HMS Victory Sail room

[vincewilliams]

Afternoon,

 

I'm unsuccessfully trying to work out what the sail room on the HMS Victory's Orlop deck would have looked like as I can't even find a single image of it empty let alone showing how the sails would have been stored - ie would they have been stored on the deck iteself (and presumably only once dried out?) bundled and tied up or would they have been stored on shelving or even hung loose?

 

Would this space of also contained an area for spare sail cloth etc / tables for repairing sails? 

 

Presumably all of the blocks would have been removed prior to storage and if so where would these have been stored (and again on the deck or on shelves?)

 

In terms of the anchor ropes (stored again in the orlop deck which I'm working on at present hence the question..... McGown states each cable would have been 24" in circumference and made from 3 lengths of 120 fathoms each of spliced cables per anchor (so in laymans terms thats 568m of 190mm diameter cable), made of 3 ropes each of 3 strands (so at 1:50 scale its 4mm dia of 11.36m lengths per anchor...)

So the main Bower anchors fine, the cable being connected to the 2 best bower anchors via the lower deck capstan and stored in the orlope deck...Sheet anchors are stated as 'one with a cable permanently bent on ready' - I assume this means there would also have been a third cable as well and if so how / where would this have been stored  / directed to the orlop deck level as no dwgs or images show this set up.

 

And finally - where would the other 3 anchors have been stored and what would be the cable diameter / lengths for these Stream and Kedge anchors and where / how would their cables be stored...

 

I have ordered the bits to make a rope walk already from the web link I found on this site so looking forward to learning a new skill and making my own ropes as there's going to be a lot of them and of a diameter not readily avialable to buy....

 

A lot of detailed questions I know but I'm finding that's the beauty of trying to do a scale replica scratch build fully kitted out as it would have been on day she first launched - it has its challenges but its great finding out things most would not even have considered and challenging the mind to discover anew

 

Thanks in advance for the expert advise anyone can provide (please bear in mind I'm a simple land lubber so would be helpful if in layman simple terms please.....

 

 

 

 

[popeye2sea]

I have often wondered about this myself.  If you have ever worked with canvas before you know that stowing it means it has to be folded and bundled. But I would not want to be the one that had to handle that bundle. A single topsail could weigh upwards of a ton.

All of the gear (blocks, tackles and the like) would be stored in the boatswains store room.

All of the cables would be coiled on the cable tier in the orlop.

Stowage of sail cloth would be considerably easier because it is only 24 - 26 inches wide and would make a much smaller bundle.

If not lashed in the channels, kedge, stream and spare anchors would be stowed in the orlop.

 

You can see that the available storage space would be used up very quickly before you even consider shot, food and water.

And, how in the world could you find and get to what you needed efficiently?

 

Regards,

Henry

[druxey]

Finding a suitable sail in store was done using wooden tags attached. Examples if these tags still survive.

[hlong222]

I do not know if your questions are answered in this video or not, but here’s a link to a real good animated tour of the Victory. 
 

 

[vincewilliams]

Great thanks - the video is really useful.....shows the sails stored on shelving so I can focus this week on that area (still wiaintg on the rope walk parts to arrive)... not looked at all the video so hopefully answers the anchor cable questions as well...

 

It also clarifies an issue I just came across with regards to the sail room...

 

The sails at 1:50 scale  are over 500mm width for the lower main mast and 460mm on the lower foremast for example and the locker is only 110mm in length so no way they could remove and store all the sails (as they would have had to fold most of them 4-5 times once 'furled' so I'm concluding they would have left them on the spars at all times and the sail room would only have held the sails that were for occassional use (such as the Studding sails and the stay sails between the main masts) as well as spare sail cloth for running repairs.....

 

Decided I'm going to make the sails from tissue paper as even at this scale cotton looks and feels over heavy to me even when furled.

 

Once again my gratitude to the experts...

 

Vince