Dimensions of the Royal Navy Ships of War. 1695year. Document from Russia

[greenstone]

There are scans of an interesting document from 1695 on the website of The Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences!

The document contains Dimensions of the Royal Navy Ships of War and The Contract for the build, with a detailed description of all elements of the ship's hull.

I think this information will be useful to those who are engaged in modeling ships of the late 17th century - early 18th century.

 

With respect,

Eugen Mikhaylov

"Master Korabel"

 

Edited February 3, 2023 by greenstone

[Waldemar]

 

Many thanks Eugen! Have you posted a whole document?

 

 

[greenstone]

1 minute ago, Waldemar said:

 

Many thanks Eugen! Have you posted a whole document?

 

 

Yes

[bruce d]

Thank you Eugen, that is a very nice find.

[Waldemar]

 

After a first, quick look through: this is a unique, extremely valuable document. Firstly, these are records from the 1670s (I spotted two dates: 1675 and 1677). Where did the date 1695 come from?

 

And secondly, in addition to the scantlings, it contains very detailed information about the ships' design concepts, or to put it another way, the geometry (shape) of the hull.

 

This is simply a fantastic document of unparalleled value!!!

 

 

[Murphys77]

That builders contract must refer to the Hampshire 54, launched 1697/98

According to the Three decks forum site and Rif Winfield it was built by a John Taylor but that must be wrong as it clearly states James Taylor.

The Hampshire is the only 4th rate launched from Cuckolds Point on the Thames at that time.

The writing is very hard to read but I think that must be the correct ship.

Very interesting and valuable document.

All the best.

M.

[Waldemar]

 

Yet another passage dating one of the tables:

 

„A Table of Timbers Whose Scantlings are thought fit to be Ascertained In the Building of the 30 Ships Built by Act of Parliament [...]”

 

 

[Waldemar]

 

Or: „Another way for drawing or building as was practised by Sir Phineas Pett”.

 

 

[Martes]

2 hours ago, Waldemar said:

Where did the date 1695 come from?

The document may have been brought to Russia in 1695.

 

Absolutely fantastic find.

Edited February 3, 2023 by Martes

[Waldemar]

 

14 minutes ago, Martes said:

Absolutely fantastic find.

 

Truly. It was only later that I also found this date on the first page of The Contractio of A 4th Rate built by Mr Taylor:

 

This Indenture Made the 14th day of February In the Year of our Lord on Thou land six hundred Ninety Five.

 

There is fantastic information here if only for the reconstruction of London 1656 that we have been looking at recently. Such as timber&room value, sweep and rake of the stempost, how floor lines were drawn, etc.

 

 

[allanyed]

37 pages of glorious information and weeks of pondering if transcribing them.  THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR POSTING.

Allan

[druxey]

A pre-Establishment find!!! Well done and thank you for sharing this.

[Mark P]

Good Evening All;

 

As Murphy says above, the contract is for the Hampshire, and stipulates that the ship is to carry fifty guns. There were at least half a dozen of these 50-gun fourth rate contracts awarded to merchant builders around 1695-6, a time when the demands of what was often called 'King William's war' made it imperative to increase the forces available to the Navy. 

 

I suspect, subject to confirmation on closer reading, that the collection comprises a variety of documents gathered over a period of time, and may well have been taken to Russia following Peter the Great's tour of European, including English, dockyards, wherein he spent many months learning the shipwright's trade in some detail (and indulging in some hard drinking after working up a thirst) It seems to include at least one of the formal 'Establishments', possibly that of 1706, the first really formal one; although it may be the more informal establishment of the 1690s (the exact date of which I cannot recall) If not taken by Peter the Great himself, they may well have gone with an English shipwright who went to Russia to help set up Peter's nascent Russian Navy. I will have to check these dimensions against some of the multitudes of various scantlings which exist from the latter part of the 17th century for an idea of the exact source of the Russian archive's documents.

 

The information about the ships of 1677 may well appear because in the 1690s there were at least two acts of Parliament authorising a large programme of ship-building. Lacking a Navy Board member of sufficient stature to force Parliament to pay more than the bare minimum it wanted to, and advise them fully of the reasons why they should pay more for better results (a role ably fulfilled by Samuel Pepys in the 1670s) Parliament relied upon a resurrection of the scantlings and dimensions for the 1670s programme, the ships of which had been regarded as successful designs. What they did not realise was that King Charles II (died 1685) had insisted that the earlier ships were built to increased dimensions and tonnages, rather than those which had been authorised by the act of Parliament. Hence the later ships were of inferior performance.

 

The section on the construction of a drawing of a ship is of great interest, certainly.

 

Many thanks to you Eugen for posting this.

 

All the best,

 

Mark P

Edited February 3, 2023 by Mark P

[greenstone]

My respects, gentlemen!

I am glad that you have found this information useful for further research.

I would like to add that these pages are located among the personal documents of the Russian tsar Peter  I in The Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences .

The Library was founded in 1714 by Tsar Peter I.

 

By the way, I also want to say that there are a lot of drawings of English ships of the 18th-19th centuries in the Russian archives.

I can say with confidence that there are drawings of English ships that are not in the English or Danish archives. Today they are unique.

Many shipbuilders from Russia were trained and practiced at English shipyards. The students made copies of the original drawings and brought them back to Russia. 

Some drawings were sent to Russia by English shipbuilders or the Admiralty.

I will try to inform you about these drawings periodically.

 

 

[Martes]

I have posted some here:

 

https://modelshipworld.com/topic/29046-plans-from-russian-state-historical-museum/

 

https://modelshipworld.com/topic/24626-plans-found-in-hermitage-collection-st-petersburg/

 

There is a lot to do with identification of many of those plans.

 

Edited February 3, 2023 by Martes

[Waldemar]

 

Some lacking scans from this manuscript:

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 4, 2023 by Waldemar

[Waldemar]

 

... and two more pages with some content, somewhat incomprehensible without a closer scrutiny.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 4, 2023 by Waldemar

[Martes]

5 hours ago, Waldemar said:

Some lacking scans from this manuscript

Stem posts, hm.

[Waldemar]

 

32 minutes ago, Martes said:

Stem posts, hm.

 

Yep, a perfect circle with a radius of about 3/4 of the ship's breadth and a very short beakhead deck, as can be also seen on all the period models and drawings. This is why the lettered frames on London 1656 should be moved at least one station forward, disregarding altogether their Y co-ordinates on the stempost in the original drawing.

 

 

Edited February 4, 2023 by Waldemar

[Bob Legge]

Many thanks to you Eugen for posting this.

 

Bob.