Size and color of Deck Planks

[acaron41120]

I purchased the Billing Boats Golden Hind and the kit supplied deck planks are .5x8x780mm. I find the planks to be a tad bit too thin for my liking and wider than they actually should be. I'm thinking of ordering about sixty 0.7x7x550mm planks made of basswood. This appears to be a better plank for the 1/60 scale model. But really not certain what the color of the decks planks were during that period; light, medium or dark wood. For reference, I am staining the hull a light brown. Your thoughts are greatly appreciated.

[Kenchington]

Hi Allen,

 

I would be very surprised if there is any contemporary written information on the deck planks of Elizabethan ships. (There was very, very little written about any English ship structures before 1700.) There may be good archaeological data, much of it from study of the Gresham Ship. I ought to get a copy of the report on that work but I don't have access to it so I can't confirm what they may have found. There may be more detail from the Mary Rose, though she was a generation earlier. (I do have 3 volumes of her report but not the one on ship structure! Back in the day, the publisher failed to fulfil my standing order.)

 

For what it's worth, the contemporary Basque whaler excavated at Red Bay, Labrador (for which I have the full report) had deck planking of 25 to 35 cm width and 3 to 4 cm thickness. None survived in its recognizable position from the upper decks but dimensions could be deduced from fastening holes in the beams and the thickness of other pieces that the planking butted up against. At 1:60, 0.5mm thickness and 5mm width would be about right for the decks visible in a model.

 

The outer planking of that ship was white oak, as were the structural parts, but wood fragments interpreted as remnants of planking from the upper decks included pine and larch. I don't think that the archaeologists' report drew the conclusion but I'll guess that the upper-deck planking had not survived because it was (less durable) softwood. If so, the colour should be about the same as in the holystoned pine deck of a 19th Century Yankee clipper.

 

That being said, please take note of the variable plank widths on the whaler. Whatever else, she did not have evenly laid, parallel-sided deck planking. I'll add another guess based on other evidence from her time: Much of the visible "deck" probably wasn't planked at all but was one long opening, mostly covered by gratings, running down the centreline, with planking only on what we might call "side-decks". In short, reproducing the appearance of the real Golden Hind, as seen from above, would need a lot of study followed by some sweeping assumptions. If you're not looking at going that far, then there may not be much point in worrying excessively about plank widths and colours.

 

Trevor