mast platform

[helge]

hello everybody,I am doing some scratch building of " hms surprise",and I just work with the masting top and spares. And it is here I am on thin ice. I have read the " frigate hms surprise by lavery and hunt. They said and I quote; After her refit in Plymouth in 1798. We are on much safer ground here, even if we do not know everything we want. There are two plans, which can be compared with those of her sister ship "La Tourturelle" ,also captured by the royal navy and refitted in Plymouth. We have details of her armament from this period,  and of her mast and yards from 1802, - we cannot be certain that these are the same ones fitted in 1798, but it seems likely. (quote end) I have also read the book The masting and rigging of english ship at war (james Lee),and there are two drawings  from steels mast making,one from 1794 36 gun ship with crowfeet on the top,and one plan from 1802-1815.  If I understand correct ,it is the1802  plan  that I want, and it is without  crowfeet on the top,. I see other scratch builders of hms surprise use crowfeet on the top. What is correct. In the 1802 plan there is a little different acording to the crosstree, it was making a little stronger,and this changes was in 1802 acording to the book. So have anny one some comment to this, I will welcome it very much.

 

rgds Helge Saether,norway

 

                                                                                                                                                               

[allanyed]

Hello Helge,

 I assume you are speaking about the crows feet and euphroe block.  You say "without crowfeet on the top".  Do you mean on the topmasts or the lower mast tops?  If you could attach a sketch that would be great.    Per Lees, the top masts rarely had crows feet at any time and for the lower masts they generally stopped being used by the end of the 18th century.

Hastings 1818 below shows no crows feet but I found a frigate of 1805 that looks to still have crows feet.   Allan

 

[helge]

hello,thanks,here come the drawings I make, if I understand correct there is the 1802 drawing that is for the hms surprise?

 

rgds helge,norway

[helge]

sorry forget the scemast topp.pdftches

[helge]

1 hour ago, allanyed said:

Hello Helge,

 I assume you are speaking about the crows feet and euphroe block.  You say "without crowfeet on the top".  Do you mean on the topmasts or the lower mast tops?  If you could attach a sketch that would be great.    Per Lees, the top masts rarely had crows feet at any time and for the lower masts they generally stopped being used by the end of the 18th century.

Hastings 1818 below shows no crows feet but I found a frigate of 1805 that looks to still have crows feet.   Allan

 

one more drawing

plan topp.pdf

[allanyed]

Unless someone has a contemporary drawing or photo of a contemporary model of Surprise showing crows feet were still in use in your time frame, you are probably safe to leave off  the crows feet.

Allan

[helge]

27 minutes ago, allanyed said:

Unless someone has a contemporary drawing or photo of a contemporary model of Surprise showing crows feet were still in use in your time frame, you are probably safe to leave off  the crows feet.

Allan

thanks again,I see manny model kits and scratch build of hms surprise use crowfeet,and maybe she used this before as the french "Unite" and not after rebuild in Plymouth 1798.Try to do some more research.

 

thanks again,helge,norway

[helge]

hello,again, After more reading from the lavery/hunt book,I think I have found out a little bit more about the rigging of hms surprise, and she was rebuilt manny times incl. the rigging. In the book "the frigate surprise" it says: For this was wartime,when the incessant pressure for any performance advantage over the enemy led to constant development and change, in the ships rigging, as in its construction and armament. Surprise rigged in 1795 was not the same as Surprise  rigged in 1805.nor in 1815. There is also a reconstruction of the rigging by geof hunt in the book,and it is without the crowfeet so far as I can see. And now,what to do,use hunts reconstruction as a guide,maybe from 1802,or use the rigg from 1796 with crowfeet.maybe a difficult decision,what to do,I dont know yet what is best?

 

rgds helge,norway