29th March 2008 DIVISIONS: Divisions in the Navy were a weekly occurrence when every aspect of a vessel (and its seamen!) was put into perfect aesthetic and mechanical working order for inspection by the captain. Similarly, before we can leave the hull behind and start on the preparation of Teazer's masts, there are a million and one odd jobs to do to put her in order before we can move on.
These include; the painting, drilling and fixing of over 60 eyelets (which ape ringbolts) on deck for the gun restraining tackles; around both masts foots for the running rigging, to the inner bulwarks and to the outside of the hull and channels. In addition there are several cleats, to paint and fix to the bulwarks; two sets of ladders to assemble and paint; the capstan foot and deck grips to make and fix; as well as the 10 timberheads to be made, painted and fixed into position.
To this we can add the entry port steps on either side of the hull with their attendant side ropes and the ships wheel tiller rope cowlings which protect the tiller rope from chafing where it runs beneath the main gun deck and along the deckhead below. We also have to fix all the pin rails inside the bulwarks and fill them with belaying pins ready for the running rigging. The pin rails need nails fixed into their undersides which are then sunk into the bulwarks (being very careful not to poke through the outer hull!) as they will take a lot of strain when the rigging is belayed to them and glue alone will not suffice. I also made, painted and fixed the hawse hole bolsters, cathead support brackets and side fenders.
These are all small tasks in themselves but incredibly time consuming when taken together, but they have to be done now as access to the model will become increasingly restricted as we progress.
2nd April 2008 CHANNELS: In readiness for the eventual fixing of Teazer's masts, we need to undertake some preparatory work and that is to prepare and fix the channels, deadeyes and chainplates.
The channels, themselves are painted black and fixed with several ringbolts (eyelets) to receive the running rigging at a later stage. They also have several nails sunk into them to strengthen their bond to the hull as they will probably be under more stain than any other aspect of the model when they receive the shrouds. The deadeyes are secured into position by chainplates which are made from brass and painted black and assembled in 4 sections and nailed to the hull. The positioning of the chainplates is quite a tricky task as they need to follow the run of each respective shroud. To do this a mast dowel is placed into position in its footing and the location of the fighting top is marked onto the dowel. Then a shroud rope is tied off at this height and run down to its respective deadeye and its angle is marked on the hull under the channel. This is repeated for each shroud and for Teazer this means 30 times (including the odd backstay!) The chainplates are then fixed into place following the marked angle on the hull and hopefully they will correspond with the run of each shroud when they are rigged at a later stage.
We are now ready to move onto the preparation of the masts and yards and have passed the halfway point in the construction of the model and are beginning to beat for home!
10th April 2008 MERE MASTS: The masts on the Cruizer class vessels were hugely powerful for vessels of this size and could carry a tremendous press of sail. Essentially the fore and mainmasts are identical in their shape and construction with the exception that the mainmast is a little higher.
All the spars and masts begin life as a uniform length of dowel. However, they have to undergo a significant amount of shaping which is a real test of a modeller's nerve. Some modellers make masts in multiple sections, effectively beginning a new section each time the mast shape or dimensions change. These sections are then pinned together at a later stage. I do not prefer this method and I generally shape the full length of each section of the mast as required. The upside is that this makes the masts stronger than assembling in lots of little pieces; the downside is that one mistake when shaping the different sections and the whole mast is consigned to the dustbin!
For Teazer, I have provided below some details as to how the shape and dimensions of her mainmast will change:
Mainmast: This is a uniform 8mm wide for the first 252mm, however, the mast cheeks have to be marked onto each side of the mast and the main mast is filed flat on each side at this point, from 170mm - 252mm to accommodate their fitting. The mainmast, from 252mm to 291 mm, is then filed from a circular shape into a square shape and its width is reduced uniformly from 8mm to about 6mm. Then from 291mm to 295mm the mainmast is filed from a square shape back to a round shape (to take the mast cap) and its width is reduced from 6mm to about 4mm.
Main Topmast: This is made using a 6mm dowel and for its first 44mm, it is filed square and its width reduced from 6mm to 4mm. from 44mm it returns to its original circular shape and 6mm width and tapers gradually over the next 98mm to a width of 4mm At the end of this taper, the mast then flares out over the next 9mm to its original width of 6mm to form the hound. Then for the next 27mm it is filed square and its width is reduced from 6mm to 4mm. Finally the main topmast is completed by filing its final 4mm from a square shape back to a round shape and reducing the width to 3mm to fit the topmast cap.
Main Topgallant Mast: This is made using 4mm dowel and for its first 34mm it is filed square and its width reduced from 4mm to 3mm. From 34mm it returns to its original width of 4mm and circular shape and tapers gradually to a width of 3mm over the next 60mm. At this point, over the next 7mm, it again flares out to its original width of 4mm to form the topgallant hound.
Then for the final 52mm it tapers from 3mm to 2mm where it is crowned with the mainmast cap or cheese. There have been reported accounts of seamen actually using real cheese (which was so ancient that it had congealed into something as hard as wood) as mast caps!
This gives you some idea of how much a mast shape changes as it progresses upwards and is far from a uniform round shape throughout. Anyone who has studied the making of masts from the period cannot but be impressed with the remarkable engineering and manufacturing feat that their construction entailed; particularly when you consider that each section contained multiple pieces of wood which were carved, bolted and scarphed together on a huge scale to fit the Navy's large fleets. It is a similar story for the yards (though a little simpler) which we will look at a little later.
TAKE A BOW: The first mast we will tackle, however, is the bowsprit (and jib boom) which is made in two sections. The lower section is untapered in its length (8mm wide and 212mm long) and is as wide as the foot of the fore and mainmasts. The foot of the bowsprit has to be shaped to fit the angle of the deck and to fit precisely under the fore mast bitts. The Jib Boom is smaller (4mm wide and 150mm long) and tapered from 4mm to 2mm throughout its length. It is given a slight flare at its tip which you can just see if you look carefully. It is joined to the bowsprit with a cap where the dolphin striker is also fixed. The cap is fitted at 90 degrees to the keel and then is bevelled at its top and bottom edges to run at the same angle as the bowsprit. This sounds like quite a fairly benign task but is quite a tricky challenge for a modeller to accomplish and takes some very careful cutting, carving and measuring to achieve. The bowsprit is also fitted with a saddle upon which the jib boom rests (and is lashed to) and the bees of the foretopmast preventer stay. The dowel is then coated with walnut wood stain and varnished.
It is at this stage that the various rigging blocks are also fastened to the masts and spars as required and the bowsprit requires two closed heart blocks and 4 small deadeyes. Where the blocks are located on the mast or spar, you also have to make a small cleat from a 5mm sliver of walnut to keep the block/deadeye, etc. in place.
In Teazer's case, I have also carved the cleats to look a little more authentic and fastened the cleats ready for the bowsprit gammoning which I will put in place at a later stage. I have the mainmast preventer stays to rig still, but will not tackle these until a little later in the construction.
I have dry fitted the bowsprit to give you some idea of its huge size and dimensions when compared to the rest of the sloop. It really is a very impressive mast.
To complete the bowsprit, we also fashion the spiritsail yard from a 4mm piece of dowel which tapers from 4mm at its centre to 2mm at each tip. This is painted black with the exception of its outer tips which are painted white. I am sure that I read in one of Julian's books (although I cannot recall which one) of one of the seamen traversing a yard at night time looking out for (or spotting) its white tips to warn him of where the yard terminated. The spiritsail yard is fixed with 5 single blocks, cleats for the sling and the pendant braces at each extremity of the yard.
The last task is to fit the yard foot ropes for the seamen to use when loosing or taking in sail. These run from both tips of the yard crossing each other in the centre of the yard and are fixed behind two cleats. It is important to get both footropes equal and to allow them to hang naturally from the yard.
As you can see there is quite a lot of work involved in fashioning even the most simple of the masts and overall the bowsprit and its yard has taken me about 20 hours to complete.
10th April 2008 ALL TO THE FORE: This is prepared in much the same way as the mainmast (detailed earlier), though is overall height is a little less.
I begin by cutting a dowel to the correct length and squaring its end and preparing a tenon joint to fit into the foremast cap. I then stain the mast with walnut dye and paint the squared end black. Next I plane two sides of the mast flat and fix the cheeks into position. On top of the cheeks are fitted the foremast bibs which are first painted black. To simulate the mast bands, I use black cartridge paper which is cut to 2mm lengths and glued into position on the foremast. The entire mast is then coated with a matt polyurethane varnish.
FIGHTING TOPS: With the lower section of the foremast complete it is time to prepare the foremast fighting top and first job to tackle is the crosstrees and trestletrees, which are the support timbers which fasten to the foremast and the fighting top ultimate rests upon. Care has to be taken to ensue that they sit on the mast at the correct angle and are aligned correctly.
The fighting top is glued together in two sections (the floor and the outer rim in which the topmast deadeyes sit) and braces made from 1.5 x 1.5 mm walnut fitted around its inner circumference.
The top is then fixed to the crosstrees and trestletrees and the shroud bolsters are shaped and fixed into position on either side of the foremast.
Four eyelets are sunk into the aft of the top (where part of the foretopmast and topgallant mast rigging will later be belayed) and on the underside of the top (actually they are fixed into the crosstrees!); four single 3mm blocks are fixed into position ready to receive the spiritsail yard braces at a later stage.
I also fashion an aft rail on the top made from 1.5mm x 1.5mm walnut and the whole top is then painted black and is ready to be fixed to the foremast. Whilst it has only taken a few paragraphs to write about, the foremast (lower section) and the fighting top has taken the best part of a day (about 6 hours) to complete.
I am now ready to move onto the foretopmast.
FORETOPMAST: This is a much trickier mast to prepare as it requires quite a bit of very precise shaping. I begin by squaring off a 6mm dowel to a width of 4mm and I drill a 1.5mm hole about 10mm from its bottom to accept the fid. The fid is made from a toothpick which is carved down to a width of 1.5mm and shaped at either end.
The next task is to gradually taper the foretopmast from 6mm down to 4mm and then allow it to flare back out to 6mm to form the foretopmast hound (upon which the foretopmast crosstrees will rest). This is a laborious task requiring very careful planning and carving and constant measuring with callipers to ensure that the mast is tapering uniformly. Once this is done and the hound is shaped, I then reduce the foretopmast's width to 4mm and square off the end and make a tenon joint for the foretopmast cap.
The foretopmast is for the most part stained with walnut dye with the exceptions of its top and bottom which is painted black. The foretopmast can then be fixed into place through the foremast cap and the fid pushed in to place.
FORE-TOPGALLANT MAST: This is made from 4mm dowel and is almost identical in its makeup to the foretopmast. I also have to drill a 0.7mm hole just under the foretopgallant mast hound to take the foretopgallant yard hoist when rigging at a later stage.
The foretopgallant mast cheese or cap is made from a thin slice of 4mm dowel which is glued into position and painted black.
I have dry fitted the completed foremast into place so that you can get some idea of how huge this mast was for a vessel of this size. You can also see from the picture, the lower section of the mainmast in place and when completed it will be even higher than the foremast.
The Cruizer class vessels were very fast vessels and you can see why when you look at their masts!
In fact the only vessels that were more proportionally powerful to my knowledge were the revenue cutters which carried a vast amount of sail on tiny (65ft) hulls and could wear ship on a sixpence. You couldn't escape the taxman even in 1800!
I love getting the masts into a model as they do not become ships (for my mind) until they are masted and the yards slung.
Now Teazer is at last a true vessel of His Majesty's Royal Navy!
SKYLARKING: As a small diversion from making the masts, I decided to assemble one of Teazer's boats. This took the best part of an afternoon and was lots of fun (though a bit fiddly) to do. You can see that the boat has a kedge anchor for which I have made a rope cheese as well as two boat hooks and four oars and for aesthetic reasons, I have shipped the rudder (only done when the boat was in actual use). The boat will be hung off the aft upper deck on quarter davits and I will need to make up another boat so that there is one on either side.
Whilst I was at it, I fashioned a galley chimney for the main gun deck and lined it with walnut coamings.
I also decided to install a ships light (lanthorn) from the stern gallery which I have painted gold and French Blue to echo the stern gallery colours and I think it really adds to the model even though it is only a very small detail.
4th May 2008 YARD BIRD: The foremast has four (arguably five if you count each stunsail yard separately) sets of yards: fore yard; fore stunsail yards (starboard and larboard); fore topsail yard and fore topgallant yard.
FORE YARD: The first yard to prepare and arguably the most complex of all the yards is the fore yard. This is made from a 6mm dowel and is a huge 270mm long. First I marked the precise centre of the yard and then working from this point I marked off the central section of the yard which is then carved into an octagonal shape. After this, the yards are tapered from 6mm at the centre down to 3mm at each extremity by using a small plane and then sandpaper to smooth off any rough edges. Callipers are used throughout this process to ensure that each side of the yard is tapering uniformly. Then I fixed cleats on either side of the yard (fore and aft) near the outer edges of the yard which eventually will be the tying point for the pendant braces and footropes. I also positioned larger cleats near the octagonal centre of the yard for the sling. Once this was done, I painted the whole yard black with the exception of the tips which are painted white and I covered the yard with several coats of matt polyurethane varnish.
Next I fastened the numerous blocks to the yard ready for it to be rigged at a later stage. The fore yard has two large 7mm single blocks on its upper edge on either side of the sling with two further 7mm single blocks on its lower edge position just outside the sling blocks. The octagonal section is completed with two single 5mm blocks on its lower edge.
Out near the tips of the fore yard there are a 7mm block and a 5mm block which are fastened one on top of each other (aping a sister block) on the upper edge of each side of the yard and finally pendant braces are fastened at either tip also.
I then fashioned the stunsail yards from 3mm dowel each being about 125 mm long with a gradual taper from 3mm down to 2mm at their tips. The stunsail yards are held in place by iron support brackets which are fixed in the centre of the fore yard and at each tip of the yard. They are quite difficult to align and need to hold each stunsail yard so that it lies just forward and slightly above the fore yard (rather than directly above it). To help in their alignment, I placed the stunsail yard actually inside its iron support brackets before I glued the brackets into place on the fore yard.
Once done, the final task is to fix the foot rope stirrups which are made from 0.50mm wire and painted black. Each stirrup is fixed into place in a 0.5mm hole drilled into the yard and black thread is tied around the yard to simulate the stirrup ties. Finally the footropes are threaded through the stirrups and tied off and the fore yard is now complete.
As you can see there is quite a lot of work involved in fashioning a yard (only seven more to go!), though the other yards will be somewhat simpler as they will not require stunsail yards which were only carried on the fore yard.
FORE TOPSAIL YARD AND FORE TOPGALLANT YARD: These are made in much the same way as the fore yard (but without stunsail yards and brackets) and have their own collection of blocks, stirrups and footropes to be attached. The fore topsail yard also has an octagonal central section like the fore yard, but the fore topgallant yard does not and tapers naturally from its centre to its outer edges.
This now completes the yards for the fore mast and I will have to go through it all again for the mainmast, though the mainmast carried a crossjack yard which did not have a sail (course) and stunsail yards.
Preparing the fore mast yards has taken about a week more or less, though it is far more labour intensive in tying the various blocks, footropes and stirrups than it is to actually fashion the dowels into the correct yardarm shape!
DRIVER BOOM AND GAFF BOOM:
Once the main mast yards were complete, the last two yards to complete are the driver and gaff booms which are hung from the mainmast (on a brig rigged sloop) and project directly aft over the taffrail.
These yards are made from 4mm dowels which taper to 3 mm (and 2mm for the driver gaff) at their extremities. The yards are fitted into gaff jaws, which requires careful tapering and fitting and will be slung to the mainmast via thread with beads, but this will wait until a later stage in the construction. The yards are stained with walnut wood dye (the driver and gaff booms generally were not painted black on sloops) with the gaff jaws painted black and they also have a variety of blocks, eyelets and cleats.
In the photograph you can see all of Teazer's masts and yards (with the exception of the bowsprit and spiritsail yard) and from top to bottom of the picture we have the Fore Yard, Fore Topsail Yard, Fore Topgallant Yard, Crossjack Yard, Main Topsail Yard, Main Topgallant Yard. On the left of the yards are the Gaff and Driver booms and on the left of them, the Fore and Main masts.
With all the yards now completed, it is time to glue Teazer's fore and main masts into position. Once this is done, I will then begin to prepare the shrouds, ratlines and futtock shrouds and then finally I will fasten all her yards into position.
ANCHORS AWEIGH! The four bower anchors are made with their stocks being glued in two halves around the cast metal anchor which is painted black. The ends of the stocks are then rounded off, which was done to prevent the anchor stock snagging and tearing the vessels copper plates when dropping or weighing anchor. The anchor ring is made from 1mm brass wire which is bent around an 8mm piece of dowel and I coated the anchor rings with ‘puddening’ by coiling 0.5mm thread around their entire circumference. To finish the anchors off, I made the iron stock bands from black cartridge paper cut to a width of 2mm and varnished each anchor with several coats of matt polyurethane varnish.
The anchors will be placed on the hull and the hawse fastened much later in the construction (perhaps last of all!).
8th May 2008 A HEAD FOR FIGURES: For Teazer's figurehead, I took a firm grasp of my own limitations and roped in my friend, Clayton Johnson to carve her on my behalf. Clayton is a wonderful modeller in the USA, who is currently scratch building the most accurate model of the Swedish warship `Vasa' ever made. His work is of such a quality that the Vasa Museum in Stockholm will taking loan of his model for display. Clayton carved some 700 individual ornamentations for Vasa, so he was ideal for my mind, to prepare Teazer's own `Lady Teazing'. Clayton carved her using a scalpel blade (no power tools) from Swiss pear spending the best part of a day in doing so.
Once she arrived in the post I painted her and plotted her position on the stem which required grooves to be cut in the stem and a groove cut from the figurehead's back. I also fitted the upper and lower bow railings, bow cheeks and the bow gratings to complete the bow assembly.
She really sets the bow off and Clayton has done a great job for a carving which is only 4cm long from top to toe.
HAMMOCK CRANES: This is a very difficult part of the construction (or at least I found it to be!). Firstly, I sourced the ‘U’ shaped hammock cranes and after much searching managed to find some which were exactly the right size for Teazer. Next, I plotted where on the main bulwark rail they would be positioned (10 each side) and then carved a small slit in the bulwark rail for the cranes to be glued into place. Great care was taken to ensure that each crane was perfectly vertical and aligned correctly.
Next I sourced hammock netting which ran through the cranes to keep the hammocks in place when stored each day or in battle. This was (at this scale) an incredibly fine mesh which was very small and fragile and concomitantly, very hard to work with. I tried a number of different ways of fastening the netting to the cranes which were largely unsuccessful. Eventually after much trial and error I settled on threading the main crane tensioning rope through the netting eyes along its entire length. The crane tension rope is then fastened to eyelets fixed fore and aft keep the whole contraption taught. I then trimmed of the excess netting from the bottom of the crane and glued it in place against the side of the bulwark rail.
The fixing of the hammock cranes and netting was a very slow and labour intensive process and it has taken me more or less two weeks to deal with this part of the construction.
BEAT FOR HOME: Now with the masts glued in place, we are onto the final part of Teazer's construction, the rigging which will involve over 200 metres of thread and close to 900 clove hitch knots for the ratlines in the shrouds and futtock shrouds.
The rigging will be tackled in two parts; initially the standing rigging (the rope work used to keep the masts in place) such as the shrouds, backstays, forestays, preventer stays, etc. Once these are in place we then fix the yardarms in place and then deal with the running rigging, (the rope work used to work the sails and yards and therefore deal with the sailing of the ship).
17th May 2008 SHROUDED IN MYSTERY: The shrouds are made from 1mm thread and are made in adjacent pairs. The first two shrouds are to larboard and are slung around the foremast fighting top cap. They are each fixed with a deadeye at the end and then very careful measuring is required to ensure that they both sit at the same height above the channels. For this purpose I fashioned a couple of pieces of wire to link between the lower and upper deadeyes whilst I was getting the positioning correct. Once this is done the two deadeyes are linked together with lanyards.
I then carry out the same process but this time to starboard, all the time checking that I have not pulled the fore mast out of alignment. I then continue this process for all the lower shrouds on the mainmast also. Thankfully, the careful measuring I carried out when fitting the chainplates earlier has paid off and all the shrouds and their respective chain plates lie at the same angle.
Once all the lower shrouds are in place it is time to start the long haul that is tying ratlines. I have completed the lower foremast larboard ratlines (see photograph) which required 160 clove hitch knots and drove me fairly potty in the process. Tying ratlines is my least favourite part of the model ship building process due to its sheer repetition. I still have a very long way to go.
22nd June 2008 F-FUTTOCKS: First I tie a 1mm brass wire across the lower shrouds just below the mast bibs which will form the fixing point for the futtock shrouds (and catharpins). 0.75mm threads are fastened to this wire and then pushed up through the fighting top where they are fastened around a deadeye. I repeat this process for all the futtock shrouds for the both the fore and mainmasts on both larboard and starboard sides.
CATHARPINS: The catharpins were ropes which fastened across the base of each futtock shroud from larboard to starboard and kept the shrouds and the futtock shrouds correctly tensioned to ensure that they were stable for climbing and generally added to their integrity. There are three ropes to fasten for each cartharpin fore, middle and aft and this is repeated for both masts.
UPPER SHROUDS: The upper shrouds are then positioned in much the same way as the lower shrouds being slung in adjacent pairs and fastened to a deadeye which will be secured to its lower deadeye in the fighting top via a lanyard. The upper shrouds also have futtock shrouds of a sort, but these are not really for climbing up as they have no ratlines but are threaded through the crosstrees to the topgallant mast hound to add strength and integrity to the topgallant mast.
With these finally in place, the shrouds for the fore and mainmast are now complete and the shrouds (or rather the ratlines) in general, have at last count, required a total of 1,125 clove hitch knots to complete! I am not sorry to see the back of this part of the construction. You can only carry out the same repetitive task so often before you go stir crazy!
I should also mention that I have now fastened Teazer to her pedestals and baseboard and have finally jettisoned the scruffy building cradle that I was using until recently. This is because the standing and running rigging can be rather delicate and would not stand the rough handling required to drive 5 inch screws through the base board and up through Teazer’s keel.
I am now ready to fix all Teazer’s standing rigging into position before moving onto the final part of her construction - the yards and running rigging.
STANDING RIGGING: Essentially, as with most forms of rigging you start at the front of the vessel in the centre of the deck and work your way backwards and outwards. You also start with the lowest element of the rigging and work your way up the masts, fixing and rigging each yard as you go. This ensures that (for the most part) that you do not fix anything in place that is going to seriously get in the way of other rigging that you need to affix later on.
Before the yards are fixed I need to get the standing rigging in place and I begin with the fore and main stays and preventer stays, before moving on to the larboard and starboard fore and main backstays.
STAYING POWER: The fore and main stays and preventer stays are linked via two closed heart blocks which are lashed together and anchored to the bowsprit. The lashing allows them to perform as a sort of crude shock absorber and allows the stays and masts to “work” when the vessel is sailing. The fore and main stays are the (with the exception of the hawse) the thickest ropes utilised in the ship’s rigging. Each stay has a ‘mouse’ (not the rodent sort) which is a length of rope which is wound around the stay near to the mast until it is wedge shaped. Each stay has a loop at one end through which the stay is threaded and is anchored into place when the loop hits the mouse.
I am not entirely sure why the stay is arranged thus, but I assume that you cannot tie knots in rope this thick and so the stay cannot be tied around the mast to fix it into position.
Next up is the backstays and these are rigged to the channels via deadeyes and lanyards. They are very much like shrouds without the ratlines.
There are also, what might be called “side stays”, (I am afraid I do not know their proper title) which run parallel to the shrouds and are adjustable as they are belayed to the pin racks via several single and double blocks. These are used to provide lateral support to the top masts and topgallant masts and can be slackened and tightened on both the larboard and starboard sides of each mast, depending on the set of the sails.
One of the things about dealing with a model ships rigging is that everything takes a lot of time. It has taken me two days to get the fore, main and preventer stays in place (only four ropes!) and two days to deal with the fore and main backstays and a further two days to deal with the side stays. It's a bit like wading through treacle and I anticipate that the dealing with the rigging as a whole will take me 6-8 weeks!
Now with all the standing rigging in place, it is time to fix the yard arms into place and then deal with the running rigging.
8th July 2008 YARDARMS:
There is much that can be said about the fixing of yardarms, but unfortunately not much of it is particularly interesting, relying mostly on the various blocks and tackles used to fix them in place.
I will therefore not deal with them in infinite detail but try and stick to the main points of interest.
SQUARED AWAY: On a real ship, the yardarms were suspended via their rigging, however, on a model ship; you need to cheat a little! Each yardarm has a 1mm hole drilled in its centre and a corresponding hole is drilled in the centre of each mast at the approximate height that the yardarm will be hung. A small piece of 1mm wire is fixed into the yardarm and then the whole thing is fixed to the mast. This gives each yard a certain amount of strength and stability and also helps a modeller properly “square” the yards as any failure to do so would be a most lubberly sign and for Thomas Paine Kydd this simply will not do!
The foremast main yard is also suspended from a sling which is fixed around the top of the foremast cap and lashed via a lanyard. There are also a series of heavy blocks suspended around the mast cap which are rigged to the yard and belayed into the foremast bitts. These essentially are used for the raising and lowering of the yard. The main foreyard is also lashed around the foremast which is belayed via various blocks to cleats on the foremast at deck level.
The topmast yard has its own collection of blocks and rigging to get it into place. The fore topmast yard is belayed to the pin rails running via trucks fixed to the foremast backstays.
BEADY BUSINESS: Of special mention are the parrels (shaped like a ‘B’) and beads used to lash the fore top yard around the topmast and used to smooth its raising and lowering. These little blighters are the most frustrating things to get into position.
The beads are so small that if you placed 100 of them in your hand, they would not take up more space than perhaps a penny! They have to be threaded onto a 0.25mm thread which is already fixed in place on the yard and around the fore topmast. First a parrel, then a bead, then a parrel, then a bead, etc. Once you get from the larboard side of the yard , around the back of the mast to the starboard side of the yard, you then have to come back, threading through the lower part of each parrel (‘B’) and putting the lower bead into place between each parrel.
The whole time your arms are raised up at eye level and you have to negotiate the standing rigging that is already in place. You also cannot take a breather until they are all done otherwise the beads and parrels will just run off the line (which happens often anyway!). It usually takes an hour to get one set of beads and parrels in place and the whole process is just plain cruel and leaves you with neck ache, arm ache and eye ache!
When I am fixing beads and parrels, my wife usually refers to it as my Tourette’s time of day!
To complete the foremast yardarms, the topgallant yard is fixed into place and its rigging is mercifully simple being hung from a hoist which passes through a hole in the topgallant mast just below the hound and belayed to the fighting top and also the main deck below.
I then repeated the entire process for the mainmast yardarms.
WHAT A GAFF: I then progressed onto the driver and gaff booms which are quite tricky to get right as they require that you fix several lines simultaneously. The gaff boom is quite straightforward and is fixed via its gaff jaws around the mainmast with beads. The gaff boom is then secured both larboard and starboard via various blocks down to deck cleats on the upper aft deck and I made a couple of rope cheeses to finish them off.
The driver gaff is far trickier and again is attached to the mainmast via beads. However, there is a sling underneath the mainmast fighting top with large blocks to hold it into position and rigging from the driver gaff tip via the mainmast cap which is eventually belayed to a cleat fixed on the mainmast at deck level. The sling and the driver gaff rope have to be rigged simultaneously to get its height on the mainmast and the angle of the driver gaff just right and required a fair bit of nimble dexterity in increasingly inaccessible places.
Finally, I attached the spritsail yard and completed the rigging for the bowsprit such as the bob stays which are rigged to deadeyes and lashed together with lanyards. I also dealt with the rigging to the boomkins and any other small bits of rigging left over.
BALLS AND RAIL: As a small diversion to rigging the yardarms, I made several shot garlands to run around the gratings, complete with 6 pounder cannon balls. I also fashioned a bespoke aft deck rail (a sort of pseudo quarterdeck rail) as I decided that it would not do to have Kydd's companionway hatch unprotected. I envisaged an unfortunate sailor plunging through the companionway hatch the first time there was a heavy sea, so I included a small protective rail which I think is both very practical and in general keeping with her design.
You may have noticed that I am trying to ensure that everything I want to place on the deck is complete before the later stages of the running rigging are in place and accessibility becomes a real problem.
FLAGGING: I also did a little experimenting with flags. I asked Julian if he wanted me to fly any signal flags in addition to the commissioning pennant and ensign. Julian duly obliged and I made a mock up of the two signal flags which will fly from the mainmast. Kudos to anyone who can identify the message that is being flown!
HOME RUN: We are now into the final part of the construction and that is to situate the running rigging that directly affected the sails. I would expect that this will be completed within the next 3-4 weeks.
20th July 2008 BESPOKE FURNITURE: Whilst I was in the process of fitting the final parts of the running rigging, I decided to make a flag locker for the upper aft deck. It was simple to make and it really adds to the model giving another small level of detail. Whilst I was at it, I fitted the bespoke binnacle I had previously made which was also lashed to the deck to prevent it from going overside in a high sea.
DUCKING AND DIVING: I could go on ad nauseum about the various steps involved in fitting the sail handling part of the running rigging but, you will be glad to hear, I won’t. Essentially this is the trickiest part of the rigging for a number of reasons; firstly, the access to the model gets more and more restricted and at times resembles one of those movies where the criminals have to negotiate a labyrinth of laser beams in order to get to the jewels; secondly, more often than not, two element of rigging have to be tightened at the same time, e.g. the brace pendants, to ensure a mast or yard is not 
pulled out of alignment; thirdly, belaying the rigging to the pin racks becomes more and more of a challenge and you find yourself getting into horribly contorted positions in order to get access; finally, despite your best efforts, once the final running rigging is in place you will find that one or two of the standing rigging lines have lost some of their tension and sag a little, there is nothing you can do except remove and re-rig them.
Of special note are the clew, sheet and tack lines which are a particular challenge as three lines have to be rigged simultaneously on each side of the model to get them aligned correctly.
Once the rigging is completed, the model is transformed and you can see the complexity of ropes even for such a small and simple vessel as a brig rigged sloop. All in all, the rigging has required about 250 metres of thread!
FISHING THE ANCHOR: With all of the rigging in place, I now installed the four anchors, two of which are lashed to their cables. You will note that the cables are fed around the riding bitts and are laid along the deck until they disappear down the foremost grating into the cable tier.
DAVITS: I fashioned the quarter davits from two pieces of 4mm dowel which I carved, shaped and joined at an angle of about 100 degrees. I fastened a cleat to each for belaying and fixed a pin to the bottom of each to be sunk into the hull for extra strength. Whilst I was at it, I made the second ship's boat and installed Teazer’s quarter davits and boats onto the model.
FLYING THE FLAGS: I love making flags! I made all Teazer’s flags from paper using Microsoft’s Paint program; you really don't need anything more complex and can achieve perfectly acceptable results. As well as Teazer’s commissioning pennant, I made up the signal flags as per Julian's wishes and gave them a wind swept appearance which is a nice touch and something I always want to see when I view a model ship.
You will notice that the flags are flying aft which would not be the case if the ship was under sail as they would all fly forwards. However, as she is under bare poles and because the ensign would foul the driver and gaff boom rigging, I decided that it was acceptable to have her flags flying astern.
Each RN vessel carried multiple ensigns of differing sizes, from 9 feet to monsters of over 30 feet. I decided (with Julian’s acquiescence) to put her (largest) battle ensign on her which for this size of vessel would have been around 18 feet. I again made this from paper and added a wind swept appearance.
WATER A LAUGH: To finish off, I added a several of water/storage barrels to the deck to refresh the crew and to generally add to Teazer’s ambiance.
FINISHING LINE: All that I now have to do is prepare Teazer’s nameplate with a few details about her dimensions, armament, crew and captain; and check the whole model over very carefully touching up any bit as necessary and ensuring that she is clean and whole.
These do not really justify any further updates and therefore this will be the final update of this build log.
During the past year I would estimate, conservatively that Teazer has required between 750 - 850 hours in order to complete her. Ordinarily, I would have expected to build a ship of this sort in perhaps 500 - 600 hours but Teazer has required a huge amount of scratch building (around 50% of the model is scratch built) and in fact far more than I originally envisaged when I started out on this build. For me, this is particularly pleasing as I have never scratch built anything before and I have learned a lot (and made a lot of mistakes!) during this process.
The other pleasing aspect of this model is that she is entirely unique and this, for me, makes the model a bit more special.
FINAL THOUGHTS: Now that Teazer is completed, I have to say that I am a little sad that it has all come to an end. She has been a lovely project to tackle and I have gleaned a huge amount of enjoyment in constructing her.
But all good things must come to an end and I am now very glad to be passing her on to Julian and Kathy.
I am sorry, Julian, if she did not turn out exactly (or at all!) like you imagined her, but I hope that there are some aspects of the model which are not too far away from how you saw her in your mind’s eye.
I cannot finish without some words of thanks; firstly to Bob Squarebriggs, Joseph Muscat and Clayton Johnson for their encouragement, knowledge, technical skill and generosity.
I would also like to thank my wife Barbara who has been a modelling widow, these past 12 months, thank you dear; I will now put those shelves up!
I would also like to thank those of you who wrote some very kind words to me throughout the build and those who took the time and trouble to follow this build log throughout the past 12 months or so.
Finally, I would like to thank Julian (for allowing me to badger him for information) and especially Kathy Stockwin.
Kathy, throughout this build log has been a constant source of support and encouragement, with always a kind word or humorous remark. I will quite miss her weekly e-mail and have no doubt that without all her hard work in dealing with my tortured prose and designing and constantly updating the build log, this project may have foundered a long time ago.
Now, I wonder what Kydd’s next RN command is going to be and whether I could build it......?
John Thompson
20th July 2008
The official presentation to Julian will be on 20th September. Come back to view the handover!