Henry Grace a Dieu (Great Harry) by Louie da fly - FINISHED - Scale 1:200 - Repaired after over 50 yrs of neglect

[mtaylor]

Wow... what a restoration.  Masterfully.   For those catenary curves, have you tried flat varnish (clear) or 50/50 white glue and water?  I've found (as have others) that it works well and also prevents humidity from affecting the rigging.

[Louie da fly]

Thanks, Mark. I've tried weak white glue solution - it works to a certain degree, but I don't want to push it too hard in case I mess it up. Wetting the thread seems to help. I'll just keep experimenting.

 

Steven

[BANYAN]

Steven, in some circumstances (depending on through access), I have found that simply dampening the footropes then laying a long dowel (sufficient to go through to both sides) in the rope between the shrouds allows them to dry in a droop (catenary).

 

cheers

 

Pat

[added dowel]

Edited May 11, 2023 by BANYAN

[Ferrus Manus]

I have found that if you paint a line, or form it before it goes on the ship, you can simply make the curve by running your finger along the inside of the curve. 

Edited May 10, 2023 by Ferrus Manus

[Louie da fly]

Banyan, there seems to be a missing word in your post. "A long . . . what?" (not a criticism - I really want to know).

 

Steven

[BANYAN]

Should have read dowel Steven - sorry

 

cheers

 

Pat

Edited May 11, 2023 by BANYAN

[Louie da fly]

I've spoken to Banyan on the phone in between times and he's explained that he uses a dowel to produce the catenary curve in ratlines - the dowel is inserted at right angles between a pair of shrouds and weighs down the ratline between its fixings to the shrouds on either side in a nice smooth curve. Clever idea.

 

Now that the spritsail and its yard are in place, I've been adding the rigging. A pair of blocks fixed to the forestay to take the braces.

 

  

Belaying the foresail tacks.

 

  

Ringbolt (eyebolt actually - I can't make a ringbolt at this scale, so I faked it with an eyebolt) to take the spritsail sheet, and a hole drilled in the side of the hull immediately above it, to represent a sheave to take the free end of the sheet through to where it's belayed within the bulwark. The rope right next to these is the maintack.

 

  

Braces added to the spritsail yardarms. Hanging free at the moment, while the glue dries.

Braces going up to the blocks on the forestay. Not very good definition in the first photo, I'm afraid.

    

I needed blocks to take the lines for the spritsail lifts, clewlines and braces back to the forecastle to be belayed. Anderson in The Rigging of Ships in the Days of the Spritsail Topmast puts these on the beakhead. One tiny problem - the Great Harry doesn't have a beakhead. So I had to figure out somewhere I could put the blocks. They should probably have been at the front face of the forecastle but I just didn't have the room to drill holes to take the lines supporting the blocks (strops? I don't quite know what to call them). So I put them along the sides of the forecastle instead, as far forrard as I could. The first photo shows the blocks for the lifts and clewlines. I added the one for the braces later, but the photo isn't all that clear.

   

 

And everything belayed.
  
I'm not totally happy with the "belly" of the spritsail (nor some of the other sails, for that matter), but I don't think I can do any better under the circumstances, so I'm leaving it as it is. There's an old saying "Better is the enemy of good" and I think it applies in this case.

 

And the outrigger and sheet for the mizzen "course" on the  bonaventure mast.

 

You know what this means, don't you?

 

I've FINISHED THE RIGGING!

Party time!

 

There's more to do, of course. Adding the little men in the rigging, the anchors and the flags (all the rectangular ones are done and ready to attach, but there's about 7 or 8 pennants that need to be made). And then replacing the two bits I broke off while I was doing the rigging. 

 

And then (weather permitting, and if all goes well, and barring accidents and misfortune, and touching wood) the whole build might (possibly - not to put the curse on it) be FINISHED.

 

Steven

 

 

 

 

Edited May 11, 2023 by Louie da fly

[GrandpaPhil]

Amazing work!  Congratulations on finishing the rigging!

[druxey]

Shock! Surprise! Awe! You've finally completed the rigging. Congratulations, Steven. Time to splice the main brace, methinks. It's been quite a journey. Thanks for sharing your trials  and tribulations along the way.

[Keith Black]

 What an epic journey this was for you, Steven. Congratulations on completing the rigging. 

[Baker]

4 hours ago, Louie da fly said:

I've FINISHED THE RIGGING!

It was a long but very instructive journey 😉 👍

[Glen McGuire]

5 hours ago, Louie da fly said:

I've FINISHED THE RIGGING!

I am in awe.  The complexity of what you were dealing with just boggles my mind.  Congratulations on completing such an arduous task.  You did an absolutely amazing job, Steven.  

[Knocklouder]

My congratulations sir, well done indeed.

[Snug Harbor Johnny]

  Kudos to you, sir !   You've finished a tour-de-force of a fine smaller scale model of what was a substantial ship.  A much larger scale project is more compatible with my skills these days.  Thank you for such a detailed log ... a great reference to those who may follow with this ship.

[Roger Pellett]

Steven,  

 

A wonderful job resurrecting and finishing this project from many years ago.  Relative to “scratch built” models that I built in my teenage years and long since “binned” it is remarkable that you had something with such good bones to restore.  Carving individual blocks at 1:200 scale is an accomplishment all by itself.  The scholarship involved in untangling (pun intended) Sixteenth Century rigging practices is impressive.

 

I hope that you will protect your workmanship with a case.

 

Well done! 

 

Roger

[Jeff T]

Beautiful!

[mtaylor]

Congratulations on an unbelievable restoration, Steven.  Just incredible workmanship.

[Louie da fly]

Thanks everyone for all the wonderful supportive comments. I have to say I'm not celebrating fully until the whole build is complete. But THEN . . .

 

Steven

[BANYAN]

Party time indeed, and well deserved.  your persistence in overcoming the many issues that arose has really paid dividends - the model looks great!

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Louie da fly]

Working on the pennants. A rather fiddly job. Acrylic paint on cotton cloth. A layer of paint needed each side to get the colour to go all the way through.

Adding crew members.

  

And restoring pieces I clumsily broke off while working on other things. The little flagstaff with crown on top at the end of the bowsprit:

And the "grapnel" at the larboard end of the mainyard.

Anchors in place

And the first penannt in place; folded to approximate the effect of the wind,

and final state.

Getting closer to the end.

 

Steven.

 

 

Edited May 13, 2023 by Louie da fly

[Ferrus Manus]

We ought to throw you a party! I'll make the cake. What kind do you want?

[Snug Harbor Johnny]

7 hours ago, Ferrus Manus said:

We ought to throw you a party! I'll make the cake. What kind do you want?

 

  Given that Steve lives 'down under' in Australia, how about pineapple upside down cake?

[Glen McGuire]

This restoration is adding a lot of new words to my vocabulary, like grapnel!

[Baker]

I had just started designing flags for the Mary Rose.

if you are interested

 

[Louie da fly]

Patrick, those flags are beautiful. But as I've almost finished the Great Harry's flags I must regretfully decline (I'd hate all my hard work to go to waste).

 

Steven

[Ferrus Manus]

10 hours ago, Baker said:

I had just started designing flags for the Mary Rose.

if you are interested

 

I absolutely love the shameless self-promo 😂

[Baker]

5 hours ago, Louie da fly said:

Patrick, those flags are beautiful. But as I've almost finished the Great Harry's flags I must regretfully decline (I'd hate all my hard work to go to waste).

 

Steven

No problem 👍

[Baker]

4 hours ago, Ferrus Manus said:

I absolutely love the shameless self-promo 😂

it was a free offer.

(Designed and printed at work 😇...)

[Louie da fly]

I've just added the bowsprit grapnel and its chain. The grapnel is a survival from the original build. It's made of 4 staples (i.e. the things that you staple pages together with) glued together at right angles. The chain I got from some tacky jewellery from a thrift shop ('op shop' in Australian).

 

There are only three ships on the Anthony Roll with grapnel and chain - the Great Harry, the Mary Rose and the Peter Pomegranate (named after the coat of arms of Catherine of Aragon's family, for those who are interested in such things). As far as I know they were the three biggest ships in Henry VIII's navy. Interesting point - Landström shows the chain looping several times - presumably somehow attached to the line that pulls it in and lets it out, running through blocks or something. The original picture shows it running straight up the bowsprit.

It raises the question - does the spritsail yard foul the chain, or at least stop it falling down properly as it should, so its full extent is unencumbered? If you look at the Anthony Roll picture, the spritsail is not attached to the bowsprit, but is stored somehow down at the bottom of the forecastle. This ties in with R.C. Anderson's statement

 

"At the beginning of the 17th century the spritsail became for the first time more or less permanently attached to the bowsprit. Before that it had been the custom to take it bodily to the head, yard and all, when the sail was not set." Unlike these vessels, the Great Harry doesn't have a beakhead, and it's an interesting question as to how that spritsail was secured against the forecastle. It's shown the same way in all the big ships in the Anthony Roll.

 

As Landström is showing the ship with all sails set, he's had to show the spritsail in position, and he's had to figure out how to show the configuration of the chain so the yard doesn't get in the way. I don't think it's right, and if, as many believe, the grapnel was for securing an enemy ship to allow boarding, it wouldn't have worked very well.

 

Another interesting point is that in all the other pictures I've seen of vessels (carracks) with a grapnel on the bowsprit, there is no spritsail and the grapnel has an easier fall.

The development of the spritsail must have posed a bit of a problem, and perhaps the Great Harry and its sisters were among the last vessels to have a grapnel and chain.

 

All that being said, I've chosen to follow Landström, as I'm already committed. Looking back, I might have chosen a different way of tying up the loops of the chain, but it's as it is, and I'm happy with it. Disregard the background bits and pieces, I was in the middle of doing something else and couldn't be bothered tidying up for the photo.

  

 

Steven

 

 

 

 

[ChiefClanker]

Steve,

Your progress is very impressive. Keep it up.

Mark