USS Constitution Tribute Build

[LSP_Ray]

The sail looks good. Are you going to stain them?

[Oldbaldguy]

On 4/9/2024 at 6:49 AM, John1 said:

I need to track that down and watch it.   It was on the list and then I completely forgot about it.   Thanks for the reminder.   Once I'm done bingeing a sci-fi series, I'm starting on the books as well. 

Oh no.  Those books are like potato chips - once you start, you can’t stop til the bag is empty.

[Greif8]

On 4/10/2024 at 7:52 PM, LSP_Ray said:

The sail looks good. Are you going to stain them?

 

Hi Ray, both my research and several discussions with knowledgeable ship modelers point to the fact that the sails on American warships dueing the War of 1812 period were white.  According to the experts, this was due to the type of cotton and the cloth making techniques used in America during the early 1800's.  So I plan to leave them the slightly off-white color they are.

 

Ernest  

[Greif8]

Though I have not posted any updates recently, I have been either researching or testing techniques on mockups.  After a lot of reading about how running rigging actually worked, and then testing some ideas over several bench sessions, I finally arrived at the stage where I feel like I can put the sails on the yards and then either rig to show them brailed or clewed up, or deployed to catch the wind.  Following is the Mizzen Royal sail, that I have rigged clewed up.

 

Detail shot of part of the sail "bent" to the yard.  Due to the scale it is not possible to bend sails to the yards as they would have actually been, so I used a 

technique I learned from a very good sailing ship modeler.  Though I did not get everything perfect it actually looks pretty good when the entire process is

complete - IMHO that is!

 

This poor shot shows the two different lines that were either attached to the lower corners of smaller sails, such a Royals; or blocks positioned at the lower

corners of larger sails.  The smaller line on this sail will be run through the clew block and the larger line will be run through a pair of blocks on the Topgallant yard below the Royal sail. 

 

The lines in place.  On actual ships they work in together as we shall see.

 

Ok stupid me, ignore the image above, below is the correct one.  The small frays will not be seen once I have clewed the sail up.  For sails that will be displayed

as deployed I will have to make sure I get them cleaned up.

 

An example of how this part of the running rigging works.  I have pulled on the clew line (the smaller one) to bring the corner of the sail towards the center of the 

yard.  The heavier lower would have been slackened on real ships to allow the sail to be clewed up.  The process was reversed when the sail was deployed.  

 

Though I still need to make some adjustments to the footropes, and do some minor forming of the sail, it has now been "clewed up" just as it would have

been on sailing ships of the day.  I brushed on watered down white glue so that I could shape the sail and also stiffen it in place when dry.  I then bunched it 

as would have been done on an actual ship and tied off what were known as long reef lines to finalize the placement.  I made sure to keep the two rigging

lines clear as they will be run down to their respective location on belay pins and tied off later on.

  

Photo of the front.  Again, I did not do a perfect job here, but I think it looks the part.  I still need to do some minor cleaning up and shaping, but this Royal

sail is almost done.

 

I plan to do the Main and Fore Royals next.  The huge challenge is going to be "brailing up" the Main and Fore Courses as there are a lot more moving parts and the yards are much more crowded than the Royal yards.  Keeping my fingers crossed I am up to the challenge.

 

Ernest

[D.B. Andrus]

18 minutes ago, Greif8 said:

Keeping my fingers crossed I am up to the challenge.

 

 

 

You're nailing this, Ernest. Nothing but blue skies ahead!

[Greif8]

On 4/17/2024 at 8:52 PM, D.B. Andrus said:

 

You're nailing this, Ernest. Nothing but blue skies ahead!

 

Thank you D.B.!  I am hope for fair winds and water as well!

 

Ernest

[Greif8]

Progress continues on the sails.  I have shaped the sails that will be deployed, and prepared the sails that will be clewed or brailed up.  I bent both the main Royal Sail and the main Topgallant Sail to their yards during the last bench session.  The following photos show some of the progess of that.

 

The main Topgallant Sail after shaping, and awaiting some final prep work before the process of bending it to its yard begins.  I used the kit sails as forms to shape the sails that will be deployed.  I did this by watering down white glue 50/50and brushing it on the sails while they were laid atop the kit sails.  This worked pretty well, and I can also do further shaping as required because while the sails have been stiffened they are still flexible.  The stiffening process also helps greatly reduce any fraying.

 

The lower corners of actual sails during the age of sail had rope looped through them.  This was reinforced by banding or wrapping additional rope and sewing it into the fabric of the sail.  I final band was added just past the tip to give the loop final form and strengthen it as well.  I replicated as much of this as possible in scale to try and get a more realistic look.  The first shot shows the front of a corner and the second the rear.

 

The main Royal Sail bent on it's yard and clewed up.  

 

The main Topgallant Sail bent on its yard.  I was very happy with how this turned out though the process is very concentration intensive as you have to make sure you run the bending line correctly, don't cross other lines, and keep any blocks free.  I had to re-run a couple of wraps to correct one of those issues.  I'll be honest that I am suddering at the thought of bending the main and fore Courses to their yards given how "busy" those two yards are.

  

A close up of the Topgallant sail on the yard.  The only wrap that I did not nail was the center one.  Due to the amount of "stuff" where the yard and mast meet, I could not thread the line like I wanted.  I am going to try a different tack on the next sail in this area.

 

Rear view of the main Topgallant Sail.  You can see just how many lines there are, and this is not all of them!

 

I ran the clew line and the sheet lines.  The clew lines are the slightly smaller ones that I have used to clew up the Royal Sail.  The thicker lines running through the blocks are the sheet lines.  I will place all these out of the way when I step the mast and run the lower shrouds and stays.  

 

Finally a close up of the rear of the clewed up Royal Sail.  You can see one of the clew blocks doing the job it's name implies.  I am trying to make both the standing and running rigging as accurate and functional as possible, taking scale limitations into account.  When I clew up the Royals for all three masts I am actually running the lines and pulling them to shape and position the sails as they would have looked when clewed up.  Clewing up the Royals is actually pretty easy as there is not a lot of lines for those sails and figuring out how to "work" them was really not that hard.  On the other hand, "Brailing Up" the main and fore Courses is going to be a much more complex process as there are several different lines and blocks that have to be "worked" to get the right look.  I am looking at that project with a bit of trepidation to be honest.

 

Well, the "top hamper" is starting to take shape.  Hopefully in a few weeks the sails will be mounted, the masts stepped and secured, and the standing rigging complete, but it is a slow process.

 

Ernest

[LSP_Mike]

Good work. 

[MikeMaben]

10 hours ago, Greif8 said:

                  ... it is a slow process.

Well hurry it up Ernie, I'm looking forward to your champaigne launch.  

[Greif8]

Poor weather this weekend meant I could spend a lot of time at the bench and I managed to make a fair amount of progress.  Bending the sails to the yards is some pretty exacting work as there is a fair amount of prep and while the technique of attaching the sails to the yards is not complex, you have to pay very close attention to where you are running a line as it is very easy to cross an area that should not be crossed!  I had to re-thread several lines to get them right, but I got there in the end.  My wife got a good laugh when she looked in on me yesterday while I was sewing loops into the corners of a sail.  She said I looked like I was learning to be a seamstress! 

 

Below is where things stand right now.

 

A shot of the front of the Main and Mizzen masts with the Royal, Topgallant and Top sails in place.  The Main Top sail is a big beast. 

 

 

And here is a look at the backside of those masts and sails.  You can see I have stacked the clew and sheet lines for the Royal and Topgallant sails out of the way

so I could work without them being in the way. 

 

 

Closeup of the Mizzen Top Sail bent to it's yard.

 

More prep work was required for the Main Course then the other sails as it, and the Fore Course, will be "Brailed Up" and needed to be prepared for that process.
Here is a close up of one of the loops at the lower corner.  I have given it, and the other loop, extra seizing as that is how these were actually rigged.

 

 

Each corner has three blocks fastened to it.  The smaller block will have a clew line run through it and the two larger blocks will have a sheet and tack line

run through them, one line for each block.

 

The Main Course bent to it's yard.  This took some time as the yard has a lot of stuff attached to it and I really had to work slowly to make sure I ran all the 

attachment lines right.

 

Photo showing the Mainmast with all four sails attached, though the Royal is not in the photo.  The Top Sail and yard will be temporarily removed while I work

on prepping the Main Course to be "Brailed Up" and then actually doing that.  Looks rather majestic in this shot I think.

  

The lines that will be used to "Brail Up" the Main Course have been attached and run.  Here are the clew lines ready to be worked. The other six tan lines

belong to the leech and bunt lines.

 

Those lines run in front of the sail.  The line attached near the outer mid-point of the sail is a leech line, and the two inner lines are bunt lines.  These lines run 

through blocks attached to the yard and then up to and through further blocks positioned under the fighting top before teminating at the respective spots on

the belays.  They work together with each other and the clew lines to position the Course in a few different configurations.  

 

Closer shot of the starboard lines.  

 

This should give a good appreciation for just how complex - and crowded - the rigging on a square rigged ship of the time was.  Getting all this run correctly 

requires a lot of thinking ahead both to run the lines correctly, but just as importantly, thinking through the best sequence to do this so that you can maximize

the effectiveness of the process while minimizing either the chance of breaking something, or to have an unpleasent surprise later as you find out you can't reach

a spot to run a line.  All that said, I am having a (mostly) good time doing this; it is pretty cool to see the rigging "grow" with each step, and I have enjoyed learning

how standing and running worked, and figuring out to replicate that - at least in part on this build.

 

The next update will show the Main Course "Brailed Up".

 

Ernest

 

[ScottsGT]

Wow.  Serious skills there.  

[LSP_Ray]

30 minutes ago, ScottsGT said:

Wow.  Serious skills there.  

Definitely!!!

[Greif8]

17 hours ago, ScottsGT said:

Wow.  Serious skills there.  

 

16 hours ago, LSP_Ray said:

Definitely!!!

 

Thank you gents!

 

Ernest

[Greif8]

The Main Course is brailed up.  The painting below shows several ships at Fighting Sail.  You can see that the Courses have all been brailed up vs either clewed up or furled; which was a very very common configuration.  Brailing up the Courses was done for three primary reasons.  First, it reduced both damage to the Courses and the chance of fire - always a deadly threat to wooden ships.  Second it reduced strain on the Fore and Main masts and the rigging generally.  Courses were not really needed for close in maneuvering and not having them deployed also meant that not as many crew were required to work the sails during battle.  Finally the command section and quartermasters steering did not have their forward view impeded while at their battlestation on the Quarterdeck.  I tried to get my Main Course to look close to those in the painting.

  

The first step to brailing up a Course is to pull the clew lines until the corners are pulled up past the mid-line of the course.  I chose to work one side of the main

course one line at a time as I am a crew of one <grin>.  The shot below show how the course looks with the clew lines under light tension. 

 

Close up of the clew blocks.  These would have been touching, or nearly so, when the corners of the course were pulled up.  As an aside, I am still researching

whether the sheet and tack lines would have been run through their respective blocks at the corners when a course was brailed up; and if they were not run

where were the lines placed.

 

Next the leech line was drawn until the edge of the course was pulled into a triangular like fold located at the top front outer part of the sail.  The two photos

below show the end result.  In the first shot you can make out the triangular section in the upper right part of the sail/yard. 

 

The bunt lines were then worked to raise the center part of the course.  Again, two photos, one fore the other aft,  show the bunt lines under light tension as

the course is worked into shape.

 

The final aft and fore shots show the near final result.  I only have to do some minor shaping of the folds and then brush on a final coat of whits glue thinned

50/50 with water to fix the shape of the course.  As the course is fairly loosely bunched it could be quickly deployed if required.

 

I just need to place the Top Yard and sail back into position and the main mast will be ready to step.

 

Ernest

Edited April 22 by Greif8

[MikeMaben]

I'm afraid I haven't a clew what you're  doing Ernest ...