Endurance by theoracle09 - OcCre - 1:70

[clearway]

as a further guide to the gaffs check out Cutty Sarks as same principle.

 

Keith

[theoracle09]

On 2/24/2024 at 2:25 PM, Tomculb said:

I too was thinking  of crafting some jaws and parrels, but after Keith's and Craig's input, I don't think I'll do that.

 

I agree and have been trying to come up with something, but haven't landed yet. Ideally I'd use brass strip and fashion a goose neck and blacken it. I tried to cut strips (again) from brass sheet I have and it's not straight enough. I do have copper tape that I've been thinking of using, but not sure how the connection would look. Still at the drawing board phase on this one.

 

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While working on the yards I needed to consult my log to figure out how I seized the blocks. I ended up tweaking this procedure and fashioned a new accessory for the seizing machine. Whether the blocks get seized around eyebolts, or yards, or gaffs, it's the same method and I ended up with extremely consistent results. Here's a pic guide on how I do this, so if I take another 4 month break I can remember how I did it!

 

The carriage bolt on the left can be adjusted in or out to allow specific sizing between the alligator clips. I don't take credit for this idea...I saw it on this forum several months ago. I did however 3D print the black couplings between the bolt and the alligator clips. The idea here is the alligator clips can be removed and other attachments can be installed.

 

To begin I cut off around 10" of the same thread occre supplies with this kit. I glue a block to the thread about 1/3rd of the way down, and then fold the thread over and glue that side. If a becket is required, I insert a pin.

The longer side is marked with a sharpie and then the block is placed in one of the alligator clips. This thread can be pulled after wrapping to affix to yards or whatever. If an eyebolt is required, I thread it on now and that'll be inserted into the other clip.

The marked thread is then taped back to the left alligator clip.

The loose ends are taped to the alligator clips to keep everything tight and out of the way. I then bring up the thread from the spool on the rod below, and tie an overhand knot. The loose end is taped to the left.

I'll hold tension on the thread being wrapped and rotate the handle. Since everything's held tight it winds up really fast. A half hitch is used to secure it under the block after being cut from the spool.

And here it is off of the machine. Notice the loop on the right, and the marked thread on the left. Pulling the thread will tighten the loop. This one doesn't have an eyebolt, but if it did I'd still pull that marked thread and it'll tighten the wrap to the block.

I finished up the final blocks on the aft deck.

And finally the skylight is complete. This is the 4th or 5th iteration of this structure, and while I'm not 100% happy with it, I'm more happy I'm done with it. Happy enough to call it done, anyway. Before anyone notices: no, there aren't any window holes. lol. Every one of these I built looked like it came from a Tim Burton movie with how crooked everything was, so I determined that's the limit of my modeling skills. For now lol.

I also noticed after scribing the roof there's a separation between the two hinged panels, and I have them butting up against each other. I'm happy with it, I'm happy to be done with it, so it'll stay that way. No problem.

 

Thanks for coming by!

[theoracle09]

Hi everyone. I've been pondering the gaff connections over the last few days and have tried a few different things. They didn't work, needless to say. Just this morning, however, I happily came across some extra model ships bits that hadn't been migrated to my desk yet. Inside were exactly 5 brass strips from the first hull I completed, an AL San Francisco. These happen to be the exact size needed to fashion a working hinge.

 

Five ends of the strips were cut off to be inserted into the gaffs themselves. More on this further down.

The strips were flattened, and the bits on the right were ground to the half circle shape.

Using a cut-off dowel from when I tapered the masts, the strips were bent as tight against the dowel as possible. Even though the masts are tapered, all 5 of these are the same size. The taper the kit calls for is small enough the collars will still fit over the bottom of the mast and be tight enough around the top of the lower mast.

The collars got soldered together and the hinge was shaped and cleaned up. In the pic above you'll see there are pre-drilled holes along the strip. The hole closest to the collar is actually too far away from the mast. I cut all the collars at that hole, drilled new holes, then shaped on a bench grinder.

The pieces were cleaned up with a soft wire wheel, for better blackening later. I used the nails that came with the kit (for the hull planking) as the hinge. Non-serrated hemostats were used to clamp it all together, and a tiny dab of solder was placed on the back.

Hand files were used to clean up the solder, but the finished nail head is still easier on the eyes. These will all be oriented port side, which is the display side. The whole assembly was wire wheeled again.

The pieces were dropped in an acid solution, rinsed in water, then blackened. It only takes a minute or less and I rinse in clean water (not the same used to rinse the acid solution). After they're dry I used a Q-tip to buff the metal into a deep, dark, almost blue-black. Very satisfying to look at.

A slot was sawed into the back of all of the gaffs to accept the collars. I already had the sheave holes drilled on the two that need them, and totally disregarded those when sawing and gluing in the collar. Luckily I used wood glue instead of CA so I could remove it, saw the correct slot, and re-glue and insert.

They hinge, and they slide. Super neat. I could glue the collar to the mast, or just leave it and let the ropes do the work. We'll see how much I'll put up with it moving around when it comes to that time. The crane gaff and the lower one on the mizzen mast will be snug enough they won't move. The remaining upper three will slide a little bit, but still appear nice and snug on the model.

 

Thanks for taking a look!

[Tomculb]

Very nice work Josh.  And perhaps best of all, you sound really pleased and happy with the end result, something to be deservedly proud about.

[theoracle09]

A short update with not a whole lot to talk about, the gaffs are complete and installed. They're all loose so can be removed, and will be removed when installing the sails.

Speaking of the sails, I started checking out the connections needed to actually rig them. After viewing a few logs, and referring to Ship Modelling Simplified, I decided to sew a rope around the perimeter of the sails. This way I can include two beckets at the bottom of the sails for the sheets and clewlines. To accomplish this I already knew I didn't want to glue the rope first because it'll stiffen the sail. I could use fabric glue, but I don't have any. Instead I used my bench pin and clamped the rope on top of the sail, taut.

This way I could do a running stitch with a 1.5mm - 2mm gap. It took much longer than I anticipated, and there are a lot of sails to go. This will just be done in stages, and be completed over time.

And close-up of the becket and stitching.

Tedious, but worth it. We'll see if I feel the same way after doing all the sails!

 

Thanks for stopping in!

[theoracle09]

Hi everyone, thanks for the likes! I've finished up the square sails and can begin attaching them to the yards.

However, before that, I made a decision on the deadeyes. I have been avoiding making more since the first batch many months ago, and realized there's no reason to go that route when much easier options exist. I ended up using an Amati black rope. It's about 0.6mm, and best of all, doesn't look like rope. It almost looks like it's waxed, but it's not. The point is, from behind a display case, it'll look exactly like blackened iron.

Yes: the deadeyes are upside down. Sadly, I didn't catch this until I had completed both sides for the fore mast. The deadeye is only seized by 2mm or less so I used a dot of thin CA once it's in the right place. It's impossible to twist the deadeyes right way around. It's also impossible to remove it, as the CA soaked into the rope and also the wood. I don't mind this, the main and mizzen mast will be corrected. It's a detail only I will know about in the end anyway. The brass nails will be painted black once all of them are done.

 

To measure the correct angle I rigged (taped) two temporary shrouds and marked the way it laid over the channels.

The deadeyes take time and after doing some last night and more this morning I wanted to get some rigging done. Over the last few days I've been racking my brain to figure out if there's any reason not to start bending the shrouds and I haven't been able to think of one. I decided not to sew on the fore gaffsail robbands because the gaff can hinge and move around, so if I really can't get to it once it's time, I can rotate it to in front of the mast and access it that way.

 

Before gluing in the mast I installed the 6 blackened brass rings for the gaffsail and the pin rack. You can't see them, but there are cleats under the rail to make sure I got it level to the deck. (Many things still aren't glued to the deck yet, so please disregard the crooked skylight lol.)

Next were the shrouds. I pulled up this pic for reference:

I remembered a while back in this log we discussed the shrouds being a braided cable. I didn't come up with a clever way to emulate this, but the same Amati rope I mentioned earlier will fit the bill because it doesn't look like rope. Or rather, it doesn't look as much like rope as scale rope does. I loosely measured the shrouds and seized them on the machine.

The two-piece mast really shined here. I didn't get any in-progress pics, but I finished up the lower shrouds on the fore mast. I was in the zone and installed another one for the smaller deadeyes, but then decided to check the plan first. Yeap, those are stays, let's remove that shroud hah.

I bumped the chimney's rain protector, opps. That'll be glued back later.

I really like the look of the rope lanyards, and then the shroud isn't as defined. The white thread is more of an egg shell color as well, which adds to it not being so bright and "new". Thanks for stopping in!

[theoracle09]

Hi folks, thanks for the likes and checking in. I completed the mizzen mast deadeyes and went ahead and ran the shrouds. I don't have a belay pin rack created for the main mast yet, so until I do, I can't install the shrouds.

The structures on the mizz have been glued down (minus the smoke stack, it'll be nice to remove it during rigging.) The two smaller funnels aren't installed yet for the same reason: they can be installed later and less prone to being knocked around.

 

I was a bit over shrouds and deadeyes by this point and was waiting on glue to dry for the main mast belay pin rack. I wanted to start figuring out ratlines, or more historically correct, some sort of bar across the shrouds. Several months ago when this came up in discussion I naively thought it should be simple to tie a 0.5mm brass rod (blackened) across them using a clove hitch, or overhand knot, or something. Turns out after spending an hour battling the top sheerpole I decided it's entirely too much trouble than it's worth (to me, anyway). Not only was there immense difficulty in getting the rod tied to the shrouds, but cutting, blackening, sorting, and managing them all before even tying seemed a bit too much. 

 

So, I grabbed some 0.3mm black rope I made and tied a bunch of clove hitches.

 

Each knot gets a touch of thin CA applied through a needle applicator. I really like the effect these make, and had I straightened the rung out more, it'd pass for a bar going across I'd say. I still really like it, so I'll do the same for the remaining 5.

 

Finally an overall shot of things.

[clearway]

Certainly looks the part Josh- the pinrail for the main and mizzen masts is mounted on the shrouds just above the uppermost deadeyes.

 

Keith

[theoracle09]

20 hours ago, clearway said:

Certainly looks the part Josh- the pinrail for the main and mizzen masts is mounted on the shrouds just above the uppermost deadeyes.

 

Keith

I'm not following you here Keith. I'm not aware of pinrails on those mast shrouds, do you have a pic or something to explain it better?

[clearway]

Looking at the picture in previous post it appears there isnt one on the main but this image shows ones

 

maybe added during re-fit?

 

Keith

Edited March 7 by clearway
missed info

[theoracle09]

Interesting, I've never considered what they did when they decked between the quarterdeck house and the mizzen deck. It does look like they moved the main mast rack.

I think I'll continue with a pin rail around the base of the main mast and not change to pin rails on the shrouds. I know I said in the beginning of this log I wanted to showcase her "stuck in the ice" configuration, but the current state of things seems to be more towards her London configuration. Which is alright with me, I'm happy with how things have turned out so far.

 

This leads me to the telegraph, and I'm not 100% sure it'll be included. It doesn't make a lot of sense historically to have it in London where there wasn't any ice floating around. It's not glued on the deck yet, so I'll make that decision later.

[theoracle09]

Hi folks, a short and sweet update. The fore mast ratlines are complete.

 

[clearway]

20 hours ago, theoracle09 said:

This leads me to the telegraph, and I'm not 100% sure it'll be included. It doesn't make a lot of sense historically to have it in London where there wasn't any ice floating around.

Sure it was added when they hit the ice to help the helmsman steer towards leads in the floes so not there when steaming from London to the Southern Oceans.

 

Keith

[theoracle09]

1 hour ago, clearway said:

Sure it was added when they hit the ice to help the helmsman steer towards leads in the floes so not there when steaming from London to the Southern Oceans.

 

Keith

The way Occre chose to build this model is peculiar. In that same vein, since the telegraph wasn't there during her time in London, neither would be the dog kennels. So I'm not choosing one definitive configuration over another, just what looks good.

[theoracle09]

Hi everyone, thanks for the likes and comments! I spent a good amount of time today making the rest of the rope needed for the rest of the rigging. Taking a break from ratlines, I decided to finish up the bolt ropes for the flying jib, jibsail, and staysail.

 

Something to note about the sails included with this kit. There's a finished side, and a rougher not-so-finshed side. When installed the finished side of the flying jib and jibsail face port, but the staysail's finished side is starboard. I caught this once I was 3/4 of the way done with the staysail, and won't be ripping it out. This means the bolt rope is installed on the port side of the staysail, but it's installed on the starboard side for the flying jib and jibsail. A minor annoyance for sure, but hopefully won't be the most noticeable thing.

I'm skipping around the rigging order here but went ahead and fastened the foremast forestay, but left the bowsprit side loose. This way I could just slide the stay through the rings of the staysail.

The staysail was completely rigged before installing on the forestay.

Then the bowsprit side was fastened, and the staysail halyard, downhaul and tackline were run through their blocks. I'm not belaying them yet so I can move the ropes around if need be to install other things.

One thing to note for future me reading this: I used thin CA on the blocks I put on the bowsprit many months ago. They're locked in place, including their angles, and when I tried to move around the block for the downhaul and tackline it broke and needed to be re-glued. The forestay is also not necessarily in the correct position on the bowsprit, and it's not realistically attached. There needs to be a cleat under it, or it should be snug against the block. Since the block doesn't really move, the downhaul and tackline would've looked odd and kinked running through the block and to the pin rack.

 

And an overall shot.

I attached a temporary stay between the fore and mizzen top masts. I'll probably trade off doing ratlines and rigging the flying jib and jibsail. Eventually the main mast pin rack will be finished and I'll get the lanyards and ratlines in. Thanks for reading along!

[theoracle09]

Hi folks! My last post I mentioned finishing the main mast belay pin rack at some point in the future. I fully intended not to work on it today, but it ended up finished and installed. Like the others I installed some cheeks and glued everything in. I got very lucky that I didn't sand it into a perfect circle because I didn't account for the upper trim on the mizzen deck, and it almost didn't fit. The pin racks are definitely out of scale, and the main mast rack ended up higher than I thought it would. But it looks cool, so there's that.

As the glue for the main mast dried I got two pairs of shrouds in. I didn't photo it, and I'm very happy with how the masts are straight up and down when viewed port to starboard...however the main mast top isn't quite level. I'm annotating it here as a reminder to make doubly sure it's correct next time. In fact, I have a jig in mind and will be using it for the next one.

 

Next I finished up and rigged the flying jib and jibsail exactly like the staysail in a previous post. This allowed me to run a single rope for the remaining three stays on the bowsprit, threading on the sails and blocks as I went along.

I don't have anything belayed yet and I'm not sure if the sails are in the correct position. I need to search out some reference of her with her sails out, so if anyone has any please feel free to share! I can always adjust them into a more correct position.

 

Since installing those fore stays there was enough pressure on the foremast to warrant installing the remaining stays between the masts. I'm missing the main mast top to quarter deck house, but otherwise the rest are complete.

One thing mulling around in the back of my mind is rigging the main funnel. In London It's shown to be belayed to eyebolts on the deck.

But then in the ice it appears it's belayed to ... the railings? I'm really not sure.

I'm curious where to go for that. I could easily belay to the railings at any time, but if I attach to eyebolts on the deck I'll need to install those sooner rather than later. I appreciate anyone's opinion on that!

 

Thanks for stopping by!

[clearway]

14 minutes ago, theoracle09 said:

But then in the ice it appears it's belayed to ... the railings? I'm really not sure.

 

in a pic in 'South With Endurance it shows the funnel guys going over the railings and down towards the capping rail- it would have been the only option after fitting the Kennels in South America.

 

Keith

[theoracle09]

10 hours ago, clearway said:

in a pic in 'South With Endurance it shows the funnel guys going over the railings and down towards the capping rail- it would have been the only option after fitting the Kennels in South America.

 

Keith

Thanks Keith. I was concerned if I belay the guys to the railing (or rather now, the cap rail behind the kennels) I wouldn't have room for the main gaffsail. It'd be pressed up right against the guy lines. I think I've decided to show the fore and main gaffsails exactly how occre has them, slightly furled against the mast.

This way the gaffsail won't be in the way of the main funnel.

[HakeZou]

On 3/10/2024 at 3:06 AM, theoracle09 said:

I don't have anything belayed yet and I'm not sure if the sails are in the correct position. I need to search out some reference of her with her sails out, so if anyone has any please feel free to share! I can always adjust them into a more correct position.

Hi Josh, this photo might be useful for you:

[theoracle09]

15 hours ago, HakeZou said:

Hi Josh, this photo might be useful for you:

Thanks Hake, that's perfect.

 

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Hi everyone, thanks for coming in. I have a nice big update lined up so I'll get right into it. After seeing the pic Hake posted I went ahead and belayed the jib sails. The ropes were everywhere and I couldn't picture a way forward with all that in the way.

The port side is the display side so the starboard sheets were drawn taught and belayed on the pin rails. The port side were left slack and belayed.

My approach for the fore mast is to work from the inside out, or least accessible points first. Since I'm following Hake's rigging plan, not OcCre's, that meant the staysail halyard and the gaff throat halyard would be the hardest to belay at the bottom of the mast. The points are between the mast and the deck house.

I can't explain the patience that was required in trying to get these two done. I lost track of time after fighting with it for about an hour. I didn't help anything by belaying the jib sail's sheets, which can be seen in the pic above. In the end though it's done, and the remaining points won't cause an issue.

 

Detail of the staysail halyard and gaff throat halyard. The fore sail was also attached to the yard, and then attached to the main mast. I forgot to take a pic of that though. A detail to note is I opted to reverse the robbands from port to starboard instead of sewing it on continuously.

The gaff peak halyard is installed and belayed. If you look extra close at the block attached to the mast, it's not connected on one side. Once again the thin CA I used a while ago made these blocks hard as a rock. I try to massage it back and forth it try and break it up a bit and the thread ends up breaking. Luckily it remains glued to the mast, so I can re-glue it and it's fine. For my future builds I won't be using thin CA on those blocks, but fray check instead. I switched to that on about half of the blocks and it works perfectly.

 

When belaying the peak halyard I held up the gaff sail to ensure the angle is correct. Now is about the time to discuss the elephant in the room which is installing said gaff sail. As I belayed 3 of the 11 ropes to the fore mast I was hit with a realization that the gaff sail is going to pose a problem. I really should have got it installed before all of this because trying to insert the main rings is going to be an absolute chore. I'm at a standstill right now until the sail is complete and installed because I don't want anything else in the way.

I ran out of tan line and will need to make more, so I focused on the lifts. These are run through the mast top but not belayed, so there isn't any tension and they look pretty loose. Another reminder to future me that those mast blocks were frozen solid, so more evidence not to thin CA those. From this angle you can also see I moved the staysail halyard block closer towards the mast so it can belay through the lubber hole.

The lifts and clew lines are run through the mast top, but not belayed.

Next steps are to make more tan rope so I can prepare the fore gaff sail with a bolt rope and corners. I know I can bend the rings enough to get them off the main mast so I believe I'll install them on the sail, sew on the robbands to the gaff, then bend the main rings on to the mast one at a time. Once that's on everything else can be belayed.

 

Thanks for checking in!

[HakeZou]

4 hours ago, theoracle09 said:

I can't explain the patience that was required in trying to get these two done. I lost track of time after fighting with it for about an hour. I didn't help anything by belaying the jib sail's sheets, which can be seen in the pic above. In the end though it's done, and the remaining points won't cause an issue.

@Snug Harbor Johnny offered me some fantastic advice that led me to attach all of the ropes belayed at the bases of the masts as early as possible in the build, before everything got crowded. Once it was time to hang the sails, I just ran those ropes in reverse, which made the process a lot easier. A bit late now for this project, but hopefully that'll be helpful in one of your future projects!

 

In the meantime, everything's coming along really well and looking great! Good luck hanging the fore gaff sail—that looks like a challenge with a bit of extra fun thrown in!

[theoracle09]

10 hours ago, HakeZou said:

@Snug Harbor Johnny offered me some fantastic advice that led me to attach all of the ropes belayed at the bases of the masts as early as possible in the build, before everything got crowded. Once it was time to hang the sails, I just ran those ropes in reverse, which made the process a lot easier. A bit late now for this project, but hopefully that'll be helpful in one of your future projects!

 

In the meantime, everything's coming along really well and looking great! Good luck hanging the fore gaff sail—that looks like a challenge with a bit of extra fun thrown in!

Thanks Hake! You know, I do remember this advice and completely disregarded it because I switched to pins instead of eyebolts. Inexperience told me it'd be fine wrapping the ropes around the pins using a tool outlined in Ship Modelling Simplified. It works amazingly well when the pin is facing me, even with tweezers in the other hand and all those ropes belayed already. But when it's between two objects, yeap, it should've been tied off first haha. Live and learn!

 

Thanks for the encouragement on the gaff sail, and I'm happy to report it's actually already installed and wasn't too bad. Took about an hour to get the rings through the sail and around the mast and then tie off the robbands. It'll be in my next update.

[clearway]

regards gluing rigging and blocks Josh i always used watered down P.V.A. glue which doesn't crack and can be worked slightly.

 

Keith

[theoracle09]

20 hours ago, clearway said:

regards gluing rigging and blocks Josh i always used watered down P.V.A. glue which doesn't crack and can be worked slightly.

 

Keith

Thanks Keith, I even have a bottle of diluted pva made up. I've been having excellent luck with fray check as there's virtually no stiffness once it's dried. I'll have to give pva a try too and see if there's a difference.

 

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Hi everyone, happy Wednesday. Thanks for the likes and comments! My last update talked about the fore gaff sail, so let's take a look at that first.

The brass rings are rather soft so it was easy to remove them from the mast. I used a blunt tapestry needle to make holes along the forward edge then inserted the rings. I was able to use needle nose pliers to manipulate each ring on to the mast while ensuring the 3 ropes already belayed weren't inside the rings. Final step was to sew the robbands and that wasn't difficult either.

 

One thing I noticed is the fore gaff sail and the main gaff sail seem to be the same size. The plans are not the same size, though. In fact the sails are almost 15-20% smaller than what the plans show. The plans also show a difference in the main gaff sail and fore gaff sail, so I'm wondering if I received two of the same sail or something. On others' models the fore gaff sail is quite a bit above the bridge deck, whereas mine here is only a few mm's above the railing. I don't see this as being an issue however, because it's going to be displayed furled.

 

After installing the gaff sail I went back to ratlines.

The starboard main lower shrouds are complete and the mizzen still needs a few more there in the middle.

 

Lastly I was dry fitting the lower topsail yard and realized the flying jib and jib sail halyard needed to be scooted up towards the mast, otherwise the ropes would be in front of the sail. Luckily I didn't use thin CA on them so they moved easily.

Thanks for reading along!

[theoracle09]

Hey everyone! I've been able to progress along the foremast to almost completion. The day began by completing the lower topsail and getting it into position.

The sheets were seized by tying a ton of overhand knots, similar to all the others not done on the seizing machine.

I started with the upper topsail sling and belayed it to the mast pin rail. Next the upper topsail lifts, lower topsail sling, lower topsail lifts, and finally fore sail lifts. With the standing rigging done I could start shaping the sails and belaying to the port and starboard pin rails.

 

The running rigging hasn't been glued and trimmed yet so I still have an opportunity to shift some things around. An example is the port side sheet for the lower topsail is about a cm longer than the starboard side. I'll need to release a bit of the clew and take in a bit of the sheet. Additionally I think I want to tighten the fore sail bunt lines and add them to the lower top sail. The next pic shows the starboard upper topsail sheet needing to be taken in as well.

The yellow clamps in the pic above are holding tension on the fore sail forward sheet. Trying to get a seizing in there is going to be a task, so I just left the clamps for now until everything else is tightened up.

Starboard side details.

Thanks for coming in!

[HakeZou]

Nice work, Josh! It's always exciting to see the sails being set!

[theoracle09]

Hi everyone, I don't have an update for this post but do have a question. I'm checking the plans for the next several moves and I'd like to tackle the crow's nest next. I found this awesome pic for reference:

The first thing to note is the crow's nest supplied with the kit doesn't look like what was actually on the ship. Since I have a lathe, it'll be extremely easy and fast to turn a new one, so that'll be the plan.

 

However, once my eyes landed on the upper shrouds I stopped in my tracks. The ratlines (ratlines being the rungs of course) only go up half way, and the mizzen upper shrouds don't have any at all. There's also a (ladder? I'm not sure what to call it) on the aft end of the main mast top which seems to connect to the fore edge of the bottom of the crow's nest.

 

So my question is: would it be weird to model it in this way? Leave off the mizzen upper shroud ratlines, run the main mast upper shroud ratlines about half way, and create a (ladder?) to the crow's nest. I'm definitely leaning towards doing this because: 1. I don't think I've seen anyone model Endurance in this way, 2. it's a LOT less work due to less ratlines, and 3. it's unique and unusual.

 

** Post edit: Number 1 above is incorrect. Ken Greenwood modeled Endurance in this way.

 

Here's a pic of her in London in dry dock that also shows the same things.

It looks like whether she was in London or after her refit in Buenos Aires she had always been rigged in this way. I'm definitely leaning towards going this route but wanted to see what other folks thought. I appreciate any opinions!

Edited March 21 by theoracle09

[Mike Shea]

What a wonderful buid log. I am just starting on this kit and this thread wil be invaluable! I have always had a profound interest on the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. What an incredible story. While Shackleton was a legend in leadership much of their survival is also owed to Worsley's skills in navigation and Harry McNish's carpentry.

Edited March 21 by Mike Shea
Spelling

[Tomculb]

Go for it Josh!  There seems to be no argument that the real Endurance wasn't rigged that way.  And as I increasingly find myself doing, I'll follow your lead when I get to that point in my build (which won't be any time soon).

[Snug Harbor Johnny]

  The solution seems evident, as form follows function.  FIRST, one has to climb the futtock shrouds to reach the top mast shrouds mounted on the side of the top.  You can just make out the ratlines on the futtock shrouds on the second picture, and this is almost universally the way to gain access to the next set of shrouds with ratlines (or horizontal bars, in this case).  So one should use solid bars on the Endurance shrouds, but the ratlines on the futtock shrouds below have the characteristic 'sag' of rope ratlines (a small detail to note).

 

  SECOND,  the man will move to the other side of the topmast shrouds (the inner face) - which one would do to stand on the top.  It looks like there is a larger space between the decking on the top and the first climbing bar - so perhaps this is meant to pass under before climbing the inside. 

 

THIRD, one climbs up as far as the bars go (heres comes the tricky part, but not so hard for an able bodied seaman) then transfer to the climbing bars going up from the back of the top.  This leads to the access door on the crow's nest (presumably hinged and secured with a latch - and opens inward), which is on the aft side of the crow's nest ... since it secured to the back of the top mast.