06-18-2014, 09:28 PM | #1 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Buffalo, New York
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Age of Sail research material
I don't know if anyone would find this useful or not, but it is material that I am glad I stumbled upon via the book THE FRIGATE DIANA by David White.
"Randall and Brent's contract, in line with the practice of the day, was to supply the completed hull only, at a rate of £14 per ton." Actual cost of the hull turned out to be £13,788. "Eleven months after the building was started, on 3 March 1794, Diana was launched and towed the short distance downstream to the royal Dockyard at Deptford where she was to be fitted out." Final cost for the rigging and stores added another £2675. Additional cost for the guns (28 x 18 lbrs) and gunners stores, was £1000. |
06-18-2014, 09:52 PM | #2 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Buffalo, New York
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Re: Age of Sail research material
Stats:
Length of keel for tonnage: 121 feet, 8.5 inches Breadth extreme: 39 feet 3.5inches Depth in hold: 13 feet, 9 inches Length of lower deck: 146 feet, 3 inches Tunnage: 999 43/94ths Masts: Fore Mast: 82 feet 3 Inches with 24.62" diameter Fore Top Mast: 49 feet 4 inches with 16.5" diameter Fore Topgallant mast: 24 feet 8 inches with 8.25" diameter Main Mast: 82 feet 3 inches with 27.34" diameter Main Top mast: 55 feet 6 inches with 16.5" diameter Main Topgallant mast: 27 feet 9 inches with 9.25" diameter Mizzen mast: 79 feet 3.5 inches with 18.5" diameter Mizzen Top mast: 41 feet 7.5 inches with 11.5" diameter Mizzen Topgallant mast: 20 feet 9.75 inches with 7" diameter Bowspirit: 55 feet 6 inches with 27" diameter Jibboom: 39 feet 7.5 inches with 11.5" diameter The main yard was 82 feet in length, which means that it overhung the ship's sides by about 40 feet (or about 20 feet on either side). Sail costs were actually £774 while rigging for those sails was about (not quite) twice that. Hope this is helpful for anyone who wishes they could have some idea of the ships during the age of Nelson. :) |
06-19-2014, 07:55 AM | #3 |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Age of Sail research material
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06-19-2014, 11:14 AM | #4 | |
Join Date: Jul 2006
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Re: Age of Sail research material
Quote:
As to minimum crew ... that may be more difficult. Most of a warship's crew were there to work the guns - you could sail with far fewer men: IIRC each gun crew had one man detailed for sail duty if it was required to change the set of the sails when in action, but I have no idea if there were other men constantly assigned to man the rigging, even in combat. Prize crews could often be only a dozen or so men, but I wouldn't be surprised if one man per gun wouldn't be a good estimate for the "ferry" crew of a ship that only needed to travel from port to port: prize crewing was normally an "emergency" style of operation. If someone can find details for the crew of a merchantman of similar size in the same era, that might give us an idea of her minimum crew. Last edited by The Colonel; 06-19-2014 at 11:24 AM. |
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06-19-2014, 02:00 PM | #5 |
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
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Re: Age of Sail research material
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06-19-2014, 03:25 PM | #6 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Buffalo, New York
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Re: Age of Sail research material
Quote:
But in case this is of use to anyone else, a certain Barry Fox wrote a set of miniatures rules back in the 1980's after doing a goodly amount of research. His rule of thumb was as follows: Making full sail from Battle sail or vice versa: First, Second, and third rates (74 guns+): 30% of crew 38% for all else. Weighing anchor: 20% of crew for all ships. Prize crew: 1 Crew per every 6 Tons (Tuns) of ship plus 1 per 50 prisoners So, if the Diana were to be a prize to be crewed, it would need about 167 men or so. Reading the information in BEAT TO QUARTERS by Command Perspective, the scale is one turn is 270 seconds (4.5 minutes). If you have half the minimum required men aboard to handle the ship, it would take twice as long to accomplish what a normal crew could. Thus, 9 minutes to go from battle sail to full sail with only 86 men. Mind you, this isn't from a reference book, and I can't vouch for how accurate the author was - but in the absence of any other information, it is one I use. If it matters, I could give you rough approximations for the number of Marines aboard the ship, which as a rule of thumb, was about 1 man per gun. In the case of the HMS Diana, that would have been about 38 Marines plus maybe another 2 to 3 leaders. Addenda: I didn't quote Barry's work properly, for which I apologize at this late date. The 1 man per 6 tons is not only the number required for a prize crew per se, but also the number of crew allocated to Sailing functions. So this rule not only applies to the prize crew outright, but also to the minimum required crew to get everything done in a timely manner. If the ship had only 1/2 the crew allocated towards sailing that the ship requires, tasks would take twice as long. Turning could only be done such that it took twice the time (or half the turning radius) that could be normally achieved. Last edited by hal; 10-25-2018 at 11:53 AM. Reason: Addenda |
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06-19-2014, 03:40 PM | #7 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Buffalo, New York
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Re: Age of Sail research material
Ship's complement of officers and petty officers (Circa 1807)
Crew of 264 (about the closest fit to 270 for a 5th rate) 1 x Captain 3 x Lieutenant 1 x Master 1 x Surgeon 1 x Carpenter 1 x Boatswain 1 x Gunner 1 x Purser 2 x Master's mate 1 x Assistant surgeon 6 x Midshipman 1 x Clerk 1 x Schoolmaster 1 x Armourer 1 x Master at arms 1 x Carpenter's mate 1 x Caulker 1 x Ropemaker 3 x Quartermaster 1 x Boatswain's mate 1 x Sailmaker 1 x Gunner's mate 1 x Yeoman of the powder room 1 x Armourer's mate 2 x Corporal 2 x Yeoman of the sheets 1 x Coxwain 3 x Quartermaster's mate 2 x Captain of the forecastle 2 x Captain of the foretop 2 x Captain of the maintop 2 x Captain of the afterguard 2 x Captain of the waist 1 x Trumpeter 1 x Sailmaker's mate 8 x Quarter gunner 5 x Carpenter's crew 1 x Sailmaker's crew 1 x Gunsmith 1 x Steward 1 x Cook 1 x Steward's mate 1 x Chaplain This is from Nelson's Navy The Ships, Men and Organization 1793 - 1815 by Brian Lavery with a forward by Patrick O'Brian. It has a lot of other information well worth picking the book up for - including information on Marines. |
06-19-2014, 03:46 PM | #8 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Buffalo, New York
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Re: Age of Sail research material
Crew requirements to handle a gun:
42 and 48 pounders: 14 men 29, 30, 32 and 36 pounders: 12 men 24 pounders: 10 men 12 and 18 pounders: 8 men 8 and 9 pounders: 6 men 4 and 6 pounders: 4 men 1/2, 1, 2 and 3 pounders: 3 men Crew requirements to handle a carronade: 32, 36, 42, and 68 pounders: 4 men 18 an 24 pounders: 3 men 12 pounders: 2 men 13" mortar: 16 men 10" mortar: 12 men 8" mortar: 10 men |
06-19-2014, 03:49 PM | #9 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Buffalo, New York
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Re: Age of Sail research material
One thing that I found interesting, that was counter-intuitive, yet made sense after reading it, was the fact that although your ship might have all of its sail's up and pulling wind - your ship might not necessarily be going as fast as was possible. Having all of your sails on the foremast up for some ships, resulted in the ship biting more deeply into the water, and consequently slowing it down a little. Also, having the wind directly astern, and having all of your sails up (including studding sails) would rob the sails in front of the ship from wind that the mizzenmast was catching.
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06-20-2014, 01:57 PM | #10 | ||
Join Date: Jul 2006
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Re: Age of Sail research material
Quote:
Quote:
No idea if this link will get you what I was looking at or not... |
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