The launch of San juan

[eudes]

Hello

I'd share with you, the links to the Albaola proyect.

https://albaola.org/en/recomendaciones-·-botadura-de-la-nao-san-juan/

 

The replica of the 16th century basque whaling ship, according to research of the wreck found in Red Bay en 1978.

 regards

[Kenchington]

I had some contact with the Parks Canada team while they were excavating the Red Bay site (though no chance to dive there myself 🥲). But I hadn't heard that anyone was building a replica! That is fantastic.

 

I hope we can see her on this side of the Atlantic before too long.

 

Trevor

Edited Friday at 07:33 PM by Kenchington

[Waldemar]

 

Is this a second replica of this iconic ship, built by the Basques themselves? The video seems to show that the hull of the replica is much too full, especially at the bow, in the gripe area, for a ship of such short relative length. This suggests a very leeward ship that does not hold its course, which, incidentally, is quite typical of today's replicas of ships of this type and from this period. Yet, in this particular case, almost the entire hull of the original has been preserved, which could have been used as a model, and it is unclear why its lines has been so badly deformed to the detriment of the replica's sailing properties. 

 

Edited Saturday at 11:46 AM by Waldemar

[Kenchington]

A second replica, Waldemar, or just one that has been under construction for ten years?

 

You are right that almost the whole structure of the ship was recovered from the seabed, including the timbers in the area that concerns you -- around the gripe. However, the parts were raised individually (unlike Mary Rose or Vasa) after centuries of distortion of wet wood pressed down by the weight of assorted stuff on top. It's been a long time since I read the report but, taking a quick look now, I think the reconstruction model started with a study of documented design methods. That likely means that the shapes of the timbers were adjusted to match expectations, as much as expectations were adapted to match the timbers as recovered and measured. Still, the forward area of the published lines doesn't look full at all to me.

 

So either:

 

1: The shape as seen in the video is misleading, because of camera angles and focal lengths,

 

2: The builders did not follow the lines as reconstructed by the archaeologists, or

 

3: The archaeologists, decades ago now, did not interpret the historical sources as reliably as you now can.

 

Or maybe all three, to some degree?

 

Trevor

[Waldemar]

 

Indeed, I wish it were just an optical illusion caused by the black colour of the bottom, which literally devours light. When it comes to assessing the sharpness of shapes, this can of course be considered quite subjective and relative. Relative, because a sharp bow for relatively long hulls may not be sharp enough for very short ships, such as the San Juan. Either way, I would be interested to see the results of sailing tests of the finished replica in this regard.

 

Unfortunately, archaeologists have not made a conceptual reconstruction of this important wreck, or at least they have not published these attempts and their results in a multi-volume archaeological monograph by Parcs Canada. The published lines plan is merely the result of smoothing the hull shapes by synchronising cross-sections, waterlines and possibly other lines of this kind (apart from the construction of a 1:10 scale archaeological model, in which the shapes were faired by eye), but this is not how ships were designed at the time and cannot be considered a conceptual reconstruction, but only an attempt to approximate the original shapes using later methods.

 

[Waldemar]

 

4 hours ago, Kenchington said:

A second replica, Waldemar, or just one that has been under construction for ten years?

 

At first, I did indeed think that it was the second replica, precisely because of the long time that had passed since construction began. In these circumstances, I referred to photographs from the construction site, where this very aspect looks much better than on the video. And most importantly, it is close to the original. Below are the relevant graphics for comparison. Anyway, I am looking forward to seeing the results of the sailing trials of this replica.

 

 

 

 

 

[uss frolick]

"... the whales could not be reached for comment."

[Waldemar]

 

8 hours ago, uss frolick said:

"... the whales could not be reached for comment."

 

Indeed . On the other hand, however, one can be pleased that they have survived as a species to this day, despite several centuries of relentless slaughter, unlike many other species...

 

 

[Kenchington]

4 hours ago, Waldemar said:

they have survived as a species to this day

It's a bit more complicated than that.

 

The Medieval Basques probably started out hunting Atlantic grey whales and those are long gone now. The only reason they are not gone as a species is that available data suggest that they were always the same species as the Pacific grey. That too was very nearly hunted to extinction but (thanks to the good people of the Californias, both Baja and Alta, plus their more-northern neighbours) the Pacific grey has been pulled back from the brink.

 

There has been study of the whales that the Basques hunted on the coast of Labrador, through examination of bones and the like. I'm not up to date on the conclusions but there was some suggestion that it was bowhead, rather than right whales. There are no bowhead anywhere nearby now, though that might be an effect of climate change, rather than hunting. As for the North Atlantic right whale: With less than 400 surviving, its future is far from assured -- though we are now making major efforts to eliminate anthropogenic losses. My worry is that past hunting narrowed the genetic base so far that the whales will be vulnerable to some viral epizootic. I really, really hope not but when the numbers of a large mammal drop below 10,000, even 100,000, the odds are not good. Below 1,000 may be too low for any hope to remain. Still, we must try!

 

As for other species: Despite a lot of alarmist pronouncements, not one species of the open-sea (meaning a species that can complete its lifecycle without approaching land) is known to have gone extinct through the centuries when humans might have been involved. Not one. We have messed with their populations, upended ecosystems and generally caused mayhem. But the way that humans interact with the seas is fundamentally different to what we do on land and, thus far, knocking out the last individuals of open-sea species seems to be beyond us. Fortunately.

 

Trevor

 

P.S.: I was going to mark this post as "No Modelling Content" but I think we need to understand the context of the ships that we model. So, for anyone building a whaleboat kit, this is relevant information.