| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
reb01501
Joined: 20 Jun 2011
Posts: 5
Location: United States
|
 Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2012 6:53 pm Post subject: Frame Stiffener? |
 |
|
Hi all,
From facebook:
| Quote: | | There is one little construction detail on Victory I remember clearly that I have never seen mentioned in a book and which is not in the tour. Down in the orlop deck area below the waterline aft there was an iron fitting between a deck beam, a frame, and a hanging knee . It had a rectangular opening for an iron wedge to be hammered in when broadsides shook the frames loose. The carpenter would make the rounds of these things when firing frequently to keep the hull rigid. I only saw one remaining example, but there might have been more. |
Has anyone heard of this and knows what it's called? |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
PMarione
Site Admin
Joined: 26 Mar 2007
Posts: 883
|
| Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2012 2:53 pm Post subject: |
|
|
I never noticed such a fitting on the sailing warships I've visited myself, although I've never seen VICTORY and of course she's the only ship of the line still extant.
Perhaps this device was only used on capital ships and/or was added late in VICTORY's career as her structure began to loosen with age and hard use.
Is it described in any of the written sources?
I don't recall seeing it in Darcy Lever but can't say I have studied that source carefully.
A. Steven Toby
Naval Architect |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
reb01501
Joined: 20 Jun 2011
Posts: 5
Location: United States
|
| Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2012 3:37 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Thanks for the reply. All I know of this is what I quoted. If I find out any more I will be sure to let you know. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
reb01501
Joined: 20 Jun 2011
Posts: 5
Location: United States
|
| Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2012 5:07 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Quote: | | Bob, please thank Steven for me. The only similar fitting I ever saw was on Victory. I have examined Constellation, Constitution, Unicorn, and the remaining pieces recovered from CSS Florida, Css Alabama, and USS Cumberland and not seen anything similar. I have NOT been on board Trincomalee, Jyland, or D.Fernando II & Glória. I do not recall any shipbuilding or design treatises in English that include one, but have only looked thoroughly through a few of the more detailed French and Swedish texts. I have a vague recollection of a battle narrative describing the duties of the ships carpenter and his assistants making the rounds of the ship when firing broadsides in peace or wartime, with shot plugs and mallets to tighten up loose bits of structure. Perhaps I should ask David Roberts, he knows those sources better than anyone else I know of, but I have not spoken to him in perhaps ten years. I do not think I ever asked this question on Marhst either. Is it still going? |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
PMarione
Site Admin
Joined: 26 Mar 2007
Posts: 883
|
| Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2012 6:22 pm Post subject: |
|
|
This is the reply of Andrew Baines, the recently appointed Curator of HMS Victory :
Thankfully, this is a question I can answer without recourse to a reference book!
The writer is referring to the arrangement of a chock knee with a Roberts bracket.
These are found in Victory supporting the Upper Gun Deck and Lower Gun Deck Beams (i.e. they are visible stood on the Middle Gun Deck and the Orlop).
The arrangement was introduced following the decline in availability of timber suitable for converting to hanging knees.
The joint between the chock and the underside of the beam is so formed that two wedges could be hammered in, one from each side, to ensure that the joint remained tight. A triangular frame is also used, one on each side, to connect the beam, chock knee and hull.
Photographs and a fuller description can be found in Goodwin's 'The construction and fitting of the English Man of War 1650-1850'.
In Victory it is probable that this type of knee was first introduced in the 1814-1816 refit.
Andrew |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
reb01501
Joined: 20 Jun 2011
Posts: 5
Location: United States
|
| Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2012 7:18 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Now that is service! Thank you very much! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
