HMS Perseus by Thukydides - 1:64 - POB - Sphinx Class 6th Rate

[Thukydides]

Welcome to my build log for documenting progress on my scratch build of HMS Perseus using @Alex M's Sphinx plans as a starting point. In order to keep this organized I have reserved this first post for a table of contents in order to allow future readers to jump ahead to sections they are interested in if so desired. I will also include any significant resource links in this first post so they are all together in one place.

 

Related Threads & Resources

Transcription of the Contract for Perseus & Unicorn

 

Table of Contents

Log #1: Introduction

Log #2: Service History Part I - Design & Construction

Edited Thursday at 12:31 PM by Thukydides

[Thukydides]

Log #1: Introduction

HMS Perseus was a 20-gun Sphinx class post ship launched in 1776. Post ships were the smallest ship rated to be commanded by a post captain, larger than a sloop, but not as large as a frigate.

She saw service in one of the most turbulent periods of the Royal Navy’s history. She took part in both the American revolutionary war and the French revolutionary war under at least 11 different commanders from Captain George Keith Elphinstone to Commander Thoms Searle. In many ways she was an example of the changing technology of naval combat being one of the first Royal Navy ships to be coppered and an early adopter of the carronade. Late in her career she was converted to a bomb ship before being broken up in 1805 after almost 30 years of service.

I plan to depict Perseus as she appeared under the command of Captain James Dacres between 1780 and 1783. My goals for this build are:

1. Build Quality - I learned a lot on Alert, but the quality of my work was not uniformly to a high standard. The goal for this build is to improve on my consistency to bring all parts of the model up to a higher standard.
2. Historical Accuracy - I am aiming to make this as historically accurate a model as possible. As much as possible I am attempting to trace every aspect of the build back to primary sources.
3. Artistic Coherence - At the end of the day the model is a piece of art and so it needs to aesthetically come together. Design decisions will also be informed by aesthetic considerations where there are more than one historically valid options.
    

Edited Thursday at 11:33 AM by Thukydides

[Javelin]

You have your first follower. Just a minute ago I posted in your Alert log and my curiosity is already satisfied. 

If this will be even just near your Alert quality, it will already be a very impressive model. 

That said, it's going to take a while to complete, since scratch building is going slow, but so much more satisfying for the builder.

[jpalmer1970]

Good luck with this build. I look forward to following your progress.

[TJM]

I will be following this for sure!

[Thukydides]

42 minutes ago, Javelin said:

That said, it's going to take a while to complete, since scratch building is going slow, but so much more satisfying for the builder.

Yes, if Alert took three years (granted with a 6 month break in the middle) I expect this is going to take 5 or more. Apart from the larger size and all the extra time required to build everything from scratch, this time I have resolved that I must find sources (ideally primary ones) for just about everything so I imagine that is going to slow things down a lot.

 

I am working on a research document which I am using to summarize and organize my thoughts and it has already reached 150 pages (and I haven't even begun researching the rigging).

Edited Wednesday at 12:00 PM by Thukydides

[Nipper]

I will follow along, and I look forward to this very much.

 

I'm especially looking forward to your thoughts and conclusions from the research that you will do.  I think that the research is as enjoyable as the building of the model, especially when it leads to a bit of creativity in changing the model to better match the historical evidence.  Or as you refer to above - to those occasions when the evidence is inconclusve and you have to decide which way to go!  Some of the most enjoyable moments I have experienced in buildng my models have been when I've gone to bed, with my mind still mulling over a problem - do I do what source A says, or do I follow source B? Sometimes the clearest solutions appear at those sleepy moments!

 

Nipper

[Ronald-V]

Good luck on your next step! It's quite brave to take this kind of a step up regarding difficulty. At least...that would it be for me lol.  

 

Will be very interesting to see how this develops! 💫

[brunnels]

Can't wait to follow the progress on this one.

[GrandpaPhil]

Looking forward to this!

[AJohnson]

Also will be pulling up a chair to follow along. 

[CiscoH]

you do high quality work Thukydides; I will follow with interest

[Thukydides]

Log #2: Service History Part I - Design & Construction

Thank you to everyone who has pulled up a chair to follow along with me on this journey. It really does help motivate me to do these logs when I know others find them helpful. I apologize in advance as the entries for the foreseeable future will involve more text than pictures until I actually start construction.

 

My Alert log was an exploration of ship modeling from a beginner perspective. I tried to show my thought processes working through the necessary modeling techniques (both the successes and failures). This log I plan to focus on the why of ship modeling. What sources informed my modeling decisions, why did I choose those sources and so on.

 

We are going to start by working our way through the history of Perseus, then we will consider some of the key sources of information available to us and hopefully by the time we get through all that I will have started building the model and I will have stuff to show you.

 

HMS Perseus was a 20-gun Sphinx class 6th rate post ship launched in 1776. As was previously noted, post ships were the smallest ship rated to be commanded by a post captain, larger than a sloop, but not as large as a frigate.

Draught of HMS Sphinx, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London. ZAZ3917, 23 April 1773.

 

The Sphinx class ships were designed by John Williams, the surveyor of the Navy from 1765 to 1784. In this time he designed at least 21 different classes of ships ranging from the 100-gun Royal Sovereign to the 10-gun Childers.

 

List of Sphinx Class Post-Ships

Name	Ordered	Launched	Out of Service	Fate
Sphinx	15-Apr-1773	25-Oct-1775	24-Jun-1811	Broken up
Camilla	1-Dec-1773	20-Apr-1776	13-Apr-1831	Sold
Daphne	1-Dec-1773	21-Mar-1776	?-May-1802	Sold
Galatea	1-Dec-1773	21-Mar-1776	?-Apr-1783	Broken up
Ariadne	10-April-1775	27-Dec-1776	1-Aug-1814	Sold
Vestal	1-Aug-1775	22-May-1777	31-Oct-1777	Foundered
Perseus	3-Nov-1775	20-Mar-1776	?-Sep-1805	Broken up
Unicorn	3-Nov-1775	23-Mar-1776	7-Aug-1787	Broken up
Ariel	3-Jul-1776	7-Jul-1777	10-Sep-1779	Captured
Narcissus	8-Jan-1777	9-May-1781	3-Oct-1796	Wrecked

The Sphinx class were the first batch of 20-gun ships ordered in more than 20 years after the Glasgow, the last of the Seaford class was launched in 1757. Though the Sphinx class ships had somewhat finer lines, they were in many respects identical to their predecessors, with the same armament, approximate length and layout. They carried 9 pounder guns and had a complement of 160 souls. In total ten were built with the lead ship of the class, Sphinx, launched in 1775 and the final ship, Narcissus, launched in 1781. The first of them were built at Navy dockyards, but with the start of the revolutionary war in North America and shipbuilding capacity stretched, additional ships were ordered to be built by contract at private yards.

 

HMS Perseus was constructed at Cuckols Point, a private dockyard in Rotherhithe, London, England. Her sister ship, HMS Unicorn, was also contracted to the dockyard in 1775 with both ships being launched in March 1776.

The Sphinx class post-ships saw service over a turbulent period of the RN’s history. It was a period of war, from the revolutionary war in America to the French Revolutionary Wars, and a time of technological change, with the advent of the carronade. Many of the Sphinx class served in the North American theater in the early part of their careers and those that were not broken up or sold during the peace went on to serve at various stations in the French Revolutionary Wars. The last to remain in service, HMS Camilla, was sold on the 13th of April, 1831.
 

Edited Thursday at 12:28 PM by Thukydides