Construction of Masts for 18th Century 'Ships of the Line'

[tmj]

I hope that I am posting this in the proper place. If not, feel free to move this post to its proper location!

 

I'm currently working on a 'cross-section' of HMS Victory. The main mast of this build is a simple wooden dowel, as is the case with masts on most models, however. That cannot be the case on the actual ship(s). The masts were surely too large and too straight to be carved out of a single large/tall tree. I'm thinking that they must have been fabricated via many laminations of numerous precisely shaped timbers. Does anyone have details of 'exactly' how these masts were fabricated back when? 

[Gregory]

When you say " how", do you mean tools and methods, or just design?

Lees shows a lower mast from 1773 to 1800.  Note the sections.

Mondfeld shows the cross section of a made mast, but there would be little point and somewhat challenging, in trying trying to model this type of construction, unless you wanted to

score some lines along the mast to to represent the pieces used.

 

For more details you could get a copy of  James Lees The Masting and Rigging of English Ships of War, 1625-1860 or Historic Ship Models by  Wolfram zu Mondfeld.

The Anatomy of Nelson's Ships by Longridge is also a good modeling reference for Victory.

 

 

Edited September 9, 2023 by Gregory

[allanyed]

The post from Gregory is on the mark!   James Lees' book would be my choice if I could only have one rigging book for English ships from 1625-1860.

There are many contemporary drawings of masts and spars on the RMG Collections site in low res as well as some on the WikiCommons site in high resolution.

ZAZ6786 is a good example, albeit for a 74 of 1780.  It is on the Wiki list in high resolution as well as the RMG site.  

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Ship_plans_of_the_Royal_Museums_Greenwich  It is 78 MB so I cannot post here.  There are others as well in high res  on their site for a lot of information on how masts and spars were built.

https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/search/main mast plan for low res plans of masts.

Allan

 

[Morgan]

And so you can associate what Allan and Gregory have posted with Victory below is an end-on view of a section of Victory’s Foremast at Trafalgar. You can make out the built-up structure.

 

Gary

 

 

[trippwj]

Look for David The Elements and Practice of Rigging And Seamanship, 1794  which can be found online. Not sure if that is in the version offered by the NRG.

 

Steel provides drawings showing the construction of "made" masts for different classes of ship.

 

Edited September 9, 2023 by trippwj

[tmj]

Perfect! Thanks all. This is exactly what I was searching for! 

[tmj]

I just might give this method of mast fabrication a go. The fancy joinery will obviously not be necessary, however. Different species of wood, with slightly different, contrasting colors, laminated together might look really nice after being turned down to a finished product. "Hmm?"  

[barkeater]

 

To give the complex construction appearance to the mast I used the wood (? cedar) from a box of cigars where they use it to divide the top and bottom layers of cigars. It is really thin and flexible., I did not need to cut into the mast to fit it. I just cut it to the shape I wanted using the illustration Gregory shows above, wrapped it around and glued it in place using pva.

Richard

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Edited September 9, 2023 by barkeater
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[tmj]

That is 100% the 'look' that I am after. Very nice job! It makes for a great contrast in colors that also depicts the actual construction methods used to create the mast. I'm thinking about taking your method a step further and segmenting the long pieces into 'shorter length' pieces, much like the deck, or the hull of a ship would be segmented in shorter lengths of planks. Trees do not typically grow tall enough to construct a full height mast of the model I seek, nor would they likely have enough strength to endure the wind load stresses even if they did grow that tall and were used in such long lengths. I'm thinking that 'that' is why there are so many iron 'bands' around HMS Victory's mast. Those bands must be keeping numerous, shorter length timbers banded together where certain timbers both end in one place and new timbers begin in another place. Kinda like building a mast that looks like an elongated 'chessboard', if that is an accurate enough description of what I see in my mind. Thank you for chiming in and sharing that photo. You have been extremely helpful!   

[allanyed]

10 hours ago, tmj said:

taking your method a step further and segmenting the long pieces into 'shorter length' pieces

ZAZ 6786 drawing (low resolution) at RMG Collections shows the joints if you are going to make the mast of shorter pieces.   Also, don't forget the taper above and below the partners.  The taper ratios of the masts to the diameter at the partners are given in Lees' Masting and Rigging on page 2.  (below)  The main mast was about 117 feet long if you use the ratios in Lees for a first rate.   If you would like the high resolution drawing of the construction of a main mast and cannot find one please feel free to PM me.  It is too large of a file to attach here.  

Allan

 

[bruce d]

These drawings from the Danish archives may be of help.

D206 is for English ships '80 and 100 guns', undated but from late 18th century:

D201, as above but for 74 gun ships:

G4728, more 74 gun ship masts:

 

You can download hi-res copies free from their website:

Arkivalieronline (sa.dk)

 

HTH

Bruce

[bruce d]

This is from NMM/RMG Collections, ZAZ6764.