Can someone point me at an explanation of how the cathead and rigging was used in raising and lowering the anchor. When and how the cathead rigging hook was attached/unattached to the anchor puzzles me.
Wolfram zu Mondfeld:
The floating anchor buoy indicates where the anchor is located on the bottom so the ship can be positioned to weigh (lift) it from the bottom. The anchor is raised from the bottom using the anchor cable, the the cat tackle hook takes the weight of the anchor off the cable by the anchor ring, then the flukes of the anchor are hoisted up and aft with a tackle and fishing davit. The flukes only, or the entire anchor is placed on the fore channel and lashed down. The anchor buoy is untied from the anchor, it's line coiled, and tied above to the shroud for storage.
Payne's print of HMS Sovereign of the Seas, showing a sailing attaching the cathead tackle to the anchor ring in preparation for lifting it for storage.
The fore anchor here is shown still supported by the cathead tackle. For permanent storage, a sling would be used between the cathead and the anchor ring and the cathead tackle could be unhooked from the ring and rigged for storage. Both anchor cables are attached to their anchors, to keep them both ready as required. Normally, the aft anchor would have its cable unattached and stored below and the fore anchor may still have its cable attached. It all depends on the situation.
Two anchor buoys are lashed to the foremast shrouds.
The cathead is in not only used to "fish" and anchor from the bottom and allow it to be prepared for storage, but may also play a role in storing the anchor, as seen below on HMS Victory.
Thanks Kurt. Is the fishing davit permantly in place? I don't recall seeing one anywhere.
The fishing davit is used on many 17th century ship of larger size. What the anchor is large and heavy, the fishing davit is slid on the forecastle deck to port or starboard as necessary, extending through the railing and out past the side of the ship. There is a knotted rope used by many crew members to move the heavy davit, which is essentially a portable beam. English ships tended to have fixed fishing davits. Continental ships had movable davits.
Wolfram zu Mondfeld:
Fishing davit on a smaller, late period vessel, temporarily fitting to weigh the anchor.
Thanks Kurt. Once I knew that there was such a thing as a "Fish Davit" I could find quite a bit of stuff. Steep learning curve modeling these things.
If you like take a look at this post in my building log of my Granado section model, where I added a scratch build fish davit
HMS GRANADO (1742) - midship section - POF by CAF in 1:48 - by Uwe
It's really quite beautiful!
shipsofscale.com
Thank you for that link Uwe. I seems strange to me that the cathead was permanently attached and the fish davit was moveable. I think that most of the time they would be used together.
They are only working together,
The cathead is fixed on all ships - on both sides - used for lifting the anchor from the when outside the water to the level of the railing.
and the fish davit was moveable, one piece on board - which is stowed on deck when not in use, but if necessary they could it use it on one side. Used for "fishing" the blades of the anchor, so they could bring the anchor parallel to the railing......
So used for two different movements of the anchor
But I'll bet they put the fish davit in the same spot every time. Maybe it would be in the way of some other function.
More on the movable fish davit. The davit could slide in the spanshackle, which was fixed to the deck.
All this talk about the fish davit got me thinking. I forgot to install a fish davit on La Couronne, so let's make one!
Here is the general plan, taken from James Lee's The Masting and Rigging of English Ships of War - 1625-1860.
Take some 24g brass wire and hammer it flat.
Form the spanshackle. The fish davit slides through this. It is later mounted on the forecastle deck.
Blacken the brass.
Taking a 4x4mm walnut stick, taper it at both ends by sanding, cut the notches for the fishing tackle at both ends with the sharp edge of a needle file, and use a micro drill in your Dremel or other rotary tool to drill the holes for the rope handles.
Harden the end of the some 0.13mm thread with CA glue, and use it it like a needle to sew the rope handles through the holes.
Stain with Walnut Danish Oil, place the spanshackle over the davit, and there you go. One fish davit.
The fish davit is installed on the forecastle behind the foremast.
All this talk about the fish davit got me thinking. I forgot to install a fish davit on La Couronne, so let's make one!
Here is the general plan, taken from James Lee's The Masting and Rigging of English Ships of War - 1625-1860.
Take some 24g brass wire and hammer it flat.
Form the spanshackle. The fish davit slides through this. It is later mounted on the forecastle deck.
Blacken the brass.
Taking a 4x4mm walnut stick, taper it at both ends by sanding, cut the notches for the fishing tackle at both ends with the sharp edge of a needle file, and use a micro drill in your Dremel or other rotary tool to drill the holes for the rope handles.
Harden the end of the some 0.13mm thread with CA glue, and use it it like a needle to sew the rope handles through the holes.
Stain with Walnut Danish Oil, place the spanshackle over the davit, and there you go. One fish davit.
The fish davit is installed on the forecastle behind the foremast.
Cool, the decks on these things were sure cluttered up with stuff 
. I think I'll be using the short ones. I think they suit the time period (1789) better.
. I think I'll be using the short ones. I think they suit the time period (1789) better.
It would be (according Lees) the short beam based on the channelsCool, the decks on these things were sure cluttered up with stuff
I found an excellent picture of a fishing davit used on HMS Sovereign of the Seas in John McKay's book. His illustrations are excellent.
