Rigging!

ulf

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Rigging Revells Bounty. Eeh..The drawing is not the best so i had to go to the museum to check out acurate models from the 18th and 19th century. apparently the rigging variates depending on the type of ship. Seems logical. But I realize that I should have waited with the ratlines until after several of the threads were installed!
 
Maybe also a good book could help!?!
We have already several books related to rigging in the Book Review area with some Look Inside photos, weher you can see if such a book could help here.
The Bounts was a square rigger, so a lot of rigging standards can be taken over:

click on the title:

The Masting and Rigging of English Ships of War, 1625-1860 .... by James Lees
The Elements and Practice of Rigging And Seamanship - a primary source ........by David Steel
Rigging Period Ship Models: A Step-by-Step Guide to the Intricacies of Square-Rig ..... by Petersson
and
Rigging Period Fore-and-Aft-Craft .... by Petersson
 
In studying different books on rigging I've found that it mostly depends on the century the boat was built. Things were a lot different back before iron was invented and incorporated into ship building After that came brass and then steel and as forgers developed their skills the rigging changed. Also there was no rigging that a ships captain couldn't change if he thought it would work better or make the ship go faster. So a lot of changes that came about were from the captains trying new things at sea. From what I have been able to glean from these books is that you have to have the shrouds to hold the masts up and you have to have most of the standing rigging no matter how it's arranged. When it comes to the running rigging you have to remember that you need a line to pull the sail up and another one to pull it down along with a matching line on the opposite side of the ship. Then there are all kinds of lines for reefing and furling the sails and some more to let the yards down and bring them back up again. The best plans I've ever found for all this is the rigging plans that come with the Revell kits of the Clipper Ships. They were rigged so much alike but they were a one class of ship. However you could use those plans to rig any ship and be very close to what the real one looked like. There's a book by William L Crothers called "The American Built Clipper Ship" 1850 to 1856 and it relly is a worth while read. More info on square riggers in this book that any I have ever seen. Tata.
 
Hi Norgale & Ulf, I recommend the AOS book Bounty. This will give you all the accurate detail you could possibly use, and is tailored for your model.
Clipper ships were the epideomy of sailing ship design, and had used lots of iron rigging, none of which were used on the Bounty.
Good luck & have fun. Duff
 
.............. The best plans I've ever found for all this is the rigging plans that come with the Revell kits of the Clipper Ships. They were rigged so much alike but they were a one class of ship. However you could use those plans to rig any ship and be very close to what the real one looked like. There's a book by William L Crothers called "The American Built Clipper Ship" 1850 to 1856 and it relly is a worth while read. More info on square riggers in this book that any I have ever seen. Tata.

I didn´t know that these drawings from Revell could be so good describing the rigging - Do you have one, so you could show as an example?
Related to the mentioned book of Crothers, which I do not have in my library
- would be very interesting to see a small Book Review and our special area.....so if you have once some time left, would be great to see a little bit of the content of this book - sounds very interesting
 
Hi Norgale & Ulf, I recommend the AOS book Bounty. This will give you all the accurate detail you could possibly use, and is tailored for your model.
Clipper ships were the epideomy of sailing ship design, and had used lots of iron rigging, none of which were used on the Bounty.
Good luck & have fun. Duff
I can also recommend this book as a start for the rigging. Important is at the end, that the rigging is "working" and logical correct and complete. Like @Norgale mentioned, during the use of ships like the Bounty, the rigging was often adjusted according the "taste" and experience of the captain and his crew....
....there are original documents available, often in log-books, where the captains describing in detail the changes and tests done with the ship, rigging, trimming with ballast like stone, water, cannons etc.
 
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I didn´t know that these drawings from Revell could be so good describing the rigging - Do you have one, so you could show as an example?
Related to the mentioned book of Crothers, which I do not have in my library
- would be very interesting to see a small Book Review and our special area.....so if you have once some time left, would be great to see a little bit of the content of this book - sounds very interesting
Glad you asked about that Uwek. I'm always happy to share what info I have with other modelers. I took some pics of the rigging plans for the Revell Cutty Sark and then a few of the book from Bill Crothers. As a book review I can honestly say that this is the most comprehensive work on Clipper Ships that has ever been written. It will show you how every clipper ship made in America is rigged. The Cutty and the Thermopale were made in England so are not included. There are painstaking drawings of how these different ships were put together and rigged. Every part of the ship is covered in detail. There are tons of pages with lists of what sized wood went where and even what sized every line in the rigging was and where it went. You can learn how to take off lines for a boat and how to translate these lines to your own scale plans. There is an incredible amount of information here most of which you can use in your modeling. Remember that the Clippers were just about the last of the big sailing ships as steam was making rapid progress in ship building as was iron and steel. So the rigging used on these clippers is the last of the improved rigging and the latest think there was. I think this book costs about $75 but you may get a used one for much less on Amazon. I actually had the pleasure of corresponding with Mr. Crothers a few times but I believe he is gone to Davie Jones locker now.
Here are the pictures i just took. The first group is the rigging plans from Revell and the second group is the Clipper book. If you can rig a clipper ship you can rig any ship,even a real one. Norgale
Cutty rigging and Clipper ships book 001.JPGCutty rigging and Clipper ships book 002.JPGCutty rigging and Clipper ships book 003.JPGCutty rigging and Clipper ships book 004.JPGCutty rigging and Clipper ships book 005.JPGCutty rigging and Clipper ships book 006.JPGCutty rigging and Clipper ships book 007.JPGCutty rigging and Clipper ships book 008.JPGCutty rigging and Clipper ships book 009.JPGCutty rigging and Clipper ships book 010.JPGCutty rigging and Clipper ships book 011.JPGCutty rigging and Clipper ships book 012.JPGCutty rigging and Clipper ships book 013.JPGCutty rigging and Clipper ships book 014.JPGCutty rigging and Clipper ships book 015.JPGCutty rigging and Clipper ships book 016.JPGCutty rigging and Clipper ships book 017.JPGCutty rigging and Clipper ships book 018.JPGCutty rigging and Clipper ships book 020.JPGCutty rigging and Clipper ships book 021.JPG
 
;amy thanks to show us this interesting book .....I will try to get a copy, it sounds and looks realy good
 
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Update on the Bounty: As seen in my picture the riggingprocess is extremly slow. Life and some other models got in the way of it. The sails are not yet there. And if one look closely in the background on the black shelf there is a Heller tunafish-vessel waiting to be completed...
 
I found that "Anatomy of A ship Bounty" had all the rigging information I needed for the build.View attachment 81734

I just purchased this book from Amazon after reading your post, along with reader reviews from Amazon. Looks like just the kind of history and detail information I was looking for. Thanks for recommending it
 
I’m wondering if anyone has a “philosophy” or technique about the sequence of rigging.

In the past, I usually started with the mast shrouds and ratlines, moving on to the movement rigging for yard arms with running rigging after that and mounting sales last.

Is there a better way? I mean any way you slice it, things start getting tight after a while but is there an unwritten rule or is every project different?
 
I’m wondering if anyone has a “philosophy” or technique about the sequence of rigging.
The
In the past, I usually started with the mast shrouds and ratlines, moving on to the movement rigging for yard arms with running rigging after that and mounting sales last.

Is there a better way? I mean any way you slice it, things start getting tight after a while but is there an unwritten rule or is every project different?
I don’t know how the “Masters and Experts” do it. But For my Enterprise build I started at the stern and worked my way forward.
Initially I tried to follow the build instructions and found that every step forward caused a repair step somewhere. I stripped everything out and rigged the sails and shrouds on the Main mast first.
It’s great being a “Novice” builder, since I don’t know if i’ve made an error or not. I enjoy the critiques by the Forum members and make a scrapbook note of the comments.
Long story short, if it works for you, well.........
 
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