John is correct most of Victorys rigging both standing and running has progressively been replaced by polypropylene, in many cases of a reduced size. For instance the lower shrouds were reduced from 11" circ to 9.5" circ when they were replaced.
Looking at the ship today her broadside paintwork does look too smooth and glossy to my eye and in relation to modelling the ship that sort of satin finish just doesn’t look right.
We are lucky to still have her but as with your ‘Constitution’ a large part of the ship of necessity has been replaced over the years and in Victorys case much of the original elements are in the lower part of the ship.
Amen. The McGowan/McKay book on the Victory contains some interesting figures regarding the number of man hours that have been put into her restoration and maintenance in recent years. The figures are soberingly large.
Many people, I’m afraid, don’t realize what an enormous and expensive task the preservation of an old ship is. The problem is at least as severe - maybe more so - in relation to preserved twentieth-century warships. It’s quite easy to criticize such projects, and lament the compromises they make with historical accuracy. The critics, I’m afraid, often forget that when these vessels were in service they had cheap labor sources numbering in the hundreds (or, in the case of a modern battleship or carrier, thousands) working full-time on their upkeep. Too many ship preservation projects fail because the people responsible for them don’t realize in advance how expensive they are - and the expense never stops. The people in charge of H.M.S*. Victory* don’t try to conceal the inaccurate or questionable features. They acknowledge that, given the constraints of time and money, it just isn’t practical to make the ship look like she really did in 1805.
The next major historic ship to go “under the knife” of major preservation is the Cutty Sark. I was lucky enough to visit her several times while virtually all of her original fabric was still present. (Her rigging line has, of course, long since been replaced, as has her deck planking, but until recently virtually all the hull planking was original.) I’m sure the preservationists - who clearly know precisely what they’re doing - will have to make some compromises. But we need to acknowledge that such things are just about unavoidable - and to be grateful that we have the ships at all.
When I was working at the Mariners’ Museum we got phone calls and letters fairly frequently from people who thought it would be a good idea for us to take on the preservation of a real ship. The most common recommended subjects were the cruiser U.S.S. Newport News and the liner S.S. United States. We came up with a standard response, to the effect that the museum’s charter and bylaws wouldn’t allow such a project. That was true; it was also true that such ideas were utterly impractical. The idea of restoring and maintaining an ocean liner…
I was in USS Newport News CA-148 in 1970, I remember how much work went into keeping her up, and looking good. I’d be happy to get one week’s worth of her maintenance cost deposited in my acount!
Jtilley, That’s good enough for me! I know enough about the topic to realize that if there is an opinion to be trusted, it would be yours. Thankyou sir.
That is a supremely interesting question (and one I wish had occured to me earlier when I had some extant relatives who had been under sail). A military vessel usually has a larger crew, and therefore often has no end of “busy” work to set them to, so military practice often differs from merchant vessels.
My “ah hah” moment though, in reading your responce was when I started to think about what a shroud “is.” A shroud is coradage of a specified dimension “made up” into a specific configuration. That configuration includes worming, turning and serving. Now, I know from refernece photos, and from having been to Mystic, that a very black “tar” is often put over the standing rigging. That, though, could be an artifact of the manpower and budget available to museums, too.
See, I want to remember that the Aylissa, down in Galveston (only 4 hours drive away) is a very medium brown “stokholm tar” over all of her standing rigging (which is constantly being “fussed” with, as she’s available (many $$$$) for hired cruises as well as being a tourist attraction there on the Strand.
Putting two and two together makes me wonder if just “soaked” gives us that “lightly tarred” medium sort of brown for lines. Tarring the parcelling (which makes a bit of sense) would make for a much darker color over that. What I can’t get “right” in my head is if it makes any sense to tar the serving, too. The headaches of un-serving tarred-on line for ordinary maintanence starts to fail a sense of what is practical to me. Not that what I think is practical matters .
There’s a tome that would move quickly of the shelves. It’d also be like any great academic work, praised and lambasted in equal measure, I imagine. Publisher’s dream, that .
(PS, you are correct, I did fail to include a “not,” mea culpa.)
CapnMac82’s analysis makes as much sense as any. I would, however, caution against putting too much stock in how the rigging of restored an reproduction vessels looks. As we discussed above, in this day of durable synthetic fibers scarcely any restorer/conservator uses old-fashioned hemp rope or old-fashioned tar. In view of the astronomical costs of maintenance these days, to use anything other than durable, modern materials would be fiscally irresponsible.
I don’t think there’s enough authentic documentation to serve as a basis for a book on the changing colors of rigging line - and if there were, I’m not optimistic that anybody would publish it. (I’m also not sure I’d want to read a book-length study of that subject. Sounds like a cure for insomnia.) But an article on the subject, summarizing the available contemporary documentation and trying to separate the reliable information from unsupported traditions is one I’ve been batting around in my head occasionally as a possible retirement project, for a few years down the road.
