed up. Ships at sea would hail each other when they ran into one another at sea: "What ship? What port?" and sometimes get word back to owners that their ship was seen, on the Pacific whaling grounds, for instance, months or even years earlier, but there was no way to know what was going on with a ship until she returned to her home port. Businesses ashore were desperate to know the fate of ships and shipments and being the first to learn of a particular ship's arrival in port gave a businessman a particular advantage in making investments, commodities trades, purchases, and sales. This was especially true in the United States before the construction of the transcontinental telegraph system owing to the immense size of the nation "from sea to shining sea." For example, in San Francisco, which was for a time shortly after the discovery of gold, isolated from communications with the East Coast, things as simple as newspapers would arrive only by ship and when they did, the race was on to get in line to read the "news of the world." An organization called the "Merchants' Exchange" was created to operate a semaphore telegraph system from Point Lobos at the farthest west point of the San Francisco Península to what came to be called "Telegraph Hill" to communicate the identity of ships arriving off the Golden Gate often many hours before they actually docked and to make East Coast newspapers and other information sources available to local subscribers. On the East Coast, seaport homes had their famous "widows' walks" where the ship captain's wives would look for their husband's ship in the offing to know whether he'd ever return, and they'd know by the house flag which ship was which. 
 
  
 
 
Yes. That's a good description of the device used to set pennants and house flags "flying." The device is called a "pig stick" as it is a short stick similar to what a pig farmer would use to herd his pigs. A pig stick has a wire or wooden "auxiliary stick" from which the flag or pennant is flown independent of the main stick. This device, pictured below, prevents the signal or pennant from wrapping around the "pig stick" and fouling on the pole or otherwise becoming unreadable. 
 

 

 
The middle two paintings of ships posted above show those two ships simultaneously flying a "name pennant" from the maintop, a "house flag" from the foremast top, and a "five level code" (likely assigned by Lloyds Insurers.) identifying the vessel in a commonly redundant fashion at that time.

I can't tell if "Otto" is forwards or backwards.  

Are they for show or "to go" (R/C controlled model)?
If for show, do you have any knowledge of the details or dimensions of the props?
They could be easily 3D resin printed and painted.

Rather then continue work on my standard knees, grating, decking or the last of the three stairways to the hold, I decided it was time to tackle the thing I've been avoiding... the hawse holes.  The contract states they are 15" diameter, 15/64" at scale.  I first double checked my heights then drilled my pilot holes at 5/64".

Next, with a new sharp bit,  I drilled one inboard hawse hole very carefully and slowly with a backing board held on the inside.
Success!  That was easy.
Drilled the outboard hole and it happened. She split and flew off.
That was unexpected.

I setup the other side with clamps to help hold her together.
The outboard face of each of those holes have tear out chips in them!

So, I did the only thing left to do.
Glued the broken piece back on, clamped it up and left the room.

I won't be back working on her until Monday afternoon.
Good night world.
😉

To bad you are so far away as our local club (MSON) has been trying to give one away along with a magnifying head set.
 

Jig is done and the main pontoon is ready for the addition of longitudinal stringers. I added a bunch of hooks that let me place rubber bands over the axial dowel. This keeps the hoops snugly in place / aligned on the jig. I've also waxed the top of each support where the stringers will be attached so that there is less of a chance of getting the structure stuck to the supports. I plan on installing the side stringers first. Because of how the supports were fashioned the stringers will lie on top of each support when being attached to the hoops. Once they are in place, the rubber bands will be removed and the pontoon will be turned 90 degrees so that the top and bottom stringers can be added. Slots have been milled into the bottom of the supports to allow for the stringers to slot into when the pontoon is turned. 

Time to mill some wood!

To bad you are so far away as our local club (MSON) has been trying to give one away along with a magnifying head set.
 

It's been a month of many things. Spring has sprung, grass cutting, readying the patio, preparing the flower and vegetable gardens for later next month.
 
All the orlop deck stairways are installed.
Made some of the standard knees but they are not installed as yet.
I've got 12 of 23 gratings sets made.
I won't be posting anything until I've got them all assembled and installed.

It's been a month of many things. Spring has sprung, grass cutting, readying the patio, preparing the flower and vegetable gardens for later next month.
 
All the orlop deck stairways are installed.
Made some of the standard knees but they are not installed as yet.
I've got 12 of 23 gratings sets made.
I won't be posting anything until I've got them all assembled and installed.

clever and simple!

Are they for show or "to go" (R/C controlled model)?
If for show, do you have any knowledge of the details or dimensions of the props?
They could be easily 3D resin printed and painted.

Are they for show or "to go" (R/C controlled model)?
If for show, do you have any knowledge of the details or dimensions of the props?
They could be easily 3D resin printed and painted.

I've remade hoop No. 16 to my satisfaction. I tried making shavings, but I didn't like the outcome too much. Then I took some of the 0.3mm material I had made previously and thinned it out even more with a spindle sander. I probably got it well below 0.2mm. At this thinness I was successful wrapping it in layers around the form. I also enlarged the holes in the forms that had been 1/8" to 1/4" - now all 16 hoops (with forms) fit nicely on the 1/4" diameter dowel. Here is a picture of hoops 15 and 16 sitting on the pontoon jig.

Just a little more work on the jig and I can start attaching the longitudinal stringers that hold all of the hoops together.
 
 

Completed two of four sections ... I think
After I get the last two sections cleaned up I'll join them all and see if it's true!
 
PS - In the middle is a reference grid I created to help me eyeball how far to move things
 
PPS - Hexnut.... this was faster and cleaner
                         My computer thanks you                       

Thank you Druxey.
 
I did a couple other diagonal sections to get a different perspective ... and of course you are correct!
I've learnt so much already and haven't built anything yet!
 
Joined the NRG and just rec'd my Model Ship Builder's Book 1 .... wasn't able to put it down last night.
 
Still waiting to receive my copies of the two Build Contracts (HMS Bellerophon and Elephant) from NMM.
 
Tried nudging station lines in my model and the existing Loft Feature is making things difficult.
I will have to work from a copy of the file, delete the loft feature, make mods suggested earlier by hexnut, adjust one station line and loft that small section alone to see results, then repeat as necessary.
Once that station is faired I will move on to the next station of concern.
Just realize that not only may the station identified be the problem for the section, but the adjacent stations may be part of the problem also.
 
It is difficult to make progress but if I don't get this part right anything after will compound it.

To help identify areas that likely need adjustments I created sections from the top of the keel upwards at 1 foot intervals and then marked the stations.
The PDF below is a select few of them.
 
I've made screen shots of my station sketches with dimensions visible so I do not loose the original dimensions as I nudge things back and forth and then view the results.
 
I am also presently thinking ahead to how to build the station frames.
I am leaning towards making each frame as one piece and etching the chocks and scarf joints into them rather than building each piece individually.
This will make them stronger and piece alignment will not be compromised.
 
I am also considering  hollowing (shelling) the 3D model to the moulded depth (thickness) of the frames and then putting the 1" gaps (slices) between teach frame and cutting out the futtock steps to create the templates.
This would have the bevel in the 3D model/templates and reveal the maximum/minimum outside/inside sizes to which I can mark off and pre-shape to before the assembly.
 
My thoughts at the moment, possibly the description isn't clear but as I develop the plan I will reveal it ... if it continues to make sense to follow this thought.
 
Fairing the Hull - ship sections.pdf

If you go to the Royal Museums Greenwich site, there are many open boat plans showing davits and windlasses. An example:
 

I have the second in my new line up of alternative printed resin boats almost ready. This is a 24 and 26 foot launch, complete with windlass and davit.

Log #83: Tying off the Ropes
Thank you to everyone for looking in and for the encouragement. I always like this stage of the build as the tying off and making rope coils goes very quickly, and so you get lots of visible progress after a long period of preparing the yard off model.
 
I believe I have shown this before but here is my jig for making the rope coils.

The top loop starts out on the pin that in the picture has nothing on it. Then once I have done a few loops I twist it and fold it over. Then I finish the hank by continuing to loop the rope and insert the end into the gap between the two loops for the cleat.
 
Once it is done I use a dab of super glue to fix the loops together and the end of the rope in place and then give it a few blasts with the hair dryer to try and get it to stay in shape.
 
I then slip it onto the cleat and use super glue spots to tack it into place. You can see below I have belayed the topsail lift to the mast cleat on the left and the starboard topsail sheet to the cleat on the right.

Then the larboard topsail sheet was belayed to the left cleat in the below picture. The right cleat is holding the previously belayed squaresail yard.

I am going to hold off on belaying the clewlines until I get the topgallant sheet lines in place so I can make sure they avoid each other. Below you can see the current state of affairs.

USING THE SOLIDWORKS LOFT FEATURE TO CREATE THE SOLID HULL
 
This is my second (or really fourth) go at this.  I admit that even after having received good advice from forum members I still had to watch three videos to “get it”.
·         Created four guide lines using 3D sketch
·         Locked the lines to points on each section using “coincident” or “intersect” type mates
·         Opened the Loft Feature and picked four station outlines and all four guide lines
·         When these resolved I rebuilt and saved the file, luckily as my computer crashed twice near the end. Without the saving ritual I would have lost everything.
·         Note that the starboard side does not have guide lines and so has some extra waviness to the hull.  I had manually made some adjustments for show afterwards but mainly I am just looking at the port side (with the guide lines).
 
Although I can see the divit in the hull at the stern the bow seems good ... not so in the earlier Buttock line review.

CREATING BUTTOCK LINES TO FAIR THE DRAWING
 
I created BUTTOCK LINES on vertical planes through the hull from stem to stern because I wanted to see how she faired as the original draughtsman might have done.
 
BUTTOCK PLANES
• I  created a second plane by offsetting the shear plane 0.56 feet which happens to coincide with most station line termination points in the rabbet
• I then created additional planes by offsetting them at 10 feet each
• I then sketched polylines on each individual plane (buttock lines of my own making) and locked them (pierce mate) at each point they intersect with a station
o Peirce mate by picking the station line, hold down the “Ctl” key and pick the polyline point (*) I want to mate to it, then pick “pierce” mate.  The point then locks to the line where they intersect on the plane.
o While doing this I found two errors in my sketches and as importantly can easily see irregularities in my lines!
 

The following three groups of images explains the process I am using to fair my lines.
 
You might ask why am I creating a new lofted hull?
 
Although my first attempt was very clean (see image below with all connectors showing (those are the light blue points the computer tacks to the model to connect everything) I could not get my first or last station in the model.  I needed to add guide lines and didn’t know how. Three plus years ago I couldn’t model a simple pencil in 3D so I’ve come a long way.  The guide lines help the computer connect the various sketches (frames) made on all the different levels. In the end the stern sketch would not connect because the lowest guide line did not extend to it.
 
While learning how to do this I discovered my first lofted hull was easier than when I added the guide lines. Without additional mirrored guidelines on the other half the computer seemed to be confused and inserted connectors in the oddest places creating artificial wedges and twists in my model.
 
When I right click the mouse and pick show all connectors I can see connectors out of alignment and need to manually move them.  My final attempt (yes I had to do it more than once) had only one connector out of alignment…. As you will see.
 
Even though I have the lofted hull I think it is important to visually inspect Breadth and Buttock lines as they are more revealing than the lofted hull.  I could turn on what is called a Zebra line view to reveal pattern issues on the 3D image but it seems too much information confuses this old man

Received my framing drawing image from NMM
Funny how a framing drawing said to be specifically for HMS Elephant disagrees with the plans made specifically for HMS Elephant.
 
As I mentioned earlier HMS Goliath shows it completely removed.
I prefer the look of the rail rising over the gun port for a consistent port open area.
 
One nice thing, as opposed to some of the 74 gun framing plan thumbnails on NMM this one I rec'd that had no thumbnail on the website is very simply and clean.... few bent frames.
 
Alan

Hexnut,
 
The purpose of lofting at this early time was to see if the hull faired well with the dimensions I took off an electronic image ... paper stretch and all. A friend had shown me exactly how much stretch could be experienced in 200+ old drawings!
 
My intention is to create my templates for my build in CAD from the 3D model.  This way everything should fit like a glove (if my wood working skills are up to the task).  I do not intend to 100% create a completed 3D ship model... just as much as I need ... and I suspect I will continue draughting through the physical build as I discover I need more.
 
After having been recently schooled in scantlings     I have considerable work ahead of me to check my measurements to that of Steels and then possibly to the build contract(s).
 
I just received my quote (50 pounds sterling) and thumb nail image for a framing drawing of HMS Elephant from NMM and having validated it as what I want I will be ordering it tomorrow after they send me the form.
From this I will be better able to complete framing modelling, knowing which frames extend to where and how.
 
I also found out today that electronic images of the ship build contracts (HMS Bellerophon and Elephant) are outrageously expensive and so will be ordering the photocopies at 21.28 pounds sterling each.
 
Hope you and others stick around as I am sure I will need some direction as I proceed.
Alan

Minor progress...
 
I moved all my stations and Keel down so relevant dimensions are off the base line of the Sheer Plan not the underside of the keel.
This makes all scantlings (dimensions) off Steels tables relate directly to my dimensions.
 
I then attempted to loft the features and had three problems
1) my computer kept crashing
2) the lines off the stern plan (plane) caused major defects due to its extreme references not relating directly to the next fuller section.
3) similar issue with the bow end Station Y except it caused a major inwards fold to appear between Stations 10 and 12
 
This was fixed by doing small groups of 4 stations at a time, rebuilding and saving the file before going to the next group.
I also did not include the Stern Plan nor Station Y
I also did my loft feature as a solid as opposed to a thin skin as was done by a member in an earlier posting under Scantlings.
 
There are a few ripples revealing themselves on my hull that will need some attention (particularly at station 28).
I will also be comparing the tables from Steels to my dimensions and making some adjustments.
 
A lot of work ahead ... and still waiting on some word from NMM for a frame drawing of HMS Elephant and build contracts for it and the Bellerophon.
 
Until next time.
Alan