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BEST BOOKS

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Spars

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Which books are best for a modeler to refer to for HMS Victory, color pictures and drawings and suchlike, photos of restoration and renovation.
 
Jeff picked the best book if you were to only have one book. For details on rigging there are several including The Masting and Rigging of English Ships of War. There is a free download on rigging by David Steel published in 1794 so should be somewhat close for the Victory rebuild in 1803 that should be helpful. https://maritime.org/doc/steel/

Allan
 
Spars said:
Which books are best for a modeler
Click to expand...
I would not want the"best" book or "best" anything else. I want excellent. I want definitive. I want comprehensive. I want accurate.

If the whole field is worthless nonsense - the "best" of it is still worthless nonsense.

Victory 1765 is particularly tricky. Launched in 1765 - not fitted for sea until 1778 - Its above the waterline look/particulars/structures underwent significant change every 10-20 years - or after battle damage. From a superficial view it was a new ship about every 20 years. From 1815 to 1860 there was rapid change as the Industrial Revolution exerted it effect on available materials. Chain in rigging - steel lines - turnbuckles - The object that is at Portsmouth now - has gone thru many significant morphs. Then it became an icon and a museum. It has be the subject of the whims and prejudices of about three generations naval historians.

Pick a year - find the definitive text books with masting and rigging data for that year or the closest earlier texts. The RN was nothing if not subject to rigid rules. Find the rules for your preferred time and match them. If a particular captain had a wild hare about experimenting with particular details - ignore that - that is a moving target. The danger with kits of Victory is that the design may actually be a chimera of several iterations of Victory. At the time, Victory was a working tool, a huge floating arty battery, the men involved were all about being "modern" and current, Victory was not seen as a museum then. It was not documented as a museum. It was documented as something that still had a job to do.
 
Corsair said:
It depends on the information you are after. However, there is quite a bit of information within the "Anatomy of the Ship: Victory" and it can still be found at a reasonable price.
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I am looking for images of the guts of the vessel. I have the Anatomy of A Ship. How timbers are joined, the shipwright's view of the vessel.
 
Spars said:
Which books are best for a modeler to refer to for HMS Victory, color pictures and drawings and suchlike, photos of restoration and renovation.
Click to expand...

Not that I think you couldn't have looked it up yourself, but here's one AI platform's answer to your question with which I can find no fault:

Books on the Restoration of HMS Victory​

Several authoritative works document the construction, career, and restoration of HMS Victory, the flagship of Admiral Nelson.

1. HMS Victory: Her Construction, Career and Restoration – Alan Patrick McGowan
Published by Caxton Editions in 2003 (originally 1999), this illustrated history covers Victory’s career and reconstruction in detail. It includes over 200 drawings showing her as she appeared in 1805, making it a rich technical reference for shipbuilders, historians, and modelers Google Books.

2. H.M.S. Victory: Building, Restoration & Repair – Arthur R. Bugler (HMSO, 1966)
A two-volume set offering a meticulous chronicle of Victory’s life.
  • Volume I details her original construction, structural evolution, and centuries of restoration, with 57 photographic plates and 28 technical drawings.
  • Volume II features 16 large-format folding schematics of rigging, hull design, and internal fittings.
    Bugler emphasizes Victory’s historical and cultural significance as both a naval symbol and a preserved monument www.britanniareads.com+1.
3. Other related works
  • The Anatomy of the Ship: HMS “Victory” by John McKay – a detailed anatomical study of the ship’s structure hms-victory.net.
  • HMS Victory Manual 1765–1812 by Peter Goodwin – a practical manual for shipwrights and modelers hms-victory.net.
  • H.M.S. Victory: First-Rate by Jonathan Eastland – a broader history with restoration context hms-victory.net.
Why these books are valuable

They combine historical narrative with technical drawings and blueprints, making them essential for understanding the restoration process, the materials used, and the challenges of preserving a wooden warship over two centuries. They are widely used by maritime historians, ship modelers, and conservationists.

If you want the most comprehensive restoration-focused resource, McGowan’s illustrated manual and Bugler’s two-volume set are the definitive references.

****************************************************************************************************************************************************
DAWarden-(Jaager) said:
If the whole field is worthless nonsense - the "best" of it is still worthless nonsense.
Click to expand...

Building a well-researched scale model of Victory from scratch, was in Longridge's day the apex of the ship modeler's craft, just as at that same time, Hillary and Norgay's summitting Mt. Everest was the apex of mountaineering. Now, three quarters of a century later, both "ultimate achievements" are equally unremarkable. Today, both climbing Mt. Everest and putting together a Victory model are simply a matter of buying the accomplishment of a once-remarkable experience that has long since become mundane.
 
Last edited:
Bob Cleek said:
Not that I think you couldn't have looked it up yourself, but here's one AI platform's answer to your question with which I can find no fault:

Books on the Restoration of HMS Victory​

Several authoritative works document the construction, career, and restoration of HMS Victory, the flagship of Admiral Nelson.

1. HMS Victory: Her Construction, Career and Restoration – Alan Patrick McGowan
Published by Caxton Editions in 2003 (originally 1999), this illustrated history covers Victory’s career and reconstruction in detail. It includes over 200 drawings showing her as she appeared in 1805, making it a rich technical reference for shipbuilders, historians, and modelers Google Books.

2. H.M.S. Victory: Building, Restoration & Repair – Arthur R. Bugler (HMSO, 1966)
A two-volume set offering a meticulous chronicle of Victory’s life.
  • Volume I details her original construction, structural evolution, and centuries of restoration, with 57 photographic plates and 28 technical drawings.
  • Volume II features 16 large-format folding schematics of rigging, hull design, and internal fittings.
    Bugler emphasizes Victory’s historical and cultural significance as both a naval symbol and a preserved monument www.britanniareads.com+1.
3. Other related works
  • The Anatomy of the Ship: HMS “Victory” by John McKay – a detailed anatomical study of the ship’s structure hms-victory.net.
  • HMS Victory Manual 1765–1812 by Peter Goodwin – a practical manual for shipwrights and modelers hms-victory.net.
  • H.M.S. Victory: First-Rate by Jonathan Eastland – a broader history with restoration context hms-victory.net.
Why these books are valuable

They combine historical narrative with technical drawings and blueprints, making them essential for understanding the restoration process, the materials used, and the challenges of preserving a wooden warship over two centuries. They are widely used by maritime historians, ship modelers, and conservationists.

If you want the most comprehensive restoration-focused resource, McGowan’s illustrated manual and Bugler’s two-volume set are the definitive references.

****************************************************************************************************************************************************


Building a well-researched scale model of Victory from scratch, was in Longridge's day the apex of the ship modeler's craft, just as at that same time, Hillary and Norgay's summitting Mt. Everest was the apex of mountaineering. Now, three quarters of a century later, both "ultimate achievements" are equally unremarkable. Today, both climbing Mt. Everest and putting together a Victory model are simply a matter of buying the accomplishment of a once-remarkable experience that has long since become mundane.
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Hi Bob.

I've never seen the Bugler books in the flesh, however I'm not likely to considering the high prices asked.

Having had the pleasure of regular visits to the Science Museum, London over many years, their 'Shipping Hall' was a fabulous display of models from all periods.
The period model of 'Prince' was sublime as was the Longridge 'Victory' which he built using very rudimentary tools (by todays standards).
Even so, finding a better example eludes me.

Sadly the collection was showing signs of deterioration before the entire exhibition was widely dispersed.
I've said it before, I consider that dispersal (along with the NMM collection) to be a great loss to the interested enthusiast and a national scandal.
 
pugwash said:
Hi Bob.

I've never seen the Bugler books in the flesh, however I'm not likely to considering the high prices asked.

Having had the pleasure of regular visits to the Science Museum, London over many years, their 'Shipping Hall' was a fabulous display of models from all periods.
The period model of 'Prince' was sublime as was the Longridge 'Victory' which he built using very rudimentary tools (by todays standards).
Even so, finding a better example eludes me.

Sadly the collection was showing signs of deterioration before the entire exhibition was widely dispersed.
I've said it before, I consider that dispersal (along with the NMM collection) to be a great loss to the interested enthusiast and a national scandal.
Click to expand...

Although I was aware of them, I've never had a copy of the Buglar books in my hands, either, and the last time I saw a used set offered, they were $150 USD, so I doubt I'll be seeing them in the future. I expect they are quite technical.

I was fortunate to be able to visit NMG before their exhibit of Admiralty Board models were removed. Sadly, I missed the Science Museum models when I visited London in the late 1990's. I agree that it is a sad thing that the ship model collections of the Royal Museums have essentially been relegated to storage warehouses, although I've read that many of them are stored at Chatham, I believe, and can be viewed by special appointment. I know a few museum professionals here in the States and it's the same here. "Static displays" of "artifacts" are no longer favored by museum management anywhere, it seems. For them, it's all about the numbers of tickets sold at the turnstiles and the customer base isn't as sophisticated as it once was. What sells museum tickets these days are interactive video displays and simplistic presentations, rather than exhibits of items worthy of close study by visitors who know what they are looking at.

People used to go to museums to actively learn things. Now they go to be passively entertained.
 
Museums are making the same mistakes as other cultural institutions eg; symphony orchestras. They think that by changing exhibits to generate mass appeal they will boost attendance. I doubt if it will work. Using my symphony analogy; playing music by the Beatles does not mean that those who go to rock concerts will attend.

The really successful maritime museums seem to be those that are privately owned: Mystic Seaport, The Mariners Museum, etc.

Roger
 
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