Coastie04

Yep, keep 'er going. I try to check it out once a week or so (as able). Repeats just help to reinforce the vast amount of information I've been trying to soak up in the past year. I still say that it should be one of those daily calenders.

Congrats on the job! It should be fun, if nothing else. That's one of the many reasons I'm currently (well, in the summer months) captaining a whaling ship (well, whale watching, but that's not as much fun to say). Ironically, I just saw a guy working in our local Jo-Ann's today...of course Alaskan can't be scared of gruff looking men or we'd die out within a couple of generations.

http://www.thelocal.se/20141022/iconic-vasa-ship-fires-biggest Found it. And, a picture of the damage! I can't wait until they test other rounds.

Nice! Where's the Youtube video?

For Capt. Bo, one that's a little more piratical: "Captain Hook died here...he wiped with the wrong hand."

I always look forward to this each year. It would be great if the numbers rose again, but I won't complain about the intimate die hard group we've got, either.

Glad she's up and running again!

I wonder how the reporting in the Publick Occurrences would stack up to current newspapers. At least my local one is pretty poor, with misspelling and grammatical errors more of the norm than the exception.

Have you talked to Kass? Try contacting her, and beyond her site being a wonderful resource in itself, I'm sure she could steer you toward other resources that she's used. http://www.reconstructinghistory.com/

Nice! Brass swivel though? Keep to the fresh water with it, or meticulously clean it! With that fancy boat, you could be the one ferrying the big wigs and officers ashore, while the rest of the masses uses 'ordinary' (but still good looking) boats...

That bit of paint makes her really pop among the unfinished or plain varnished craft. Also, there's just something beautiful about a nice, squared off transom instead of the double enders. At least in my opinion!

A great article that goes in to not only the ship, its history and relevancy to Canada and Britain, but more importantly (and somewhat applicable to any GAoP shipwreck as well), the legalities of excavating the wreck. http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2014/09/09/franklin_expedition_recovery_of_shipwreck_artifacts_bodies_must_follow_diplomatic_agreement.html And another good article: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2014/09/10/franklin_mission_mystery_hugely_significant_british_experts_says.html

I can't believe that I didn't mention Lady Washington. She's stretching it a bit, but the original was a sloop from the 1750's, but her current rig is based on the 1780's era of the brig's history. Although a bit late, there isn't much change from a small merchant boat of the earlier 1700's.

Well done, and having fun is really the point in a race like this. You can work on the winning next year!

Well done! How did you do in the race?

http://www.mysticseaport.org/38thvoyage/ Much later than period, but... The Charles W. Morgan, the last wooden whaling ship in the world, departed Mystic, CT for the first time since she was towed there in 1941. She has been made seaworthy after a long and extensive overhaul and the Mystic Seaport museum is actually taking her to sea. She departed this weekend from Mystic to New London, CT in order to complete her ballasting and rigging, as well as become certified by the Coast Guard for this voyage along the New England coast. Sure, she's much later than the GAoP, but still would be an incredible sight underway.

That's a nice one!

Have you tried http://www.reconstructinghistory.com/ ? They've got a great variety of patterns if you do end up trying to sew it yourself. You might also contact them and see if they would sew it for you, though I'm not sure if they have the time for that these days. Can't hurt to ask!

Now that I've thought about it a little bit more, not much would change at anchor (unless a portion of the crew were allowed shore leave). If anything, there would be more work to do. All the regular duties of the ship would have to be fulfilled except helm watch (lookouts would probably be stationed in pirate or naval vessels even at anchor), and adjusting the sails. In many voyages, the sails were not actually adjusted all that often (of course different if in battle, near shoals, coming to a port, etc.). In the trade winds on an ocean crossing, days or even weeks could go by without touching a brace or sheet. Those sailors still had jobs to do, whether cleaning, maintenance, or actual running of the ship.

Lots of repairs and other work that couldn't be done at sea, loading and storing the goods picked up by the warrant officers and their mates, ferrying said crew members and supplies to and from shore, bilges still needed pumping, ships could do some heavy duty cleaning before being re-loaded with cargo/supplies, security watches, re-sealing the seams (the deck could potentially be done at sea in good weather, but the hull seams would be much harder and more dangerous to do underway), making new gear for the boat, etc. Additionally, if careening, there's plenty for the whole crew to do.

http://chivalry.com/cantaria/ The above link has a good number of traditional songs (some with references/dates). They have a pre-1600's section with a handful of songs, as well as a section for 'traditional' songs, though that ranges from the 1600's to the 1920's, so it's a bit of a chore going through them one by one to look at what references they might have. There are also are contemporary songs written in traditional style (Stan Rogers' Barrett's Privateers comes to mind here) that are often heard at maritime festivals, but are obviously not authentic. Many of the songs have sound clips for at least a verse or two of the songs if you don't know them. So, a random assortment of traditional, traditional out of period, traditional WAY oop, contemporary, and just plain goofy. And no, they aren't all sea shanties, sailor songs, etc., but I'd imagine that popular ones would have been known to sailors and thus would conceivably be sung in taverns, on ships, etc. Coastie

Well here's the easy way: Seriously though, I've seen at least one that was tied on in place by using some stout lines behind it, much like a buckle. It was looped around the holes in the backside of the figurehead (allowing them to pass through), then secured around the stem of the boat (or some other hardpoint-it's been a little while). When in place, these ropes were hidden by the figurehead itself. There were also a number of smaller figureheads that would be carved in to a billet head that would then be secured to the vessel. Below are a couple of pictures of the Charles W. Morgan's new billet head being installed (c. 1840's vessel iirc). It looks like nails or screws holding it on. It's extremely hard to find pictures of the reverse sides of figureheads, as everyone seems to want to see this instead:

I'd love to continue as well. As for this year's late gifts, I've experience a lot of that this year just due to the postal system, as well as private carriers, being completely overwhelmed by the sheer volume of sent gifts. The only thing I can suggest is encouraging gifts being sent out a bit earlier. Also, I still owe you a couple of homebrews...

In general, few masts equates to smaller crews. Of course, this is only true until the masts get so big that more people are needed to hoist the sail than to actually sail it. Then, multiple smaller sails on more masts is more crew-efficient. Of course, small coastal fishing smacks (say sloop or cutter rig) can be sailed by 2-3 men, and in the 19th Century I know some small schooners were even crewed by 'two men and a boy', but it created a lot of extra risk if adverse conditions were to come up. There was no autopilot of any nature at the time, so there always needed to be someone at the helm while underway. A lot of work can be done by a relatively small crew, but only in the short term. I remember as a new crew member on the Lady Washington (1750's, 90 ton brig, usually crewed by 12 or so today, probably more back then even when rigged as a sloop) for a day or two we sailed with only 5 crew (including captain and cook). It was a lot of work, we didn't set too many sails for us to handle, and we could rely on the engine/docking instead of hauling up the 1200 lb anchor and only were doing 3 hour sails at a time. It would have been exhausting going for days on end like that, as nearly every sail adjustment would require someone getting up from their off watch. In another comparison, the North Star of Herschel Island is a full rigged ship of 30 tons (though built in 1935, so far OOP) that boasts the ability to be sailed single handed (so 2-3 crew would be fairly reasonable). However, for a smuggling ship they usually rely on speed. Sailing that short handed doesn't allow you the ability to trim sails constantly like a racing crew in order to get as much speed as possible. If, as mentioned above, a crew was just meeting a vessel offshore and transferring some cargo to smuggle ashore, then 2-3 crew is reasonable for essentially an overnight or maybe couple day journey on a small (30 ton or less probably) fishing sloop or schooner. For open ocean at that time, it's just too small of a crew for anything reliable or even halfway safe. Remember that with natural fiber rigging, it had to be almost constantly adjusted, as opposed to even replica boats these days which are able to keep good tension with wire rigging (possibly covered with fiber rope to keep period appearance).

Congrats! And for a little history...