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I'm looking for info on the boats that The HMS Discovery ay have carried. All I know so far is from Capt. Vancouver's book. In various spot through the book he mentions a launch, a cutter and a yawl.  The available deck space is something less that 30'. In my searching I found some really nice drawings of a 26' yawl on Wikipedia but nothing for the other two. Is there any place I can find the likely length of the various boats? Were boats always stored lengthwise? Any info would be appreciated. Thanks. 

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Don,

Going with the launch, cutter, and yawl mentioned by Vancouver, the actual lengths for the boats for a survey ship are probably anyone's guess.   Looking at 6th rate Navy fighting ships in your time frame, they would have carried five boats, but if you only go with three for a 99 foot survey ship, fewer boats may be correct.  The Establishment called for a 21 foot launch, 22 foot pinnace,  18 foot cutter and two 24 foot cutters.    Lacking better contemporary information, and considering only three boats, maybe consider a  21 to 24 foot foot launch, 18 to 25 foot cutter, and a 16 or 18 foot yawl.   All scantlings for all of these sizes and types are on pages 58-61 in May's The Boats of Man of War.  I think if you go with boats of similar size you cannot be faulted for your choices.     

 

Search the Collections site of RMG for drawings that fit the time of Discovery.   One example of many yawl drawings is https://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/86917.html   Again, for accurate dimensional information on about every part from keel to thwarts of these boats can be found in May's book which is probably the best book out there concerning English ships' boats.  (There are used copies on Amazon for $11.)

 

Unless a boat was hung from stern davits, I don't think they would have ever sat athwartships.

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There were several types of Establishments from the British Admiralty including scantlings for each rate of ship, armament, and boats.  Probably others as well.  These were all revised over time so you need to use ones appropriate to the vessel in which you would be studying.

Cheers

PLEASE take 30 SECONDS and sign up for the epic Nelson/Trafalgar project if you would like to see it made into a TV series.   Click on http://trafalgar.tv   There is no cost other than the 30 seconds of your time.  THANK YOU

 

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7 hours ago, allanyed said:

(There are used copies on Amazon for $11.)

Abe Books has copies for even less..

Luck is just another word for good preparation.

—MICHAEL ROSE

Current builds:    Rattlesnake (Scratch From MS Plans 

On Hold:  HMS Resolution ( AKA Ferrett )

In the Gallery: Yacht Mary,  Gretel, French Cannon

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If this ship was specifically fitted out as a survey vessel she may well have had a special boat allowance.  Serious surveying of an unknown Coast was the job of warrant officers working from small boats.  These had to be seaworthy and capable of independent cruising under sail away from the mother ship.

 

Depending on the date, the cutter and yawl might have been hung from davits.  The launch being the largest, in cubic volume, and heaviest would be carried on board.

 

Roger

 

 

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When Vancouver was exploring the coast. He would anchor the Discovery in one bay and the Chatham in another some miles away and then they would do all the surveying from the boats. There are more nooks and crannies than you can shake a stick at in the inside passage and taking the ships up many of them was not wise. The winds here are very fickle so it would be possible to have a ship stuck in an inlet for days or weeks even. I assumed that the boats would have sails but I'm not sure. Vancouver does talk about having to row for extended periods which made me think it was out of the ordinary. 

I have all the scantlings from Alan's book but I can't find the R&S or whatever it was called in a boat. All the boats of my youth had ribs about every 6-12" but they were all clinker built. Can someone give me a rough idea of the spacing. I imagine the bigger the boat, the bigger the spacing but just a rough idea as they will probably never see the light of day anyway. Here's the start of the first mould a 22' cutter.

DSC04309.JPG

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29 minutes ago, Don Case said:

Can someone give me a rough idea of the spacing.

The drawing that Allan referenced above should help.. 

https://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/86917.html

There are many " longboat " logs and topics here, any number of which should help.

 

Many of the basics probably didn't change very much for a period of over 100 years..

Luck is just another word for good preparation.

—MICHAEL ROSE

Current builds:    Rattlesnake (Scratch From MS Plans 

On Hold:  HMS Resolution ( AKA Ferrett )

In the Gallery: Yacht Mary,  Gretel, French Cannon

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I have looked at the link that Alan posted. It has stations marked but not frames. Is this one place where they coincide?

I must be putting in the wrong search words because " ships boats" got me nowhere.

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Try " longboat "

 

You get a lot of Medway's Longboat but others also..

 

The Medway longboat should be a good example of framing for the next 100 years..  

 

Also the Model Shipways 18th CenturyLongboat is a good example.

 

 

P.S.

" Pinnace " is a good search also..

Edited by Gregory

Luck is just another word for good preparation.

—MICHAEL ROSE

Current builds:    Rattlesnake (Scratch From MS Plans 

On Hold:  HMS Resolution ( AKA Ferrett )

In the Gallery: Yacht Mary,  Gretel, French Cannon

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Don,  You can also study Druxey's build log on a boat that should be of a lot of help to you.  It is the 28 foot cutter in the scratch build forum 1851-1900.   

 

As to room and space, this was  specified in boat contracts.   An example of a portion of a contract for two 23 foot yawls follows.   Spelling, punctuation and grammar are as found in the original handwritten contract.  

 

Contracted this 24th July  90 with  the Honoble Thomas Willshaw, Esqre one of the Principall Officers  & Commrs of their  Majties Navy, for & behalf of their Majties, by me Robert Smith of Langstone Shipwrts and  doe hereby oblidge myselfe to build & deliver into their Majties Stores at Portsth: free of all charge by the latter and on Augst next ensueing the two Yawles undermentioned of the Dimensions and Scantlings & each fitted with the particulars folling  (viz)     

                           Long              Broad                   Deepe

Yawles  of         23ft:   -----      5ft: 7:ins  ------     2ft: 5ins   ------- Two

 

Railes of the upper strakes to be made out of the wholewood up and downe Gunnels  ............................................................   Keelson 6: ins. broade of 1½ inch planks,  timbers of 1½ inch wth 13 ins Room and Space, & 10 inch Scarphs, .................................................. 

PLEASE take 30 SECONDS and sign up for the epic Nelson/Trafalgar project if you would like to see it made into a TV series.   Click on http://trafalgar.tv   There is no cost other than the 30 seconds of your time.  THANK YOU

 

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Don,

 

If you plan to accurately model the boats for your model, I second Allen’s recommendation that you acquire a copy of The Boats of Men of War by May.  Detailed information on ships boats can be hard to find and CDR May’s book is the best single reference on Royal Navy Boats that I know of.

 

As you progress, you will find that having a good reference library available is essential.

Roger

Edited by Roger Pellett
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I've ordered May's book. $22 for an $11 book.

Thanks for that Alan. 13", that's 1/4" at 1:48. That's a lot of frames on a 5 1/2" boat.

I watched Keven Kenny's vid on building lifeboats. I'll read Druxey's build.

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Druxey's build looks perfect, thanks.

Just to show that I'm not going in blind I did build this lifeboat for the "Cicely" about 15 years ago. It's a proper clinker built. 5" long.

DSC04310.JPG

DSC04311.JPG

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Essex, at 87ft long carried at least 5 boats - she had three in the water (having lost 2 when knocked down by the squall, soon after setting off). One of the remaining 3 had been damaged while hunting, and was on deck when the Essex was damaged, with the other two in the water, returning to find Essex in a sinking condition (she remains afloat for at least 2 days, but swamped and on her side).

While she is a whaler, rather than an exploration/survey vessel, the use of a small ship or brig to safely deliver boats for the proper business to be done, is similar in principle.

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