Royal Navy Fireship COMET 1783

[kruginmi]

I wanted to add a couple comments having received this book as a birthday gift recently.  He has built a beautiful ship.  Being an owner of the TFFM series (well used for my Druid) this is a great addition for his extensive treatment of quarter galleries and expanded headwork.

 

As I plan out my next build (or two, or three) I thought a fire ship is a little off of the beaten path and perfect for the desired 1/48th scale I like.  For those people like myself I make the following fireship specific notes on this book:

- He clearly states in the preface that the included plans are specific to the hull.  There are no deck plans or furniture defined (firedeck or weatherdeck).  There is strictly a planking plan for the weather deck

- He defines the plan number required to procure these from the Royal Museum.  I was able to go the museum site and look at a reduced sample.  Having this available greatly aided reading and understanding the supplied text.  For building you will absolutely need to buy this addition.

- I do like the treatment of the fire port arrangements.  Pictures with accompanying graphics really help to drive home how it works.

- I wish more of the same was supplied for the fire troughs.  While there are oblique views (of his build on the Museum firedeck plan) some more graphics would have helped.  He talks at length about trestles (the method of raising the troughs off of the deck) but nothing to accompany to show his solution.  I would have loved to see some more exploded diagrams.

- He chose not to include any examples of the actual incendiaries (fire barrels, barras, and bavins / reeds).  He does reference a ship that does show this and I was able to view reduced images of it on line.  Once again, some drawn diagrams would have been extremely helpful to understand layout and conventional practice.  I am still 'assuming' that nothing was present between the fire troughs.

 

A very useful book in the TFFM line.  Also a very good resource for information about fire ships but just know that additional material will be required.

-Mark