The Mary Rose

Heinrich said:
I can only marvel at the beauty that you are building, Graham. Looking at all the modifications which you have incorporated and at the extremely detailed build, makes my imagination run wild on what it must have been to actually sail on her (sans the sinking of course).
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Thank you, Heinrich. The old navy saying of 'Get to know the ropes' is never more true than when rigging the sails, but I am thoroughly enjoying it.
 
Depth; depth ... that was the word I was looking for and I just realised it now. Nope, I haven't gone mad, Graham but that was what I had wanted to say about your model. The first picture, in particular, shows great 3D dimensional and structural depth. The juxtaposition of angles - especially in your scratch-built "castles" really set this model apart. It goes without saying that the rigging is superb.
 
Thank you Heinrich and swampdweller123.

Working on the spritsail lines, but before I add too many more lines I will add the grapnel -

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Scale-wise it would be about 7ft and a fair chunk of iron. The strategy was more to board a vessel rather than to smash it as it was in Nelson's time. If this clonked down on an enemy deck I think it would take several men to throw it overboard and all whilst under intense small arms/archery fire; no easy task.

Another aid to boarding were sheerhooks on the ends of the fore and main spars, the idea being to snag enemy rigging when alongside. I will add these at the end of the build and when I have decided what to make them from, otherwise they will end up continually snagging me as I work on the rigging.

Both the grapnel and the sheerhooks are depicted in the Anthony Roll illustration below. It leads me to think that a chain is attached to the grapnel as well as the rigging to drop it, and that makes sense because it could not then be cut away. I will add some as a trial and update you -

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This picture is from the Mary Rose Facebook page today -

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When I asked them about the 'harpoon' their response was -

'We believe it to be a incendiary dart, a large arrow with a spike on the end surrounded by a bag of gunpowder, pitch and other sticky substances. It may have been thrown from the mast top, or shot out of one of the ship's guns.'

You learn something new every day - a Tudor phosphorus grenade?
 
Graham said:
This picture is from the Mary Rose Facebook page today -

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When I asked them about the 'harpoon' their response was -

'We believe it to be a incendiary dart, a large arrow with a spike on the end surrounded by a bag of gunpowder, pitch and other sticky substances. It may have been thrown from the mast top, or shot out of one of the ship's guns.'

You learn something new every day - a Tudor phosphorus grenade?
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One reason you don't want the clumsy guy stationed in the top?
 
Stevinne said:
One reason you don't want the clumsy guy stationed in the top?
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Certainly not the guy with the eye patch! I would think that lobbing this down from the masthead onto an enemy deck while trying to miss all of your own rigging lines was quite risky.
 
All rigging is now fixed or temporarily run to length; the temporary lengths can be moved aside or de-rigged as I start to work on the shrouds. I have reviewed the rigging plans front to back and several times over and think I have got it all covered - famous last words?

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Congratulations for reaching this step
PUH - rigging is finished
 
Thank you Norgale and Uwek. Putting the sails on her has effectively doubled the rigging workload, but I have thoroughly enjoyed it. The main thing I learned was not to tie anything off until happy with the run of the lines and that there are no conflicts - some rework was necessary in the early stages.
 
Graham said:
All rigging is now fixed or temporarily run to length; the temporary lengths can be moved aside or de-rigged as I start to work on the shrouds. I have reviewed the rigging plans front to back and several times over and think I have got it all covered - famous last words?

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Good morning Graham. Wonderful. Looks very realistic other than the cloth at the bottom ;) . Cheers Grant
 
I have had a couple of weeks out of the shipyard sorting out my garage workshop and now that the weather has warmed up a bit I have been playing with the bandsaw Santa brought me. I have done several projects, including cutting out and then carving this wolf plaque -

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Good fun.

Anyway, to things more nautical and I need to make some hanks to finish off the ropes tied to the side rails. What I do is clamp the forceps in a vice, rub the top with a hard wax (a tea light is ideal) to stop it sticking, then wrap the appropriate cord twice around and then cross over the top. When happy with the lay of the rope add a touch of CA on the top. Note the clips for weight -

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Give it a minute to dry and then I use my nails to slide it off. It works fine, but after five or so it starts to stick a bit because of CA residue, so a quick rub with wet & dry, apply some more wax and make some more.

Done for now and leave for a while to fully dry and then trim the ends -

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I am not saying this is THE way to do it, just what works for me. Anyone got any different methods?
 
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