Change of Direction

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

For several months, I have been suffering from "Tennis Elbow!" In the normal run of things, I am generally OK, but if I grip anything hard with left hand, it can get quite painful. Consequently, I began to consider a change of direction from ship modeling. Eventually, I decided to try my hand at plan drawing of 19th century square-riggers. I am quite pleased with the results, but again, there is so little interest in this type of ship, I sometimes wonder if it is worth the effort. Here is the latest, the American 4-masted barque Dirigo, of 1894!

Bob

PS – Any ideas on how to speed up recovery from Tennis Elbow. It is getting better, but at an incredibly slow rate!

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Lovely drawing, Bob……You certainly know your onions and……. Learned the ropes!

I am staggered by the small sized rudder?

Any portholes?

Sorry to read about your arm, Bob…….In the old days, they would have had it off in two shakes of a donkeys, but you could consider a Cortizone injection?

Bob

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Bob,

Thanks. Yes, the rudder was small, but that is correct, as I had an outline copy of the original sail plan to work from There are a few portholes in the black section of hull in the vicinity of poop and forecastle. I could add then in white to make them show up.

Cortizone injections are out. I believe they instantly cure the symptoms (pain), but then allow you to damage everything further in blissful ignorance because the pain is gone! It is a nuisance more than anything. No pain at all unless I grip anything tightly, which is what the left hand is normally used for in model building, even small ones!

Bob

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

It may seem an obvious question, but what does the rear sail really do?

Bob

[Malcolm FraryParticipant @malcolmfrary95515]

Many years ago I had a cortizone shot for tenosynovitis (*Doctor, I have a sore wrist" – "Yes, you have tenosynovitis" – "Whats that, Doc?" – "You have a sore wrist." A right mine of information he was.). The relief was instantaneous, but it was only a few hours later that I found out that the cortizone does not relieve the pain. Its the local anaesthetic that wears off after a few hours that numbs the pain up to that point. A bit of pre-warning I would have been back at work 3 weeks earlier.

Lovely drawing, would look good in a frame and grace any wall.

I suspect that the rear sail had a similar job to all of the other fore and aft sails, of which a great many are shown, to provide power when the wind was not just astern. With enough crew and a lot of seamanly shouting, a lot of steering was probably done using differential sail settings on the fore and aft part of the rig. Small as the rudder looks, I reckon you wouldn't be happy if the real one got dropped on your foot.

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

A four-masted barque does not really have much more canvas than a three masted full-rigged ship. The main difference is that the spanker is carried on the extra mast and usually has a gaff topsail above it, where a full-rigged ship would not have the gaff topsail. Also, several fore-and aft staysails could be carried between mizzen and jigger. Spreading the sails out more evenly along the hull soon made the four-masted barque the most popular rig in the final days of sail. It was said that the spanker on the fourth (jigger) mast improved the steering qualities. In the 70s, they tried four-masted full-rigged ships with square sails on all four. Although they were successful, there was quite a lot of extra sails and rigging to be paid for, as well as extra man-power to sail them. Then they started taking the square sails off the fourth mast, and thus the four-masted barque came about. It was quickly noted that as well as all the savings, four-masted barqes sailed better and were generally faster than four-masted ships.

Bob

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

What does the little rear sail do?

Bob

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

I don't really know what you mean by the little rear sail as none of them were small. The masts were fore, main, mizzen and jigger. The jigger mast at the back carried a jib-headed spanker set across the boom, the top point terminating just below the gaff. It was fifty feet across the base and fifty feet high. The other half of the spanker was a bit more than 50 feet long, setting between the boom end and the gaff end. The leading edge set just forward of the after edge of the jib-headed spanker.. The gaff topsail set above the gaff had a height of just over 50 feet as well. They were all part of the general propulsion of the ship by the wind rather than mechanical energy. Even the four staysails between the mizzen and jigger masts were well in excess of 50 feet long. Dirigo was a huge sailing ship in excess of 300 feet length on the waterline.

Bob

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

I mean, it looks small compared to the overall size of the ship

How would the ship perform without the Jigger?

It's pointing the wrong way for starters!

this type of ship makes me feel uneasy, they look so top heavy?

I once saw an old newsreel where a similar fully rigged ship…..Sank, going forward, sails and all!

Can't imagine what made it do such a thing?

Bob

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

If it didn't have a jigger mast, it would be a full-rigged ship and full-rigged ships didn't sail as well as barques (at least three masts and the rear one fore-and-aft rigged). I don't understand when you say the jigger mast is pointing the wrong way.? Fore-and-aft masts are always like that. I have never seen one with the boom and gaff in front of the mast! The following is three-masted barque. They may have looked top heavy, but they weren't. The hull of the Dirigo was 2,845 tons and the red part was under water. Four slender masts, even with all their spars and sails did not make them unstable because of the size and depth of the hulls. Modern cruise ships to me look far too tall and top heavy, but they also are quite stable as long as water does not get in, but if it does, over they go!

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Here is a link to a photograph of the Dirigo at sea. They aren't setting any sail at all on the jigger (don't even have the gaff rigged), but she is still booming along quite well!

Bob

**LINK**

Edited By Bob Wilson on 31/07/2014 12:59:40

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

That just shows that my question about the jigger, was a sensible observation, after all?

Also, I notice she had a Centreboard, proving my other question was relevant too?

I was only curious

Bob

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Bob,

The article says many small schooners had centreboards. The Dirigo did not! No big square-riggers had centreboards.

The fact that no sail was set on the jigger could be for any number of reasons. The gaff may even have been damaged at the time of the photograph.

Bob

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Here is a cross section of a typical steel sailing ship which demonstrates that they were a long way from being top heavy. Note the loaded waterline on the right hand side. The loaded ship was very deep in the water and also they were very wide in the hull, although photographs seem to give the optical illusion that they were long and thin! If no cargo was loaded, they often had to take a few hundred tons of ballast before they could sail safely.

Bob

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Thanks Bob

Must have been a long drawn out job getting the ballast out?

Are there any calculations proving that the ship was safe to sail?

I suppose the pivot was in the hull area somewhere and the hull and rigging was a sort of moment calculation?

Bob

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Yes, there were calculations that had to be done before the ship left port, but nowadays, a computer can do it.

Most sailing ships managed to carry cargo both ways. In the final days of sail in the early 1900s, a typical run was out to the West Coast of South America with a full cargo of coal and back home with nitrate. In earlier years, outward with general cargo to Australia and New Zealand and back home with wool. Incidentally, the first refrigerated cargoes of frozen meat were brought from Australia and New Zealand in sailings ships fitted with coal-burning freezing compressors, even though the ships themselves were only propelled by sail.

If they had to move ballast, the crew usually did it to save the owners money. Crew wages were about £4 a month in British sailing ships. It could take weeks to get the ballast out.

Bob

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Thanks Bob

At Porthmadog in North Wales, there is a large island on the coast, built entirely from discharged ballast

It makes me wonder why the ships would bring ballast back to Great Britain?

But it could be Slate out and nowt back?

Fascinating awesome days?

Bob

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

They needed ballast to stay the right way up Bob! They got rid of it before loading another cargo.

Colin

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

And when they were discharging ballast, and it was all nearly out, they tied huge "ballast logs" alongside to keep them upright. Some modern four-masters such as Mozart and Donna Francisca had water ballast that could be pumped in or out with a steam donkey engine that made things a lot easier and quicker. Donna Francisca below.

Bob

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Now, after about five or six months, my Tennis Elbow has finally got better!

Whilst waiting patiently, I have been doing a lot of drawing, and this is the latest, the four-masted barque Lord Wolseley,

However, I seem to have lost interest in shipmodelling along the way!

Bob

Edited By Bob Wilson on 19/10/2014 14:16:36

[mike farrellParticipant @mikefarrell21522]

Hi Bob Two things I nothing about are Tennis Elbow or Sailing above a Mirror dingy but what I do appreciate is a well executed drawing and to that end I love your Sailing and its complicated rigging.

Your description of the sails falls off the page in almost a poetic way ,seems so olden as almost to be lost in time.

Yes Bob I could have it on my bedroom wall to look at in my more restful times

If you cannot work with your hands modelling then this is a great substitute.

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Thanks Mike,

Tennis Elbow is a very common complaint in all ages where the elbow becomes painful if you grip or try to lift anything.

Doesn't seem to be a cure apart from waiting for it to get better. I am now fully recovered, but so far, haven't summoned up any enthusiasm to start a new model, although there is nothing to stop me now.

Bob

[Amy jane SeptemberParticipant @amyjaneseptember49770]

Hi there Bob

Lovely drawings. I used to have a fascination for drawing clipper ships as a teenager…..

A hobby is a hobby, and drawing sailing ships sounds like a fine hobby to me!

Amy jane

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Thanks Amy,

I have found it quite relaxing, because I can listen to talking books whilst I am drawing. No sawing, cutting, glue fumes, paint fumes, small cuts etc. Still quite a lot of research though before a drawing can even be started. The Lord Wolseley shown above was the second one, because after all the work drawing the first one, I realised that I had got the mast spacings slightly out and had to start again!

Then, at the end of the day, very few people, modelmakers or otherwise are the slightest bit interested in commercial sailing ships of the late 1800s. I did consider writing a book along the lines of the David R. MacGregor books, but initial enquiries led me to believe there was little or no demand. His books, that once sold for the teens of pounds, are now failing to sell at two or three pounds on Ebay!

Times change, and it is all computers, tablets and social networking these days, and very few young people can cope with anything practical!

Bob

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