Masthead shape on early 17th century ships

[rcweir]

I have finally started on the rigging of my (Model Shipways) Mayflower, and this weekend's task is to start working on the mastheads, i.e. the area from the hounds to the cap.   I've got three reputable authorities to look at for how to do it and I'd appreciate some opinions as to which is preferred.

 

The first example is how the kit instructions show that area.   As you can see below, Chuck (our Chuck Passaro is the kit designer), has flats for the cheeks and then a tenon for the cap.  Otherwise the mast is round.   This is a straightforward way of dealing with a mast that started out as a round dowel.

The next photo is from Brian Lavery's AOS on the Susan Constant, a ship 2/3 the tonnage of Mayflower, but nearly identical dates.  (And note that Lavery is creating his design 30 years after Baker's Mayflower II.)  Lavery's mastheads are square from the hounds to the tippity top.  Looks entirely sensible to me, but the practical problem is that the sides of the square area are about the same width as the mast diameter and I don't have the meat on my dowels to do this.  So I'd have to build it up.   For that reason, I don't think I'll do it the Lavery way.

The third example is from the real Mayflower II.   Here's one of the mastheads on the pier during its recent major overhaul.  (I wish I'd taken measurements with these pics.)  It looks like the flat area for the cheeks and trestletree is slightly less than the diameter of the mast.  Above that the mast is round again, and is finished with a tenon for the cap.  I think this construction is basically the same Chuck's, except that he's simplified the details a bit for the kit builder.   

 

I think I'm going to do something as close to the Mayflower II form as I can.  But, regardless of what I do for this model, I'd like to know whether one or the other is more correct.   And I'd also like to know how others tackle the problem of large square sections on masts that start out as kit dowels.

[Mark P]

Hi Bob;

 

Contemporary evidence for masthead details are pretty much non-existent, and most people will probably rely upon extapolating back from the last known true details from later in the century. 

 

Cornelisz Vroom painted English ships arriving at Flushing in the early 17th century, and some masthead details can be seen in this; I include a small excerpt below. However, although he supposedly depicts English vessels, he probably shows contemporary Dutch practice. The main point to note, though, is that the mast head is shown round. Whilst this is not definitive proof of English practice, it does seem logical that ships whose mast was made of a single tree would not have a square mast-head. 

 

Since at lease Elizabethan times trees for masts had been imported into England from Eastern Europe, so there was no problem finding large enough trees.

 

All the best,

 

Mark P

 

[rcweir]

Thanks Mark,  That's very helpful.   I'm moving ahead on the "round above" principle.  I'm also continuing to study those photos of Mayflower II's mast; there are subtleties in the transitions from round to flatish to round and back to flat that my eyes couldn't pick out so easily, initially.    I don't think it will make any difference in what I produce in the model, but it's still very interesting.

 

Bob

[allanyed]

The below is from James Lees' The Masting and Rigging English Ships of War, page 3, ISBN 0-87021-948-0, so it MAY not apply to non-combatant ships like the Mayflower.

Allan