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Posted

The French frigates, and I'm not sure about other French ships, used a variation of the elm tree pump that the English used.  It involved an hourglass shape at the top of the pump shaft to which weights were secured.  This hourglass was then tied off and ran up to a lever on a post or mast.  See video for the L'Hermione replica's pump in action.

 

My question is simple yet... I'm not sure of the answer.  Would the pump shaft have been metal or wood?  What about the hourglass shape?  It appears to  have been wood.

 

 

Mark
"The shipwright is slow, but the wood is patient." - me

Current Build:                                                                                             
Past Builds:
 La Belle Poule 1765 - French Frigate from ANCRE plans - ON HOLD           Triton Cross-Section   

 NRG Hallf Hull Planking Kit                                                                            HMS Sphinx 1775 - Vanguard Models - 1:64               

 

Non-Ship Model:                                                                                         On hold, maybe forever:           

CH-53 Sikorsky - 1:48 - Revell - Completed                                                   Licorne - 1755 from Hahn Plans (Scratch) Version 2.0 (Abandoned)         

         

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Posted

Hi Mark,

 

Boudriot gives quite a lot of detail about the pumps in his Seventy-four Gun ship book Volume two, too much for me to copy here.

 

However, the shaft you can see on the video is called the spear and it is made of Fir; attached to the spear are the chocks (hourglass) to which the brake handle is attached via a rope hooked to a grommet secured around the chocks.

 

If you need more detailed info send me a pm and I will try and expand on the Boudriot narrative.

 

Regards,

 

B.E.

 

Posted

Thanks B.E.  I saw two pages on the web and they were different.  One was modeled in metal, the other in wood.  I don't have Boudriot's books on the 74...my bad. :blush:   I'll be making them from wood then since this breaks the tie. ;)   Seems this is one area that most of the reference works I've seen overlook on the French ships.

Mark
"The shipwright is slow, but the wood is patient." - me

Current Build:                                                                                             
Past Builds:
 La Belle Poule 1765 - French Frigate from ANCRE plans - ON HOLD           Triton Cross-Section   

 NRG Hallf Hull Planking Kit                                                                            HMS Sphinx 1775 - Vanguard Models - 1:64               

 

Non-Ship Model:                                                                                         On hold, maybe forever:           

CH-53 Sikorsky - 1:48 - Revell - Completed                                                   Licorne - 1755 from Hahn Plans (Scratch) Version 2.0 (Abandoned)         

         

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Posted

Mark, i think, the pump shaft is made from wood. The hourglass shape is used for fix a rope, going through a gat to upper deck, here fixed on beams for some hands to pump water.

If you pull on he beam, you will pump water, if you let the beam go, the balls (iron) will punch he shaft into the pump. (Oh god, my terrible english...)

 

I will show you a picture from a frigat ater CHAPMAN plans (XXXI and XXXII of the fabulous Architectura Navalis Mercatoria) a IMM Hamburg.

You will see the principe. Two seamen pumping and you see the gat in deck for the pump-shaft.

 

Also you can see those pumps here

 

Best regards!

post-1963-0-75507200-1370160025_thumb.jpg

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