Flaring back to life

Progress on Electryone: holes for masts, and railings attached.

And a new ship started! This is taking the place of Luna as my Dutch brig. Completely scratch-building this one, no plans.

She'll be called Flare.

Enough of this Luhnaucy

The fact is, if I want to do Dageraad, I may as well do it right. What I actual have is a "Elbfregatar"/Gluckstadt-class brig. So I'm just going to slap a Danish river-name on it and be done with it. I'll make Dageraad from scratch or from near-scratch, like I did with Electryone.

So my little captured Danish brig will be Luhnau, after a river in Schleswig-Holstein, just like the rest of her class, and the English will simply call her Luna. There.

The New History of Machteld's Dagger

What a name, right? Well, the situation is this. Machteld, as I envisioned it, does not make sense. We've been over that. But the thing is, I just can't reconcile it. The Dutch didn't build with teak, a semi-privateer wouldn't be able to operate that way (not for long, anyway!), and there are just too many holes. Essentially what I was doing was crafting a pirate story, or possibly a heroic Golden Age story. Either could be fun, but simply don't fit with the period I have my heart set on and, frankly, enjoy the most.

Instead.

The ship in question will be Dageraad, 18, built 1780 in Amsterdam. She will be taken by the English in 1781 near Saldhana Bay (not in the actual battle, mind! Just like Aubrey, we'll set things near, not at or during.) The English will have entered her as Dagger, and all but immediately laid her up, because, well, what officer would want a ship like that?

Following that, Dagger will be sold off in 1795, and a exiled Dutch captain will purchase her. He'll also come by letters of marque and reprisal, and exception from impressment. He'll sail Dagger to the East Indies, intent on at least somewhat representing Dutch interests there/"supporting their British allies."

On the way there, from weather and action, maybe a reef, Dagger will be badly damaged, and he hauls her up for repairs. Those repairs see Dagger essentially rebuilt - with teak! Her heart, the framing, will remain good, honest, strong Dutch oak, but her armour will be teak. Since the ship will be restored (and improved), the captain sees fit to restore her name, and she will be Dageraad once more. He will also fit her with a lion figurehead painted red.

So that's my compromise on having a Dutch-built teak privateer. And it's one I think I can actually live with.

Machtold off

So Machteld doesn't entirely make sense, from a quote-unquote lore standpoint.

There was no Dutch colonial shipbuilding, or at least, no large-scale shipbuilding. Not that I can find. The only substantiated evidence I can find at ALL is that there wasn't, so, I have to back that, instead of the occasional article that says "the VOC used teak for shipbuilding." And I suppose they did use it for repairs.

But I found a very vague reference about Hohlenberg "confess[ing to] having been inspired by a Dutchman" regarding his pinched stern, which Machteld sports. So I mean... I'm willing to accept that the ship was built by a private yard, in the Netherlands, of transported teak, and just discarded because of its weirdness until our brave captain got a hold of it back in the East Indies.

It just... isn't entirely historically accurate. But I suppose I can always just make a whole fake setting inspired by the Napoleonic Wars/the Age of Sail.

Hmmm....

Launch!

Done! Didn't take a progress pic of black undercoat, but I trust you can picture it. Also, decided to skip rigging. Couldn't get my fat fingers in there. The next one, I'll maybe do the rigging before attaching the masts. Anyway!

HMS Essence, 56
Psyche-class
4th-rate Frigate
280 men
Lower gundeck: 28x 24pdr
Upper gundeck: 28x 32pdr carronades
Broadside weight of 784lbs

HMS Expeditious, 32
Psyche-class
5th-rate Frigate
250 men
Upper gundeck: 28x 24pdr
Forecastle:           2x long  9pdr
Broadside weight: 336lbs

Bases made from some house siding.

Well, the fit and finish may not be the best in HM's Navy, but I'm darn pleased with these. I had fun, and they taught me a lot that will go into future builds.

Machteld

As I mentioned, Civil, after all my abuse of her, matched the dimensions of a captured Danish ship called either Elben, Elven, or Elvin, depending on whom you ask and whom she was sailed by. Regardless, there's not much information on the ship. The British made a draft of her semi-sister Gluckstadt.

But it's not complete. However, thanks to the absolutely incredible staff of the Orlogsmuseet, I was able to see some pictures of the partial models that exist there of the Elben.

Bow and stern. While I'd love a full model, those pictures provided by the museum were more than enough, and gave me what I needed to complete the shape of Civil.

Wait, what?

I am very, very pleased with the results, though admittedly slightly confused by the stern - as no doubt were the British, since all three ships of this semi-class laid in ordinary for years and years. But, as to the name? Well I've decided to change things up. Civil is no longer going to have been a Dromadarie-class, nor even a Danish ship. Instead it's going to have been a (possibly Danish-inspired) VOC ship built in Java - of teak - and set aside for some years due to its odd nature. It then becomes claimed by a Dutch captain who gathers a crew of anti-French Dutch and sails as a privateer pirate, like the Geuzen 200 years before. Now, I admit, I've been hesitant about alt-history before, but I'm giving way, a little, with this ship. I've just so fallen in love with it, I'm allowing myself some romantic notions about its history and career.

As to the name, in one version of the song or legend of Heer Halewijn - an evil king who ensnares maidens with his magical song - the maiden who frees herself and kills him is named Machteld. What better inspiration for Dutch rebels against Napoleon? Again, very romantic, I grant, but so sue me.

Put him in the brig until he's sober

So, brig.

Took the top deck off, the stain is the layer of glue beginning to come through. But I put a dip in the nose. On purpose, actually, but it looked silly. So...

So now it has a rounded bow. I'm pleased with the shape but I might give it some more work later. It turns out that at these dimensions (length 3.68 times breadth) it scales up to within inches of the Danish Elvin, which the British captured, but never draughted. I'm trying to track down a model of it but unless I can, I'll just call this a fictional Danish ship.

To brig or not to brig?

Civil is proving.... educational.

And a pain in the ass.

Much more sanding, fine this time, and her lines still aren't great. Wood glue as patches here and there.

But all that to one side.

Originally once I was happy with it, Civil's measurements matched up with the French Dromadarie class of flutes, one of which the English captured and entered, two of which the French turned into frigates for round-the-world scientific expeditions. I thought, well hey, converted transport, that would make a great privateer or hired vessel, maybe for a Dutch captain?

Turns out most of the class were wrecked. 62.5%, in fact, including the science frigates.

The problem, as best as I can tell, is simply their size and weight. Despite being 4.70 times longer than they are wide (hah!) which English wisdom tells us they should be extremely fast, they just were not weatherly at all. Maybe they were too tall? Maybe too long?

I don;t know why so many wrecked, but the fact is that they were more like the dreaded sixth-rate than anything else, unable to fight or flee.

And besides, now Civil is shorter than them, anyway.

So then I got thinking, well, I'll sand away the "top deck" of Civil, and call it a fictional brig. But that's a lot of material to just turn into dust, so I'm not committed to that plan, yet. And if I DO cut Civil down to a brig, I'm not sure how to rig her. I suspect I'd go with a true brig, but I suppose she could be ship-rigged. I think, though, that ship-rigged brigs were not as fast. But I may be misinterpreting that data. Also if it's to be a privateer, brig-rig means less men.

I dunno. I hate to ruin the hull, but considering it was going to be scrap anyway, maybe it's worth experimenting.

Burly Canadians

This is essentially just pointless spitballing, part of my continuing quest for a "Canadian" ship.

The woods that could be reasonably used for a Canadian-built, ocean-going warship in the Napoleonic Wars are some soft woods, notably tamarack, and, for hardwoods that would not need to be transported 1000miles, it is limited to red oak, or bur oak. Red oak is more plentiful, but not good for ships. Bur oak is found in limited quantities in New Brunswick, is related to white oak, and compares favourably in all categories to both it and English oak.



BUR OAK
Tree Size: 80-100' tall, 3-5' trunk diameter
Average Dried Weight: 45 lbs/ft3
Specific Gravity (Basic, 12% MC): .57, .72
Janka Hardness: 1,360 lbf
Modulus of Rupture: 10,920 lbf/in2
Elastic Modulus: 1,040,000 lbf/in2
Crushing Strength: 5,890 lbf/in2

ENGLISH OAK
Tree Size: 80-115' tall, 3-5' trunk diameter
Average Dried Weight: 42 lbs/ft3
Specific Gravity (Basic, 12% MC): .53, .67
Janka Hardness: 1,120 lbf
Modulus of Rupture: 14,100 lbf/in2
Elastic Modulus: 1,544,000 lbf/in2
Crushing Strength: 6,720 lbf/in2

WHITE OAK
Tree Size: 65-85' tall, 3-4' trunk diameter
Average Dried Weight: 47 lbs/ft3
Specific Gravity (Basic, 12% MC): .60, .75
Janka Hardness: 1,350 lbf
Modulus of Rupture: 14,830 lbf/in2
Elastic Modulus: 1,762,000 lbf/in2
Crushing Strength: 7,370 lbf/in2


So what does all of that tell us?

Bur oak is
-bigger than white, not as big as english
-lighter than white, not as light as engligh
-floatier than white, not as floaty english
-10 harder than white, 240 harder than english
-ruptures more easily than both (and all ship woods)
-not as elastic as either
-both those numbers are about 30% less than english, and a little bit more for white
-crushes more easily than both, but not as drastic as rupture and elastic

CONCLUSIONS:
Sailing performance would place it between english and white, if built similarly (and at all well).

Damage performance is harder to conclude. While harder than either, its other properties make it more prone to splintering and breaking. Perhaps, if expressed in video game terms, this would mean higher HP but lower armour? How then do those terms apply to the real world? So janka is, shall we say, general wear. Rupture and elasticiy are sudden impacts. So janka is hp, is structure. R and E are armour. Therefore bur oak is less armoured than english or white. Upwards of 30% easier to penetrate. Presumably. But a lot of the "fir" is going to have similar characteristics, so bur is something of a compromise. Now, if built well and properly, possibly that penetration problem can be mitigated. With, say, close framing. 3", perhaps.

I'm happy with this. It's interesting, too, that bur oak is so in the middle of the english and american oaks. How very... Canadian.

So. Now the problem is that there were no facilities in Atlantic Canada to build anything bigger than a sloop. But I want something bigger than a sloop. And the Navy didn't like colonial wood that had been shipped. The journey was hard on it.

I suppose it's possible that, as a Captain who had to put in for repairs, some rich and influential Lord, as an admiral, returned to Canada to build a frigate, during Spencer's permissive and experimentative reign. But ultimately, I don't honestly think I can reconcile the idea without going full alt-history, so my Canadian ship will probably have to stay as a sloop, if I ever make one.

Developing Civily

Finally back at the ships. I've more-or-less decided not to paint Essence, the gunports are just too much of a mess, but Expeditious is going to be my painting guinea pig, probably tomorrow. In the meantime, I've started work rigging Essence.

And with that drying, I set myself polishing up Electryone's lines a little bit.

The bow still needs a little work, but I'm much happier with her overall shape.

After that, I wondered what I could make of the first, failed Electryone, and just started sanding and sanding until I had a pleasing shape.

Say hello to HM sloop Civil, late the French flute Civelle. As I said, I just sanded and sanded away, and then took the measurements, did the scale, and went looking for a real ship with matching measurements. I came across the French Dromadarie class transport. But, several of them did serve as warships, either as sloops or frigates. Initially armed with 20 French 6pdrs, the Royal Navy have rearmed her with 18 24pdr carronades.

Now, the shape is not exact, since I haven't found plans for the class yet. But it's close enough that with quarter galleries and maybe a little more work on her lines, I'm not too concerned.

The shipyard at the moment.

The line is starting to form.

ElectryNONE (or; A Place in the Sun)

Some overzealous hands (me) using some new-fangled tools (bench sander) caused irreparable damage to Electryone even before her framing (general shape) was done.

My idea of using wood glue to patch split wood was a poor one, it seems. It was too annoying to sand it by hand, so I tried electricity and, well, that was a bit much.

Fortunately in this era of experimentation under First Lord Spencer, there was such enthusiasm for this project that another keel was laid the same day as the damage. This time, more traditional methods were put to her, and Electryone began to take shape once again.

The spirit of wakefulness, in her element.

Just hand-sanded, this time, with much more care to get the lines right. Or, if not right, since this is, again, merely an inspired ship rather than an historic reproduction, than pleasing.

And the Admiralty (me) is so far very pleased.

Electrifying Developments

Though Expeditious and Essence still be on the stocks, a new keel has been laid.

I've learned a lot working on the other two ships. Most importantly what I enjoy and what I'm not very good at. I always intended to build a third ship (at least). I had wanted to make a Dutch one (a captured Dutch ship, that is) but the plans I was set on using were not very good, and became too much of a hassle to scale properly. So I fell back on what was my very tenuous plan for a fourth ship, and am combining some plans into a mostly-original design.

The Electryone is based primarily upon Gambier's Triton.

An odd little 32 built in that great era of experimentation from 1796-1801, she's curious, and, to me, quite beautiful.

The Admiralty was not overly pleased with some of the odd developments Gambier built into her, though he loved her, and she didn't have much of a career. Fortunately in the land of fiction, that is easily mended.

However, for this to be a proper frankenship or kitbash, we need some more plans!

Enter the fastest ship in the west, Endymion.

Rather more traditional, wouldn't you say? And also, apparently the fastest frigate there was, and so good that it remained the standard for decades.

Simply taking the decks I like from each wouldn't work, they're too different. What I've done instead is modify Triton's plans based on what I liked from Endymion's. Endymion for example has a longer quarterdeck, when viewed from above. So now so does Triton - or rather Electryone.

There are going to be many more differences that appear as I work on the hull. At the moment, it's rather goopy with glue, since the middle deck split rather badly when I was cutting it, and one of Triton's defining features was straight or sheer sides, so I wanted to build that form back up. (Without cutting a whole new piece.) Because I'm doing Electryone as more "inspired" than "based on" any given ship, I'm not going to be too wholly devoted to making sure her lines match Triton, or Endymion, though she will take more after Triton, obviously.

One of the little "background" details for Electryone I've decided upon, though, is that she'll be oak, whereas Triton was fir. White oak, to be needlessly specific. Part of the reason is that I wanted a stouter ship, and also, 18pdrs. Not a lot of them, it's true, but still. With any luck she'll be a fast, weatherly (and dry!) ship with a nasty bite. Oh, and of course, the 32pdr carronades on her quarterdeck won't hurt, either.

Well they will hurt, but, oh, you know what I mean.

As to her name, it's a relic of an older idea.

I had got it in my head to build a companion of sorts for Endymion, and so the first name I thought of using was Selene, but then I decided that competitor was more interesting. Looking into Greek mythology, I found Electryone (there are various spellings) was sometimes attributed with being the spirit of wakefulness, whereas Endymion was, essentially, sleepiness. Perfect.

But for a ship based on Triton, I thought perhaps one of Triton's children (and not the Disney ones!) Pallas would have been perfect, but was already used extensively. Athena was Triton's foster daughter, but oddly the Royal Navy never named a ship that, and while I've always been a fan of Athena, I feel she deserves a rather larger ship. Kalliste might have done, had she not been born from a lump of dirt and turned into an island (hardly what you want of a warship), and Tritea, as possibly a handmaiden or priestess of Athena, also could have been good, but simply felt too close to Triton for my liking.

So then I found some unsubstantiated blog post that mentioned Athena as having been a sun deity at some point and figured, hey, that's close enough to wakefulness, might as well just go back to Electryone. And here we are.

Sailing onwards

Just a housekeeping progress shots of Essence's sails. Not a lot of progress to report otherwise since all that's left is painting and rigging, and painting will be much easier before the masts are fixed.

Witty and ship-related pun

Finished Expeditious's masts, and figured out how to do the little...front... sails. Whatever they're called.

And also added the spanker to Essence. It is hilariously oversized, so I trimmed Expeditious's down a bit.

And for the hell of it, put the masts in Expeditious! They're a bit askew because I had problems with the holes, and now, of course, the holes are too big and things wobbly. But they will all be glued eventually anyway. Oh, I also glue both bowsprits in today.

Essence-tially Done

His Majesty's Ship Essence, with all guns, masts, spars, and sails. Except all the sails I didn't do and the couple of spars I haven't attached because I'm not sure how. Now all that's left, aside from that, is "deck furniture", if I do any, rigging, and paint!

Mast-erfully done

Or at least pretty okay-ily done. (Oak-ily done?)

Masts on Essence, guns on Expeditious. I found the cardboard too hard to work with, so I switched to paper for Expeditious's guns.

 14 British 24pdrs a side. A broadside weight of 336!(Or do you give both sides together for weight of metal?) Plus two long 9s for bow chasers.

And Expeditious's dear surprise - two long 12 stern chasers! You get abaft of this ship, you're asking for it.

I was all set to drill some holes for the masts, and then I realized, oh god, I don't want to do that. So instead I just used a small pin and wedged the masts in. And since the masts were made the same height (whoops), I just set them at different depths to somewhat counteract that. The bowsprit will need to be glued but the rest are solid.

And this doesn't look like much, but I've got the spars attached to the masts. There may be a better way to do this, but I'm fine with this so far. The next step, I'll make some notches in the spars and glue them to the masts. The sails are still just plain paper, at this point, and honestly, they may stay that way.

Sails, spars, and guns

Back at work, so work has slowed at the dockyard. Two sets of sails and all their spars have been cut.

 I honestly don't know if I have cut all the right ones, and I'm not sure if the size is right, but it seems like I have enough to at least look... mostly good. The next step is deciding if I want to try and build a curve into them before assembling them on the masts, or if I just want to force a curve when I put them ON the masts. They're just heavy paper, and I think I probably want to reinforce them. Possibly white glue, possibly varnish, maybe even plasti-dip, if it comes in matte. *shrugs*

I realized I forgot a piece of the bowspirt, so I added that to both of them, and did an experiment with gunports. I'm not sure I like that, mostly because they're uneven, but I'm not sure I'd want to paint them on, so I'll probably stick with the cardboard, for now.