The Ultimate Sailing Ship

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

I have just completed a model of the PREUSSEN, the very ultimate in sailing ship design. The only commercial cargo-carrying five-masted full-rigged ship ever built. Completed in 1902, she could carry 8,000 tons of cargo and ran on the long haul from Hamburg to the nitrate ports on the west coast of South America and back.
She had a length of 407.8 feet and a beam of 53.5 feet. The hull, masts and spars were all made from steel. The total length of rigging including wire, hemp and chain, came to an amazing 137,727 feet. She had 248 rigging screws and 1,260 running blocks. The model took me 37 days to build at a total of 115 hours. Built to a scale of 25’=1″, the hull has a length of about 16 inches on the waterline. I have photographed the model from a low angle and superimposed a photograph of the real sea over the bottom of the picture before re-scanning it.
Few model makers ever take on such a daunting task as the PREUSSEN and I must admit, I am weary of it now. Must take a few days off before making the sea and fitting the model in it. The display case has already been made.
Bob

 

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

[Peter FitnessParticipant @peterfitness34857]

Bob, you’ve done it again – a superb model of an amazing sailing ship, and a very cleverly assembled photo to match.

 

Quite simply, outstanding.

 

Peter. 

[Robin LeeParticipant @robinlee31938]

A real beauty Bob, can you post a few more shots?

Regards

Robin

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Thanks,

I have been asked to write an article on building the PREUSSEN for an annual ship model journal, so I can’t really be posting more pictures of it on the internet.    The one above is only a provisional one, the model not being finished yet.   I made the sea this morning and it is now ready for painting.     Not much interest here anyway, this sort of thing is not really within the general interest of MB readers, although one or two have showed interest.

Bob

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Nice model. Bob

 

I can`t understand, how a sailing ship, of this size and with that mass of sails…………Manages to stay upright in a strong wind?

 

If it was a model, it would need a deep ballasted keel!

 

Give us a clue, Bob

 

 

Bob

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

The masts of the PREUSSEN aren’t all that tall in relation to the hull.   The mainmast is 182 feet from deck to truck.   The hull is 407.8 feet long and 53.6 feet wide.     Fully loaded, there was 27 feet of hull beneath the water.    The hull was 5,081 gross tons.    The masts and spars were made of steel, but they were hollow and did not weigh all that much in comparison with the hull.    If you made a model, you would find that it would stand up in the water quite easily even without ballast.     Ballasted down to the fully loaded level, it would be quite stable and would even sail.   In the past, I have made models of square riggers that sailed quite well on internal ballast only.     Just cut a piece of wood to these dimensions and stick five masts in it and you will be surprised how stable it is in the water.

I think the illusion that they are unstable come from the fact that viewed from the side, they look long and thin, but in reality, they are quite fat and bulky.

Bob

 

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

You`re the expert, Bob

 

27 feet below water, sounds good, especially fully laden!

 

Thanks, Bob

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

There is nevertheless a fundamental problem when scaling down sailing vessels in that the hull volume (and thus displacement) reduces by the cube root while the sail area reduces by only the square root. So a model sailing ship has a disproportionate pressure exerted upon the hull by the sailplan than does its full size counterpart. This is why external keels are usually needed on models except when sailing in very light airs.

 

Colin

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

In the days that I did sail model square-riggers, they were always 8 feet to 1 inch and I only sailed them in light wind conditions and even then with reduced sail.    They all had fixed internal ballast and no extrenal keels.    They worked better on a tack than before the wind.   None of them were radio controlled, but just put in the water and left to do their own thing.   Never lost any.

Bob

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

I took this photograph in 1968.   We had been diverted from Southampton to discharge cargo in Antwerp because of a dockers strike (passenger liner S.A. ORANJE ex PRETORIA CASTLE).

 

The most intersting thing there was a large expanse of water in the dock area.    The brigantine showed sinking was made by one of the other officers under my supervison.

It sailed very well with internal lead ballast and no external keel.   It sailed on a tack better than before the wind.    We only had the topsails and a jib or two set.    The model sank, not because of lack of stability, but because the main hatch was just placed in position and it came off.    The following day, we recovered the wreck using a small three-pronged grapnel and a ball of string.

 

Happy days.

Bob

Edited By Bob Wilson on 21/08/2010 19:18:57

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