My basic hull to date, I dont like the look of the forad gunports, but then neither did her real life commanders who complained the guns fouled each other, one reason why in her real career in the RN her weaponry was replaced with carronades, making Surprise one of the first (steady the flames, I said "one of" !) all carronade ships.
Fellow Alexandra Kent followers may be disappointed though, the Smasher did not fire an explosive shell as the Great Man wrote, he probably got that from the first shot Victory fired at Trafalgar, her carronade was topped off with a case of musket balls which caused the explosive effect noted. The true shell was still a few years away yet. The Carronade was effective as a short range weapon, doubling the weight of a normal cannon, and was a big leg up against the French whose foundries could not machine metal to the fine tolerances required by a Carronade.
There is considerable debate on the lower two ports facing almost forad, on a fully rigged model it is clear anything fired from them would blow off the bowsprit, I have my own theory there: I think they could be the Heads?
The wood of the decks needs a lot of work of course, most contemporary writers speak of the oak being "Holy Stonned to paper white", my own childhood experience of Holy Stones recalls they produced a peach colouration, but we used them on stone, not wood, some historians now think the lower decks were white washed, but that still leaves the weather deck, scrub and swab oak with salt water, itself an abrasive and do you really get white? I submit you get rough oak.
Either way, here we go to date.
