Lady Elisabet – 1879.

Just for interest: Passage times.

Tea Race 1872

Norman Court – Macao – London, 17,143 miles – 96 days – Average speed 7.4 knots

Thermopylae – Shanghai – London, 17,205 miles – 115 days – Average speed 6.2 knots

Taitsing – Shanghai – London, 17,205 miles – 114 days – Average speed 6.2 knots

Cutty Sark – Shanghai – London – 17,205 miles – 122 days – Average speed – 5.8 knots

Look at this, the huge 2,127 ton Pass of Brander, a steel four-masted barque of very full hull lines, completed in 1890. In 1909, she ran from Cardiff to Callao, Peru around Cape Horn in 58 days, covering a total distance of 10,033 miles, giving an average speed of 7.2 knots. Probably with several thousand tons of coal as cargo. With steel masts and rigging, those big ships could really be driven far harder than flimsy wooden clippers and their average speeds were quite respectable as well.

Bob

Hi Bob,

The big iron and steel ships had large sailrooms usually inside the poop deck. They usually had a brand new suit of sails that they would save for the hard weather parts like rounding the Horn, or winter North Atlantic, and a suit of worn sails for everyday use in warmer climates, plus a vast amount of new canvas in bolts two feet wide that the sailmaker could make new ones from. All folded up, they didn't take up all that much space, but were very heavy and hard to handle. But they didn't take up as much space as a steamship engineroom and the coal bunkers, so all of the hull below decks was open for cargo. A ship like the Preussen, below, could carry 8,000 tons of cargo –

Bob

Hi Bob,

The Preussen had about 26 miles of rigging! But ships like Preussen and Pass of Brander had steel masts and spars and most of the rigging was steel wire, so they could really be driven hard, but even so, they could not compete with 10-knot steamers. In my models, the masts, spars and rigging, including the ratlines are 100% metal, the rigging being fine copper wire. No knots anywhere! The 900-ton barque would have been rigged with rope, but in the model, it is all copper wire.

Bob

Rigging is easy enough with wire, but I must admit, deadeyes are rather tedious. I made 17 this morning. It shouldn have been 20, but I ruined three!

Bob

The ruination of three was a vast improvement. In the past, I ruined about 50% of them, but am getting better at it all the time. But I now have more than I need for the barque, It only took about 20 minutes to complete the 17, so it doesn't matter anyway!

Bob

38 swg tinned copper wire wound on a small frame spacing via two 8ba bolts top and bottom. Small paper circles stuck on. When dry, cut the two outer wires from top and bottom, leaving just the centre ones – All very simple, and you couldn't really use this method for large models, but it looks great on miniatures.

Bob

The paper dots are telex tape punchings dyed black. I saved a couple of hundred thousand of them when I was using paper tape teleprinters, but they are all on electronic memories now. But I can mke small paper disks of various sizes with a home made cutter, but it is rather tedious, but I will certainly never run out of punchings.

I ran out of deadeys today, forgot about all the backstays. So I sat down and set up the jig for a further 78 pairs. A bit tedious, and they still need the extra wires trimming off when the glue is dry, but all done now!   The black horizontal line on the jig are drawn under the wires on paper, and just used as a guide for three rows of deadeyes.   

Bob

Edited By Bob Wilson on 09/05/2020 19:58:33