Help with pieces and parts

[Casey]

Hi all

I am new to model ship-building and have a couple of questions.  I am building the Constructo EMMA Sidmouth 1815.  I started this ship over 20 years ago and once the hull was complete I had to pack it up and store it away as Life (Kids , Work) all got in the way.  Well Kids are grown, I'm now retired, so I set up a table/work station in the basement and pulled the ship back out.  I am very please on the progress.  It is really starting to look very nice but I am at a road block.  I do not know all the names of the ship parts yet but imagine I will be learning them as time goes on.  There is a cannon in the amidship of the deck that sits on a pedestal and rotates 360 degrees.  Can someone please tell what is this cannon is called so i can look it up to help me with the building of it as the instructions from constructo are pretty lame to say the least. 

 

Also I have tried looking up this ship on google and as far as I can tell there is no documentation of this ship other than from constructo as a model kit.  I have read where not all models are real ships of the past and may be nothing more than a representation of ships of that era.  If this ship was a real ship can someone help me in pointing in the right direction to find out more about it.  Thanks you for any all help. 

[popeye2sea]

The gun is probably a mortar.

 

Regards,

[amateur]

I googled the kit, the ship is a balimore clipper, and the gun looks a bit weird to me (as: never saw a gun mounted like this). It looks not like a mortar, those are far heavier, and positioned very low in the hull, and pointed upwards.

this one looks like a relatively small calibre carronade, mounted on some kind of 'raised turning table' to get above the railings.

 

Jan

[barkeater]

I'm not familiar with your kit but II built the Alert by Mamoli which was a cutter with a 360-degree rotating canon midship. If I remember correctly, it was a 4 pounder but had no special name. If you look, I'm sure you can find pictures of the Alert in the gallery to see if what you have matches.

Richard

[Roger Pellett]

I believe that this arrangement of a pivoting carronade on the centerline shows up on one or more Howard Chapelle drawings.  In particular a slaver carried one that was able to fire at people coming up from the main hatch.  Sad and gruesome history.

 

Smaller American Revenue cutter’s also used this.

 

 

[Jaager]

I did not do a survey of my references, but I checked HASN  ( History of the American Sailing Navy - H.I. Chapelle ).

There are several examples of small schooner - brigantine sized vessels with a swivel cannon - centerline and midship. 

For a revenue enforcement,  19th century pirate suppression, and interfering with slave smuggling as a job description for a vessel, that would be sufficient fire power. Not enough weight to be a danger in a blow and also allow for a shallow draft.  

One of those may give you an overall look inspiration.  The up close details - I am drawing a blank on details in a single source.

There may be details that could be adapted from AOTS HMS Beagle for some basics -  but Beagle was English, a tad later, larger, and more sophisticated.

 

Constructo  may have even used an HIC plan as a starting point for their rif.  You could look at HASN as a catalog for ideas to individualize your build back to something on display there.

Edited February 19, 2022 by Jaager

[Keith Black]

 Casey, welcome to MSW. As you can see there are many willing to help answer questions that you might have. I suggest you introduce yourself in the new member section, see the link below.

 

https://modelshipworld.com/forum/3-new-member-introductions/

[mtaylor]

Welcome to MSW, Casey.

 

For names of parts, etc.  I highly recommend zuMondfeld's  Historic Ship Models.  There are some errors in it but as a general reference it's a good starting point and on Ebay and others, it's pretty reasonably priced.  

 

And by all means, do an introduction in the New Member Introductions area.   There's also some pinned articles/posts on how to use MSW and many of its features.

[Dr PR]

Casey,

 

Welcome! I looked up the EMMA/Sidmouth kit. It is a Baltimore clipper, or topsail schooner. The gun on the centerline is a pivot carronade.

 

Carronades were large bore short barrel guns that had a short range but threw a large shot (or a lot of shrapnel, grape shot, etc.). They could do a lot of damage at short range. But their main advantage is that the short barrel made them a lot lighter than a long cannon, and topside weight is always a problem in ships, especially small vessels like schooners.

 

I am building a very similar Baltimore clipper and have been researching these vessels for several years. Here are some links for topsail schooners:

 

https://modelshipworld.com/topic/19611-albatros-by-dr-pr-mantua-scale-148-revenue-cutter-kitbash-about-1815/?do=findComment&comment=598658

https://modelshipworld.com/topic/25679-topsail-schooner-sail-plans-and-rigging/?do=findComment&comment=750865

https://modelshipworld.com/topic/30234-topsail-schooner-belaying-plan/?do=findComment&comment=862302

https://modelshipworld.com/topic/27410-small-ship-anchor-handling/?do=findComment&comment=787942

https://modelshipworld.com/topic/29060-schooner-heads-1700s-through-1800s/?do=findComment&comment=829120

 

My prime reference for Baltimore clippers is Howard Chapelle's "The Baltimore Clipper," Edward W. Sweetman Company, New York, 1968.

 

Lennarth Petersson's "Rigging Period Fore-and Aft Craft" (Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, 2015 is a nice reference for rigging topsail schooners.

 

Chapelle's "History of the American Sailing Navy" (W. W. Norton & Company, New York, 1949)  page 319 discusses pivot carronades on schooners. They were quite popular about the time of the War of 1812.

 

Chapelle's "History of American Sailing Ships" (Bonanza Books, New York, 1985) tells a lot about the development of Baltimore clippers and topsail schooners in general.

 

Chapelle's "The search for Speed Under Sail" (W. W. Norton & Company, New York & London, 1967) goes into the historical detail of the development of the fast schooner.

 

Karl Heinz Marquardt's "The Global Schooner" is one of the best references for schooners. It is the "Lees" reference for schooners.

 

James Lees' "The Masting and Rigging of English Ships of War" is generally considered one of the nest reference for sailing ship rigging, but it does not mention schooners.

 

If you want to learn about nautical terminology and rigging ships here are some references:

 

Falconer's "Universal Dictionary of the Marine," 1769 is a good dictionary of nautical terms. It is available online on Google Books and some other places.

 

Steel's and Biddlecombe's "The Art of Rigging" has a dictionary of masting and rigging terms. They are available online here:

https://thenrg.org/resource/articles

 

Biddlecombe  "The Art of rigging" (1925, Echo Point Books & Media LLC, Brattlleboro, Vermont) is also available in print.

 

Darcy Lever's "Young Sea Officer's Sheet Anchor" (Algrove Publishing Limited, 2000) has a very good description of masting and rigging terms with excellent illustrations.

 

And if you really get into schooners and want to know more there is Chapelle's "The American Fishing Schooners" (W. W.Norton & Company, New York and London,1 973). By now you should be guessing Howard Chapelle did a lot of research on schooners of all types.

 

So there is everything you wanted to know about schooners and a lot more!

 

 

[amateur]

Hi Phil,

 

do you know whether this 'raised position' of the carronade has any historic background? It looks a rather tricky construction to me. 

 

Jan

[Casey]

Thank you very much Dr PR this is great I really appreciate the information and all those links.

 

[Dr PR]

Jan,

 

Howard Chapelle actually describes this in "The History of the American Sailing Navy" (W. W. Norton & Company Inc., New York,1949) on page319.

 

"... the pivot bolt was placed on top of an upright post, or column ... The height of the pivot post ... was decided by the height required to permit the gun to fire over the bulwarks."

 

On vessels with high bulwarks the guns had to me mounted very high. He says

 

"This mount was not particularly strong, and for some years it was confined to the use of pivoted carronades. ... This type of pivot mount became popular in all armed schooners, even merchant vessels, and particularly in slavers."

 

Casey,

 

You are welcome. But I must add a word of caution: You are very close to falling down the rabbit hole!

Edited February 21, 2022 by Dr PR