Small steel barquentine

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Not built much of late, but completed this a few days ago.

Bob

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Very pretty Bob, and well up to your usual high standards.

Colin

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Very nice, Bob

I think the black masts and pure white sails are very attractive

What is the difference between a Barque and a Barquentine, please?

It seems to have had quite a long working life?………50 years………..What was the norm in those hard times?

Bob

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Thanks

A barque has at least three masts, and the back one is rigged fore-and-aft, the rest being square rigged. There were 3,4 and 5 masted barques around! A barquentine has at least three masts, but only the front one is square-rigged. There were 3,4,5 and 6 masted barquentines around.

Bellmore has a very chequered career. Completed as Maracaibo, she became the Q! Ship Merops in the Great war, and despatched a number of U Boats. After the war, she became Bellmore, but was eventually converted into a steamer and was unrecognisable from her original form, and had a number of different names. That would have contributed to her very long life. Some square-riggers were lost on their maiden voyages, but others went on for decades. Some still working at the age of 100 years! I have always found merchant sailing ships far more interesting than warships. One sea battle is pretty much like another as far as I am concerned. But for those who prefer the dubious "romance" of wartime activites, merchant ships were always dragged in anyway in time of war, and I found this thing fitted outside my cabin window in 1982 and all our passenger cabins filled with Royal Navy personell!!

Bob

 

Edited By Bob Wilson on 03/11/2017 08:02:40

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Thank you, Bob…..That`s very interesting

In those far off days, how would the purchaser of a new ship know what features his ship ought to have?

All those combinations of masts and sails, must have had their advantages and shortcomings too?

I don`t really expect you to answer the question, I`m only thinking out loud, but at the point of sale, it would take some head scratching?

Were the benefits of the sail combinations that obvious ?

I think we could all learn something here?

Bob

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

All experience! Long ago, they were nearly all full-rigged ships, 3 masts with square sails on each. Some companies took the square sails off the mizzen and just had a fore-and aft sail, and they often found they were just as good in speed and performance. In the end, the four-masted barque was the most popular. But most shipwoners were highly experienced and had often served at sea themslves. Captains were often given a free hand in the design and sail arrangements of new ships. When my last ship (RMS St. Helena) was in the design stage in 1987, all of the officers, including myself had their say in the design of their respective departments and our experience was fully acted on. The St. Helena is now in its final three months of service (now 28 years old) .

It is a very famous ship (in shipping circles) although not many here will have heard of it. Put in a Google search, and you will find hundreds of images of it. Here they are departing from London earlier this year: **LINK**

Bob

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

That must have brought a lump in one`s throat, Robert?

A bit of a coincidence too, your ship, St Helena…….. Going to St Helena?

Hope your ship is not going to the breakers?

Suppose you have made a miniature model master piece of her?

Can we see it please?

Bob

Edited By Bob Abell on 03/11/2017 09:12:03

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Not really, as I always preferred the originla St. Helena that was built in 1963 and ran until the new ship took over in 1989. Not a coincidence about the name at all. The sole purpose of the ship was to supply the island of St. Helena with general cargo and to provide a passenger service, as the island (British Colony) did not have an airport until last year. Now the airport is running, no need for the ship any more! The ship was owned by the British Government. Before that, the passenger liners of the Union-Castle Mail Steamship Co called at the island regularly, and it was aboard the RMMV Good Hope castle, that I first called at the island in 1974. Union-Castle sold all their passenger liners in 1978, and the St. Helena (I) took over. The new ship was far more comfortable physically than the old one, but I had a far greater workload, more or less continual from about 0730 to 2000 each day at sea. After two years in the new ship, I couldn't stand it any longer and took voluntary redundancy. It is now up for sale, and the Channel islands are interested in purchasing her! I have never made a model, and don't plan to. Here is a Utube slide show of the old St. Helena that only carried 76 passengers, and life (for me, anyway) was far more pleasant. On the shot of the bridge, I am standing on the left, the chief officer in the centre, and the captain looking in radar.

Bob

**LINK**

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Thanks Bob

I'm surprised you haven't made a model though

I should imagine, you got embroiled in some real stormy weather down there?

Bob

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

I was only on it for two years, and never felt all that fond of it after the initial thrill of a new ship wore off (and it wore off very quickly!). I spent 11 years in the original St. Helena.

Generally, it was a fair weather run. Somtimes bad in the Bay of Biscay in winter, but soon got through it. Never all that bad off the Cape of Good Hope, and even if it was, it was usually still warm and sunny. The worst weather we ever experienced was on the original St. Helena during our 13 months in the Falklands, 1982/83. Mountainous seas, freezing cold with driving snow and sleet – icebergs, and 100-mile-an hour winds. All pretty grim, but an interesting experience. A St. Helena winter was very similar to a UK summer!

Bob

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