How much boat kit is too much?

[LucienL]

Hey there. I'm working on the boats from the Beagle and am trying to consider some stretch goals for the amount of boat kit to include.

I think at a minimum I will make a set of oars, masts/spars, boat hooks, grapnels and rudders for each of the 7 boats. Still debating whether to include a barrel and a compass.

 

Are there other items that anyone would consider essential for a boat?

 

Further, would all these items necessarily be stored in the boats or possibly below deck in some other storage space?

[Keith Black]

 A tin of biscuits.  

 

 All kidding aside, ship's boats carried lanterns though I've never see a model where a lantern was part of the ship's boat contents.  

Edited May 7 by Keith Black

[allanyed]

I could find no clear answer, just more questions.   Most of the photos of boats on ships that I looked at had nothing stowed but there are a few that had some things on board.  There is a photo of a cutter and larger boat on a ship on page 217 of The Arming and Fitting of English Ships of War by Brian Lavery.  There is nothing in the cutter, including the rudder.  The other boat, which looks like a launch or longboat  boat, has rope and oars stowed.  The oars rest on the thwarts but pass under some kind of cross piece.  I thought this might be the windlass, but looking at contemporary drawings such as the long boat and launch below, the windlass is too low for the oars to rest on top of the thwarts yet pass under the windlass.  

 

Another example is https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/rmgc-object-66300 but both of these may be the model builder's choice, not actual practice.  Also, ships of war might have a different set of rules on such things.  Having any loose items left in the boats while on board was probably a bad idea.  With multiple boats, and before having multiple davits, often some would be stacked one on the other, another reason to not keep items stowed on board.

 

Seeing a few items on board may or may not be how it was done but, for me, having a few of these items add to the overall look to a boat build. 

 

Allan

Edited May 8 by allanyed

[Roger Pellett]

Not an exact answer to your question but the US Navy’s Ordinance Instructions include a detailed inventory of equipment to be carried aboard ships’ boats.  You can find copies on the internet.  The list is quite extensive and differs for different boat types.  It also depends on how you intend to display the boats on your model.  For example, the mid Nineteenth Century US Navy did not stow a lot of equipment in boats when aboard ship.  Spars were stowed in hammock boxes atop bulwarks and sails kept below decks.  The ordinance instructions also specify the various petty officers responsible for loading particular pieces of gear prior to the boat’s launch.

 

It was also US Navy practice to designate one boat as a “lifeboat,” usually a seaworthy type; a cutter or a whaleboat.  The purpose of this boat was to recover a man overboard.  This would have been hung in davits for quick launch and equipped differently than boats stowed on board.

 

It is a common misconception that the primary use for boats stowed on board was to save the ship’s crew in the event of shipwreck.  The reality is that these boats were workboats carried to assist the ship in restricted waters and/or to extend the ship’s mission.  Unless hung in davits, launching was a major shipboard evolution not done quickly.  There was ample time to bring items needed from elsewhere in the ship.

 

Roger

[Jaager]

Although Beagle was at the verge of explosive shells - which made their own splinters,  it was of the kinetic ball era.  Additional sources of wood splinters on deck - not all that wise.

The boats in the waist tended to be nested.  They were wood.  They probably required having their hull planking kept wet enough that they did not desiccate enough to open their seams. 

That is not a good storage environment for loose parts and equipment.   If Beagle's task was like that of the later U.S. Ex. Ex., the primary function of the larger boats was for mapping.  The smaller ones were probably better at getting onto and off of a beach - water, food,  getting investigators on to unknown shores.

 

 

[wefalck]

Ships' boats where quite exposed to the elements and in bad weather at risk to be damaged or swept overboard. I think most loose items would have been only put into them when needed. Lowering the boats during the age of HMS BEAGLE was a fairly time-consuming procedure - enough time to bring the required items up from storage.

 

The exception was the 'life-boat' mentioned in an earlier post, which would have been kept with all the essential equipment on board. 

[georgeband]

My schooner model has one small boat on deck and that is all that she carried. I filled the boat with oars and spars and a sail and grapnel and boathooks and the rudder and tiller and all are tied down to the thwarts so they will not get swept away by a high wave. I chose this look because it adds to the clutter and crowding on deck and in the absence of contemporary information the aesthetic took precedence for me. As with so many aspects of our hobby, do what looks good to your eye if you cannot find a proper answer. 

 

George