BEST BOOKS

[Spars]

Which books are best for a modeler to refer to for HMS Victory, color pictures and drawings and suchlike, photos of restoration and renovation.

 

[Corsair]

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.

 

[AllanKP69]

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

 

[DAWarden-(Jaager)]

Which books are best for a modeler

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.

 

[TheGatzby]

I believe one of the best resources for modeling Victory and other ships is

The Anatomy of Nelson's Ships by Nepean Longridge​

Sorry, no color..

 

[Spars]

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.

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.

 

[Spree Three]

HMS Victory by Alan McGowan is another very useful resource.