Scuttles - Help Please…...

Seagull Shipwright

Seagull Shipwright

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Jul 12, 2023
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My 1836 ship plan shows the top deck and tween deck of a schooner. On the tween deck are drawn 20 plus square/rectangular scuttles. I have interpreted these to be openings in the ceilings of the cabins to provide light and/or ventilation. I also assume they are sealable in adverse conditions. On the top deck (above the tween deck) the scuttle openings are not shown, though hatchways and stairways are drawn.

Q1. Is my interpretation correct that there is an aperture in these scuttle locations?
Q2. Will these be raised to prevent deck water ingress and if so by how much?
Q3 does anyone have a drawing, sketch or photograph of one of the light vents etc.?

Thanks in advance seagull…...
 
It would be very good to make photo(s) to show the important part / excerpts of the drawing
- with this an interpretation of this detail would be easier
 
Uwek, thank you for your fast response. The photo below is the tween deck (hold, tween deck, upper deck?)
IMG_0886.jpeg
You can see the four large and two small scuttles clustered near the forward mast. The next photo is the same area on the upper deck.
IMG_0888.jpeg
The scuttles are not shown. My guess is these were specified and the shipwright would make them possible? My requirement is to understand whether this is the case and if so what would they look like?

Thanks…….
 
Interesting - which type of ship is it and what is her name - maybe with this information some additional research is possible.
In moment I can not explain, why there are so much hatches in the lower decks - also usually hatches are in the center of the ship
 
Uwek said:
Interesting - which type of ship is it and what is her name - maybe with this information some additional research is possible.
In moment I can not explain, why there are so much hatches in the lower decks - also usually hatches are in the center of the ship
Click to expand...
Uwe, The ship is called Seagull built 1830 at Chatham Dockyard and refitted in 1835 in the same location. Since you last replied I have analysed the drawing in much more detail. The refit was from a 3 masted schooner to a 2 masted brigantine. However there was a significant change in vessel character for example more cabin space (tween deck), smaller magazine, potato rooms added, a treasure room (tween deck), porter storage and wine storage, most of this in the hold. Consequently there were more scuttles added into the hold area to gain access the the hold space. As you pointed out the top deck remained uncluttered and what scuttles, sky lights, companion ways and ladder ways were aligned centrally. please see some further photos below…..

1830 Aft Tween Deck.jpg
1835 Forward Main Deck 1.jpg
 
Seagull Shipwright said:
Uwe, The ship is called Seagull built 1830 at Chatham Dockyard and refitted in 1835 in the same location. Since you last replied I have analysed the drawing in much more detail. The refit was from a 3 masted schooner to a 2 masted brigantine. However there was a significant change in vessel character for example more cabin space (tween deck), smaller magazine, potato rooms added, a treasure room (tween deck), porter storage and wine storage, most of this in the hold. Consequently there were more scuttles added into the hold area to gain access the the hold space. As you pointed out the top deck remained uncluttered and what scuttles, sky lights, companion ways and ladder ways were aligned centrally. please see some further photos below…..

View attachment 392265
View attachment 392267
Click to expand...
I found the contemporary drawings of the Seagull - both versions

and I guess you are right with your thoughts
 
In this case, the scuttles would be indeed small hatches in the deck of what I assume is the galley.
Thus not in the overhead, which explains why they are not shown in the upper deck plan
 
Hi and thank you so much for responding to my post. It is greatly appreciated. As you correctly pointed out the hatches are in the tween deck floor and hence are not shown in the main deck view. I assume these would be flush with the floor (trip hazard) and used periodically to retrieve items from the hold below.

Thanks again for the interpretation and advice.
 
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