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Empty pin rails

Don Case

Don Case

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Jul 10, 2021
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I'm feeling like I've about done with rigging the Discovery1789. The masts and yards look very busy with ropes running every direction. It looks(to me) like a lot of "finished" ships I see posted but the pin rails seem empty. Some rails are fullish but others have only three or four lines on them. The pictures don't show the running rigging well but I've gotten as far as the sheets, tacks, clues(clews) and buntlines. The sails are furled so some lines don't amount to much. I know it's up to me when to stop but maybe a few opinions would help me along. What lines would give me the most bang for my buck kind of thing. Is it kosher to put a few extra hanks(coils) on the pin rails just to make it look busier or is that cheating :) Any advice at all would be appreciated. Apologies for the backdrop. I didn't realize how bad it was until I posted.

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Hi, Don. Look at this. I am stunned by how much rope is supposed to be on these ships. This is only the RUNNING rigging. If you install all these, your pin rails are going to be not enough.

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I didn't say that quite right, I meant I'm about done, not that the rigging is about done. :) I don't know if I want to see another piece of string. That said, when I look at other ships that are called complete they don't look like they have that much more rigging than the Discovery. I went looking at "complete" ships to see how full the pin rails were. Couldn't find many that showed full shots and pinrail shots. At least in the 15-20 mins I looked. So I thought maybe I could get away with less. Maybe I just need some time away from rigging.
 
Sure you do need some time off the rigging on this model. I would switch to something different for a while. Then after a while it would come to you that you must hang some more ropes onto your model. :)
 
I had no deck plans that showed the pin rails so when I noticed that pin rails were usually full I put in more than I thought necessary so I won't be surprised if I have a few too many. It's funny that when you have no plans and wing a lot of the ship all the shortcomings gang up on you at the end. Although I did have quite a few do-overs.
 
Y.T. said:
Hi, Don. Look at this. I am stunned by how much rope is supposed to be on these ships. This is only the RUNNING rigging. If you install all these, your pin rails are going to be not enough.

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YT do you have the key for this drawing. Be interesting to know what all the numbers are. Or maybe someone on here can just list them off the top of their head.:)
 
This depends on your artistic vision for the model. In times past, models were usually shown without sails. In this case it was customary to leave off running rigging such as buntlines for handling sails. The running rigging, halyards, braces, etc required for controlling the yards was modeled.

If you are going to model your ship with sails then it would be logical to include those sail handling lines too.

Roger
 
Don Case said:
YT do you have the key for this drawing. Be interesting to know what all the numbers are. Or maybe someone on here can just list them off the top of their head.:)
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I believe this image is from the Anatomy of the Ship book on the Victory. If you look in the last pages of the book (pages 116 - 119) It lists information for the rigging lines. For each one, it lists the Number, Name, Quantity, Circumference, Length (fathoms), Notes, Block type, Block size and additional notes.
 
There is a rigging detail line by line for the Warrior/Alfred 74 gun. They are in Volumes 5-1 & 5-2 "HMS Warrior (74) 1781". by William Romero. Highly details and does everthing but tie the knots for you. There is also detail rigging for the HMS Victory in "The Anatomy of Nelson's Ships" by C. Neapian Longridge. That drawing is not in my 1974 6th edition of Longridge book. Possibly added later.
 
I would not be concerned about empty pin rails. Such can happen in a full rig ship under way or berthed in port. What I would do is fill the pin rail with belay pins even if not used to belay rigging. Next I would explore what running rigging you might add. Then I would add a few rope coils to the belay pins…not all of the pins…just a few. Last…leave the empty belay pins as is..
 
It may just be my eye, but it does seem that your pin rails may be a bit "thin." On thing that occurred to me is whether you're hanging the entire fall on the pin rail or not. If a halyard, for example, is portrayed as "two-blocked," the coil on the pin should be a bit (maybe between five and ten feet, or longer if hauling on it will require a gang of men, as it usually does, than the distance from the deck to the twe-blocked blocks times how many falls there are in the tackle. That's usually a pretty long halyard, three times the distance from deck to blocks in a treble block tackle, plus however much additional would be necessary to reeve thrugh a turning block on deck and be hauled by a gang of six or eight men! It wasn't unusual to split such long hanks between two or even three belaying pins to even things out. If you hadn't considered this, you should measure the proper scale distances and make sure you have a scale lenght at the pin rail.
 
Thanks Bob, I had realized that some hanks will be huge and vice versa but I didn't know that they would split the slack between pins. That will help fill out a few rails. I have to admit though, I didn't pay much attention to which hank belonged to which rigging. I tried following a few ropes from the pinrail back to their source and kinda gave up. They just get so confusing where they go through the lubber hole I found I was doing more damage than good trying to trace them. Most of the belaying points could be in 3 or 4 different spots on different ships so whether they are right or not is anyone's guess. There are a few that are pretty standard so with those I will try to have the correct hank length/size.
 
Sorry for jumping in so late in the discussion. I'm of the opinion that, from a sailor's point of view, I'd expect all racks to be equipped with pins for at least two reasons: if I had to move a sheet (for example), I would expect to find a pin ready in the desired location without having to search for one, nor bother with the initial one. Secondly, there were a lot more ropes (in addition to those for rigging) used for pulling, hoisting, etc. various things; so pins at the ready everywhere must have been a must.
 
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