HMS Centurion 1732 by Michael P - scale 1:160

[Michael P]

Deciding what ship to build is never easy. Having finished Agamemnon, I considered a three-decker, but they do look rather clumsy to me, and the prospect of quite so many gunports was off-putting. So, though I was briefly tempted, I decided not to go for Royal William. That figurehead with two horses was just too much. An eighteenth-century ship seemed the best answer, though for reasons  which may not be clear to readers of this blog, there are some who might expect me to try a medieval ship, say the Christopher which took Edward III abroad in the late 1330s, with a crew of 103 sailors. But, of course, there are no details of the ship herself, so that was out of the question. Nor are the building accounts for Edward’s Philippa any use, though they provide evidence to fuel arguments about the size of her sail. Centurion was tempting, for there are plans in the National Maritime Museum, and good photographs of the model made for Anson, who commanded her on the famous circumnavigation. I did make a model of an early eighteenth-century two decker back in the late 1950’s, based on a model in the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, which is now residing in my daughter’s attic, but I don’t believe that I will be repeating myself. So, Centurion it is.

 

There will be problems, particularly with the decoration, but there’s no point in attempting a model that does not present challenges. I’m intending to build the hull using the bread-and-butter method. This does not seem to be much in vogue these days, but it is how models were made in the early eighteenth century (the so-called Georgian style). The open-framed Navy Board style would be difficult with a small model, and is anyway beyond me. My bible in my youth was Barrot de Gaillard’s Construisez des Modeles Réuoits de Marine, which advocated bread-and-butter, and it’s still the method I prefer. Bulkheads would of course be possible, but that method would probably demand double planking, though in my youth I did try layers of sticky brown paper on one model, which worked well, and still looks fine. As for making a fully framed model, that would be beyond me.

 

The plans in the National Maritime Museum present something of a difficulty, for there are two, and they are not quite the same. It may be that one was drawn up prior to building the vessel, and the other represents the ship as built. Or, possibly, the latter was drawn to assist Benjamin Slade, when he made the model that was presented to Anson himself. It seems to me posssible that it shows the ship following her refit in 1739 prior to the famous circumnavigation. The first is noted on the back as being for ‘A 60 gun ship’, while the second has Centurion named. I’ll make use of both, but  have for the most part used the earlier plan. The issue is discussed elsewhere on this site, at https://modelshipworld.com/topic/37674-centurion-of-1732/#comment-1078072 .  The NMM also has a plan of the stern, catalogued as being of Centurion 1732. It resembles the stern as depicted in the later plan, but not the way the model has it. 

 

So, here’s the start. Note that the scale is 1:160, so the model will be about a foot in length. It all looks very primitive in the early stages, but there seemed little point in trying to fabricate the keel as one would have to do with, say, a scale of 1:48 as used by the craftsmen who built such splendid models in the 18^th century. The wood for the bread-and-butter slices is balsa, and I dare say that choice will not meet with much approval. But it is easy to work, and does not warp, twist, expand or contract, at least to judge by the way the models I made in the late 1950s have lasted.

 

The next photo shows initial progress, with just a couple of templates I’ve used to check that the model follows the plan reasonably closely. I’ve tried something new for me, Barrot de Gaillard’s method of making gunports. It does ensure that they are all lined up correctly. He was a little concerned that the sheer meant that the rectangular blocks were not quite vertical at the bow and stern, but that’s easily remedied by making the blocks less than absolutely square. I’ve not decided whether to have the gunports, at least the lower ones, open or closed, but that decision can wait. I think that these gunports are too small for it to be worth lining them, though it would make them neater.

 

Next is another view, showing deck beams installed. There is a long way to go. 

[Michael P]

Now, planking. One way of simplifying it would be not to plank the hull below the wales, and just to paint it white. This is what eighteenth-century modelmakers did with bread-and-butter hulls, and it’s what I did in the late 1950s, as in this model I made of a 6^th rate (I think the sails, by the way, were cut from an old pillowcase). 

 

Apologies for the reflection on the case in this picture.

No doubt the ‘white stuff’ used to protect hulls before the advent of copper plating hid some of the planking lines, but the picture by John Cleveley the elder of ‘A Sixth Rate on the Stocks’ does show some at least of the lines made by planking. So, I’ll plank this hull. It’s a bit like three-dimensional marquetry.The balsa wood is a bit of a problem as it soaks up the glue too much, so the first step is to put on a coat of shellac. Then I began with the wale, or at least with a plank which will in the end be under the wale. Calculations for the rest suggest that at the bow the planks will need to be roughly 2/3 of the width on the rest of the hull, and with any luck it might even be possible to do the planking without any need for steelers or drop planks. At this scale, with planks 0.5 mm x 2 mm, bending them is not  too much of a problem.  I have found it sufficient to soak the wood in hot tap water - no need for boiling - for an hour or so to soften it. It could be a different story with thicker and wider wood strips. I find a thumbnail often better than any tool, but a simple jig helps. The extent of the bend can be adjusted by using different holes for the pegs.

 

Where it gets more difficult is that the planks near the bow need to be bent in three dimensions, and after finding a helpful video on the web, I am using formers to create the desired bend, which helps to prevent the planking having an appearance of clinker build.

 

The formers are made of two blocks, with a template between them. I know it looks primitive, but it works. The glue I am using, incidentally, is ‘aliphatic’, whatever that means, and yellow. Like so many excellent things, it comes from Cornwall Boats. There’s no question of trying to reproduce the treenails that would have been used to fix the planks on the full-size ship - that would be impossible at this scale. Nor do some very fine models, such as that of Bellona on the stocks in the National Maritime Museum, show them.

 

The picture above shows the start of the planking process, with the hull still in a pretty crude state. Do remember that it's very small. Next shows the start of work on the wales.

 

The wales could be difficult, but I’ve not gone for a complex solution. The main wale should rightly consist of three strakes, with complex butt and hook joints. However, when I built Agamemnon to the same scale I tried anchor stock joints, but by the time the wales were sanded and painted, most of them could not be seen. So, I have gone for two strakes of 0.5 mm x 3 mm, with no joints. I’ve ignored the evidence of the model of Centurion’s bow in the National Maritime Museum, which shows what look like a double wale; the model made for Anson has solid black wales, and that seems right for this period. I have dyed the wood as this should make neater edges than painting.