Gunwale details 1800 schooner

[georgeband]

I have built the bulwarks on my 1/64 model of HMS Whiting (Caldercraft Ballahoo) and am now gazing at the Admiralty drawings and pondering the details of the gunwale. Here is an extract from ZAZ6116 at the National Maritime Museum. 

 

 

There are three gun ports in this small section and all show a dotted-line feature that appears to sit on the gunwale where it goes over a port. The ends of the feature are sunk into the top of the gunwale to either side of the gun port. The other gun ports do not carry this extra piece. My best guess is that the feature is an iron bracket to strengthen the bulwark around the gun ports which actually could take a gun. Does anyone have another suggestion?

 

The gunwales must have been made from planks that were joined end to end. I expect that there was a scarph of some description but have not found any descriptions of what it looked like in 1800. There are some websites that show a simple, angled joint and even give a 1:7 proportion of width to length, but these are for repairs to modern canoes. The margin planks on the deck had a complicated scarph and I wonder if the gunwale had something similar. Ideas anyone?

 

The Admiralty drawings do not show any timberheads though there is a feature at the extreme bow which could be one or a pair. The Caldercraft kit supplies timberheads and has holes in their precut gunwales for them but I suspect that this is a mistake. Any advice on this?

 

George

[allanyed]

George,  I am pretty sure the vertical dashed lines are the edge of the frames that extend up to the cap rail, these frame top timbers forming the sides of the gun ports.  The planks between the ports are indeed short pieces of thin quickwork.   The horizontal dashed lines look to be nothing more than decorative wooden caps over the ports in place of having the cap rail run continuously over the ports which was common.    

Allan

[uss frolick]

This horizontal dashed line, above the cap-rail, might be an attempt to gain an extra inch or so in the port, because it was about to receive a carronade which the schooner was not originally designed for. Carronades required extra height, compared to an equivalent weight long gun, due to their bottom ring-trunnion mount. Because at full elevation, the run out carronade had to clear the cap rail. It would have been expensive to rebuilt the vessel with higher timbers, but iron cap-rail height extenders (for lack of a better term), would buy the needed room. I've seen this done before in iron (HMS Princess Charlotte on Lake Ontario in 1814 received a pair of 68 pounder carronades on her quarterdeck!) and even an example, possibly done in wood, on HM Prize Schooner Grecian, which was rearmed with 18-pounder carronades, even though she was built for 12-pounder carronades and long guns.

 

Your schooner may have been designed for four-pounder long guns (or sixes), but would have eventually been rearmed with twelve-pounder carronades. 1800 was a transitional period for naval armament. Cheers!

 

 

 

 

Edited February 25, 2021 by uss frolick

[druxey]

Dashed lines on these draughts  generally indicate alterations. I concur with frolick.

[georgeband]

Thank for your comments everyone. 

I am trying to create a realistic interpretation of some dotted lines and rely on evidence from sources other than one Admiralty drawing so I really appreciate your inputs. Frolick, your information about Grecian and Princess Charlotte is exactly what I mean. The very risky alternative is to rely on absence of evidence to try to prove a case. 

 

Some other information I have about the gun ports and armament:

ZAZ6118 has a cross section of the hull, and notes which state  Ports deep 2' 0½"   Ports height from the Deck 10½". No mention that some ports are higher than others. 

The line at the bottom of the gunwale on ZAZ6116 is continuous and smooth and does not show any steps. 

The accepted wisdom about the designed armament for these schooners is that it was four 12lb carronades. Whiting had two 12lb carronades and two 6lb long guns on 7 May 1806 according to the log book of John Roach. [His hand writing is hard to decipher!]

I have not found anything about how the carronades were mounted, whether on a pivoted slide or a wheeled carriage. I live in hope that I will find something in a log book but it has not happened yet. The Admiralty drawings show nothing that resembles a pivot in a gun port, but this is again absence of evidence. 

 

For my model I will put a 'stick' of some sort on top of the gunwale over these gun ports. At the moment I think it will represent iron rather than wood, based on my engineering assessment that a thin wooden stick would make little difference to a relatively thick gunwale. 

 

Any comments about scarph joints or timber heads?

 

George

 

[uss frolick]

My guess is that the carronades had the traditional slide mount carriages. Perhaps the iron port caps were fastened to the timber heads in a similar manner to the hammock net irons? Thats my SWAG (...scientific wild *** guess...)

[druxey]

The evolution of slide mounts for carronades is an interesting subject in itself. There was considerable change in the way these were mounted, on the 'inside principle' and 'outside principle' where the pivot point of the carriage was located. See:

 

Lavery, The Arming and Fitting of English Ships of War 1600-1815, Chapters 23 & 24

 

There is even more detail in a seldom available book:

 

Caruana, The History of English Sea Ordnance 1523-1815, Volume II The Age of the System

[Mark P]

Good Evening George;

 

The note from the log reads as follows, as best as I can make it out (abbreviations can be difficult to read when dealing with only a small part of a document, so I am not clear on the beginning and a few other bits)

 

Wednesday 7th   Notes  ?? sent 2 long six pounders ? 12 p? Carronades. shot &c ??? Mr? (Master? Could also be Wm for William but that does not fit context) Shipwrights employed on board. Crew variously received 88 Gall of Beer. 

[georgeband]

Mark,

 

It is easy to get absorbed into translating a hand written log. Sub Lieut Roach has poor handwriting compared to others I have worked on, and he also has bad days where the writing is large and scrawled, and other days when it is very fine but still hard to make out. 

My transliteration came out as

PM Do. Wr. Sent 2 long six pounders Two 12pdr carronades, Shot etc. AM Do. Wr. Shipwrights employed on board. Crew variously  received 80 Gall of beer

The log has the afternoon (PM) first because the navy day started at noon and the morning (AM) came second in the day. 

Do. Wr. is common. Do. is short for ditto which is a repeat and Wr. is short for weather, so Do.Wr. means the weather has not changed. The log always starts with the weather. 

'Sent' is my guess. 80 gallons of beer is not unusual and other days mention beef and water. 

Punctuation is poor or missing so we have to assume that there is a full stop (USA period) between variously and received. 

 

Here is a bit more from the page for you to enjoy. On other days, presumably when John Roach was actively in control, there is a page or two to a day. 

 

 

The entry for 6 May is easier to read

PM light winds and clear Caulkers and shipwrights employed on board AM Do. Weather employed variously

It gets easier with practice...

 

I do enjoy this research but the fundamental problems for my model remain open

What do the joints in the gunwale look like? Hooked scarph? Simple scarph?

Were the carronades on slides or wheeled carriages?

Were there timberheads present even though they are not on the Admiralty drawings?

At some point I will have to make a judgment call based on what I have read and the wise opinions I have seen here. Thanks to all for your input. 

 

George

 

 

[georgeband]

On 2/26/2021 at 5:16 PM, druxey said:

The evolution of slide mounts for carronades is an interesting subject in itself. There was considerable change in the way these were mounted, on the 'inside principle' and 'outside principle' where the pivot point of the carriage was located. See:

 

Lavery, The Arming and Fitting of English Ships of War 1600-1815, Chapters 23 & 24

 

There is even more detail in a seldom available book:

 

Caruana, The History of English Sea Ordnance 1523-1815, Volume II The Age of the System

 

I have had a look on Abebooks and they point me to a copy of Caruana which is for sale in Hamburg. The price is very precise in UK£ and is probably calculated from 1000 Euros. That's a bit more than I can justify. 

 

George

[Mark P]

Good Evening George;

 

Thanks for the explanation. Ditto I am familiar with, of course, but I thought that this must be connected with the following words and did not think of ditto. 'Wr' I now remember from other logs long ago, but had forgotten, so glad to have that knocked into my consciousness for future reference. I really enjoy reading old MSS; there is so much to discover. 

 

Re Caruana, I managed to track down a copy in Japan, and got it for $250. Very useful book, as Druxey says. On the other hand, when Caruana first published one of his volumes (I think it was vol II) it was reviewed in Model Shipwright, I believe by Robert Gardiner. He was not impressed, and gave it a very negative writeup, listing many errors and oversights. Quite an eye-opener it was. Trouble is, there is no other work to compare with it; at least, not as far as I am aware; and it does contain a lot of useful information. 

 

All the best,

 

Mark 

[georgeband]

Mark,

I agree with you entirely about researching old manuscripts and I am building a collection to write a full history of Whiting. Some I have found on the internet but the majority are from the National Records Office at Kew. I look forward to the day when I can go there again and photograph more log books, pay books, muster lists and so on. 

 

Regards,

George

[georgeband]

I made my decision about scarph joints and chose a simple design. I have put three joints on each gunwale, fairly evenly spaced along its length, and each centred between two ports. One on each side is a real joint where I changed from a relatively straight piece of lime wood to laminated walnut which I used to go around the curve of the bow. The straight sections have two fake scarph joints scribed on them. I will paint the gunwales later so the laminations and changes of wood will not be visible. 

 

 

 

I have abandoned the swarm of Caldercraft timber heads though I will put something near the tip of the bow, likely to be a couple of timberheads or a short pin rail. It depends on the rigging plan when I get round to defining that with more extrapolations and guesses. The iron rails over some of the gun ports are also yet to be fitted. 

 

George

[uss frolick]

So when you say gunwale, you mean cap-rail.

 

I had a copy of Caruana, Volume II, and sold it for a goodly profit. I didn't like it. The cannon barrel drawings were too large, and they all disappeared in the binding of the thick book, making them of little practical utility. There was quite a bit of useful written data, however, showing various individual ship armaments at shapshots in time .

[georgeband]

Gunwale or cap-rail? Now I am confused. The references I have talk about a gunwale (or gunnel) as being "the upper edge of a ship's side". This goes back to Moore's and Falconer's dictionaries and is also in the more recent works I have. I have not come across cap-rail previously. Could this be some trans-Atlantic variation, or a more modern term? It's interesting how language evolves. 

 

George

[Mark P]

Good Evening Everyone;

 

Gunwale is the timber otherwise known as the plansheer, or planksheer, which was fitted to the top of the timbers of the main frame, and capped them off. I have not seen cap-rail referred to in any Royal Navy documents, although it is certainly performing a capping function, and may well have been so called in other times or places. 

 

When gunpowder weapons were first introduced on board ships, it seems that they were mounted on the top of the ship's side, presumably somewhat like swivel guns, in a metal fork. So the name of the strengthening wale which ran along the top of the waist (and which may well have been called the cap-rail) was presumably changed to gunwale reflect this new use. 

 

An important point in the naming of this as the plansheer is that the curved line of the tops of the timbers in the waist, as seen on the sheer plan, is continued along the ship, running right to the stern and bow, and becomes a largely theoretical line which is used to shape the plan of the ship's upperworks at her narrowest point, as shown on the draught,  although this is not actually her narrowest point once fore or aft of the hancings, and is only true in the waist. 

 

All the best,

 

Mark P

[georgeband]

This is how I modelled the 'gunwale reinforcement' on Whiting. It took a while with rectangles of card and a staple that I re-bent to give the correct spacing between the legs. The gun port in the photo is 9mm wide. 

I have also made the oar ports and describe them both on my build log. 

 

This episode shows the consequences of looking at original documents where a dotted line can generate discussion and modelling time. Thanks all for your help.

 

 

George

 

[Colin Chick]

On 2/28/2021 at 4:29 AM, georgeband said:

Do. Wr. is common. Do. is short for ditto which is a repeat and Wr. is short for weather, so Do.Wr. means the weather has not changed. The log always starts with the weather. 

I hope I can be forgiven potentially thread-jacking a three year old thread, but I just had to thank George for giving a concise Do. Wr. explainer! I've just started reading The Diary of the Reverend Robert Knopwood 1803-1838, which starts with him on board HMS Calcutta, a convict ship on its way to NSW. His Logs start with an AM weather, then a PM, more often than not with a Do. Wr. I'd figured the Wr. was an abbreviation for Weather, but couldn't figure the Do. I thank you, good sir!

[georgeband]

It's my pleasure to help, Colin. Transcribing log books and other documents is an absorbing hobby and I vaguely remember when I first understood Do.Wr. It was when a log book had 'Do.Weather' for one day after a sequence of 'Do.Wr.' and the penny dropped for me. 

 

George