HMS Medea (28) (1778) 1/48 scratch build

[Masters Mate]

Interesting to see hammock cranes on the breast-rail. Nicely fabricated - just unexpected for me (which is entirely a reflection of my ignorance about all things nautical).

You may be right, Paul. My gut feeling was that most captains would not tolerate the cranes in their faces and I don't see them in any contemporary paintings I have found. They don't make sense to me, unless the captain was in the habit of hiding behind the hammocks during battle, which flies in the face of modern perceptions about how officers carried themselves during battle.



The plans I have are basic at best; an early attempt at the Enterprise class which CAF etc produced as kits. If you look at some of the completed kits they show the cranes there. Personally, I think they are a mistake and I am already tempted to cut them off. The exercise was worth it anyway because I proved that my two smaller soldering irons were dead and my old Weller needs new tips, so I've ordered those.

I wonder if the current Enterprise kit being group-built here on SOS shows the hammock cranes on the breast rail?

As always, thanks for your comments.

 

[Masters Mate]

Hi Ian,
Love your scratch build!
A point on the ratlines, hope you don't mind. What is the distance between rows of ratlines, it is hard to tell from the photos. At your scale they would be 0.27" to 0.3" apart. Also, from James Lees' The Masting and Rigging English Ships of War, page 44, after 1773 the bottom six rows and top six rows of ratlines ended at the second shroud from forward and ended at the second shroud from aft on English ships. There are some contemporary models that have a variation of this where the bottom four or five only go to the forward most and aft most shrouds, and then to the forward most and aft most every three or four rows.

Allan

View attachment 555206

Thanks for the love, Allan!

The plans I have are basic at best.


My main printed reference has been Petersson Rigging Period Ship Models, based mainly on the fact that he used a model of Malampus, in the Bristol Museum built by the builder of the original ship, James Hillhouse. A model of the Medea (also built by Mr Hillhouse), is also held in the museum.

Although my ratlines are a work in progress they are as close as possible to 18" apart, or .375" in scale (as per the plans). But that is too wide for my Footless and Free-falling landsman so I will reduce them on the re-do.



As always, thanks for taking the time to add your informative comments.