Santa Sofia by Ferrus Manus - Heller - 1/75 - PLASTIC - Another theoretical reconstruction.

[Ferrus Manus]

Time for another mid-15th century Medieval ship. 

This is, once again, going to be based around Heller's "Nina". 

This is actually from Heller's set of Columbus's ships, and is a special edition. However, it is the same exact kit I did in January. 

I managed to get it for only 10 dollars at the local hobby shop, because whoever had it before me glued the hull halves together (and actually glued them together perfectly, mind you!) However, that's all he did. Otherwise, the kit is complete and unstarted. 

I'm going to start this log off by saying there will be some significant modifications/additions to the kit. For one, I have some things I want to do with the deck fittings and anchors. Secondly, all the rigging will be of my own design (as always) and I have a desire to make all my own blocks. The masts and yards will be made from wooden dowels/skewers (I see you Steven) and there will be some other miscellaneous sprucing up of the kit. This includes cleats, rails and other belaying points. 

Here's the ship as she sits now: 

Let's start with the deck. The deck planks are a bit long and thin by Late Medieval standards, but as far as I'm concerned, acceptable. The hull planking is also like this. 

What isn't acceptable is the hatches. I've known since I cracked open the box for the first version of this kit that the hatches were inaccurate to what they would have looked like at the time (see the Mataro Carrack and the carrack from Botticelli's Judgement of Paris). 

At some point between my construction of the Elisabetta and now, I actually realized that the hatches aren't just inaccurate, they're unusable. It's obvious that each hatch consists of eight removable panels, and in between those are timbers integral to the hatch design. No one, not even a child, could fit in between those timbers at 1/75th scale (more on the scale later). 

So, I came up with this idea: The aft hatch is going to be for "people", and the forward hatch for "stuff". The "people" hatch will fit the contours of the kit-provided hatch mostly, and consist of two removable, longways panels and nothing in between. The "stuff" hatch will be covered with two longways panels consisting of three boards apiece, also with nothing in between. 

The frame of the "stuff" hatch: 

The Mataro model shows a similar arrangement, except the hatch is covered with a cloth: 

 

[Ferrus Manus]

@Louie da fly @GrandpaPhil @Isaiah @kirill4 @Baker

[Baker]

4 hours ago, Ferrus Manus said:

@Louie da fly @GrandpaPhil @Isaiah @kirill4 @Baker

Good luck 

[Louie da fly]

Going to be interesting.

 

Steven

[Doreltomin]

Hi Ferrus Manus, are you sure about the cloth thing on the Mataro model? I agree with you that on the real thing there certainly would be a tarpaulin secured above some carefully trimmed planks, but on the model I would daresay there's no cloth there, only a piece of wood!

[Ferrus Manus]

Hi @Doreltomin, your assessment on the Mataro hatch cover is 100% correct. From that angle, it becomes apparent that the hatch cover is carved from a single piece of wood. While the structure of my hatch is almost identical to the structure of the Mataro Carrack's hatch, the hatch cover is entirely different. 

This is the hatch cover I designed: 

The six interior planks comprise two panels that are held together by two cross-planks apiece. Lifting each hatch cover panel would be akin to lifting a heavy household door- doable via a two-man effort. The four holes will accept ringbolts for the panels. 

My guess is that one of three things are true about the Mataro's hatch cover: 

1. The carved piece over the hatch is meant to represent a tarpaulin. 

2. The carved piece is an inaccurate repair from centuries later.

3. The shipwright who made the model didn't care about depicting the hatch cover accurately. 

My guess is either 1 or 2 are correct, as the shipwright went to otherwise great lengths to ensure the construction of the ship was accurate to a real carrack. Either way, a single-piece carved hatch cover would have been impossible to lift by less than 6-8 men without using tackles. 

Depictions of medieval ship hatches (and other deck details in general) are unbelievably rare. Here's one that's just a hole in the deck: 

That being said, the idea of just making deck planks removable lends itself to the idea of multiple panels for the hatch cover. 

To be honest, I don't know where modern replicas/models/reconstructions of Medieval ships get their sources for the almost ubiquitous multi-plank hatch cover. 

Edited 5 hours ago by Ferrus Manus