Handling the anchors on large British frigattes (HMS Diana 1794)

[CTDavies]

Good evening All,

I've noticed something that seems to be unique on large frigattes concerning the handling of the anchors on large frigattes, maybe not only British ones. On HMS Diana (1794) the hawse pipes are slightly abover the upper (gun) deck. The riding bit is behind them on the same deck which means the cables enter the boat through the hawse pipes and remain on the upper (gun) deck at least as far as the riding bit. The cable tier on a large frigatte is about midship (according to Tosti) but two decks lower. My question is, where does the anchor cable pass into the lower deck and from there into the hold area with the anchor tier. I'm assuming a manger was behind the hawse pipes to scrape off the wet cables before these moved to the riding bit. But after this there is a gap in my trial of thought where the cables were connected to the messenger via several 'nippings'. The messenger must have been mounted right under a deck, via rollers. But which deck? And where did the cable drop from upper (gun) deck to the lower deck and from there to the cable tier? On the Victory this is easy. According to Nepean the hawse pipes were just above the lower gun deck. This is also where the riding bits were. Right under the lower gun decke was... (you guessed it) the cable tier. I hope I'm making sense here...

Any help here is greatly appreciated.

Chris

[popeye2sea]

On Constitution, the messenger runs from the capstan forward to a viol block mounted horizontally at the inside of the stem between the hawse holes on the gun deck. There are vertical rollers placed outboard of the various stanchions that the messenger may foul on in passing. The messenger is nipped to the anchor cable. As the cable comes aboard the water drips into and is captured in the manger.  The cable passes below by means of a cutout in the fore corner of the main hatch grating where it is coiled two decks below on the cable tier in the orlop/hold.

To answer your specific question, the main capstan, viol, hawse holes, messenger, and anchor cables are all on the gun deck.  The cable tier is two decks below, accessible from the main hatch

 

Regards,

Henry

[CTDavies]

Fantastic answer, Henry!! I'm sure what you wrote about the Constitution also applies to the HMS Diana. I still need to dig into this a bit more though, as I'm not sure what a Viol is, but you've helped a huge bit forward. Thanks!!