Waterway and Margin plank late 18th Century

[DaveBaxt]

can these be fitted together or is one instead of the other. According to Goodwins book 'The Construction and Fitting of the Sailing Man of War 1650 to 1850' the waterway is fitten to create a water tight seal and protect the area from the ingress of water and cause the wood to rot. It is my thinking that even when the margin plank is fitted to an open deck it would still be necessary to have a water way fitted at the same time. I cannot find evidence of whether or not this is the case for the Frigate HMS Diana on the lower gun deck which is open to the elements or any other ship with similar deck Hope this makes sense. Thank you and Best regards Dave

[Gregory]

Mondfeld shows 12 to be the waterway.  Most modeling convention just uses an angled or rounded strip ( like quarter round on the baseboards in a house) sitting on the the margin plank

and against gunwales.  This actually leaves a seam which would defeat the purpose of an actual waterway.

Modeling the waterway as in actual practice would take a lot of effort, usually reserved for highly detailed POF models.

I'm not sure how the margin plank is defined in actual practice.  It is not that apparent except where some joggling or nibbing is taking place.

In the illustration above, it looks like the margin plank may be an extension of the waterway.

[DaveBaxt]

Gregory Thank you for the drawings which is similar to what is in the Goodwin book although a slightly different shape the idea is the same. It si interest what you have said regarding fitting a qtr round and would be easy to fit between the sperketting and the margin plank, I have made a piece which is concave and thought I would try that. However thak you for somewhat clearing that up for me which has giving me more confidence in fitting a water way. Best regards Dave

[Gregory]

15 minutes ago, DaveBaxt said:

I have made a piece which is concave

I think the concave would work to good effect and look more like the real thing..

Edited May 27, 2023 by Gregory

[wefalck]

I am not an expert on the 18th century, but when you look at 19th century textbooks from different countries, you will find many different ways of construction, depending also on the deck-level and on whether it is a merchant or naval ship.

 

In general, however, the idea is to be able to create a water-tight space below the upper deck level, particularly in mechant ships. This is what keeps the ship afloat, even if everything else above has been carried away in a storm.

 

This means that the space between the bulwark-stanchions (or between the frames, if these have been taken up to the main rail level to serve as stanchions) has to be filled with short pieces of wood. There is usual a plank with notches for the stanchions, above these, that covers everything.

 

Inside the stanchions/frames runs a piece of wood that is typically at least twice as thick as the deck-planking. The naming of this piece may vary, but it is typically called the water-way, as it may have concave profile facing the deck in order to serve as such, the water-way. The water-way can also be built up of several elements, but the idea is not have a seam right there, were the horizontal deck turns into the vertical bulwark - which would be the corner, where water might collect and then cause rot along the seam.

 

Depending again on the style of deck-planking, the period and the size of the vessel, there may be a wider deck-plank running inside the water-way, which would be the margin-plank. It has the same thickness as the deck-planks and is needed, when one want to nib the deck-planks into it at the bow or stern sections. A normal deck-plank would be too narrow to allow other planks to be nibbed into it.

 

On ship, where the deck-plank is running at an angle against the water-way, without any nibbing, there is usuall also no margin-plank. However, such seems with acute angles are difficult to caulk properly.