Sailors, will you help a landlubber write a realistic saving-the-ship

[Daniel]

Can any of you old shellbacks help a sailing novice write a realistic scenario for my novel?

What needs to happen in this scene is that the captain makes a disastrous mistake that could destroy the ship, and the ship is only saved by the prompt action of the first mate (thus beginning to show the heroine that her contempt for the mate and attraction to the captain are ill-considered).

Any scenario that meets the above criteria will work, but the scenario I had in mind goes like this. The ship is a heavily armed frigate-built East Indiaman-type merchant vessel named the Cynosure. It has twelve sixteen-pounders on the gun deck, twelve more on the main deck, and twelve twelve-pounders on the quarterdeck. It has an appropriate rig for 1712, which I guess would be three masts with courses, topsails and topgallants on main and fore masts, a spanker, mizzen topsail, and mizzen topgallant, and a spritsail, but I'm guessing no spritsail topsail.

The Cynosure is sailing southward off Angola on a calm and moonless night when she gets hit from dead astern by a strong squall. Because of the darkness, no one sees the squall coming, and the ship has most of her sails set. Cue horrendous pitching. The captain orders the courses and topgallants furled and the topsails reefed to their smallest possible size (which I am assuming is the right thing to do in these circumstances). The crew gets the courses furled and the topsails reefed; the topgallant sails blow out before they can be furled.

Now as I understand it, there are two basic approaches to riding out a dangerous storm in the Age of Sail: either "lie to" with the ship's head as close to the wind as it will go, or scud before it with most or all sails furled and the wind astern. The captain decides to lie to, because he's worried about being pooped by following seas, and maybe concerned about being driven onto shoals that lie some miles downwind. So he orders the helmsman to bring the ship's head around to starboard, but forgets that nobody has had time to close the gunports yet; nobody was expecting foul weather, so the gunports were open. As the Cynosure begins to turn up into the wind, she naturally heels over to port, and starts shipping water through her port side gunports. The mate, who has not forgotten about the gunports, quickly grabs the whipstaff from the helmsman and turns the rudder hard back to port, putting the ship back on an even keel before she can be swamped.

But would the mate's action work? Would the following seas break the rudder if it were turned abruptly to port with the ship's starboard quarter or broadside turned toward the wind, thus rendering the mate's action as disastrous as the captain's? If so, would there be anything else the mate could do to save the situation?

Is this scenario even remotely plausible? Can it be improved? Is there another, more realistic way to bring about the mate-saves-the-ship-from-the-captain's folly scenario?

[Capt. Bo of the WTF co.]

I've never sailed, but was in the modern Navy as a shipfitter/damage control/firefighter.A big ship like you are describing, would it have a whipstaff or wheel? I don't think a whipstaff would work well on that size ship. You'd have to have the whole beam of the deck to walk a whip that size I'd think, and doubtful that one man alone could move it under heavy seas. As far as gun ports being open, and no-one remebering to shut them in the midst of a storm, honestly is not very believeable. That's why watches are set. Some things are done without orders from pure common sense. The only real scenario for usurping the Captain's orders is a mutiny. Even in the modern Navy, if the ships Captain says "we are going there, and we are doing it this way.", unless the danger is real and immenent, or the Captain is obviously insane,the junior officers are bound to follow regardless.

Not much help I know, sorry.

[capn'rob]

Captain Bo is correct on several points. The whipstaff was gone a century earlier. Gone with the Galleon. Unless the ship was going into, in or coming out of action, cannon were securly tied in their places and their ports securly closed for the very reason your story exhibits. An officer of this lack of seamanship would rarely advance beyond "middie". Wresting the helm, thus the control of the ship IS mutiny!

Keeping head to wind there are two options. heave to; Spanker sheeted close Fore Stays'l backed. Helm up. Head comes up, stays'l fills and head falls off. The vessel jogs head to wind with very little forward progress if indeed that's not the course you're planning. If it is your direction, sail close hauled, sails "small". Basically the same combo as Hove To with the addition of a Goosewing, Reefed Maintops'l. Running before the wind does have the chance of being pooped if the seas are steep and close. Laying Ahull is to close furl and gasket all sail, batten down and let the ship tend for herself.

As for the East Indiamen. The ones I've seen in the paintings and models at the Peobody-Essex Museum in Salem, MA, were not so heavily armed. The East Indiaman herself was a catagory of Merchantman Vessel and a Frigate was a class of Naval Vessel. The USS Constition is a Frigate. Derby Wharf, across from the museum is where the Eaest India Co. carried out it's business from. The Customs House, the Merchants Hall, now part of the Museum is across the street. Several of the homes of the origional company owners have become part of the museum with the goods they furnished their homes with from the Orient. Great Museum! The YinYu Tang House is re-assembled as part of the museum. This family did business with the East India Co. for generations.

I hope I was able to help in some way. If I can be of further assistance, feel free to message me. Dutch "X" his mark (Cap'n Rob's Pirate name!)

[Daniel]

OK, thanks for the help.

I think you're right that I have the ship over-armed; I see the Batavia had 26 guns and the Doddington 24. Did any of the Indiamen have separate gun decks below the main deck?

No doubt that the mate is risking hanging for mutiny by his actions, but it doesn't seem too incredible to me that he might risk hanging later to avoid drowning right now. He may try to talk his way out of it later by pretending not to hear or understand the order, in the style of Nelson putting the telescope to his blind eye.

About the wheel, I was going by Harland's Seamanship in the Age of Sail, p173, which says that "The steering wheel was introduced as late as 1704, the innovation starting in large ships and gradually working down to smaller vessels." I took that to mean that it started in the very largest ships, like the 100+ gun first-rate ships of the line, but I suppose it could already have worked down to the Indiamen by 1712.

Also, when I said the Cynosure was frigate-built, I didn't mean the Napoleonic-era sense of the word frigate, like a naval ship that escorts convoys and does reconnaisance. I meant the 18th-century architectural meaning of "frigate-built," that is, having a sharply raised poop deck and fo'csle, like Culliford's Mocha Frigate. As opposed to the more flush-decked "galley-built" type of ship, like the Whydah Galley, Adventure Galley or Greyhound Galley. Falconer talks about this some here: here. I think Indiamen were typically built this way, but does that match with what you've seen in the museum?

I know of at least one case where a ship had her gunports open (and sank as a result) when not going into battle: the Vasa. But maybe by 1712 that's no longer realistic. (Was the Plyades going into battle in 1869 when she took water through her lower gunports?)

All the same, it looks like I'll have to go back to the drawing board, if I can just think up a situation that makes more sense. Please, any more suggestions would be outstanding.

[Coastie04]

First off, the Vasa was heading out on her maiden voyage and the gunports were open for ceremony. That being said, sometimes a few gunports were opened in hot and calm weather in order to air out the ship, which when packed with so many sailors, could get rather rank. As for the sails, the first thing they would do is to furl the t'gallants, which would do the most to decrease the heel of the ship. Although taking in the courses and double reefing the tops'ls would be one sail configuration to ride out a storm, for a suddon squall I would furl everything except the fore topm'st stays'l and a double reefed fore course. Usually with squalls, they are sudden and don't have the time to build up very big waves. Therefore, keeping sail area as low as possible without getting becalmed from large waves is a safe way to go. If the waves were big enough to poop the ship, then there is no way that any competent sailor would have the gunports open. Also, with the sail area all forward, the strong wind would keep the ship heading down wind. Of course, the same thing would happen if you just had a reefed fore tops'l set instead of the course, but there would be more heeling and more stress on the rigging.

One possible scenario that I would suggest is that while taking in sails (it would take a little while), fore tops'l blows out and the mate orders the course to be re set in order to keep the bow downwind and prevent the broaching from having too much sail area aft. Just a few thoughts I had; hope it helps.

Coastie

[Daniel]

First off, the Vasa was heading out on her maiden voyage and the gunports were open for ceremony. That being said, sometimes a few gunports were opened in hot and calm weather in order to air out the ship, which when packed with so many sailors, could get rather rank. As for the sails, the first thing they would do is to furl the t'gallants, which would do the most to decrease the heel of the ship. Although taking in the courses and double reefing the tops'ls would be one sail configuration to ride out a storm, for a suddon squall I would furl everything except the fore topm'st stays'l and a double reefed fore course. Usually with squalls, they are sudden and don't have the time to build up very big waves. Therefore, keeping sail area as low as possible without getting becalmed from large waves is a safe way to go. If the waves were big enough to poop the ship, then there is no way that any competent sailor would have the gunports open. Also, with the sail area all forward, the strong wind would keep the ship heading down wind. Of course, the same thing would happen if you just had a reefed fore tops'l set instead of the course, but there would be more heeling and more stress on the rigging.

One possible scenario that I would suggest is that while taking in sails (it would take a little while), fore tops'l blows out and the mate orders the course to be re set in order to keep the bow downwind and prevent the broaching from having too much sail area aft. Just a few thoughts I had; hope it helps.

Coastie

Excellent points. I hadn't considered that a squall wouldn't build up big waves right away, and of course only a sudden squall in the darkness with no warning would account for the gunports being open and other lack of preparation.

I'll try a rewrite based on the fore tops'l blowing out and the mate setting the course. In that case, would it be necessary to cast off the gaskets and let the whole course fall free immediately, to prevent the ship's head from coming around and broaching? Or would the men on the yard be able to (I'm not sure how to say this) let the sail out a little bit at a time until they reached the lowest row of reef lines, and then reef the course, thus reducing the risk of it blowing out? I'm guessing the first is right, as a double-reefed course wouldn't be enough to prevent broaching because of too much sail aft.

Also, you mentioned that you would furl everything except a double reefed fore course and the fore topmast staysail, but did merchant vessels have fore topmast staysails as early as 1712?

About the captain; my conception of him is that he isn't a drunkard or flagrant incompetent, he's the kind of guy who looks on the surface like he knows his job, but he's just not very good when the going gets tough and he has to reach beyond his surface knowledge.

Edited December 20, 2009 by Daniel