gun ports

[Anthony Hearne]

i'm building a corel endeavor and i have finished the first layer of planking and want to make a start on the second layer but first i need to cut the holes for the gun ports, i marked them while planking , according to the false decks that are in the bulkheads but they dont line up with anything and the 1:1 plans they supply , aren't. the gun ports line up with one of the wales(?) and another one of those line up with the lower deck , should i start with this and try and guess where they should go?

[mtaylor]

Generally speaking, the gun ports will follow the run of the deck so there probably would be a gentle curve fore and aft with the low spot in the middle.  When built, many times the ports are clear of the wale(s) in some places and cut into them in others do to the sheer (curve) of the planking.  The idea is that each port is the same height above the deck.

[Anthony Hearne]

thank you ,the first plank i ran was in line with the gun ports so i measured off of it and i think they are close to where they are supposed to be . they aren't quite in sync with the plans but then the plans don't really match what i have any way . i did query this with corel and they said that the wood is cut correctly and the plans might be off due to shrinkage , only thing is they're the right height but about half an inch longer , even the false keel is shorter than the plans . 

[mtaylor]

That seems to be typical.  Best bet is to figure out how many ports, the size, and then adjust the spacing between them.

[Anthony Hearne]

heres what i got

[mtaylor]

Looking good.  Comparing the ship the plan on the wall, I think you nailed it.

[Anthony Hearne]

i got hold of a copy of captain cooks endeavor by karl Heinz marquardt ,anatomy of the ship , and although the main hull looks the same there are quite a lot of differences , the main one being no gun ports ,is this the same ship?

[BANYAN]

Hi Anthony, Endeavour did not have gun ports as all the guns were located on the upper deck.  What you portray are the loading ports (from her earlier days pre-conversion.  The smaller ones in the drawings are the airing ports.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[allanyed]

Hi Pat

I know very little of this vessel but I believe she was equipped with sweeps so would the main purpose of the small ports be for the use of the sweeps rather than the comfort of the crew?    

Allan

Edited September 9, 2019 by allanyed

[Anthony Hearne]

but in the corel instructions i'm supposed to glue the gun carriages onto the false decks and then once finished attach the cannons, so is this completely wrong? 

[Jaager]

For gun ports,  not only is the height of the sills determined by the position of the deck, the slope of the sills is determined by the slope of the deck.

Endeavor was a collier?   The USS Maine demonstrated the danger of poorly vented coal,  Would that cargo not want venting?

 

Flat plans + curved surface - do not match.  I would pick a landmark as close to the port as possible and gauge from that - going from each side and interpolating any difference.

The port dimensions are all the same,  but on the profile plan the bow port would appear smaller on the X dimension.

[mtaylor]

Being a Corel kit and based on the instructions that Anthony has....  best bet without a lot work is just build it as the kit shows.   But then again, I like bashing kits. 

[BANYAN]

Hi Anthony, I am not familiar with the Corel kit, but the guns were definitely fitted on the upper decks (see the various build logs including mine for their placement).  While there are a few errors in the AOTS by Karl Marquardt, the majority of his drawings are safe to follow - the various build logs identify where the issues are.  The following link shows my partially completed build and where I positioned the guns (about half way down); although there is some conjecture that two of these may actually have been on the quarterdeck/poop deck. 

 

 

Allan,  as far as I can ascertain, the other ports are airing ports as the spacing and  height variance would have made them very awkward but not impossible for use with sweeps.  I do recall a mention of sweeps but my assumption (I know - dangerous) has been that the sweeps were used from the upper deck.  It has been a while since I researched this vessel, but I think there is actually mention of them as airing ports in his logs/journals?

 

cheers

 

Pat

Edited September 8, 2019 by BANYAN

[KevinThurber]

I'd seen some 1850's era ships pictured to be the in San Francisco harbor.  Many appear to have a substantial number of gun ports ... but no guns.

Might it have been a tactic to paint the familiar white stripe, with areas denoting gun ports ... but really not having guns?  Just to scare off pirates perhaps?

Anyone know?  I did not find anything in an online search on this.
 

[Mark P]

Good Evening Kevin;

 

Yes, it was common practice for merchant vessels to imitate the Navy paint scheme; as you surmise, this was indeed to discourage predators of all types. 

 

All the best,

 

Mark P