Captain and crew cabins

[Red Cat Jenny]

I searched and only found a few old posts on views below decks. I am looking for photos or realistic drawings/paintings which show the Captain and Crew quarters as they would have looked. Also the galley and gun decks etc thanks!

[Dorian Lasseter]

Here's a fine site.... go to the Gallery...

http://www.shtandart.com/mission.htm#

[Red Cat Jenny]

Aye thankee! Tis a fyne ship and beautiful pics!

[oderlesseye]

Captians quarter HMS> Suprise

[Red Cat Jenny]

Ohhhh "jumping up and down" thank ye both!

Please add more links or pics when ye can. I'm usually goode at searching this stuff online, but have come uo quite empty when it comes to below decks.

[Desert Pyrate]

It depended very much on the mission of the ship.

For a frigate-type vessel, the film Master & Commander gets it very right.

Little sloops of war that didn't have a seperate gun deck would be filled with provisions below the waterline. Crew would sleep on provisions and on hammocks wherever there was room. Generally, the deck was open below.

On a merchant vessel, cargo was king (then and now). The website of Lady Washington, a merchant brig of 90 tons, has a great picture: http://ladywashington.org/dsthenandnow.jpg

Where would the crew sleep in the above picture? Anywhere they could. The little cabin just forward of the chart table would be for the master and mate.

Hope this helps.

[Red Cat Jenny]

That was very informative and I'll ave t' rent Master n Commander again. I didn't think about the lack of a gunnery deck.

[blackjohn]

I can't get this to open, since I'm not at my normal pc, but in theory it is a virtual tour of the HMS Rose (which became the HMS Surprise).

http://www.tallshiprose.org/info/tour/intro.html

[Red Cat Jenny]

Wow BlackJohn, I was hoping you'd post as well. The VR tour does work and it's great. Thanks so much. I'm really enjoying this post.. I want to get the general "feel" for being on board stem to stern; The mast view was great! I buys ye a rum t say thankee!

[Capn_Enigma]

Although you failed to specify which period you are looking for: Here's a Virtual Tour of the VOC retourschip "Batavia".

And to the picture that was posted by oderlesseye: It looks just like my grandma's coffee table. Just our disneyfied, romantisized, hollywoodized imagination of a "Captain's Table". Even multi- armed candlesticks are there. But how long do you s'pose this layout would last even in the slightest breeze aboard a tallship?

Listen to someone who has actually been to sea: Not a minute. By that time, everything you see would be tumbling in very handy heap of shards on the leeward side of the deck.

I could also mention that there hardly were (leather!) upholstery nor even comfy cushions aboard, but I guess you see my point.

[Red Cat Jenny]

Well coming home after working all night and getting to spend time exploring a ships decks was a true treat! Thank you for th post and I hope more are coming. Can't wait t have a "real" tour.

The massive size is starting t' sink in..

[JohnnyTarr]

Well coming home after working all night and getting to spend time exploring a ships decks was a true treat! Thank you for th post and I hope more are coming. Can't wait t have a "real" tour.

The massive size is starting t' sink in..

I just don't know, but something about that statment is just naughty.

[Red Cat Jenny]

hee! That had crossed my mind when I worte it..meant t' edit it..then th phone rang. oh well! LOL

"It's not th size o yer ship but how ye trims th sails?"

[Desert Pyrate]

If you're thinking pirate, start thinking small. Our idea of pirate ships as frigate size or bigger is about like that picture of the great cabin table... nice, but inaccurate.

Pirates used tiny ships: sloops, cutters, ketches, some brigs, and eventually schooners. Think open gundecks, think small multi-purpose compartments, in the rare case that there were compartments at all. Men sleeping everywhere: someone's got to crew all those prize ships. You'd not have a place of your own, when you're on watch someone else has your spot.

Think shallow-draft - got to slip in and out of littoral waters. Shallow-draft means not much room below deck, especially because the small quick ships don't have much freeboard. Almost certainly there'd be only one level below deck.

Batavia and Surprise/Rose are too big for pirates, except for the very rare case: as is often said, don't make the rare common and the common rare.

Small, small, small. And crowded and stinking. And dark below deck.

[Red Cat Jenny]

I was wondering about that, thinking more on the line of barques, sloops and schooners ..shallow draft vessels as you point out also able to escape into waters war ships would run aground in or hide in coves or even rivers. Where I live andthe pirates engaged in rumrunning, the bay is very shallow in areas and the tide level can vary.

However was thinking that these larger ships were necessary in different waters such as the harrowing sail around the horn or well out to sea where the waves are huge.

Still I wonder a large ship would present both an easier target, be more visible at a distance but might offset this with superior firepower of multiple gun decks.

Still learning..thanks all for the info.

[Red Cat Jenny]

Funny,

I answered me own question in the 1606vpost..

Missed this gallery of below decks initially

Still keep em coming!

[Silkie McDonough]

Thenks for the link Cat! Very enlightning.

I have a question to any who will answer. What size ship is she? The best I could find was "small". Did anyone see any dimensions? (I have a tendancy to overlook the obvious when I am looking for something specific.)

[Dorian Lasseter]

Duyfken is built about 1595 in the Netherlands. A fast, lightly-armed ship probably intended for small valuable cargoes or privateering.

She looks like a brig to me...

Selected as the jacht, or scout, for the "Moluccan Fleet" sailing to the Spice Islands.

There, she is called a 'Jacht' or Yacht....

[Desert Pyrate]

Properly, she'd be a barque - square rigged on two masts, fore-and-aft on the third. A brig is two masted, square-rigged on both.

That said, 1606 rig terminology is vastly different than now. The use of the word "barque" for a particular rig didn't come into vogue until the 19th century. I'm not real up on early Dutch rigs, but I think she's a fluyt.

[Dorian Lasseter]

Aye,

What you said...

Damn Dutchies...

[Rabbitz]

She is indeed a jacht, about 24 metres long (78ish feet) 140 tonnes (150? tons).

A modern real estate might describe her as compact or cosy....

Rabz