Deck names

[Don Case]

This is John McKay's version of the Discovery. I know the quarterdeck and forecastle. I can't figure out what the ones I've got colored arrows pointing at are. As near as I can figure there is no orlop. Is the upper deck also the gun deck in this case? Is the yellow arrow even a deck? I'm trying to look up scantlings and don't know which deck I'm looking at.

Edited May 22, 2021 by Don Case

[druxey]

In small ships there was no orlop deck, any partial decking was known simply as 'platforms'. Over that was the lower deck, then the upper or gun deck.

[Don Case]

Perfect, thanks

[Lieste]

I would expect (but practice can vary) that the marked items are an Orlop Platform, The Gundeck and the Upper Deck/Weatherdeck. British ships with a full deck at or above the waterline tend to have this deck named Gundeck - this can be armed (as with ships of the line), when the lower gundeck portsills are quite close to the water, or unarmed, with the guns carried on the deck above *usually a weather deck* - as with Frigates and Ship sloops.

Purchased ships might differ from purpose built HMAV, but I would look them up following this scheme at first, only changing to another schema if the table of scantlings couldn't be reconciled to it.

[Don Case]

A few problems arise. "Scantlings" doesn't list a "lower deck". All I can find in "Scantlings" (that apply) are gun, middle. upper and lower. All I can find with info for Sloop's of War are upper and gun. Any others are blank. So I have two decks. The top one(upper?) is the weather deck and has the guns on it.  The next one down should be the lower deck(as Druxey said) but "Scantlings" doesn't have any info for lower deck. I'm thinking the only thing to do is use the "Gun deck" info for the top/weather/gun deck and use the "upper deck" info for the lower deck. Does that sound reasonable? The gun deck lists 21 beams and the upper deck lists 14 beams.

[Lieste]

IMO you have an (unarmed, enclosed) Gundeck, and an (armed, exposed) upper deck. As this is a Britsh HMAV.

I am surprised that there are only 2/3 beams for these full length decks, and that sounds wrong. (Though as there may be a platform listed for the area of cabins (adding a few extra inches of cabin height by 'stealing' from the gun room below at the aft end of the Gundeck, or perhaps forward where the deck is rounded down to allow the cable to run fair from the Hawse Holes).

The 14 might also be reasonable for the QD/Fo'csle, or where there are alternative treatments around openings if this is indeed correct for the Upper deck. By examining the (lowish res) drawing attached it looks as if the number of 'solid black' beam ends is similar if not identical for the two complete decks.

[Don Case]

Lieste-I found more info on another drawing. Discovery1789 plans - Discussions for Ships plans and Project Research. General research on specific vessels and ship types.. - Model Ship World™

It looks like it has 16 beams on the lower deck and 18 on the upper deck. about one beam every 5 feet or so.

[Lieste]

Yes, that looks about a proper proportion, with the 16 gundeck beams looking to be a significantly heavier scantling, and the 18 upper deck beams being lighter.