HIGH HOPES, WILD MEN AND THE DEVIL’S JAW - Willem Barentsz Kolderstok 1:50

Looks like a restaurant with a great atmosphere Heinrich. Did a quick cellphone count - Amazing how folk will restaurant together, sit 1654555752442.pngopposite each other, then whip out the phones to communicate with someone or something else? Or maybe they're just catching up with the latest updates of your Willem Barentsz on SOS, who knows ROTF

Either way, I'm sure your would have treated your Admiral with far more decorum and respect, hope you had a good time :)
 
Nomad said:
Looks like a restaurant with a great atmosphere Heinrich. Did a quick cellphone count - Amazing how folk will restaurant together, sit View attachment 312642opposite each other, then whip out the phones to communicate with someone or something else? Or maybe they're just catching up with the latest updates of your Willem Barentsz on SOS, who knows ROTF

Either way, I'm sure your would have treated your Admiral with far more decorum and respect, hope you had a good time :)
Click to expand...
You nailed it Mark! Like I said in an earlier posting - cellphones dominate in China. I have never seen a nation so infatuated with them as the Chinese, but then the phones here are used for so much more than in other counties. Without our cellphones and without the ability to show the restaurant our three green health codes, plust the fact that our last testing is not more than 48 hours old, we would not have been allowed to enter the restaurant.
 
Constructing the front mast. Note to self:

1. There is an easy and visually correct way - there is a difficult and historically correct way.
2. Post the difficult way on SOS BEFORE you do it.
3. That way you are forced to do it the correct way. (Members can check up on you).

5A4E29D4-E89C-4F2C-9A28-9B9E255450A9.jpeg
@Kolderstok Hans's drawing of the correct way of placing a sheave on the inside of the mast cheeks.
 
Hello Everyone.

As promised masts - and first up the foremast. The foremast comprises of two dowels which are joined in a particular way. The bigger of the two is a 6mm dowel which is tapered at the top to 4mm, while the smaller one is a 4mm dowel which is tapered to 2mm at the top.

微信图片_20220605185230.jpg

Both dowels are cut at an angle over a distance of 30mm, are then glued together and are finally tied with two wooldings which are tied in the following way as per the instruction manual:

微信图片_20220605185210.jpg

微信图片_20220605185217.jpg

I did not take pictures of this, but here you can see in the instruction manual how the dowels are cut.

微信图片_20220607205922.jpg

You obviously have to exercise great care when creating the angled joints to make sure that they are flat and true, but other than that, this part did not present any trouble. The base of the mast still needs to be slightly tapered at an angle as well, but that I will only do before actual installation.

微信图片_20220607205916.jpg

Now however, the fun and games start with the shaping of the mast cheeks and then the way that they get attached to the mast. The instruction manual shows a simple groove that is cut into the inside of the mast cheeks for the rope to pass through (Photograph below).

微信图片_20220607212228.jpg

But when I enquired about this to make absolutely sure, our dearest @Kolderstok Hans sends me the following drawing to show me how it should actually be done.

5A4E29D4-E89C-4F2C-9A28-9B9E255450A9.jpeg

And then tells me that he is sure I will opt to do it this way (the most difficult way) by fitting actual sheaves to the inside of the mast cheeks. ROTF And to make sure that I know exactly how to do it, he sends me the following literature:

Mondfeld.png

Het VOC.png

Much obliged Hans! Thank you very much.

But he also sends me another book - all 600MB of it.

7p.png

Oh boy ...
 
Daniel20 said:
Dear Heinrich,
It's great to see you now going vertical on your very fine WB. Since it appears you will be building the cheeks with a sheave will you be carving your own wooden one, or buying some brass equivalent?
Click to expand...
Daniel, my friend - neither. If you build like me, you improvise all the time. I do not have the tools to turn them out, neither can I order anything with the current Covid restrictions. Now here's the surprise: Spare gun carriage wheels, sanded to the correct thickness, make beautiful sheaves! ROTF
 
Heinrich said:
Both dowels are cut at an angle over a distance of 30mm, are then glued together and are finally tied with two wooldings
Click to expand...
I'm thinking of the name of this construction. In Dutch it's called "genaaide steng" or "gelaste steng", but in English I don't know.
The other more known is called "schietende steng" thats when the topmast can be lowered or hoist. How that is called in English? So if anybody knows?
 
Steef66 said:
I'm thinking of the name of this construction. In Dutch it's called "genaaide steng" or "gelaste steng", but in English I don't know.
The other more known is called "schietende steng" thats when the topmast can be lowered or hoist. How that is called in English? So if anybody knows?
Click to expand...
Correct Stephan. According to @Ab Hoving, the "schietende steng" was an innovation by Krijn Wouters of Enkhuizen and was used on the bigger ships from 1570. The smaller ships though, like the WB, continued to use a "genaaide steng", but what the English translation is, I have no idea,
 
Don Case said:
It's just a scarf joint, isn't it? Rounded off, of course.
Click to expand...
Hi Don. You are right - the joining of the two parts is accomplished via a scarf joint, but seeing that there is Dutch terminology for this type of mast, I would assume there will also be a specific English name for it.
 
Daniel20 said:
Dear Heinrich,
It's great to see you now going vertical on your very fine WB. Since it appears you will be building the cheeks with a sheave will you be carving your own wooden one, or buying some brass equivalent?
Click to expand...
Using a brass sheave on a 16th/17th century ship is a bit like "vloeken in de kerk". It was used, but not that much.
The sheaves were mostly made out of pock wood - a very hard fine grained wood, known for its good resistance to wear.

Btw - I was asking my sister in the UK if there is an English phrase for "vloeken in de kerk" - but it seems there is no real English equivalent to this.
It is literally translated as swearing in the church, and it means a bit like "challenging conventional wisdom" or doing/saying something which you know isn't completely the right thing, but anyhow you do it.
 
Kolderstok said:
Using a brass sheave on a 16th/17th century ship is a bit like "vloeken in de kerk". It was used, but not that much.
The sheaves were mostly made out of pock wood - a very hard fine grained wood, known for its good resistance to wear.

Btw - I was asking my sister in the UK if there is an English phrase for "vloeken in de kerk" - but it seems there is no real English equivalent to this.
It is literally translated as swearing in the church, and it means a bit like "challenging conventional wisdom" or doing/saying something which you know isn't completely the right thing, but anyhow you do it.
Click to expand...
Thanks Hans, very informative. I would imagine the axel would receive the harshest stresses.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top