Museo Naval, Madrid.

What an amazing collection of images - I am in awe of the craftsmanship and knowledge of materials displayed. I never understand why people assume that our forebears knew less about things than we did. They certainly didn't know much about machines but they know a lot more about things we do not. How to hand cut veneers, adze planks so flat and smooth they look like they were planed, create intricate carvings in holly, box, ivory. It's a long list.

And a lot of it done by candle-light.
 
Interesting (and a little sad) to see how the presumably iron fixings used on the planking have created stains on the surrounding wood. This is not so visible on other models in this collection of images which in some cases clearly have brass fixings. This type of staining is generally caused by a chemical reaction between the tannins in the wood - particularly tannic acid -and the iron, something aggravated by moisture in the air or poor storage. Some woods, English Oak for example are very tannic hence the use of oak barrels or in modern wineries with metal vats the use of muslin bags containing oak chips to create that oaky flavour in (particularly) Chardonnay.


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Alan Smith said:
Interesting (and a little sad) to see how the presumably iron fixings used on the planking have created stains on the surrounding wood. This is not so visible on other models in this collection of images which in some cases clearly have brass fixings. This type of staining is generally caused by a chemical reaction between the tannins in the wood - particularly tannic acid -and the iron, something aggravated by moisture in the air or poor storage. Some woods, English Oak for example are very tannic hence the use of oak barrels or in modern wineries with metal vats the use of muslin bags containing oak chips to create that oaky flavour in (particularly) Chardonnay.


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Just like real scale, copper would have been the best choice for nailing that guy.
 
Wooden trenails were common among the Brits to put together the futtocks of two demi-frames, but the entire ship's scantiling was fastened with copper terenail, whose heads, still softened with heat, were hit by two hammers at unison. See Tally Ho's timelapse episode on youtube.
 
albertmary said:
Wooden trenails were common among the Brits to put together the futtocks of two demi-frames, but the entire ship's scantiling was fastened with copper terenail,
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I think Peter Goodwin and David Antscherl, to name just two historians/writers as well as RMG would disagree . :) Goodwin comments that copper was used below the water line for some things but he describes how treenails were inserted, split and wedged into the hull planking and frames. The decks were spiked with iron, not copper, and covered with wooden plugs. Copper was surely used in places such as the keel scarfs for example, but to say the entire ship was built with copper fasteners may not be correct.

Allan
 
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Alan Smith said:
Interesting (and a little sad) to see how the presumably iron fixings used on the planking have created stains on the surrounding wood. This is not so visible on other models in this collection of images which in some cases clearly have brass fixings. This type of staining is generally caused by a chemical reaction between the tannins in the wood - particularly tannic acid -and the iron, something aggravated by moisture in the air or poor storage. Some woods, English Oak for example are very tannic hence the use of oak barrels or in modern wineries with metal vats the use of muslin bags containing oak chips to create that oaky flavour in (particularly) Chardonnay.


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Thank you for the insight Alan! Seems like you read my mind because I had that exact question regarding those stains, in fact that was the reason I took that photo but then forgot to ask.
 
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