[3e] HMS Surprise

[Phaelen Bleux]

HMS Surprise (TL5)
The HMS Surprise is a modern tall ship, built in 1970. She was purchased by Twentieth Century Fox in 2001 for the film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.

Subassemblies: Body with Mediocre lines +7, one 100' Foremast +2, one 110' Mainmast +3, one 75' Mizzenmast +2.
Powertrain: 13,000 sf of Full-rigged Cloth Sails.
Occupancy: Up to 20 in cabins, up to 80 in hammocks. Minimum crew is 1 driver + 5 sailors. Assumes 200 crew.
Cargo: 31,000 cf

Armor: 3/10W overall

Weaponry:
28x 12-pounder Cannons [Body:L,R] (200 shots each).
4x 50mm Swivel guns [Body:F,B] (200 shots each).

Body: Navigation instruments, 1 luxury cabin, 9 cabins, 80 hammocks (assumes hot bunking), galley, complete workshop, 6,000 man-days provisions. On Deck: Capstan (5,280-lb. crane with 12-man muscle engine), 4 Longboats (p. SW114), primitive controls.

Statistics:
Size: 180'x32'x130' Payload: 420 tons Lwt.: 638 tons
Volume: 50,800 cf. Maint.: 27 hours Price: $537,223

HT: 7. HPs: 12,345 Body, 259 Foremast; 313 Mainmast, 145 Mizzenmast.

wSpeed: 13 wAccel: 0.4 wDecel: 1 wMR: 0.05 wSR: 6
Draft: 13'. Flotation Rating: 1,448 tons.

Design Notes:
Structure is Medium, with Standard materials. Waterproofed. Armor is DR 10 Standard Wood. The volume of the armor is figured into the design, as per the rules on p. VEii5. Body volume was simply assessed as 100 cf per ton of displacement. This matches the Builder's Old Measurement fairly well (63,074 cf). Mast height were determined from a photograph, and correlated nicely with the actual sail area (calculated sail area was 13,538 sf). Actual sail area was used for performance calculations. Features "On Deck" are not included in the Body volume. Accommodations are a guess based on crew descriptions for a sixth rate frigate. Design draft was 8'; the historical figure is shown above.
Although the stats were taken from a TL7 replica ship, the design was created at TL5.

[Braun]

Are you presenting this as the Surprise is portrayed in the film, or the 1970s vessel?

If this is "as built", or "as refitted to produce the film", I would think you would want to include the petroleum fuel engine and hydraulic steering.

[vierasmarius]

Originally Posted by Braun

Are you presenting this as the Surprise is portrayed in the film, or the 1970s vessel?

If this is "as built", or "as refitted to produce the film", I would think you would want to include the petroleum fuel engine and hydraulic steering.

He built it as a TL5 vessel, with cannons and everything. Presumably it's the "movie" version of the ship, rather than the modern-day replica on which the movie was shot.

Looks good though. I love that there are still folks using the (IMO excellent) VE2.

[Phaelen Bleux]

Originally Posted by Braun

Are you presenting this as the Surprise is portrayed in the film, or the 1970s vessel?

"Although the stats were taken from a TL7 replica ship, the design was created at TL5."

So both, I guess, if you want to be technical.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Phaelen Bleux

Occupancy: Up to 20 in cabins, up to 80 in hammocks. Minimum crew is 1 driver + 5 sailors. Assumes 200 crew.

A ship like this can have almost everyone asleep at the same time, when in a safe port. It was very crowded, especially with a number of "wives" aboard, but perfectly possible. No, it wasn't automatic to let lots of crew ashore. You might well not get them back.

[Phaelen Bleux]

Originally Posted by johndallman

A ship like this can have almost everyone asleep at the same time, when in a safe port. It was very crowded, especially with a number of "wives" aboard, but perfectly possible. No, it wasn't automatic to let lots of crew ashore. You might well not get them back.

Good point. And there is certainly room for another 100+ hammocks.