Long, long ago, I used to build large models. This was my last plank-on-frame, completed in about 1981. The hull about a foot long. Frames sawed out of common plywood, and planked in 1/16th inch thick obeche – Still rigged with wire though!

Bob

Edited By Bob Wilson on 07/04/2020 16:06:23

This is the above drawing completed – Bob

I started doing my own drawing because all the various museums and archives usually wanted fistfulls of £s just to use them in a publications or e-articles. I quickly discovered that it wasn't all that difficult, and the colouring is done at the touch of a button. The lettering font I use is Monotype Corsiva that I find is ideally suited to plans like this. The secret is to do them large scale on card, and when they are shrunk by photography, all the errors shrink as well, and they look much better. I do the deck plans as well, but they are confined to my publications.

Bob

Steam tugs came into use in the early 1800s. Looking at the Lloyds Register for 1804, and selecting a page at random, I find the largest vessel listed was the full-rigged Finnish ship Hoppett, of 340 tons. That is really not very big, and could probably be dragged round the side of the dock by the crew, or horse power. Warships tended to anchor off. By the 1860s and 70s, steam tugs were very common and used by the big square-riggers. Tugs would often go out looking for becalmed sailing ships close to the UK coast and negotiate the price of a tow home. Even in the 1850s, 800 tons would be considered big for a sailing ship, but by the 1890s, they were often in excess of 2,000 tons, and really needed tugs. Small collier brigs actually sailed up the Thames right to their berths, tacking upriver with incredible skills, I doubt if the small coastal schooners even bothered with tugs at all on account of the expense!

Bob