To HMS Victory and beyond

[dafi]

@Jim Baumann

Weichei!!

XXXDAn

(soft egg)

[dafi]

Not only the ship, but also the anchor cable needs some love, care and tenderness.

I already showed how the cable was meant to be laid out on the lower deck before letting the anchor go, how it was fastened by a whole variety of stoppers and how the messenger worked.

But now I was interested into all the diverse steps coming with that ...

First there were the 120 man on the capstan on the middle deck, easy to remember. Then there were over 60 in the orlop in the cable tier to arrange the sturdy, wet and heavy cable into a neat coil, those ones are easy to be forgotten. And on the forecastle a larger number was preparing the davits and the fishing of the anchor, also a quite relevant number of man.

But also on the lower gun deck there was quite a lot to be done.

So step by step, here is the overview:



Lets start at the capstan, overhead on the middle deck 120 man are turning it without danger of stumbling over some cables. As the anchor cable is too thick and sturdy to go around the capstan, a messenger cable is used as a link. And here we go with some man to guarantee smooth and undisturbed revolutions.

Starting at the capstan we can see Mr Thor with HIS hammer, checking the messenger hitting the right place. Next three man are making sure that the messenger is leaving the drum without getting stuck.



Interesting are the heavy pillars with the rolls, protecting the pumps from the messenger.
The elm tree pump sucks seawater from underneath the hull and put it with pressure into sail cloth hose (witch will be seen still)



Left we see some men, that make sure, that the cable passes smoothly through the rolls hanging from the deck beams. As the messenger is a endless loop, it is linked by some ropes through the eyes. Two men make sure, the eyes pass through the rolls.



In the bow the cable shiftes direction by the help of the two rollers.



The manger is the place, where the hose ends. One man uses it to wetten the incoming anchor cable, two boys are scrubbing the mud off by the help of brushes. That is why there are two extra big scuppers at each side of the ship. If the cable had extra protection because of a stony sea bed, then this protection would have been taken off here too by some extra men.



Straight after the manger, some man are fixing messenger and anchor cable to each other, called nibbing. For that there are no open ends traveling through the ship, I positioned a man at each free end of the nibbing rope walking with it.

On the other side some men are bringing back the ropes to the bow.



The next tricky job is to untie the nibbing cable in time before the anchor cable disappears in the cable tier. I took out the stairs of the companion way and still should have taken out the grating too, but unfortunately me stupid glued it too well in my dim and distant past ...



And now the messenger is free to travel back to the capstan to be hammered into place.

Cheers Daniel

[dafi]

Looks nice an clean from above, like an ant hill ...

�

... but deeper ...



... and even deeper, then, yes then one can understand that it was a tough job to do ...





So here comes the same story, but from a different point of view:

First there were the 120 man on the capstan on the middle deck, easy to remember. Then there were over 60 in the orlop in the cable tier to arrange the sturdy, wet and heavy cable into a neat coil, those ones are easy to be forgotten. And on the forecastle a larger number was preparing the davits and the fishing of the anchor, also a quite relevant number of man.

But also on the lower gun deck there was quite a lot to be done.

Lets start at the capstan, overhead on the middle deck 120 man are turning it without danger of stumbling over some cables. As the anchor cable is too thick and sturdy to go around the capstan, a messenger cable is used as a link. And here we go with some man to guarantee smooth and undisturbed revolutions.

Starting at the capstan we can see Mr Thor with HIS hammer, checking the messenger hitting the right place.



Next three man are making sure that the messenger is leaving the drum without getting stuck.



Interesting are the heavy pillars with the rolls, protecting the pumps from the messenger. (picture from before assembly)



The elm tree pump sucks seawater from underneath the hull and puts it with pressure into sail cloth hose (witch will be seen still)



Left we see some men, that make sure, that the cable passes smoothly through the rolls hanging from the deck beams. As the messenger is a endless loop, it is linked by some ropes through the eyes. Two men make sure, the eyes pass through the rolls.



In the bow the cable shiftes direction by the help of the two rollers.



The manger is the place, where the hose ends. One man uses it to wetten the incoming anchor cable, two boys are scrubbing the mud off by the help of brushes. That is why there are two extra big scuppers at each side of the ship. If the cable had extra protection because of a stony sea bed, then this protection would have been taken off here too by some extra men.



Straight after the manger, some man are fixing messenger and anchor cable to each other, called nibbing.





For that there are no open ends traveling through the ship, I positioned a man at each free end of the nibbing rope walking with it.



On the other side some men are bringing back the ropes to the bow.

The next tricky job is to untie the nibbing cable in time before the anchor cable disappears in the cable tier. I took out the stairs of the companion way and still should have taken out the grating too, but unfortunately me stupid glued it too well in in my dim and distant past ...







And now the messenger is free to travel back to the capstan to be hammered into place.

Looks easy, doesn�t it? One only needs some men

These are just some 40 men, in real life I would guess the double quantity, plus some supplements for special duties, possibly some 100 men altogether.

Cheers, Daniel

[dafi]

At the very beginning, I was desperately searching for crew. Still have the H�T ones floating around some where ...

... but too big, too clumsy in form, too little and wrong positions ...


... then found the Preiser. First planed to make some and cast replicas - but first quite challenging casting in this scale and second, would have end up with a multitude of same positions.

Now I know that the change goes quite fast and I can give them custom postures - just whatever their duty needs

Here some more pics from along the way. Last charge were too clean and were too lollypop-like on deck so I had to filthy them up in situ. Here the latest press with before and after, but remember, the originals are a mere 18 mm, this means the eye is more lenient









The last gentlemen is very serious about occupational safety - he got himself a jockstrap as the steel helmets to sit on were not invented yet

Also some gents with an immigrant background are finally to be spotted, something documented quite often.





XXXDAn

[dafi]

Oh my dear, we forgot the gun powder ...



... but how do we now get this ball out of the barrel?

...

XXXDAn

[Dan K]

Unbeleivable detail.

[dafi]

Sounds like Metallica - Master of Buckets



XXXDAn

[dafi]

The nice thing on a project like this is, that one can find so many small models that coincidally gives a nice Vic.

One of those things are the gunport lids, haven�t yet tried the lower gunport lids with the scuttles

First preparing parts and erasing the wooden grains and old fittings ...



... and think.

First doubling for extra thickness. Did not want to cut the hole before assembly for positioning reasons. So made a steel stamp and used it first to give a color mark on the appropriate place.



Used a 1 mm drill to give the depth and a scalpel for approx. shape and then used the stamp for the right form. Gives a nice and crisp edges and also flattens the bottom of the hole.





Then used my etch parts ...



... the parts can be positioned easily, the split line for the scuttle was cut with scalpel and needle ...



... and first color test.



Than tinkered the rings out of etch eyebolts and 0,2 mm copper thread ...



... and folded lovingly together by the help of two pliers.



Still showed the planking , mounted the rings and imitated the bolts from the fittings ...



... and done.



And then the assembly, taking measure by putting the lid on the barrel, marking the positions with a needle ...



... drilling and fitting test.






Still missing the lanyards . Took my drilled and streched sprue ...



... a template gives the right distances ...



... open the holes with drills step by step ...



... introduced the tubes ...



... still spliced the lanyards to the rings and introduced them into the tubes ...




... and with some luck ...



... one gets ...



... something like that.



XXXDAn

[dafi]

Some more petiteness:

The salt box for the cartridges ...



... used my etch monograms and pressed them with my vice into the wood to be more leveled, nice side effect is that they became less high



Glued the fittings and afterwards some red paint - careful, explosive!

The buckets from Master of Buckets were wooden ones from the lath with brass eyelets and copper handles, for the small ones I wanted to try something else.

2 mm poly rod, drilled open and milled out ...



... and then shaped them with a conical device pressed into it.



Then cut and filled with PVC and we have a nice water bucket for the small boy, that is supposed to have a wet wipe up on all remains of powder on the floor.



Then I realised - too much space - pillars were missing ...
Tja und dann etwas bemerkt: Soo viel Platz war da gar nicht Mal, denn das dafi hatte in seiner gro�en Weitsicht noch nicht die St�tzen platziert ...



... so I had to replace some of the stuff

Two more shots for the subject: red salt box for the cartridge, round transport case, wad, multi purpose water bucket and a barrel with slow burning matches in case the flint lock does not work, everything as far off the guns as possible.
In P. the wads are hanging in a netting in between the hammocks, I omitted that, as there was not enough space for that.





XXXDAn

[LE BOSCO]

HI Dan !


always a great job ,always in search of the slightest d�tails
fabulous Dan
cheers
Nicolas

[dafi]

Happy birthday dear Vicci!

Today 250 years ago, dear little Vic was taken out of the dock

I had the honor to prepare the laudatory speech for the german daily magazine Modellmarine.de
http://www.modellmarine.de/index.php?op ... :jahrestag

Please find here the google translation
https://translate.googleusercontent.com ... JDRrkda-DQ

Cheers and all the best for the future to our dear Vicci, Daniel

[marijn van gils]

Happy birthday to Victory, and thanks to you Dafi!

Very nice text, and alos some images I hadn't seen before. Very interesting!

The scenes around the anchor cable and the guns is fantastic by the way, just amazing work!
I'm guessing the Peter Goodwin "manual" is your bible, and lies permanently on your bedside table?

Cheers,

Marijn

[michaelludvig]

Happy birthday to Victory, and thanks to you Dafi!

Very nice text, and alos some images I hadn't seen before. Very interesting!

The scenes around the anchor cable and the guns is fantastic by the way, just amazing work!
I'm guessing the Peter Goodwin "manual" is your bible, and lies permanently on your bedside table?

Cheers,

Marijn

Very much impressive actually.

[dafi]

Thank you Marijn and Michael, very appreciated!

XXXDAn

[dafi]

So, the public already took place ...



... and is wondering what to come ...



... and also my little seed of maggots looks like is ready to be harvested



Ok, let�s clean the stage up



XXXDAn

[dafi]

As a starter just something, most of you should know:


http://nygeschichte.blogspot.de/2014/06 ... earch.html
By the way a very interesting german site about the picture where it was taken and the story about.

But back to my own roost. Then there were three ...



... seen by the german Assembly Act it already is a mob, but I needed more ...



... so knocked off some heads and limbs, twisted bodies ...



... and reassembled them. Some got some coats ...



... and all a nice washing in 50 shades of dirty-white. And all these basically out of the three basic models

In the meantime my small shipyard worker and his lovely assistant were on the search for the perfect sea chest ...



... and looks like the quest was successful by the sparkle in her eyes

XXXDAn

[dafi]

Some small thoughts about the life in between the guns.

First about the personal belongings of the sailors. Classically one thinks of the sailors chests. But in clearing for action maneuvering 800 chests into the hold? Logistically not the easiest task. Masefield reports that only officers were allowed a chest, for the sailors it was just a bag/kit.

A small trial shows, that only about 8 chests fit in the space but about 20 hammocks were positioned in this area ...





... so 1 man 1 chest is impossible and confirms Masefield. Also 800 bags are more easily cleared. In the empty space in between the chests still are missing some barrels of the ready to use provisions.

Then the thoughts about the benches: how to store them when not in use - as contemporary drawings show them with fix legs - and where did the mess store the things of daily use? Personal conclusion is to skip the benches and use the chests for stuff of daily use and for sitting - also shown in contemporary sources.

Masefield also reports that sometimes the sea bags were stowed in the orlop, possibly in the area of the carpenters walk and access being restricted to two times a day. I think could have worked for two deckers, but from breeding my own little maggots I have seen the space it takes - for my own taste a bit too much for a three decker with double the compliment. Space taken, that could otherwise been very useful especially on long voyages.

That is why I decided to test fit 20 bags in the area of each mess and it is easily fitted in between the hanging knees where there are no hammocks anyway.





And the stage is set

XXXDAn

[dafi]

Ok, time to take a seat





In NMM is documented, that the marines were positioned in front of the gunroom on two deckers.


http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collection ... 86584.html ZAZ6793

The Trafagar Companion localises them on the Vic in front of the wardroom. I checked and found that if all 120 marines were positioned just there, it would fill the area up to the mainmast. As the marines were also used to keep an eye upon the sailors, I split the group and positioned half of them in font of the gunroom, so the lower deck could be observed too.











And suddenly it gets packed



Now just missing the food, not that the good mood tilts

XXXDAn

[LE BOSCO]

Hello Dan

it's just fabulous this quest for accuracy in the d�tails and and your persistence into ,are models for me
thank you to share here
cheers
nicolas

[dafi]

For that there will be no mutiny because of the empty plates, here is the proposal for the menu, according to historical sources:

First Course
?Hors D'Oeuvres
?Oysters??Second

Course?
Consomm� Olga?
Cream of Barley??

Third Course
?Poached Salmon with Mousseline Sauce, Cucumbers??

Fourth Course
?Filet Mignons Lili?
Saute of Chicken, Lyonnaise
Vegetable Marrow Farci

??Fifth Course
?Lamb, Mint Sauce?
Roast Duckling, Apple Sauce?
Sirloin of Beef, Chateau Potatoes
Green Pea?
Creamed Carrots
?Boiled Rice
?Parmentier & Boiled New Potatoes??

Sixth Course?
Punch Romaine??

Seventh Course?
Roast Squab & Cress??

Eighth Course?
Cold Asparagus Vinaigrette

??Ninth Course
?Pate de Foie Gras?
Celery??

Tenth Course?
Waldorf Pudding
?Peaches in Chartreuse Jelly?
Chocolate & Vanilla Eclairs?
French Ice Cream


*dream*

XXXDAn