HMS Endeavour's Longboat Rigging

[Dougal Mack]

I'm currently building the subject model and have just got to the sails and rigging - eek!

I am an absolute novice when it comes to boats, I don't know any nautical terms (I know the difference between port and starboard, but that's about it!) and have no idea about how rigging on these old boats works / worked.

I've been reading a some posts and build logs to give me a few clues which help and I think, with the scale, I can get away with a few odd non-nautical knots with a blob of glue!

Could I ask for some of you that have built this kit, or similar, to post a few close up shots of the rigging, in particular the block and tackle arrangements?

Do you make any modifications to the 'blocks' to put deeper grooves in them as I can see the ropes will likely slip off!

 

Ta!

[allanyed]

Dougal,

If no one posts the information for you maybe try a search on the RMG Collections site for longboats and you may find what you need.  There are scantlings and drawings in W.E. May's book Boats of Men of War as well.  Not a lot, but at least some information including a photo of a contemporary model from RMG of HMS Medway's  28 foot long boat which is cutter rigged with spike type bowsprit, mast,  boom and gaff.

Allan

[BANYAN]

Hi Dougal, there are several answers to your question unfortunately.  Like many rigging subjects it is open to some conjecture.

 

For instance, Karl Marquardt in his AOTS Capt. Cook's Endeavour shows a couple of way sto rig the long boat, one using a sliding batten or something.  Unfortunately I have loaned out my copy at the moment so cannot provide the detail.

 

Then Ray Parkin in his HM Bark Endeavour, not only shows a different boat design, but slightly different rigging again.  It is a while since I looked at these, but one author argued for a long narrow design whereas, but due to the space to stow the boats, the other author argued that a shorter wider design was probably used.  Due to copyright, we are somewhat restricted in posting too much from these books.  I have however, attached one of Parkin's drawings.  I would highly recommend getting Marquardt's AOTS, the other (Parkin) is a tad too expensive for what you want.  That said, I think Parkin based his rigging on Steele's Rigging Rules (PDFs free on line) so using that as a reference may help you?

 

 

 

The NMM, has some plans for long boats but not much on rigging (that I found), but even better plans are in the  Danish Museum Online Library  - may be worth a look.  This is just one link into one of several collections - may not be in this one so you will need to explore (and also turn on your browser translator)

 

cheers

 

Pat

Edited February 10, 2021 by BANYAN

[Dougal Mack]

Thanks for your replies, but to be honest I'm not really after historical accuracy.

All I'm after is a decent looking model when finished, so just some clues on how to attach the pulleys, route the lines, etc.

I'm hoping that those on this forum that have all ready built this model might be able to provide some additional photos.

[shipman]

Does Firefox have a translator function?

[BANYAN]

Sorry, can't help you there, I did not rig my boats, I just showed them stowed.  There may be a build log of the model of a longboat on here; I am assuming you have done a search in the build logs?

 

cheers

 

Pat

[BANYAN]

Shipman, not as 'default' setup.  You have to do a search in the 'add ins' and add it - if I recall correctly one of the better ones was IMTranslator (or something similar) - sorry a while since I used FF.

[shipman]

Thanks BANYAN.

I find all this jiggery pokery so none intuitive. Meaningless symbols everywhere. May as well spend time learning Egyptian hieroglyphs.

[Mike_H]

Hi @Dougal Mack.  At the end of my build log for Endeavour’s Longboat (link in the sig, below), I took some reasonably high definition photographs that show how I ran the rigging.  If you are still looking for guidance that might help. Any other details feel fre to post and tag me,and I’ll see what I can do to help.