Yenikapi12 by woodrat - FINISHED - 1/16 scale - a small Byzantine merchant vessel of the 9th century

[woodrat]

Having largely finished my build of the 13th century Round ship, I am going back in time to the 9th century. At this time a transition was in play in the Mediterranean away from the shell construction using edge joined planks with pegged mortices to what would become the skeleton type of construction using full active frames. The vessel I wish to construct was positioned in between these techniques in that it had a mixture of shell and skeleton construction used in its construction. In addition , instead of using mortice and tenon technique to edge join the planks, it used an edge dowelling technique.

 

I will utilise the description and reconstruction published by the author:

Işıl Özsait-Kocabaş
Istanbul University, Department of Conservation of Marine Archaeological Objects, Ordu Cad. Laleli, Fatih, ˙Istanbul,
Turkey

The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology (2018) 47.2: 357–390

 

Copyright for images from this publication resides with Istanbul University Yenikapı Shipwrecks Project, I will withold these.

 

I hope to be able to demonstrate the techniques used by the original builder.

 

The dimensions of the vessel are

length overall (LOA) 9.24m,  beam  of 2.64m, and depth
 of 1.10m. The length-to-beam ratio
of the vessel is 3.5:1.

The wreck was found in 2007 at the site of the byzantine Theodosian harbour, one of the greatest treasure-troves of nautical archaeology yet discovered. The wreck of YP12 has good preservation of keel, framing and planking sufficient to do a viable reconstruction.

 

The keel is rockered, that is slightly curved, and made from three pieces joined by keyhole scarfs

The stempost and sternpost did not survive and have been reconstructed.

I have temporarily installed the spine of the vessels on posts as I believe the original builder would have done. This may end up becoming the stand of the model.

Cheers

Dick

 

 

 

[woodrat]

This shows the building jig with keel and posts

The frame supports and some early frames fitted loosely

Cheers

Dick

Edited April 20, 2020 by woodrat

[druxey]

Another fascinating subject! Good stuff, Dick.

[woodrat]

Thanks Druxey. It's only a humble family coastal trader but it is right at the point where shell construction changed to skeleton, which makes it interesting.

 

Anyway, my ambition to build the frames individually fell flat on its face👺. The frames were turning out inaccurate with many breakages.

So, reluctantly I abandoned this approach and decidec to build it shell-first over a mould. I feel better already.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers

Dick

[Louie da fly]

I almost missed this! Another really interesting build.

 

I'll pull up a chair if I may.

 

Steven

[woodrat]

On 5/3/2020 at 11:47 AM, Louie da fly said:

I almost missed this! Another really interesting build.

 

I'll pull up a chair if I may.

 

Steven

No point at the moment. I have hit a brick wall. Due to the scale selected and the small size of the vessel, it was not possible to join the planks sufficiently rigidly around the form. So, after completing the planking, I removed the shell from the form and, to my consternation, the shell sprang into a narrower configuration due to its elasticity. In the process of correcting this, I destroyed the shell. 😧 

So it's literally back to the drawing board. The solution, as I see it, is to do the build at a larger scale  To do this I will need lines with greater accuracy in order to build at a scale 1/16 or even larger.

 

In the meantime, perhaps I should do some more work on the Gros Ventre which has been languishing.

😩

Dick

Edited May 14, 2022 by woodrat

[Louie da fly]

Blast! Oh well, on to YK-12 Version II. At 1:16 or larger that will involve a whole new set of interesting problems to overcome. How big will it be at that scale? I have to say I really look forward to seeing this one progressing - lots of interesting issues in reconstructing a Byzantine ship as originally built.

 

A break to work on Gros Ventre while you collect your thoughts and get a new look on things would probably be good, as well.

 

Steven

 

 

[mtaylor]

I'm not going to like that post, Dick.   I hope you can figure a way to solve the issue.

[woodrat]

3 hours ago, mtaylor said:

I'm not going to like that post, Dick.   I hope you can figure a way to solve the issue.

I think it is possible at a larger scale and the bonus may be that it will be built with edge dowelling as was the original

 

6 hours ago, Louie da fly said:

Blast! Oh well, on to YK-12 Version II. At 1:16 or larger that will involve a whole new set of interesting problems to overcome. How big will it be at that scale? I have to say I really look forward to seeing this one progressing - lots of interesting issues in reconstructing a Byzantine ship as originally built.

 

A break to work on Gros Ventre while you collect your thoughts and get a new look on things would probably be good, as well.

 

Steven

 

 

At 1:16 it would be 57 cm in length and 16.5cm in width. Already started on the Fat Belly.

Cheers

Dick

[woodrat]

This the backbone of the vessel at 1/16 scale. length about 57 cm. n

 

note the holes in the keel for ropes that would presumably be used to kedge the vessel to a small grapnel.

the keylock scarf joining the keel sections and the posts to the keel.

an S-scarf joining the timbers of the posts.. Grey resin was used as a filler in the joins and was still present in the excavated wreck.

 

Dick

 

 

 

Edited May 17, 2020 by woodrat

[Louie da fly]

Beautiful precise work, Dick.

 

Steven

[woodrat]

Further progess on Yenikapi 12 version 3

The backbone in its building board. The aim is to make midship frames and tail frames of correct shape and join everything with ribands to the keel and posts

 

 

Each frame was made (by the original shipwright) using a floor timber extending up on one side to the level of the gunwale. On the other side, a timber was joined to the floor by an 'L' shaped scarf. The floor was flipped on alternate frames so that the weak scarf was not always on the one side

 

 

The frames attached to the keel

 

Ribbands have been attached which will guide subsequent frames. Much as the original would have been built.

 

 

Cheers

Dick

[Louie da fly]

Nice work, Dick. Looking forward to further progress.

[woodrat]

Thanks, Steven.

Some progress on the vessel. The framing is compleat. I have deliberately made the framing a little rough to match the roughly adzed appearance of the original. I think it would look odd if smoothly machined frames were depicted.

The mast-step.The larger slot is for the mast and the smaller slot is for a supporting stanchion for the forward sloping mast.

The mast-step timber is keyed into the frames.

The first and third wales are in place

 

Cheers

Dick

[Louie da fly]

That's really wonderful work, Dick.

 

The first few pictures were a pleasure to see, but the last three are just a joy to contemplate. Such a beautiful, elegant shape!

 

I look forward to seeing how the stanchion works, (having been "introduced" to Byzantine mast steps in researching my own build).

[vaddoc]

This is a very interesting project. 1/16 looks a better scale and allows the use of wood nails. You could also use 1 mm screws, inexpensive and versatile.

[woodrat]

15 minutes ago, vaddoc said:

This is a very interesting project. 1/16 looks a better scale and allows the use of wood nails. You could also use 1 mm screws, inexpensive and versatile.

Thanks, Vaddoc. The original vessel, as excavated in the Theodosian harbour of Istanbul, used iron nails in the attachment of frames to keel but the rest of the construction used plank to plank dowels and plank to frame trenails. I have used pins into the keel but the wales are held to the frames with wood glue and 0.5mm. bamboo dowels, which was surprisingly rigid. Where do you get 1mm screws from?

30 minutes ago, Louie da fly said:

I look forward to seeing how the stanchion works, (having been "introduced" to Byzantine mast steps in researching my own build).

The mast leans on the stanchion which is in turn held up by a transverse throughbeam. I think.

Dick

[vaddoc]

Dick, my boats are held together exclusively by tree nails( and a bit of epoxy). I use the screws to temporarily hold things together, then proggressively replace with treenails. I have used many thousands!

I buy the screws by the thousand, either from aliexpress or ebay. There are two kinds, I only use the stainless steel ones as they are harder. The ordinary screws are mild steel and the head gets rounded off easily. Easy to tell between them, the stainless steel ones are non magnetic. At these scales I find them very useful. They need a pilot hall with 0.7 mm drill. Extremely strong hold of the wood

[Schrader]

Good Job and really well illustrated. I’ll follow from now

 

for iron nails you can use sewing pins and blued  Let me show you a picture

[Brinkman]

It looks really good! And thank you especially for also posting the failed attempts, they help me a lot as I'm planning my own scratch build.

[woodrat]

Thanks Vaddoc, Silverman and Hellmuht for your kind suggestions. Framing is now complete. The only metal nails are between keel and frames as in the excavated original. From this point only trenails will be used ( and woodglue). I use bamboo trenails pulled through a Byrnes trenail maker.

Cheerio

Dick

[Louie da fly]

That's looking really good, Dick. Those photos show off the beautiful shape of the hull, as well as the fine detail of its construction.

[BANYAN]

A late comer to your build log, hope there's room in the peanut gallery?

 

A very nice looking hull frame Dick; it should make into a great hull when planked.

 

Have you asked Steven to make some crew for you - he's right into the carving mode now   (ducking for cover)

 

cheers

 

Pat

[woodrat]

4 hours ago, BANYAN said:

 

Have you asked Steven to make some crew for you - he's right into the carving mode now   (ducking for cover)

 

cheers

 

Pat

Thanks, Pat. I wouldn't dream of it. Steven must be going cross-eyed by now. I may have a go myself, though. I think it would have a crew of 2.

Dick

[Louie da fly]

9 hours ago, BANYAN said:

Have you asked Steven to make some crew for you - he's right into the carving mode now   (ducking for cover)

Shame on you, Pat! And just as I'm coming to the end of carving my oarsmen, too!

[BANYAN]

Look forward to seeing your progress with this build Dick.  Having seen Steven's efforts up close I have started taking a real interest in vessels of this period.

 

Steven, I thought I would just help you draw out a good thing

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Louie da fly]

1 hour ago, BANYAN said:

I have started taking a real interest in vessels of this period.

Careful Pat. It's very easy to get hooked! 

[Chuck Seiler]

28 minutes ago, Louie da fly said:

Careful Pat. It's very easy to get hooked! 

Indeed!

[woodrat]

6 hours ago, BANYAN said:

Look forward to seeing your progress with this build Dick.  Having seen Steven's efforts up close I have started taking a real interest in vessels of this period.

 

 

 

cheers

 

Pat

Thanks Pat. As you can see from early posts it was not smooth sailing. I look forward to your upcoming build  of a northern hulc from the extensive excavations of this well recorded vessel. Best of westralian luck to you

Dick

[Louie da fly]

4 hours ago, woodrat said:

I look forward to your upcoming build  of a northern hulc from the extensive excavations of this well recorded vessel.

Irony, Dick. Irony . . .