Endurance by Tomculb - OcCre - 1:70

[Bobcat1970]

Hello ship builders. At this point of the Endurance build, I am close to the rigging portion and was wondering if anyone has researched the authenticity of the kits rigging plans. I try to be a stickler for details. Thanks, Bobcat

[Tomculb]

Good question Bobcat.

 

The question of whether much of anything on this model is “authentic” is an elusive one, both because there is so little of the Endurance story that is about the ship (as opposed to the amazing endurance and rescue of the crew) and because substantial modifications were made between the time the ship left England and when it was crushed in the ice.  There are quite a few photographs out there that show rigging, but not in a way that you can tell much about how the ship was rigged.

 

I haven’t checked, but my guess is that the standing rigging is probably (or at least should be) pretty authentic, because it is clearly shown in the plans I copied from the National Library of Scotland’s website (see post #10 above).  I have less confidence in the running rigging, in part because my research has disclosed virtually nothing about it and in part because the way some things are rigged by OcCre just doesn’t ring true for me.  I’m no expert, but I have been aboard quite a few museum ships and as a young adult I spent many years sailing and racing smaller (up to 35’) sail boats.  While I’m sure my build is not as far along as yours is, I have looked ahead a bit at the rigging plans and I find the following a bit troubling:

• As others have noted, much of the running rigging ends at eyebolts in the deck surrounding the base of the masts. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the running end of a sheet or halyard tied to an eyebolt. As Josh found searching photos (see the last photo in post # 41 of his log) of the recently discovered real ship, at least one of the masts had a ring of belaying pins around it, which is very common on sailing vessels of this era and older. I plan to put belaying rings around each of the masts.

• In a couple of cases (JT43 & 66 on the model’s rigging plan), the sheets for the jibs are tied to chainplate/deadeye assemblies.  I’ve never seen that done on a sailing vessel.

• Virtually all running rigging aft of amidships is secured to an eyebolt (in many cases, eyebolts to which blocks are attached).  I haven’t yet determined what I am going to do there, but I assume I’ll figure out a way to secure all running rigging to a belaying pin or a cleat.  The kit doesn’t supply any cleats, but I intend to buy some.

Bottom line is I don't think there is much out there that is helpful, but while that may be a curse, it is also a bit of a blessing . . . you can do with the rigging pretty much what you think looks authentic, and no one will be in a position to criticize.

[Jim Lad]

It might be worth looking for images of other polar research ships of roughly the same period. Scott's 'Discovery' is preserved at Dundee, so there should be plenty of images of her around.

 

John

[Tomculb]

A few weeks back I was perusing these boards thinking about possible future builds when I came across this beautiful build of OcCre’s Beagle by The Gimps Chimp. Chimp put together a very simple but highly useful build cradle using pipe insulation (see post #101 of his build log).  I bought a 6 foot length of 1” insulation at Ace Hardware for less than $3, easily cut the lengths I wanted, and built my own cradle. I tried gluing the pieces together with both CVA and CA glues and nothing worked very well. In an exchange of private messages with Chimp, he suggested a hot glue gun. I bought a cheap one of those in the school supplies section of Target, and it worked like a charm. As does the build cradle.

 

 

[The Gimps Chimp]

Hi Tom, I'm sure that cradle will serve you well for this and future builds. 

 

I would love to take credit for the design of the cradle but have to admit I got the idea from the late Hubert Sicard and his website "Wooden Ship Modelling for Dummies".

 

Chimp

[Tomculb]

Quite some time ago I ordered a few fittings from BlueJacket, and more recently I did some things with them.

 

First is a two blade propeller like the original ship, and unlike the three bladed one provided by OcCre.  I added some length to the shaft with a very short piece of brass tubing, so that the prop is in the middle (fore and aft) of the space provided for it rather than right up against the back of the hull. 

Second I installed a more genuine looking capstan than the oft-criticized wooden one provided by OcCre.  Capstans typically have removable bars that crew members bend over and push as they walk around the thing. Photos indicate that Endurance’s capstan had holes for such bars, but I haven’t seen any photos showing the bars stowed nearby as they typically would on a ship with a capstan.  My conjecture is that the capstan was steam powered (ditto re the windlass) and that the bars would be used in an emergency but not stored conveniently nearby.

 

And now (drum roll please) . . . exhaustively researched and exquisitely detailed (😀), this is the windlass no one will ever see.  I bought two windlass drums from BlueJacket and glued them to a block of wood that bears little resemblance to a real windlass. 

 

I had previously blackened some of the kit-supplied chain with Casey Brass Black. Using the thread that’s been hanging out of the hull’s hawse pipes for months now, I carefully pulled the chain through the anchor hawse pipes and holes in the forward bulkhead, wrapped it around the drums, and fed it down the chain holes installed in the deck many months ago. I had finally fully consumed the bottle of Blacken-It I bought at least 20 years ago, and learned that that product is no longer manufactured. With help from these boards, I discovered the Casey product, and it worked just fine.

 

The first photo below was taken with my iPhone without any after-the-shot touch up.  It best resembles what can be seen with the naked eye.  With the second one I used one of Google Photos' enhancement features.

Looking at the latter photo I realized that I got the thing a bit off center when gluing it in place.  Fortunately no one looking at the model from a normal viewing distance will ever notice. Close up pictures can be pretty annoying sometimes. 😀

[Tomculb]

For the rudder, OcCre envisions an extension of the keel on which the bottom of the rudder rests, along with a shaft or pin extending from the extension up into the rudder and around which the rudder pivots.  The plans I’ve posted previously (from the National Library of Scotland and the Ernest Shackleton website) show a more conventional pintle and gudgeon arrangement, and that is what I have chosen to model. I previously posted that I built my model with no such keel extension. What I noticed only upon zooming in on the plans, after my rudder was fully installed, is that there was also a very small keel extension (much smaller than OcCre's) that may have had a pin in it. I might be able to add that after the fact, so to speak, but I'm not  at all sure it would be worth the effort.

 

The kit’s rudder is laser cut, to which I needed to add a small block of wood so the rudder would be long enough to reach the bottom of the keel.  To simulate pintles and gudgeons, I cut and bent pieces from a 1/16” (I think) strip of brass.  I cheated a bit and made no effort to model  pintle pins inserted into the gudgeons. To make this arrangement a little less fragile, I ran a tiny pin through the bottom pintle and the rudder post. Fortunately it isn't visible.

One thing I find interesting is that it is clear from some Frank Hurley photos that the real rudder was simply a thick slab, with no hydrodynamic-friendly shape or taper like you would find on a more modern rudder. Were they just not concerned about that kind of thing a century ago?

[Tomculb]

The skylight between the smokestack and the mizzen mast is easily assembled from laser cut pieces.  OcCre also supplies a thin piece of acetate to simulate glass in the windows.  The photographic instructions have you paint everything inside white, but I chose to paint the walls white and the floor black, to simulate some depth below. I also painted the hinge black rather than leave it as exposed brass as OcCre would. The rest of the skylight is painted flat brown.

 

OcCre also has you surround the base of this skylight and the ones I describe below with what I think (IMHO) is an oversized, unrealistic looking, trim or combing.  I used some 1/16 x 1/32” (or a metric equivalent) veneer to make the combing around my skylight.

There are two somewhat unconventional skylights, located fore and aft of the deckhouse. Unconventional in that they look like raised hatches with windows on the walls. Here (again IMHO) OcCre again overscales things a bit, with large combing and a thick roof piece with deck planking added on top. Given the small size of these things, I chose not to add any combing and to eliminate the separate (laser cut) roof piece, laying the planking directly on top of the walls. Stain on the roof planking is the same I used on the deck planking.

 

The Frank Hurley photo below shows a large companionway structure leading to a ladder or stairway leading below decks. From what I have read, I think that was added after Endurance got stuck in the ice. The plans I have referred to several times in this log do not show any such structure. Instead they show another skylight, similar to but smaller than the ones described above, on the top of the deckhouse. OcCre supplies laser cut pieces to build this structure, but I chose to scratch build another skylight that conforms to the plans. In the photo below it hasn’t been glued to anything yet, as the deck house hasn’t been built yet.

 

[theoracle09]

Nice progress Tom, she's coming along nicely! I agree about the skylight on the quarter deck house, and am doing the same thing on my build.

 

[Tomculb]

Thanks Josh.  I wish you were still posting your log, showing me the way 😃. I assume you've realized that available time is finite, and as between writing and building, you choose to build.  Good choice.

[Tomculb]

OcCre supplies laser cut pieces to construct a companionway in the bulkhead just ahead of the wheel.  It has a flat roof with a sliding hatch. In his Endurance log,  @theoracle09 (Josh) posted a photo (post #32) that shows a structure with windows, a slightly curved roof, and no sliding hatch. Post #33 by @iMustBeCrazy (Craig) has the photo zoomed in and shows these features more clearly. I decided I wanted to do what Josh (and presumably Craig) did, and I scratch built a structure more consistent with what that photo shows. As I did with the large skylight, I glued a strip of acetate on the back side of the windows and painted the inside white.

One topic of discussion in Josh’s log  (post #42) was whether the companionway has one door or two. Craig added a couple of additional photos and a drawing, in support of the view that there were two doors (OcCre’s view too). While the second of Craig’s photos clearly shows two doors, I think the first photo shows that at least at one point in time there was a single door.  With that as my rationalization, I took the easy route and opted for a single door.

 

The door is simply a slab made from 1/32” thick strips glued together edgewise, with additional, narrower, such strips for the trim. The door handle is a tiny nail, painted black. In retrospect I fear the entire structure is too tall, but I'm willing to live with that (since it is now firmly glued in place).  It's about the size of what OcCre's would have been.

 

 

Edited February 8 by Tomculb

[theoracle09]

29 minutes ago, Tomculb said:

Thanks Josh.  I wish you were still posting your log, showing me the way 😃. I assume you've realized that available time is finite, and as between writing and building, you choose to build.  Good choice.

I only wish that second part were true, sadly. I haven't been in a position to work on her until literally two days ago haha. It took almost an hour just getting all the cat hair off the decks!

 

If I may, when posting links to specific posts, did you know you could link directly to a post number, like this (Post #68)? At the top of each post on the right hand side you'll see the post number:

You can right click that "#68" and "Copy Link" then use that as the address when you embed the link like normal. I only mention this because you linked to my log and I needed a refresher on what we were talking about at the time lol!

 

I really like your interpretation of the aft companionway. One thing so basic I actually struggle with is getting those perfect 90* corners like you have on the door. Well done!

[Tomculb]

Thanks Josh, both for the kind words and for the very helpful tip. 

 

[Tomculb]

And I meant to add . . . I look forward to more posts on your log.  Life does get in the way sometimes.

[iMustBeCrazy]

4 hours ago, Tomculb said:

and presumably Craig

Not me, I'm building something with no photos. It's much more umm 'fun'.

 

Meanwhile the was a program on TV the other day which had bits of Hurleys movies, I didn't know about them.

 

Some bits from youtube.

This shot caused me to speculate that they changed compasses.

However I now realise that the forward compass it a normal binnacle compass and the aft one is an azimuth compass for taking sights.

 

 

And alters some of my speculation as to where things were on deck as the (azimuth) compass shown is further aft.

 

[Tomculb]

On 1/6/2024 at 4:36 PM, Jim Lad said:

It might be worth looking for images of other polar research ships of roughly the same period. Scott's 'Discovery' is preserved at Dundee, so there should be plenty of images of her around.

Digressing a bit  . . . 

 

Several weeks ago, a question was asked here as to the authenticity of OcCre’s rigging of this ship, and @Jim Lad posted the suggestion quoted above regarding Robert Scott’s Discovery.  Finally a couple of days ago I spent a short time searching the web to see what I could find out about Scott and his ship.  Unfortunately I didn’t find (yet) anything helpful there to modeling Endurance, but the story I found is nevertheless fascinating. The two most helpful sources I found were a site maintained by the Dundee Heritage Trust and a site entitled Cool Antarctica.

 

 

Discovery left for Antarctica in 1901, from the shipyard in which she was built in Dundee, Scotland. Like Endurance, Discovery became trapped in the ice and spent two winters there. Unlike Endurance, she was not crushed by the ice, and two ships found her after her second winter.  With the help of explosives, she was freed from the ice, and she eventually made it back to the UK. Ernest Shackleton was third lieutenant on that Antarctic voyage.

 

After a long career in many capacities, Discovery became a museum ship, back in Dundee. The second picture below is a screenshot of a Google Maps street view of Discovery as she is now Dundee.  My wife and I spent some time in Scotland this past summer, and had I known then what I know now, there is no doubt we would have gone to see her.

 

One thing I did learn concerns the appropriate terminology for these ships . . . Discovery is rigged as a barque; that is, the foremast and the mainmast are square rigged, with fore and aft sails on the mizzen. Endurance was a barquentine, with square rigged sails only on the foremast, and all other sails rigged fore and aft.

 

 

 

[Tomculb]

On to the deck cabin, with too much text and then some photos . . .  

 

I refer to the deck cabin as such because I haven’t come up with a better term.  Some refer to it as the “Ritz”, but as others have pointed out, that does not appear to be correct.  In his book, Ernest Shackleton describes new crew quarters, built “‘tween decks” to provide better protection from the elements at the onset of their first winter. I assume those quarters were built below the deck cabin, but I don’t really know; they may have been further aft. In any event, in Shackleton’s words, “The new quarters became known as the Ritz.”

 

In these posts and other's in @theoracle09's log, Josh and Craig discuss the various ways the decking was extended around the deckhouse and between it and the deck behind it. Apparently the carpenters were kept quite busy on this ship.  OcCre’s laser cut roof piece has small bridge decks on either side most of the way forward on the cabin, and two narrow extensions of the cabin’s roof deck back to and part of the deck aft.  I decided (as did Josh) to go with OcCre’s design, with one exception.  It seems clear (in the picture below and others) that those two planks were not extensions of the decks they connected but were separate, probably easily removable, planks or gangways lying on top of those two decks.  So my first task was to cut off the extensions of the laser cut roof and fashion my own two planks.  I made the planks from 1/16” strips, stained the same as the decks, and enclosed by veneer strips painted white. 

 

This would probably be a good time to explain something about measurements I refer to. OcCre, being a Spanish company, supplies wood cut to metric sizes. I have a large supply of wood left over from prior builds, and since almost all of my prior builds have been by American manufacturers, that supply of leftovers is almost entirely imperial.  When I get a new build, I’m not very careful to keep the new wood separate from the old, and sometimes when I pull out what I think is a 1/16 by 1/8 strip, it may actually be 1.5 by 3mm.  Having lived my entire life in the US, I think in terms of imperial measurements, even though intellectually I think the metric system is far better. 

 

The four sides of the cabin are laser cut, and they fit together nicely. Both longer side pieces were slightly warped inward, but that was easily remedied by gluing 3/16” square strips to the inside.

 

The next bit of kit-bashing I did was planking all four sides of the cabin, consistent with the real ship; adding some trim around the roof and along the deck, and enlarging the portholes, painting the inside surfaces black.

 

OcCre supplies six photo-etched brass doors, to be painted and affixed, one on the port side of the cabin, two on the starboard side, one on the aft end, and two on the bulkhead aft of the cabin. Based on the plans I downloaded from the Ernest Shackleton website, I determined that OcCre got it right, with one exception . . . there was only one door on the starboard side of the cabin.  I painted the brass doors with Tamiya’s flat brown, added tiny nails painted black as door knobs, and glued them in place.

The photo below shows some items I have placed on the foredeck. None of those things have been glued in place yet; in fact, the skylights and the deck house are also only dry fit. Securing running rigging at the base of the mainmast, and to a lesser extent to foremast, will be a lot easier without the deck house in place.  Or perhaps I’ll rig the lines that terminate at the base of the mast before installing those masts.  An issue for another day . . .

[theoracle09]

Really nice job, Tom! I didn't consider leaving that structure unglued on the deck to aid in rigging, that'll definitely help. I definitely agree about the gangways being separated as well, and those can be left off until the very end.

[Tomculb]

Some odds and ends . . .

 

I built the steering enclosure using OcCre’s laser cut pieces, painted it dark brown, and found a slightly lighter brown for the ship’s wheel . . . a different color for no particular reason I can think of.  Keith @clearway and Josh @theoracle09 have done a great job building and showing the steering mechanism, but for the most part I have tried to model Endurance before she reached the ice.  I may be wrong, but it seems likely to me that the enclosure was built to protect the steering mechanism from the elements, which would include salt water, and that once the ship was trapped in the ice, and certainly after the rudder broke, that structure’s wood was better used elsewhere. But maybe that’s all rationalization for being a little lazy.

Following the lead of Keith and Josh on their builds, I built a smokestack for the galley, which was located in the deck house.  For the vent at the top, I used one of the fittings supplied by OcCre for the two misplaced (IMHO) smokestacks it would have you place in the aft corners of the lower deck (see discussion at the end of post #12 of this log). Again, being a bit lazy, I opted for the simple approach, and declined to emulate the beautiful metal work done by both Keith and Josh.

OcCre provides for five pinrails, two on each of the bulwarks port and starboard, and one at the bow. It supplies nice looking wooden-appearing belaying pins, but I don’t think they look much like those used on Endurance, at least as they appear in the following photograph. Those belaying pins appear to be more like metal spikes.  I had some brass belaying pins I purchased for and didn’t use on a previous build, and I decided to use those, being more authentic and likely easier to wrap rigging line around.

In the final photo of my last post, I showed the bow pinrail lying on top of the rail caps and painted dark brown, as OcCre envisions it.  But after looking at the Frank Hurley photo above, I made a new pinrail, painted it white, and glued it in more or less flush with the tops of the rail caps. I made the new pinrail by laminating two 1/32” thick strips together, with the bottom one extending slightly beyond the ends of the upper one, to be glued to the underside of the rail caps. I painted the brass pins a lighter brown (Tamiya's Flat Earth). Also, I had to cut the belaying pins a little shorter; otherwise they reached all the way down to the deck, which would make securing any line around them much more difficult.

 

You'll also see that I have also assembled and painted the anchors.

The bulwark pinrails need to be glued edgewise to the bulwarks, and that seemed a little flimsy to me, so I added a 1/16” square piece to the bottom of each one to provide a larger gluing surface.  Also, the forward pair of pinrails each straddle a bulwark stanchion, meaning I needed to add short strips of wood so that there would be a surface to glue the full length of the rail to. As an aside, I don’t recall seeing any pinrails along the bulwarks in any of the photos, which makes me wonder how they secured running rigging that was not secured at the bases of the masts. If anyone has seen such a photo, I'd like to see it.

 

I’m thinking that I won’t want to glue the deck house in place until after I have secured running rigging to these belaying pins, as there will be little space to work with the deck house there.

Looking at the Hurley photo above again, I saw other changes I am working on at the bow.  First the catheads are tapered, and they do not meet in the middle as depicted by OcCre.  Also it appears that they run through a break in the caprails rather than under them; that is the way Josh did it and I like the look.  Second, in the photo there is a small davit lying on the deck. I think I’m going to bend some wire and turn it into a pair of anchor davits, rigging them in place of the rigging OcCre shows going through the outer ends of the catheads.  Endurance doesn’t appear to have had any rigging running through the catheads.

 

Modern ships have their anchor shanks running up through a specially shaped hawse pipe, but that wasn’t the case on Endurance and earlier ships.  I have always wondered exactly how ships’ crews brought their heavy anchors aboard, and once aboard, how they were safely stowed. Maybe I'll have a better idea once I have made and installed a pair of anchor davits.

[clearway]

Coming along nicely Tom- i have seen drawings with a cover over the steering chains with a slot for the chains to come through the sides.

 

regards bringing the anchors in board the davit you see lying on the deck would be to raise the flukes inboard and would have rigged a block and tackle to the fore topmast head to bring the anchor in if memory serves me right.

 

Keith

Edited March 8 by clearway
missed info

[theoracle09]

Looking great Tom, and I really like your additions as well. I'm very keen to see what you come up with in regards to the anchors. I've painted mine and attempted to rig one of them, but indeed all of the pictures I've seen show they weren't rigged at all. I ended up removing it to ponder on another day.

[Tomculb]

Keith, what you describe about bringing the anchors aboard sounds very credible to me.  You're a little farther along in your thinking than I am, but I had also reached the conclusion that a halyard from the foremast would be needed and that a davit alone wouldn't cut it. 

 

Josh, my wife is visiting her sister all this coming week, which means I'll be home alone with much more time to devote to my build than usual.  With some luck I'll have those anchors installed and another installment posted by next weekend.  😀

 

Tom

[Jim Lad]

Called a 'fish tackle' (for fishing the anchor) and rigged as a threefold purchase from the head of the fore topmast.

 

John

[gak1965]

On 1/6/2024 at 7:23 PM, Tomculb said:

I haven’t checked, but my guess is that the standing rigging is probably (or at least should be) pretty authentic, because it is clearly shown in the plans I copied from the National Library of Scotland’s website (see post #10 above).  I have less confidence in the running rigging, in part because my research has disclosed virtually nothing about it and in part because the way some things are rigged by OcCre just doesn’t ring true for me.  I’m no expert, but I have been aboard quite a few museum ships and as a young adult I spent many years sailing and racing smaller (up to 35’) sail boats.  While I’m sure my build is not as far along as yours is, I have looked ahead a bit at the rigging plans and I find the following a bit troubling:

• As others have noted, much of the running rigging ends at eyebolts in the deck surrounding the base of the masts. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the running end of a sheet or halyard tied to an eyebolt. As Josh found searching photos (see the last photo in post # 41 of his log) of the recently discovered real ship, at least one of the masts had a ring of belaying pins around it, which is very common on sailing vessels of this era and older. I plan to put belaying rings around each of the masts.

• In a couple of cases (JT43 & 66 on the model’s rigging plan), the sheets for the jibs are tied to chainplate/deadeye assemblies.  I’ve never seen that done on a sailing vessel.

• Virtually all running rigging aft of amidships is secured to an eyebolt (in many cases, eyebolts to which blocks are attached).  I haven’t yet determined what I am going to do there, but I assume I’ll figure out a way to secure all running rigging to a belaying pin or a cleat.  The kit doesn’t supply any cleats, but I intend to buy some.

 

Hi Tom,

    Ship is looking great. This was like 8 weeks ago, but I'm interested here because I'm doing a scratch build of RRS Discovery and I have the same issue in that the plans I have are good for the standing rigging, and the location of the running rigging on the masts/yards, how they are anchored isn't shown. I am going to see if there are other plans at the Maritime Museum (I only had a couple scanned b/c it was expensive) but will let you know what I learn about how Discovery was rigged if you are interested.

 

Two thoughts. First, as to the sheet's and halyards that are nominally tied to an eyebolt surrounding the masts, that seems odd to me. For the square rigged mast in particular, I would expect a ring of eyebolts that was the deck location of the tackles that go to the sheets/halyards/live lifts, but the live end of the tackle would end at a pin on a fife rail or on the mast. That is how the Flying Fish is rigged (see photo below). Not the best photo, but you can see the tackle that is attached to the sheet chains.

 

 

Discovery is rigged the same way. You can see the tackles and the live ends on the fife rail of the foremast.

 

 

 

Now, you need to be careful over interpreting - Discovery had her rig changed many times over the years (heck the masts were physically moved in the '20s, but when I see this pattern over a span of 50 years I suspect it's pretty common.

 

I've never heard of anything running attaching to the channels either. Again, I've seen examples of tackles being attached to the channels (e.g. royal and skysail halyards) with the live ends of the tackle attached to a pin on a pinrail on the inside bullwarks.

 

FWIW, Discovery has a continuous pinrail that runs along the length of the bulwarks, with periodic holes for pins. My suspicion is that lines that were belayed at the bulwark were belayed where convenient and not according to some unalterable master plan.

 

Regards,

George

 

 

[Tomculb]

Thanks George for your comments and photos.  And kudos for taking on a scratch build of Discovery.  I will be following closely.  Glad to see that there are more photos than I had found of Discovery; they should be helpful to those of us working on Endurance builds. 

 

The photo you posted of Discovery is interesting, as the base of its foremast (and presumably the other two masts) has both a spider band (similar to that found on Endurance) and a more traditional fife rail.  I have yet to find a photo of Endurance that shows a fife rail or a pin rail, which is puzzling.  I’m hoping that someone will soon show me that I just haven’t looked hard enough.

[theoracle09]

36 minutes ago, Tomculb said:

I have yet to find a photo of Endurance that shows a fife rail or a pin rail

Coincidentally Clearway brought this up in my log last week. My assumption is when they extended the mizzen deck at Buenos Aires they moved the connections from the bottom of the main mast to a rail on the shrouds.

 

In the pic above you can see rope hanks hanging on the starboard side. For the port you can see it about a quarter of the way up on the skiff.

[gak1965]

 

20 hours ago, Tomculb said:

The photo you posted of Discovery is interesting, as the base of its foremast (and presumably the other two masts) has both a spider band (similar to that found on Endurance) and a more traditional fife rail.  I have yet to find a photo of Endurance that shows a fife rail or a pin rail, which is puzzling. 

The mizzen has only a spider band, no fife rails, which is consistent with a lot of other ships I've seen.

 

I'm not sure how I would interpret the spider bands on the fore and main (they are both there, BTW). The original builder's plans show the fore and main fife rails and no fife rail on the mizzen, so I'm confident Discovery had them from the beginning. The ship didn't carry that much canvas in 1901, so why they would need both is a mystery to me. That said, the current ship's rigging is vastly different than during the 1901-1904 time period, though. The fore and mainmasts were moved 4 and 8 feet forward to their current locations in 1923; the current ship carries 5 yards/square rigged mast (vs. 4 in 1901), the bowsprit now has a jibboom that wasn't there then, etc. Wasn't there in 1901 (possible, looking for photos that would answer the questions)? Belt and suspenders? Maybe the sailors found the spider band more convenient but no one wanted to yank the fife rails? Someplace to anchor the extra lines associated with the split topgallants that were added? Your guess is as good or better than mine.

 

Regards,

GAK

[Tomculb]

Most of what follows is informed by this Frank Hurley photo, which has appeared a number of times before in Endurance logs, including mine.

I have modified the catheads and lashed the anchors to them. I shortened the catheads so they don’t stick out as far from the hull and don’t meet in the center of the anchor deck, as OcCre’s do.  I also tapered them top to bottom as they progress inboard.  After doing that, I noticed that the two plans I frequently refer to  (see for instance posts #39 & #77 above) show the catheads meeting in the middle,  so OcCre got it right for some period of time in the life of Endurance.  Puzzling that that would be something changed at a later date.

 

I also painted the catheads black, to match the color of the hull. I then installed two small eyebolts toward the inner end and outer ends of each cathead.  The outer forward eyebolts  are somewhat larger as they will also secure bowsprit stays.

 

Then I cut gaps in the cap rail, so the anchors can lie directly on the catheads.  In doing this I made a mistake.  Since the catheads extend beyond the side of the hull, the stock of the anchor does as well.  But looking closely in this and other photos, the anchor stock is secured up tight against the hull.  This was done by securing the anchor at an angle to the cathead, with the stock and that end of the anchor lying aside rather than directly on the cathead.  I wish I had noticed this sooner, but at this stage I am not going to go back and do it over.

 

Finally, I cut the chain that has been hanging below the bowsprit for a few months to appropriate lengths and tied the ends to the anchor rings, using thin black fly-tying thread. I like this thread as it is strong and thin, almost indistinguishable from the chain.

John’s (@Jim Lad) comment about “fishing the anchor” led me to do some research regarding anchors of this era.  I am working on a somewhat lengthy post on what I’ve learned, as well as working on “fish davits” for the anchors.

 

[Mike Shea]

Holee smokes! You and Josh's modeling skills are incredible. Love the way you lashed down the anchors. Little details like that really make that model pop. Can't wait to begin my model of this magnificent ship. I'm eager to start but I'm busy taking notes from you and Josh's logs to compile in a builders notebook. 

[Tomculb]

Several days of unseasonably beautiful weather, then a bit of spontaneous travel, have kept me away from both the shipyard and my computer . . . 

Posts by John ( @Jim Lad), Keith ( @clearway) and George ( @gak) inspired me to do some more research about anchors and anchor storage during the time of Endurance. If no one makes it to the end of this long winded and slightly off topic post, I won’t be offended.

For centuries leading up to the 20th century, anchors were stowed lashed to the bulward and alongside the hull, with the shank more or less horizontal.  On weighing anchor, once the head broke the surface, a tackle was hooked to the anchor ring, and the head was brought up level with the bulwark rail.  The tackle ran through sheaves at the outer end of the cathead.  A line from somewhere aloft was affixed to one of the anchor flukes, and that end was then also brought up more or less even with the bulwark rail, and the anchor was then lashed to the ship.  There are probably thousands of photos on these boards of anchors so stowed.  Here are a couple of my photos, the first being from my build of the Niagara, done quite a few years ago, and the second being the bow of Surprise, one of several ships at the San Diego Maritime Museum, built for the movie Master & Commander, being the leading ship in Patrick O’Brien’s fabulous series of maritime novels (this picture was taken about 5 years ago).

Quite a few years ago I was browsing through a catalog from Dover publications, and I ended up buying a couple of old maritime books, The Art of Rigging by George Biddlecombe, and The Seaman’s Friend: A Treatise on Practical Seamanship, by Henry Dana, Jr.  The latter was first published in 1879, and it contains the following description  of what I just described. Its use of maritime terminology and late 19th century English is fun to read!  I added the footnotes, but the notes’ text is from the glossary Dana put in his book.

 

TO CAT AND FISH AN ANCHOR -- When the anchor is lifted and brought under foot, paul the windlass, keeping a good hold on the chain.  Overhaul down the cat-block and hook it to the ring of the anchor.  Stretch along the cat-fall and all hands tally on.  Set taut on the cat-tackle and pay out a little chain.  Hoist away the anchor to the cat-head, and belay the fall. Pass the cat-stopper through the ring of the anchor, through the chock, belay it to the cat-tail, and seize it to its own part.  Overhaul down the fish-tackle, hook the lower block to the pennant, and hook the fish-hook to the inner fluke of the anchor.  Rig out your fish-davit1 across the forecastle, and put the bight of the pennant into the sheave-hole.   Get a guy over it, near the outer end, to keep it down, and another at the inner end, to keep it out.  Get the shoe2 over the side, to fend off the bill of the anchor.  Hoist the fluke well up, pass the shank-painter under the inner arm and shank, bring it inboard, and belay and stop it to the timber heads.  Rig in the davit, unreeve the cat-fall and fish-tackle.  

 

1. Davits.   . . . Also, a spar with a roller or sheave at its end, used for fishing the anchor, called a fish-davit.

2.  Shoe.  A piece of wood used for the bill of an anchor to rest upon, to save the vessel’s side.

 

 

Later in the 19th century, various forms of stockless anchors were developed, the most famous among recreational sailors currently being the Danforth anchor. Without a stock, the anchor shank can be pulled up into the hawsepipe, enabling the anchor to be stowed tight and flat against the side of the hull.  No cathead, no davit, no line from aloft needed.

What does this mean for Endurance? She carried a pair of old-fashioned stock anchors, but they were not lashed to the bulwarks as was so commonly done and as OcCre would have you do.  Numerous Frank Hurley photos show one or both anchors lying on top of the catheads, with the flukes inboard and horizontal and the stock just outside the bulwarks rail, vertical with one end sticking up.  In several of the photos that half of the stock rising skyward is all you can see of the anchor.

 

A davit (as that term is used in contemporary times) would be needed to lift the anchor off the cathead and to swing the fluke end outboard so it could be lowered into the water.  The only photo I have found showing such a davit on Endurance is the one in my previous post showing what certainly appears to be a davit, removable and lying on its side on the anchor deck.  But there are photos of Endurance’s contemporary Antarctic explorer, RSS Discovery, with anchors stowed on deck on top of the catheads and with such davits in place. I am sure other ships did the same, but I don’t know how many there were or why.

With all that in mind, I felt comfortable stowing my Endurance anchors on top of the catheads and installing davits to lift them off and on the deck when laying and weighing anchor.  Those davits will be the subject of my next post.

 

Finally, and not related to Endurance at all, I came across a fascinating YouTube video detailing the weighing of anchor on board the Star of India, the San Diego Maritime Museum’s magnificent clipper ship, when she was taken out for a rare sail.  Lots of opportunities to lose a finger (or worse) manipulating that enormously heavy chain.  Here’s the link.