No – I haven't built it. I am in the final stages of drawing up the plans. If I do build it, it will not be until the better weather starts. It is rather too dark and cold at the moment, and some work has to be done outside.

It is by no means certain that I will build it as I am now getting hooked on plan drawing as it is rather more relaxing and less messy..

Bob

I have an old blueprint in my plans collection. So indistinct that I can hardly see it. I am laboriously producing this plan myself. I drew the main profile on a piece of card 23 inches by 8 inches. Same for the plan view of all the decks. But the boatdeck and bridge deck and plans above I made using the simple shapes section of Word 2000 word processing program, as they would fit on an A4 sheet, but the lifeboats are hand drawn. I will later resize them in the printer/scanner. I do not have a lines plan. But most of those tramps were all very similar in shape. Here is a deck plan of another ship on the drawing board. Bob

Edited By Bob Wilson on 07/12/2021 09:28:05

That is a smart-looking model. But from what I can see, there is the usual gap between bridge structure and funnel, so there really should be a hatch there, but I don't see any derrick posts either

Having no centre was also becoming more popular in later years, so I would say that from viewing the photograph above, it is quite correct. Also, I see that you have a rounded stern on it, thus moving the ship to a slightly later era when the 'midship hatch was less common I really think that originally, they had the 'midship hatch to separate the engineers from the deck officers, but by the time I went to sea in 1961, we were mostly in the same accommodation block, with everyone getting on well together. I did sail on four ships with the gap, separating engine-room staff from deck staff. I quite liked the centre hatch, not because of the separation, but because it was a pleasant place to be outside in the tropics – a canvas-covered hatch, sheltered from the wind at each end. This is the oldest one I was in with the centre hatch – Richmond Castle, 1944. (Second one up on the right hand side). The one above it, my first ship Rhodesia Star, did not have a gap at all!

Bob

Colin

It has not arrived yet –

Rounded sterns started to come in long before the counter lost its popularity. As in Hylton, bottom right in my above picture

Bob

There was a slight difference. In cruiser sterns, the top was slightly shorter than the lower part. In my 14 profiles above, the Richmond Castle has a cruiser stern, whilst the Rhodesia Star, was rounded. I sailed with quite a few cruiser and rounded sterns, but only with two transoms. The reason I often heard, and don't know if it was true, that the old-fashioned counter did not provide enough space for the steering gear. I never sailed with a counter stern, but saw plenty of them in the early 60s.

Tumblehome on the sides, but I have never heard the term in connection with the stern. Just "cruiser stern." Inside the stern of the Pendennis Castle (just over 30,000 grt) there was an enormous quadrant that seemed to have a large worm gear to move it round. Probably very old-fashioned, with the ship completed in 1957. The Good Hope Castle, completed in about 1965 was similar, but I never looked at the steering systems of the rest of them. I really wonder about flat transoms – were they just to save a bit of money. In 1977, I was appointed to a brand new cargo liner that had just been completd to an old design. Sh was very basic, had a rounded stern, clipper bow and round funnel and was virtually trouble free, and the most comfortable cargo ship I ever sailed in. I was there for over a year. We started as Silveravon, but after one voyage to Jeddah, we weer chartered to a Wset African company, Sivomar, but remained registered in London under the new name of Bandama. I left in 1979 to return to passenger ships (RMS St Helena). She is the second one down under the grey sailing ship on the left of my 14 ship profiles above. – Bob

All this technical stuff washes over my head these days. I quit the rat-race of life at sea in life at sea late 1992, having got fed up of technical "improvements" that made things far too complicated and hard to deal with. In all the 19 ships I sailed in, I found that the more modern they got, the less well they performed. I sailed in this one for a couple of years in the early 60s, and hardly anything ever went wrong in any department.. I left her 56 years ago, and could walk back aboard tomorrow and remember how everything I dealt with worked, how to operate it and repair it in the unlikely event of breakdown. I am afraid modern sea life leaves me cold, and if I was leaving school today, I would never dream of going to sea –

I am fortunate being able to remain associated with the ships I preferred by drawing them, building models of them, or writing about them.

Perfect seafaring contentment – me in 1982 aboard the old ship. Had honeymoon voyage aboard as well, so the old ship is quite dear to both of us!

Bob