Help with understanding the rigging diagram

[Linda DOBLE]

Hello everyone!  Pardon ahead of time for my naval ignorance, I’m an old retired woman who loves to make model ships - but I don’t know much about how they work- just love how they look.  . I’m wondering if one of you learned and experienced model ship builders can tell me from this diagram what to do.  Let’s just take JT-99 on lefts side, and follow it from start to finish.  My confusion is this.. so I should tie a line to top mid yard (left) then Do I tie it to the end of the same top yard and then tie to the sail below it at the bottom left corner then travel it through eyes of the yard below, etc.?  I would appreciate your help very much.  I’m stuck.   Cheers, linda

[RossR]

These look like Occre rigging plans.  What ship are you building?   Do the yards have a hole near the end that the line passes through?   On the HMS Beagle that line, I believe it is called the sheet, is attached to the lower corner of the sail and passes through a hole near the end of the yard then the line is run through the block as you indicate with your highlighter. 
 

if you can let me know what ship you are building I will look at the rest of the plans from Occre ( assuming it is an Occre model) and confirm that is how Occre intends the rigging to be installed.   

[Gregory]

There is not a simple answer to your question, and that is a very simplified rigging diagram.

It is difficult for me to tell which line/s are represented by your green highlights.

They might be the sheet lines that would be attached to the lower corner of the sail ( not the middle of the yard ) and go through a series of blocks to be tied off/belayed on the deck or higher up in the rigging.

There are lines to control the yards and lines to control the sails.  Some do a little of each.

The best starting advise you could get would come from a book such as Historic Ship Models by by Wolfram zu Mondfeld.

It has some very good rigging details, such as:

There will be help from many here, but the best help you will get is pointing you to the resources where this information can be found.

Another good rigging resource for beginners is Rigging Period Ship Models by Lennarth Petersson.

It provides a point to point guide for every line on the ship..

 

Petersson diagrams every line on the model like this.

 

Hope this helps.

 

 

 

 

 

[Roger Pellett]

Linda,  the line in question that you have marked in green is the sheet for the Royal Sail.  It’s job is to pull the clew (corner) of the Royal Sail down against the TopGallant Yard, the yard immediately below.  The line passes through a sheave in the outboard end of the TopGallant Yard.  It then runs inboard along the yard where it is turned again by a block close to the yard’s centerline.  From here it passes down to a belaying pin on the deck.

 

If you are modeling with set sails, it is attached to the clue of the Royal Sail as shown in the picture.  If the Royal Sail is furled it will lead up to furled the Royal Sail, still attached to its clew.  If you are modeling the vessel without sails, this line can be omitted.

 

Roger

[Jim Lad]

Linda, if you're serious about learning about the rigging of 'period' ships, you might perhaps start with a copy of "The young Sea officers Sheet Anchor' by Darcy Lever. This book was first published in the first half of the 19th century by a professional seaman and has copious illustrations with good descriptions. You should be able to pick up a good second hand copy of one of the many reprints for $30 or less (for a first edition you'll need to take out a second mortgage).

 

John 

[RossR]

I did a little research on the Occre web site and it looks like you are building their Amerigo Vespucci.  I think this is probably Occre's most impressive model ship.  I looked at the plans for the yards, and I believe there should be a small 1 mm hole near the end of the yard that the line passed through.  This would represent the sheave that Roger mentioned and would be instead of the block shown on the diagram that Gregory provided.  Both are correct, but I suspect the sheave in the yard became more common than the block on later ships.  

 

There is a great build log of this ship on this form by a user named Daniel that you may want to look at if you haven't already.  You may be a little further along than him, but he may have some thoughts on the rigging for this ship.

 

Good luck with your build.

 

[RossR]

The books mentioned in some the previous posts can be great resources, but may not be applicable to your ship if I am correct and it is the Amerigo Vespucci, as it was built much later in the 1930s.  

 

[Mark P]

Good Morning Linda;

 

To help you understand what is happening in the rigging diagrams you show, a simple rule can be applied:

 

The mast and sails on the left show the 'sheets'. All sails shown on the mast need a rope to keep their lower corners from flying up in the air, in which event the sail would hold no wind, and the ship would not move. The sheet performs this function, and is essentially the same on all the sails shown.

 

The right hand mast and sails show the ropes which are designed to do the exact opposite to the sheet, and to raise the lower corner of the sails to the yard when it is time to furl the sail. These are known as 'clew-lines'. To haul on the sheet opens the sail; to haul on the clew-line furls the sail. When the sheet is hauled, the clew-line must be 'paid-out', or slackened so that it runs free. 

 

By far the best reference book I know of for ships of this era, which covers the rigging of such ships in great detail, is the 'Masting and Rigging of Clipper Ships and Ocean Carriers', by Harold A Underhill; first published in 1946. He was a very skilled modeller and draughtsman, and knew many of these ships personally. He also wrote several other books dealing with simiilar vessels, and produced a wide range of plans for such ships, which have very good masting and rigging details on them. 

 

If you are building your model without sails, then the ends of the clew-line and the sheet would be shackled or tied together, so as to be ready in position when time came to fit the sail back to the yard.

 

(edit) I have just checked and the book is available online from £16, with many copies listed by different sellers, with different qualities and prices.

 

Wishing you all success with your modellling!

 

Mark P

 

 

 

 

Edited February 9 by Mark P

[Linda DOBLE]

 thank you Ross - Yes I am attempting the Amerigo Vespucci by Occre.  (Great detective work) - I know it is above my skill level but when I saw this ship in the water (on YouTube) it gave me chills so I wanted it in my living room.    yes I do indeed have 1mm holes at the end of the yards. I will have to study more about these sheet lines you all speak of. 

Roger I think you hit the nail on the head with your explanation.  I wish they would at least show this line clearer in the photos.  Some of the sails are set, while others not and they don’t really have a good photo showing this particular line on the furled (or half furled) sails.  
 

Mark P - thank you as well, it’s so complicated, the rigging, and I am going to get this book as well…

‘I do have some of these books mentioned, but I have a problem with transferring the info into the current builds - sometimes I don’t even know what I’m looking for.  
 Thanks for the help guys, much appreciated - cheers
 

[allanyed]

8 hours ago, RossR said:

I believe there should be a small 1 mm hole

Hi Linda,

As you already have the holes drilled, maybe something to consider for the future...... Using James Lees proportions in his The Masting and Rigging book (which may not apply on a modern training ship like the AV) and guessing the lower mast is about 8mm, the royal stay would be about 1/4 mm  at 1:100 scale so the slot for the sheave (or hole itself for the line, if foregoing the sheave) would be less than 1/2mm.  Regardless, a safe proportion would be to have a hole that is no more than about  0.0625 times the diameter of the lower mast where it pierces the deck.  

Allan

Edited February 9 by allanyed

[wefalck]

One problem we have today is that with the demise of sailing ship as commercial carrier around WW1 also treatise on masting and rigging stopped to be written. So there is not much literature on full-scale practice post 1900.

 

Probably the reference book most applicable to AMERIGO VESPUCCI would be:

 

MIDDENDORF, F.L. (1903): Bemastung und Takelung der Schiffe.- 401 p., Kassel (reprint 1977 by Horst Hamecher).

 

but it is in German and no digital copies are available (to my knowledge), as there seems to be still some copyright on it.

 

The next best source then and one addressing the needs of the shipmodeller would be:

 

UNDERHILL, H.A. (1946): Masting & Rigging the Clipper Ship & Ocean Carrier.- 304 p., Glasgow (Brown, Son & Ferguson).

 

He focussed on late(r) 19th century commercial ships, not naval practice. Again no digital copy due to being still copyrighted.

 

There are many textbooks on rigging from the second half of the 19th century, including for naval practice, but since then things have evolved a lot (more wire rope in particular, not only for the standing rigging).

 

I must admit, I have never looked for Italian text books on rigging (though I do speak Italian). The closest would be Orazio Curti's book on shipmodelling, but he mainly uses mid- to late 19th century illustrations. Curti actually re-rigged the training schooner EBE from the 1920s that has been put up in the Museo della Scienza e Technologia in Milan. But she is a much smaller ship than the AMERIGO VESPUCCI ... I have to get around to put the detailed pictures I took of her last year onto my Web-site.

 

Edited February 9 by wefalck

[Jim Lad]

Ah, well, if it's the Amerigo Vespucci, Underhill would be a much better option, and you can still pick up a fairly cheap second hand copy!

 

John

 

John

[Roger Pellett]

There is also book on seamanship for the USCG Barque Eagle.  It is published by the US Naval Institute Press.  I believe that Eagle was built in Germany in the 193O’s.  There is also Allan Villers’ The Way of a Ship.  This is devoted to the steel hulled vessels still sailing in the 1930’s. The book includes several excellent illustrations of rigging drawn by Harold Underhill.

 

Roger