Bower anchor project by Sizzolo

[Sizzolo]

Cheers! First few efforts were v frustrating until I realised I was turning it in the wrong direction for cable. Then it just became difficult until it started working. Unfortunately the part that was re-laid lost some of its perk as you can see the angle of the contlines is more relaxed. I can live with that though as when I bind it to the anchor I can tighten it up a bit.

 

Hardware for the thimble-in-thimble arrived today (steel balls of various diameters, a selection of brass tubes). Hope to get that sorted on the weekend.  I guess the interesting discovery here is that the buoy-rope thimble must have been split, similar to the modern tear-drop thimble that Trevor mentioned. Possibly identical to them as the drawing from Lever’s book above does look a lot like a tear-drop inside a standard circular thimble. The drawing also suggests the bights at both ends were not served together, nor does the text say so. 

[Sizzolo]

I’m still investigating other more obscure methods of putting a thimble in a thimble. From what I can see in my research so far is there are two principle methods. 
 

There’s the Stoner method;

or the Wizard method;

 

[Sizzolo]

Eye-splice to the 2.2mm buoy-rope.

[Thukydides]

20 hours ago, Sizzolo said:

"The three smaller strands are double-walled right-handed close to the stop, then laid up their contlines,.."

Are you able to elaborate on what you are doing with the "double wall"?

 

It appears the end bit looks like it is wormed, but you don't show that process, are those separate pieces of rope or are they the ends of the three strands you split off to make the wall?

 

This is really fantastic work. I am really impressed and am learning so much.

[Sizzolo]

20 minutes ago, Thukydides said:

Are you able to elaborate on what you are doing with the "double wall"?

I first read that to mean 'wall and go round twice' but it ended up just being a plait with nothing holding it to the main rope. I then tried weaving one under two and that didn't work. Eventually I read it to mean wall normally then another wall weaved under the first. The ends are then wormed up the original rope. If I were to do it again I'd use hair-gel on it first to help the strands keep their form. (a tip I found when watching this great channel:

) 

[Sizzolo]

Long splice on the buoy-rope:

[Kenchington]

3 hours ago, Sizzolo said:

I read it to mean wall normally then another wall weaved under the first.

The wall knot is Ashley's #671 (though he features it in multiple other places in his compendium), while a double-wall is his #675. basically, having formed a wall knot, each strand is taken under two others and over one, paralleling the strand that it ends beside in the initial wall knot. Ashley's drawing is far easier to understand than my words!

 

Trevor

[Sizzolo]

Well I was going to try it tomorrow but had a bit of a bash after work and managed to do the thimble-in-thimble!

Tools used  for making the saddle-curve: pretty self explanatory but, start with a steel ball slightly wider than the tube, give it a few bashes on each end (keeping ball still with some putty, and holding the tube in some needle nose pliers). Then go up a size for the steel ball, repeat, and one more larger ball.

 

The one in the pic was the first test. After a few more tests I managed to finish it:

I just need to add a little antiquing fluid. Annoyingly I have to undo the eye-splice in the buoy-rope and re-attach it through these parts.

 

[Sizzolo]

I tried the double wall again after seeing Trevor's reference (I think my first attempt was correct but, just not accurate and the threads got fuzzy so I could do better). This time I coloured the threads to make sure I didn't do the knitting wrong, and used hair gel on the cable to make it keep its shape better, and used Japanese wax on the thread to reduce the fuzziness occurring after all the tweezer work. I'm much happier with this effort (although I went anticlockwise instead of clockwise again which is why I didn't worm this test!). I think I'll make an extra length of cable and splice it to the end of the current buoy rope with a better buoy rope knot on it (longer buoy ropes were used for deeper waters, plus Steel's length is on the shorter end (102 cm) of other references which could result in another 40cm in 1/32 scale)

Here's the top of the buoy with the appropriate work;

Steel: "Large buoys have seven under and six riding turns smaller buoys six under; and five riding turns; the end of the seizing crossed each way, and the end knotted and crowned."

...and here's the bottom. Steel says the buoy rope was bent to the thimble whereas Lever says it was spliced.(edit - apologies - both sources say the buoy rope was bent, not spliced to the double-thimble). So logically I used Boidroit! Well - he has a nice drawing of a bend on the buoy so I went with that. Also Steel says " The rope of a buoy is passed as a sheet, and has the end stopt.". I've a feeling, given the difference in references, sailors would have had a number of options. The bend would have been more secure though in my estimation.

Anyone any reference as to how long the 'lanyard' was that attached to the top? I'm thinking roughly 5 fathoms? Perhaps it had loops in it to help when using grapnels to retrieve it? I recall reading that somewhere but can't find the reference now. Also, do you think the eye splices would be marled? I might replace the eye-splice with a stop knot - tbd.

 

Edited November 15 by Sizzolo

[Sizzolo]

Actually I’ve a feeling the sheet bend that Steel mentions is most likely the other end of the buoy in the Boudriot drawing - and that wouldn’t lend itself well to a double-thimble  setup. So - to be replaced with an eye splice I think, and I’ll probably marl it. The other end of the buoy for the lanyard - I’ll probably use the splicing that you see in the cable in my last pic - with a loop to help manage the buoy when it’s pulled aboard. 
 

Anyway, a major objective of this project was to build a decent ropewalk and become more familiar with knots etc, so that when I transition to the rigging of HMS Diana in 1/64  I can feel more comfortable. There’s nothing like hitting a wall (knot) in a major project that you’ve spent years on!

[druxey]

I'm sure that there were local differnces between English (Steel) and French (Boudriot) practice.

[Sizzolo]

I made an edit to my earlier post - both lever and Steel indicate the rope was bent to the double thimble. 
 

Steel:

Another thimble is turned into the thimble in the other end, for bending the buoy rope to.
 

Lever. 

There is often a thimble seized in the bights, round which is another thimble, and to it the buoy rope is bent. A laniard (1) is spliced to the upper eye of the slings.

But also, unhelpfully

“The other end is spliced to the thimble in the bight of the buoy slings. “

So, I read that as Lever saying if another thimble (often) was around the buoy thimble the rope was bent instead of spliced. 

[Kenchington]

I saw that your quotes said "bent" and wondered whether former usage was less specific, so that "bent" might mean "attached" and so included a splice.

 

However, on reflection I suspect that there was a desire to separate the buoyrope from the buoy, making stowage simpler. Hence, an attachment that could be tied and untied would be preferable.

 

And I am sure you are right that there was more than one way to do it. As was said during the last decades of commercial sail: "Different ships, different long splices".

 

Trevor

[Sizzolo]

Cheers Trevor. Yup, I think also I’m starting to understand that sailors were expected to apply and remove the rope-work quite frequently. I’m arriving from my modern ship-model mindset in assuming everything was fitted once, perfectly, and never aged. However, I feel it’s more likely that seizing, servings and splices were frequently removed and applied rapidly and accurately. It was likely a measure of a good sailor. (I’m having flashbacks to that scene in Jaws but you know what I mean). 

 

Edited November 15 by Sizzolo
Addd gif

[Sizzolo]

Buoy done.

I used eye splices for both ends as there were too many variables to make a decision on the 'bend'. Buoy rope has two long splices now and a re-done double-wall knot. All ropes painted with 25% Stockholm tar, 75% boiled linseed oil.

Next step - bit of tidy up work on the anchor and attach the buoy. I'll probably generate a new topic for the longboat that this lot is going to play a part in.

[Sizzolo]

Just a text update today as I’ve already got to the pub. Last steps are actually -

 

1. worming and parceling 3 fathoms above the buoy-rope knot done
2. Final details on anchor (some weathering powders)
3. another 25cm of serving on the anchor cable (soooo boring) done
4. Worm chains to anchor cable
5. bind chains every 2cm or so
6. Paint two sailors who will be working on the ropes
7. Transition to build the longboat
8. Assemble pieces and build case
9. go to pub. 

Edited Friday at 11:55 PM by Sizzolo
completed items 1,3

[Sizzolo]

Well this is quite frustrating...  I've discovered (after trying for a few hours) that there is absolutely no way that chain was applied over served cable. It's impossible to bind it to the cable as it requires the valley (contline) of the cable to be able to get purchase. After that it's possible to bind it at points along the cable. There's also no documentary evidence to say it was applied over served cable as far as I can tell.

 

Rather than ripping off all the meters of serving which took days to do, I'll knock up an extra length of cable and splice it between the current cable and anchor. On this additional length I'll apply the chain. It doesn't change the design of the model I'm planning much as I'll just have more of it coiled in the longboat. The cable splice should be interesting!

 

V annoying though but at least I've learned something by trying to practically reproduce this blooming thing from literary evidence.