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Anchor rope size

Don Case

Don Case

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Anyone have a link to a chart that will tell me the size of the anchor rope on my Discovery1789? I've looked through everything I've got with no luck. Could be I'm looking for the wrong thing. It would be 18th century English 300 ton sloop of war.

PS I just found this on MSW
"The circumference of the cable should be 0.62 the diameter of the mainmast." It was just mentioned in a post with no source given.
Can anyone confirm this?
 
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Don Case said:
Anyone have a link to a chart that will tell me the size of the anchor rope on my Discovery1789? I've looked through everything I've got with no luck. Could be I'm looking for the wrong thing. It would be 18th century English 300 ton sloop of war.

PS I just found this on MSW
"The circumference of the cable should be 0.62 the diameter of the mainmast." It was just mentioned in a post with no source given.
Can anyone confirm this?
Click to expand...
Yes - this info was written in James Lees book Masting and Rigging

see also this discussion where @BenD gave the information

Vasa - 1:65 DeAgostini [COMPLETED BUILD]

As a practical matter...with a vertical rope walk you are limited to what you can reach. For a horizontal rope walk I guess the limit is the size of your room... Set up and running source threads takes 10x longer than spinning rope so basically it takes just as long to make a 21 foot long rope...
shipsofscale.com
 
Here is what Hockel writes in his book “Building Model Ships of the 16th and 17th Centuries”:
"The diameter of the anchor rope was determined as follows: for each foot of the width of the vessel, take 0.5 inches of the circumference of the rope. Taking the data from the previous example, we obtain a diameter equal to
22 x 0.5÷3.14 = 3.5 inches."
That is, in this case the width of the ship is 22 feet. If we divide this number by 0.5 we get the CIRCUM of the rope in INCHES. To find out the diameter of the rope, you need to divide the CIRCUM by the number π - 3.14.
I hope I explained clearly.
 
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Hi Don,

Goodwin “English Man of War” provides a rough and ready rule for determining the size of cable for a particular ship. He uses, page 178, the vessel’s extreme breadth divided by two. He also determines that a simple equation can be used for the size of the hawse holes as in, “Diameter of the hawse hole = vessel’s extreme breadth x 9/24”.

Note, extreme breadth in feet and inches divided by two gives a number that you use in inches. Remember this is circumference, you still need to convert to diameter if necessary. I used these guides for my Syren (link attached, scroll down half way), which I hope is self explanatory. For me it’s close enough but as others have noted there are other methods. Hope this helps.

Syren 1803 1:64 Model Shipways

The hawse holes are still in their infancy, I just have to keep enlarging them from inside and out so they meet at a downward angle, leading for’d at the same time. The hull is ok as I very, very slowly work at this. Thanks for your concern Jack. That is very good to hear Roger :D
shipsofscale.com
 
Thank you all. It's amazing that there are so many ways to arrive at the same thing but I guess that since most of the dimensions of a ship are derived from the beam it should not be surprising. I actually have Goodwin's book and had looked over that section but somehow missed it. I think I saw "hawes hole" and thought that this will be based on the rope diameter so I there was no point in looking here. Or maybe I'm just old.
 
All the methods seem to work out to .1" or 2.5 mm for the Discovery1789 at 1:48. Now I just have to figure out how many Tex 70 threads to twist into the 3 hawsers that twist into a .1" cable. I think I'll be doing some back and forth walking. I guess that's why it's called a rope "walk". :)
 
When your model is finished, I will visit with my calipers and measure your anchor rope. If for some reason the measurement is off, you will have to live with it forever. What will your Grandchildren think? Be sure to divide the circumference by 3.1415926535897932384626433...........the outcome is infinite.
 
If you can tell me the exact diameter of the anchor cable on the Discovery1789 (with documentation) I will fiddle with the thread count until I get it exact. :)
 
Don Case said:
It's amazing that there are so many ways to arrive at the same thing but I guess that since most of the dimensions of a ship are derived from the beam it should not be surprising
Click to expand...
For English ships it depends on the era. David Lees has set up ratios for all rigging line circumferences (not diameters) as well as mast and yard sizes, et al.
The main mast and subsequent measurements used the beam as a startng point from 1627 to 1669 and 1719 to 1794 which would cover your Discovery which had a beam of 28 feet 3 1/4 inches. From 1670 to 1719 and after 1793 the base figure was based on beam and length of the keel or beam and length of the gun deck, Using the Lees ratios the main mast diameter should be 18.9 inches in diameter, The anchor cable circumference is thus 0.62X18.9= 11.7" or diameter of 3 3/4"
Allan
 
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Did you mean James Lees? If so, where did you find the anchor cable size info? I love J Lees book except I find it extremely difficult to find info in it. I think everything is there but sometimes I just can't find it.
 
Don Case said:
Did you mean James Lees? If so, where did you find the anchor cable size info? I love J Lees book except I find it extremely difficult to find info in it. I think everything is there but sometimes I just can't find it.
Click to expand...
Big oops, yes James Lees, I was thinking David Steel's Elements and Practice of Rigging, and Seamanship. For Lees, the anchor cable ratio is on page 188 middle column near the bottom.
Allan
 
Thanks Alan. This is what I mean about Lees' book. There is no mention about anchor cable size in the index(why three indexes??) It seems that the appendix isn't in the index and that's where an awful lot of info is.
 
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