HMS Victory of Caldercraft by Wil

[Albert Mary]

Scary operation... I don't even want to think what if you messed it up. Happy to know all went right!

 

[Scheepshoorn]

Two weeks after my last post, I've been able to spend several more hours on the Victory. Not so much in terms of visible progress, but more in the form of thinking it through, so I can feel confident I'm not forgetting anything. I've checked and double-checked everything from different angles. McKay's table is my leading reference here, along with the drawings. For details I use Zu Montfeld and Petersson. Only after that do I turn to Longridge if I'm in doubt or stuck.

At the moment, the yards on all three masts have everything I've been able to find in the sources mentioned above.







In the meantime, I've also fitted the masts with the necessary blocks, which I can attach beforehand without the various lines that will later run through them. I don't want to think about having to do this once several lines of the running rigging are already in place. With only the standing rigging on, you essentially have a vertical "flat" plane along the ship's longitudinal axis, which you can still reach reasonably well from all sides. Once the running rigging goes on, the ship gains width and it becomes considerably harder.









So right now I still have a whole checklist of points that need to be done first. For instance, the drawings indicate that in some places I need to make cleats on the stays for belaying lines. No idea whether these were included in the kit, but I can't find them anywhere at the moment. There are also still a few things I haven't quite figured out yet, but that will come.

On top of that, there's the ongoing discussion of whether to fully rig some of the sails. At the moment I'm considering fully rigging the following sails: the spanker, the three topgallant sails, and possibly one sail under the bowsprit. No idea yet whether this will look good.

Since I still needed to order some extra blocks, I started yesterday on the rigging around the bowsprit. A nice change from all the tinkering on the yards.



Now a question comes to mind: in what order should the running rigging be fitted? My first instinct is to start at the top and slowly work down. Is that correct?
My reasoning is as follows:

• As the running rigging is added, the model becomes wider and bulkier, increasing the risk of lines getting tangled.
• Most lines run from the yards and sails inward, along the mast to the mast foot or to the bulwark, where they're belayed.
• If you start at the top, most of the "horizontal" rigging stays on the "level" it belongs to before running downward.
• Lower down, you don't yet have the widening of your working area caused by larger yards and/or sails.
• This way, you can essentially work underneath the lines from the level above without getting tangled.
• If you do it the other way around and start at the bottom, you'd already be filling the working space around the belaying points with a wider band of lines from the lower level.
• After that, it becomes harder to bring the lines from the higher levels down through that.

 

[AllanKP69]

It is not easy no matter how it is done, but the order of dressing in James Lees' book The Masting and Rigging of English Ships of War on page 158 has worked for me in the past. (Might be too much to copy and paste for a copyrighted work.)
Allan

 

[Scheepshoorn]

Hello Allen, thanks for your tip.
Does anyone happen to have this book digitally for me?

 

[Steef66]

Boekwinkeltjes

Op boekwinkeltjes.nl koopt en verkoopt u uw tweedehands boeken. Zo'n 10.000 antiquaren, boekhandelaren en particulieren zijn u al voorgegaan. Samen zijn ze goed voor een aanbod van 7 miljoen titels.

www.boekwinkeltjes.nl

Here's a nice copy at a good price. Usually around 200.
I've never seen it in digital form.

 

[Scheepshoorn]

49. The bowsprit
After the yards on all three masts and some blocks and lines of the running rigging, this week I focused on the rigging of the bowsprit.

This mainly involves a number of lines that hold the bowsprit in place at the bottom, namely:

• The bowsprit shrouds
• The bobstays

These lines run from the bowsprit to a hole in the hull and go inside there. I solved this as follows:

• Stiffened a couple of cm of the line with superglue
• Drilled a small hole in the hull
• Then glued the hardened line into the hole with superglue

This holds firm and solid.



Around the head of the bowsprit, just below the bees, it then becomes a tangle of all kinds of lines. We see, among other things:

• The gammoning of the jibboom
• The forestay and the fore preventer stay
• The sling of the spritsail yard
• Below that, 4 sets of deadeyes with lanyards for the bowsprit shrouds
• And between them, 3 sets of deadeyes with lanyards for the bobstays

Quite a busy spot, in other words.



Next came the question: what do I do with the spritsail yard?

• Fully rig it first, including the sail?
• Or hang the bare yard and rig it later in the model?

I went with the latter, because after a trial placement of the yard it turned out there's no obstruction whatsoever to adding the sail later.

An extra reason for this was that the spritsail yard has the guiding eyes for the guys. From inside to outside, these are:

• The traveling guy
• The guy pendant
• The flying jibboom guy

Each of these lines is attached via a tackle with a single and a double block to the forward barricade. The guys aren't fixed to the yard but can slide through the eyes. This means the sail can always be turned somewhat, depending on the wind direction. I think this was probably the intent in practice as well.

At the bottom of the jibboom and the flying jibboom, you can see the lines that, via the dolphin striker, must counterbalance the pulling forces of the jibstay, the jib halyard, the fore topgallant mast stay, and the fore topgallant flagstaff stay. These lines were already added at an earlier stage.



After adding a few more loose blocks here and there, this part of the ship was finished. I have to say it was a nice piece of varied detail work that, once again, gives a real sense of spatial depth to the bow of the ship.

Below are a few more atmospheric shots.