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

@Pathfinder65 @Daniel20 @Dean62

Dear Gents. That is indeed an excellent discussion on how the smaller rope is tied off. On the full-sized ship, I cannot offer you an answer, but as far as models go, I refer you to a book that @Kolderstok Hans sent me and that is like a holy grail to me - the De Zeven Provincien by C.G. Dik. The Index to this book - printed in three columns per page - is three pages long.

Dik 1.png
He writes (I hope my translation is correct): The ratlines (weeflijnen) are attached to the main ropes with a clove hitch (mastworp). At the ends the ratline was split into a loop and tied to the front and rear main ropes. The end of the line was tied off by weaving it through the threads of the main rope.

I hope that makes sense.
 
Jack Sparrow said:
Interesting model. What confounds me, however is the Bowsprit. Was it common in that time period to have the bowsprit unmasted?
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Hi Jack. I am not quite sure what you mean with "unmasted" bowsprit? Do you mean without the short mast at the tip of the bowsprit?
 
SANY0181.JPG

Dear Heinrich!

In the picture you can see a rigger working on the shrouds. On the left side he is finished and on the right side the looses ropes are still hanging down. Because we do not work on such a large ship, the normal knot is almost always used, so the rope ends hang down on the right and left side of our models during this work. So that the shrouds do not contract, he has mounted a spacer plate, which will be removed again later.
If all the distances between the weaving lines on the model are correct, I soak all the knots with water-diluted wood glue and cut off the ends of the ropes with a razor blade. The glue must be thoroughly dry, otherwise the outer knots will loosen.
Do not use CA glue, it makes the ropes rigid and fragile in the long run.

Best regards
Thomas
 
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Thomas Marocke said:
View attachment 355068

Dear Heinrich!

In the picture you can see a rigger working on the shrouds. On the left side he is finished and on the right side the looses ropes are still hanging down. Because we do not work on such a large ship, the normal knot is almost always used, so the rope ends hang down on the right and left side of our models during this work. So that the shrouds do not contract, he has mounted a spacer plate, which will be removed again later.
If all the distances between the weaving lines on the model are correct, I soak all the knots with water-diluted wood glue and cut off the ends of the ropes with a razor blade. The glue glue must be thoroughly dry, otherwise the outer knots will loosen.
Do not use CA glue, it makes the ropes rigid and fragile in the long run.

Best regards
Thomas
Click to expand...
Dear Thomas. Thank you for a great reply and great photograph. The more I have studied all the options available, the more I realized that using clove-hitches throughout (like @Dean62 Dean suggested) is the way to go - particularly because of the limited space I have to work with. The diluted PVA as a means of securing the knots is a great one! For sure, I will not be using CA! Thank you, Thomas!
 
Heinrich said:
Dear Thomas. Thank you for a great reply and great photograph. The more I have studied all the options available, the more I realized that using clove-hitches throughout (like @Dean62 Dean suggested) is the way to go - particularly because of the limited space I have to work with. The diluted PVA as a means of securing the knots is a great one! For sure, I will not be using CA! Thank you, Thomas!
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1675342866578.jpeg
 
I’ve been following the ratline discussion with a lot of interest. So I looked back at a couple of photos of the Bluenose I took last year in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. At the time I took shots of parts of the rigging etc. for my own education. If you zoom in on the photo you can see how the crew secured the ratlines for that vessel.

9CA30FC7-68F7-4431-B314-0519A8DC0DBF.jpeg

7BA9B8C7-8FC5-4C37-8F28-CAB947728F68.jpeg
 
RogerD said:
This might show it better.

View attachment 355113
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Thank you so much for these beautiful photographs, Roger! You are right - that is pretty much the method shown in the pictures! Looking at this, the seizing extends quite some way - and that is exactly where my problem lies - on the model, I just do not have that space to work with. If I were to do any seizing close to the mast top, I would end up with an almost continuously seized ratline.
 
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