Byblos Ship by Sceatha - FINISHED - 25th century BC

[Sceatha]

First encountered this ship in the seminal Ships of the Pharaohs by Björn Landström. More recently I saw again the well know relief from Sahure's grave complex in Shelley Wachsmann's Seagoing Ships & Seamanship in the Bronze Age Levant. Amati has long now provided a kit for this ship, mostly based on Landström's plans, with a few oversimplifications as usual.

 

Started out with forming a basic mold for the hull shape, over which I built the hull shape. The wood used is Linden, stained with a reddish teak water stain and then treated with tung oil.

 

 

 

[druxey]

Always nice to see an unusual subject modeled!

[Sceatha]

Thanks Druxey!

 

Wanted to try and do justice to the shell first build method. Will hopefully leave at least part of the deck off to show the intricate lashed interior of the hull.

[Jim Lad]

A very interesting looking project, Sceatha.  Can we have a few close up photos of your hull lashings?

 

John

[Sceatha]

Thanks Jim Lad!

 

The hull has two types of lashings:

• The thicker ones that go through the planks at deck level and at bow/stern. I am about to start those, will post picture, hopefully tomorrow.
• The many series of thin lashes that go across the interior of the hull and pass through V-shaped channel dug half way through the planks, so that they do not protrude on the outside of the hull. They end up at the sheer where they are tied on the deck beams (see attached image).

Those second thinner lashings I will have to add when I am done shaping the hull, as the planks are too thin at my scale (1:48) to actually dig the V-shaped channels halfway without seriously weakening the entire hull (tried it on some test planks and it always ended badly). Still thinking of a way to do this and trying out a few things, will post images when I find a solution that works.

 

Keep in mind the internal lashing scheme comes from Khufu's solar boat, since the stone reliefs in Sahure's grave  complex do not provide any information on the lashings.

 

The Khufu vessel is one dynasty (and about 100 years) earlier and is a river boat, not a seagoing vessel, which makes the whole thing at least a bit hypothetical, but that's life when working on ancient vessels...

[Sceatha]

Woke up early today and started on the outer lacing. This goes around the hull and across the stem and stern posts. At the stern and stem port it presumably holds the planking on the posts and at deck level it ties the sheer strake to the deck beams.

 

Lacing was done with hemp line treated with microcrystalline wax.

 

 

[druxey]

This looks really neat, Sceatha!

[Sceatha]

The goods of the quarantine is that I have never been so productive.

 

I thought I would take some time off from the lacing today and make the mast.

 

Egyptian ship seems to have been equipped exclusively with bipedal masts, at least until the end of the Early Kingdom.

 

When the ship sailed under oars the mast could be lowered, so that its excessive weight did not destabilize the ship. The masthead was curved forward so that the fore-stay did not interfere with the yard and sail.

 

 

[Jim Lad]

Very nicely done!

 

John

[KeithAug]

Sceatha - an interesting subject for modelling - i look forward to seeing how it develops.

[chris watton]

Loving this build. I would love to do one of these vessels one day. Are there any books with decent line drawings (I know most would be speculative)?

[VTHokiEE]

Wow, very neat build! I love the subject and will be watching this closely.

[Sceatha]

Thank you all very much! 

 

11 hours ago, chris watton said:

Loving this build. I would love to do one of these vessels one day. Are there any books with decent line drawings (I know most would be speculative)?

Chris there is Björn Landström's Ships of the Pharaohs: 4000 years of Egyptian Shipbuilding.

 

That is the one I am basing my build on. It's an impressive book, large format and includes several good line drawings. They are, as you say, hypothetical but the Egyptians have left us with quite detailed paintings, several ship models and even a few actual ships that have survived, so the assumptions made are not too far out there. Landström includes this evidence in the book, which help to understand his thinking in designing the line drawings. 

 

The book has been out for print, but there are several copies out there. I had no trouble getting one. 

[chris watton]

Thank you Sceatha, I have just ordered the book from Amazon, being sent via California! 

[Sceatha]

2 hours ago, chris watton said:

Thank you Sceatha, I have just ordered the book from Amazon, being sent via California! 

Glad to hear you located a copy Chris!

 

There are a few more resources I found useful, in case you want to dig a bit deeper. No line drawings in those, and Björn Landström's book definitely has all the information a modeler might need, but still they can add useful details.

 

A couple of papers you can find to download:

• Egyptian Seagoing Ships by R. O. Faulkner - This is quite indispensable, explaining the main building techniques of the Egyptians, like the installation of the hogging truss.
• The Construction of the Khufu I Vessel (c.2566 BC): a Re-Evaluation by Samuel Mark - offering a lot of info on the shape, thickness, cutting and lacing of the planks on the Khufu solar boat, the only surviving ship of the Old Kingdom.

 

And a book:

• Seagoing Ships & Seamanship in the Bronze Age Levant by Shelley Wachsmann - This is more for the historical aspect, it adds no actual shipbuilding information to the above, collects all primary resources from Bronze Age art on ships and seamnship.

Edited April 19, 2020 by Sceatha
corrected typo

[chris watton]

Thank you Sceatha, much appreciated. The era a couple of thousand years before 1177bc and a thousand years after this fascinate me. I do have the book Egypt, Greece and Rome: Civilizations of the Ancient Mediterranean by Charles Freeman, and have read it many times. I have always been fascinated with trying to understand how first civilizations came to be, and start working together, and then fighting..

[Sceatha]

I have an interest in the same era Chris, anything from the Sumerians to Classical Greece and Rome to be honest. And lots of interesting modelling subjects there too. It's fascinating to see how concepts that we have taken for granted emerged and evolved, things like the cylindrical mast, the shrouds and the centered rudder.

 

At some point I would also like to try my hand at modelling some wooden machines like cranes or siege engines from that era.

 

I have not read Freeman's book, but have heard good things about it. I should probably get it.

[Sceatha]

Got some time today to work on the yards. Especially the upper yard with the characteristic carved yard ends. The shape of the yard is based on contemporary stone carvings of river boats:

 

Started with the carved ends, made from two pieces of linden each:

 

 

 

[Sceatha]

So, three days of 12 hour building sprints I have the hull almost completed.

 

Unfortunately, I did something stupid. Since this is my first time recording a build log, I forgot in my building fervor to take step by step photographs of the interior lacing. Luckily, I have decided to leave part of the deck uncovered so the interior structure is still visible.

 

Below is a general plan of the interior structure. This is mainly based on Khufu's Solar Boat, a more or less contemporary ship to the one I am building, but designed for river use. 

 

So here is the work on the interior, with battens covering the plants joints and laced from side to side. Since the thickness of the planks does not allow for the V shaped channels to be dug into the wood, without showing on the outside, the lacing had to be "faked". The lacing threads go through channels dug into the deck beams at the sheer:

The ship has no keel and no typical frames. There is a number of relatively flimsy false frames, but their sole use seems to be to distribute the pressure of the stanchion that hold up the long plank that supports the deck beams at their center:

Decking is also almost done. Based on the decking of the Khufu ship, the Egyptian did not shy from beveling the planks to sharp points, despite the loss in structural integrity. Supposedly their need to preserve as much of the rare wood's original length was greater.

[druxey]

Very nicely faked!

[Jim Lad]

A very interesting build and beautifully executed.

 

John

[Sceatha]

Thanks all for your kind words!

 

Did some soldering and finalized the lacings around the bow, as well as the rope that that holds the beam where the hogging truss will be attached.

 

[Sceatha]

Started out on the steering deck. As seen in the reliefs from Sahure's grave complex it rests on a series of logs, probably to make sure those operating the steering oars do not trip on the hogging truss.

Now this is where it gets really hypothetical:

First, we can easily assume the deck was planked, making sure the helmsmen (all six of them!) did not have to balance on the  logs.

 

Second, the relief clearly shows the oars passing behind the short railing. Landström silently assumes this is a mistake, planking the deck in his plans from railing to railing.

I had the chance to take a look at the plans for the Amati model which, despite the many glaring mistakes (especially in the shape of the hull), seem to have found an elegant solution that does not contradict the sculptures. The deck planking leaves a narrow space for the oars to go through behind the railings.

 

This looks plausible, as Khufu's solar boat is also not planked from bulwark to bulwark, leaving a narrow gap on each side.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jim Lad]

That looks a very reasonable solution with the steering oars.  She looks very nice, indeed.

 

John

[KeithAug]

Very educational insight into this unusual vessel and a lot of fine detail. 

[the learner]

Interesting! For research you might find some helpful research at Texas A&M. Look at the Thesis that are published there. There are a lot of them are downloadable.

[mtaylor]

4 hours ago, the learner said:

Interesting! For research you might find some helpful research at Texas A&M. Look at the Thesis that are published there. There are a lot of them are downloadable.

Here's the link to the site Guy mentioned.   Worth while just to browse it even if you're not looking for something specific.

https://nautarch.tamu.edu/academic/alum.htm

[Sceatha]

Thanks for the great info and link Mark and Guy! That is why I love this forum so much. Definitely a lot to dig through! Some of my main sources are included in the list, but there is a lot more there that looks very interesting. Luckily I find myself with a lot of free time these days.

 

Meanwhile, I did some work on the bow. Next up, the hogging truss.

 

Edited May 8, 2020 by Sceatha
corrected typo

[KeithAug]

The rope bindings are beautifully done, it is really fascinating to see how the ancient Egyptians constructed their vessels.

[mtaylor]

Beautiful. I find this fascinating to watch.   Be careful at that site I gave you.  It will just keep you reading even after you read the papers you need.