Full & By The crew journal of the James Craig

ISSUE 20 JULY 2010

Full & By 1 July 2010 Full & By The crew journal of the barque James Craig

CONTENTS

Captain Ken, 2009 Runner-up in the Nautical Institute‘s ―Shipmaster of the Year‖ award. Hugh Lander. 3

A Good Docking. The James Craig gets a paint job at the Captain Cook Dry Dock. 4

The Thames East Indiaman. Rob Garnsey. 7 Photo-Iris Weingarten Women at Sea. Peter Davey . 9

The Third Mate. Peter Davey . 9

Sea Fervour. Peter Davey. 9

When will they learn. Peter Davey . 10

An interesting maritime site. 10 Photo—Nick Papageorgiou The Boatswain Explains. 11

Block and Tackle. Peter Davey. 12

James Craig Daysail Diary. 17

Web site: www.shf.org.au/JCraig/JCraig.html

Compiled & edited by Peter Davey [email protected]

Contributors: Peter Davey, Rob Garnsey

Layout: John Cowie Cover photo: James Craig, Captain Cook Dry Dock The opinions expressed in this journal may not necessar- ily be the viewpoint of the Sydney Maritime Museum, the Sydney Heritage Fleet or the crew of the James Craig or its officers. Photo-Lighthouse News

Full & By 2 July 2010 CAPTAIN KEN 2009 RUNNER-UP IN THE NAUTICAL INSTITUTE‘S ―SHIPMASTER OF THE YEAR‖ AWARD

―Ken‘s‖ ship on the 8th May, during a visit to Australia. In the citation covering the announcement of the award Captain Richard Coates, President of the Institute, said ―It is fitting that Captain Ken Edwards is a recipient of this honour as he has given a lifetime of dedication to the maritime industry and continues, to this day, to pass on his knowledge and skills through training in Australia. The Dedicated Service Award is a recent addition to the hierarchy of In- stitute awards and is reserved for those few who have made a lifelong contribution to the work of the Institute. The winner of the 2009 Shipmaster of the Year Award was Captain Richard Phillips,

Photo-Iris Weingarten In an announcement of interest to all mem- bers and friends of Sydney Heritage Fleet the London-based Nautical Institute re- cently advised that Killarney Heights resi- dent, Captain Ken Edwards OAM RFD** RD FNI had received one of their highest honours. Ken, who is Executive Master of the Sydney based, fully restored and op- erational 1874 built, Tall Ship, James Craig, was chosen as the 2009 runner-up in the Institute‘s prestigious Shipmaster of the Year Award. The President of the Nautical Institute will present Captain Edwards with Photo-Iris Weingarten his Highly Commended Certificate and the Master of the Maersk Alabama who re- Institute‘s Dedicated Service Award aboard ceived his award for ―his heroic actions in the face of violent piracy off the coast of Somalia. Not only did he give himself as a hostage, so as to effect the release of his ship, the anti-piracy measures practised on board had frustrated the pirates in their intention of taking over and operating the ship‖. Hugh Lander, Public Affairs Manager at Sydney Heritage Fleet, said ―this is a very well deserved honour for Ken who has been Executive Master of James Craig since before she was recommissioned in

Photo-Iris Weingarten 2000.‖ Full & By 3 July 2010 A GOOD DOCKING The James Craig gets a paint job at the Captain Cook Dry Dock.

Photo—Nick Papageorgiou

Photo—Nick Papageorgiou Photo—Nick Papageorgiou Full & By 4 July 2010 Photo—Nick Papageorgiou Photo—Nick Papageorgiou

Photo—Nick Papageorgiou Photo—Nick Papageorgiou Maritime Sayings: Let the Cat Out of the Bag. Serious crimes onboard were punished with a flogging, & the whip used to do the job was called a cat o'nine tails. The "cat" was kept in a cloth bag and only pulled out when it was time for the flogging to begin.

Full & By 5 July 2010

Photo—Nick Papageorgiou

Photo—Nick Papageorgiou Photo—Nick Papageorgiou

Full & By 6 July 2010 The Thames East-Indiaman.

Grosvenor Prints A View of the Thames East-Indiaman. As she lay stranded near East Bourne in Feb. 1822 In 1822 the outbound East Indiaman, The commenced at the foot of the cliffs. Thames, ran aground off Beachy Head, Belle Tout was sold off in 1902 as "a East Sussex: a notorious graveyard for small, substantial 3-storey building" and vessels and their crews for many a was leased to a succession of owners. year. The Thames was very lucky. The During the war it was thought prudent to weather was relatively good, although evacuate the inhabitants away from this seven unfortunates died from falling masts particularly dangerous part of the English and the rigors of the rescue. The survivors coast. While the owners were sheltering were safely landed and the ship itself later inland from the expected invasion, a firing dragged off the beach and taken in tow range was set up on the cliffs, not far from back to London by two steamboats. This Belle Tout, on which Canadian troops regrettable incident contributed to several trained by taking potshots at old cars with advances in maritime safety. howitzers. Boys will be boys and within a Firstly, as a result of the near disaster, the short time they had managed to knock a government was finally convinced to build a number of large holes in the six foot thick lighthouse on the cliffs - wherein, if I may masonry of the lighthouse. (Anyone who digress, lies a story too good to go has seen the Cape St George lighthouse untold. The beguilingly named Belle Tout at Jervis Bay will understand the internal lighthouse was finished in 1834, standing logic behind such behaviour). proudly atop the 285 foot Belle’s charms were too strong, however, headland. Although a good idea at the and she passed to a number of new time, Belle Tout often had its head in the owners and eventually became a much clouds and so, with the shipwrecks loved family home. Unfortunately, that continuing, a new lighthouse was part of the coast suffers badly from

Full & By 7 July 2010 erosion and, by 1996, the lighthouse which helpfully reported: once stood 40 metres back from the edge It is now decidedly proved, that the direction of was now one chalk fall away from being a the magnetic needle is affected by the iron in few more rocks on the beach below. To ships, sometimes even to 50 degrees. Pig-iron add to the predicament, two unexploded being of late employed as ballast,-the admirable invention of iron tanks, to supply the WWII bombs were discovered on said place of water casks, and other uses of iron in beach and it was thought they would need ships, particularly the patent iron capstan of to be detonated in situ. Captain Phillips, must have great effect on the compass. Professor Barlow, of the Military College, Woolwich, has discovered a remedy for this, by placing an iron plate on the opposite side, or abaft the compass, which balances this local attraction, and leaves the needle free to obey the natural directive power of the earth. Many shipwrecks will be prevented by this invention. There is now no doubt but that the Thames East Indiaman, which had 400 tons of iron on board, was wrecked on Beachy Head from this cause.

Rob Garnsey. crew James Craig

*Grosvenor Prints: Chas. Ade delint. 11th Feb, 1822 Engraved by Robt. Havell & Son. Published by Charles Ade, Wilmington, Sussesx, March 1822. Contempory broadside accompanying image as follows: William Haviside, Esq. Commander.- This fine ship was out-ward bound from London for China, and was driven on shore by a heavy gale, near Eastbourne, Sussex on Sunday morning, the 3rd February, 1822. her Extensive Cargo was taken out without loss [excepting damage by water] under the direction and management of Mr. J. B.Stone, of New haven, Agent to Lloyd's. She lay in this Photo-Lighthouse News situation from the 3d of February to the 22d, when she was got off, to the great gratification of many thousands of Spectaiors, she was then conducted away for Dept- Showing commendable initiative and ford, by two Steam Vessels, which were in attendance for that purpose. She arrived safe at Deptford, on the alacrity the owners hatched a plan to raise 24th of February, with a prospect of being speedily re- the money to jack up the 150 ton building, paired to proceed on her original destination. lower it onto skates, and drag it back 50 metres onto safer ground. This was Maritime Sayings: successfully completed in 1999 and it is No Room to Swing a Cat now a luxury B&B. Perhaps one of our To carry out a flogging with a cat-o'nine peripatetic SHF colleagues could book in, tails, there had to be enough room to check it out and report back in a future swing it. issue? As everyone had to watch, a big crew The second outcome from The Thames’ made for a very crowded deck and so misfortune was to confirm suspicions that swinging the "cat" could result in some- iron could have a bad effect on the ship‘s one getting injured from the swing. compass. Although East Indiamen were Cut & Run: naturally built from only the finest Indian In an emergency or desperate situation, teak, their equipment, cargoes and ballast rather than haul up an anchor, the sailors were increasingly of iron, and as the Hobart would cut the anchor cable then run with Town Gazette, Saturday 24 Sept.,1825, the wind.

Full & By 8 July 2010 Women at sea Jeanne Caunant, the wife of a maintopman on the French warship, Achille#, was employed in powder room during the . With the ship on fire, she tried to reach the main deck in order to find her husband, but she discovered that all the ladders had been shot away. While frantic- ally trying to find a way out, she heard cries of ―Fire‖, from above, and as the fire burnt downwards it trapped her on the lower deck. As she desperately searched through the mangled bodies and dying men for an exit, guns on the main deck broke through the decking, enabling her to finally Quotes. scramble out and down a chain onto the ―…I learned to love the sea for itself only back of the rudder. She stayed on the at that time. Women and the sea rudder until the lead that lined its trunk revealed themselves to me together, as it melted and fell on her. She stripped off her were: two mistresses of life‘s values…‖ clothes, jumped into the sea, and was lucky Joseph Conrad ―The Arrow of Gold enough to come upon a large piece of (1919) wood. The Third Mate. A good third mate, Frank Bullen* relates, spends most of his time supervising groups furling aloft or hauling braces on deck. He always tried to out do his men aloft: If he can only beat the smartest man forward in getting out to the weather earing, at of a , he is delighted beyond measure.

She was rescued by the ―HMS Pickle‖, (the Pickle was chosen to take the news of the battle, and the death of Nelson, to and there is now a replica of her in England - www.hmspickle.org.uk ). Jeanne‘s luck carried on after her nude rescue, when, owing to a mix up, she was granted parole in and not taken to England as a prisoner. {Prisoners taken on to England spent years under horrendous conditions in prison hulks}. # There was also an English warship of the same name in the Battle of Trafalgar *There is a famous painting of her being rescued in the British Library,though she is suitable clothed.

Full & By 9 July 2010 (For the benefit of our 3rd mates the definition of an earing: Small employed to fasten the upper corners of a sail to its .)

 Author of, ―The Cruise of the Cachalot, Round the World after Sperm Whales. 1897. This book can be downloaded (free) from; www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/readfile? fk_files=863163

Sea Fervor In reply to John Master‘s over Romanized Photo—Peter Davey “Sea Fervor‖ (in the last Full and By) Jan * (http://www.galvestonhistory.org/ De Hartog* wrote. Texas_Seaport_Museum.asp) “The glory of the square-rigged ship has been immortalized by poets writing sonnets Maritime Proverbs. about long tricks on the wheel, and artists A ship that will not answer to the helm with beards singing sea-shanties in a must answer to the rocks. , accompanying themselves on a A passage perilous maketh a port pleas- Spanish guitar. The advent of steam is ant. English considered to have been ‗‗the advent of grime, trade unions, and class hatred between the bridge and fo‘c‘sle. It has An interesting maritime site. corrupted the salts of yore from iron on nautarch.tamu.edu/academic/alum.htm wooden ships into wireless-operator in Web site for the flowered dressing gowns…..I sailed under Texas A&M University Alumni Theses and canvas as a boy and in my memory the Dissertations. stalwart salts and the hearts of oak were If you cannot find something to interest moronic bipeds dangling in the branches of you, you have no historical soul. artificial trees in constant peril of their For example: lives. The sea-shanties were ditties they under MICHAEL CARL WEST you will were forced to sing by forehead less find a great thesis, a 196 page document bosuns, brandishing marlinespikes to mark on - An Intact Chest from the1686 French time while pulling the ropes. Shipwreck La Belle, Matagorda Bay, *De Hartog Dutch novelist and playwright. I Texas: Artifacts from the La Salle consider his ―The Captain‖ a novel describing Colonization Expedition to the Spanish the convoys to Murmansk carrying wartime Sea - The Chest and Its Contents - Chest, material to be the merchant naval equivalent to Dunnage, Locks, Fork, Sword Hilt and “The Cruel Sea‖ Chape, Drumsticks, Musket Ball, Thimble, Hair, Reaping Hooks, Cattle Hook, Seven- When will they learn? Tine Fishing Spear, Fishing Sinker, In 2005 whilst I was crewing on the 1877 Dividers , Sounding Lead. . iron Barque Elissa* in the Gulf of Mexico I Counterweight , Pump Valve, Spool , photographed an explosion at the BP refin- Textile. Woodworking Paraphernalia - ery near Houston, Texas. There were over Hatchet, Hewing , Axe, Cooper‘s, Draw 100 injured and 15 killed. BP was fined Knives, Adzes , Saw, Cooper‘s Heading , $150 million. They have not learned a Square, Carpenter‘s .Chinces, Cold thing. Chisel , Gouges, Augers, Gimlets.

Peter Davey Full & By 10 July 2010 THE BOATSWAIN EXPLAINS Pearce Purchase Hitch. Named after its inventor, Ross Pearce, who rigged the James Craig.

Maritime Proverbs. It takes three years to build a ship; it takes three centuries to build a tradition. The Round Turn and Two Half Hitches The Awning Hitch is a hitch used to secure the end of a rope to a fixed object. The name refers to the components used to form the knot: a round turn wraps the rope around the ob- ject (completely encircling it) and the two half hitches secure the end around the standing part. Variations of this hitch can be made with differing numbers of turns and half-hitches;

Note that it incorporates a slippery hitch. Tugging the tail enables the release under load—important if the awning was rigged slack and has collected water. I realise that most lanyards are not long enough for the above hitch. PD.

Full & By 11 July 2010 and Tackle

Photo—John Cowie Block Tackle A block is a set of pulleys or "sheaves" all A purchase which uses two or more mounted on a single axle. When rope or blocks is used in order to multiply the line is run through a block or a series of power exerted on a rope. The gain in blocks the whole assembly is called a power is equivalent to the number of tackle. The most common arrangement of ropes, which enter and leave the moving block and tackle is to have a block attached block of the tackle. This depends on to a fixed position (the fixed or standing whether the tackle is rigged to advantage block), and another block left to move with the load being pulled or lifted (the moving block).

or disadvantage. Most purchases are rigged to disadvantage because it is physically easier to pull down on a line than upwards. When one purchase is applied

Full & By 12 July 2010 also describes changing the position of the dead-eyes when the shrouds have become too long, this is done by shortening the bend of the and turning in the dead-eye again higher up on the shroud.

Rigging Blocks At the beginning of the blocks for the Navy were made by hand. A rigging block consisted of a shell hollowed out of a solid block of oak. Within the shell sat a pulley wheel fitted with a bearing slotted through the shell. The bearing and wheel were traditionally made of Lignum Vitae^. The used a hundred thousand block a year, or two million for the Napoleonic wars.

The main use of rigging blocks was in the management of the ship's sails. The development of the pulley block was fundamental to the workings of a ship as it Photo– John Cowie meant heavier loads could be carried with less power. Increasing the number of to another purchase (e.g. the two pulleys increased the weight that could be purchases that hoist the upper tops sail moved. When combined with rope and yards on the Craig) they multiply. The two blocks it formed a tackle. This was lower purchase of 7 on the Craig multiplies used to multiply the power exerted on a with the gin block purchase of 2 to give a rope. The gain in power is equivalent to mechanical advantage of 14. the number of ropes, which enter and Choke the Luff leave the moving block of the tackle. A quick and ready method of temporarily stopping all movement of a rope through a block. This is done by placing the hauling part across the sheave of the block where it jams the sheaves and holds it tight. A pull on the hauling part releases the sheave.

Fleeting. The act of changing the situation of a tackle when the blocks are drawn apart. It Photo– John Cowie Full & By 13 July 2010 Photo—John Cowie

The lower yards of a machines at the Block Mill. By carried: jear blocks, bunt-line blocks, leach- 1805 two further production lines had line blocks, lift blocks, blocks, been installed and commissioned, making clew-garnet blocks, tricing blocks, a total of 45 machines. There were - blocks, pendant blocks machines to drill the holes, saws to trim and - blocks. Blocks the blocks, planes to shape the sides of are named and distinguished by the ropes the blocks, machines to trim the corners which they carry and the uses they serve for e.g. bowlines blocks, clue-lines blocks, blocks etc.

Marc Isamard Brunel, father of Isambard Kingdom Brunel,* was born in France in 1769 and had a talent for drawing, mechanics and engineering. He left France, because of his royalist sympathies, and fled to the United States where he became an architect and civil engineer. He heard about the Royal Navy‘s problem with the supply of rigging blocks. Brunel studied their Photo—Portsmouth Society—News design and devised a way to mass produce them. He was so confident of his method and scoring machines. All of these were that he resigned his position in New York powered by a 12 horsepower steam and sailed for England in 1799. engine that was eventually replaced by a At this time, the contractor Fox and Taylor 30 horsepower engine. This factory was was being paid 24,000 pounds# a year to the first to be powered by steam and the provide blocks for RN. Brunel offered his first production line factory. designs to Fox and Taylor, whose It took him several years to complete and workforce of over 100 block makers worked install the highly complicated machines. by hand. His offer was rejected. Brunel The main difficulty being that they needed combined with one of the greatest to be made from cast iron and the English mechanics of the day, Henry Maudslay, cast iron of the day was considered too and eventually won the contract to install brittle (English wrought iron was even the Brunel and Maudslay block making rejected for Government contracts such

Full & By 14 July 2010 as anchors). Almost overnight 110 skilled artificers were replaced by 10 relatively unskilled workers. The Brunel and Maudslay‘s machines were so well made, that most of them were still in production in 20th century. When in full production there were 44 machines making all the blocks of no less than 200 sorts and sizes. The manual labor was required sim- ply to supply the wood as needed and to remove the blocks from one part of the machinery to another, until they were com- pleted. The blocks that Brunel's machines were designed to produce used several types of wood (including lignum vitae), iron, bronze and rope; and all required hand finishing and assembly. The hand-made blocks were of varying quality and expen- sive to produce, Brunel‘s machine pro- duced blocks a of a consistent quality and more cheaply. At the peak of production, Photo—Portsmouth Society News

quently the quality varied from one comp- nent to the next. The machines were made in three sets to provide a range of different sized blocks. The first set (for medium-sized blocks) started work in 1803. Each machine carried out a single process. In total, 45 machines were needed to carry out the 22 different processes. The designs for the machines were highly innovative. Up to this time

Photo—Portsmouth Society News machine tools were usually made of wood, after this time they were nearly all the machines were able to turn out 140,000 made entirely of metal. As a result the blocks in a year, easily enough to meet the machines and their products were demands of the expanding Navy. exceptionally accurate. The machines Brunel received £1,000 (an extraordinary also introduced the use of markings on amount of money at that time) from the the wood. Navy Board for his designs and a set of As Richard Beamish wrote in his book beautiful working models. These models 'Life of Sir Isambard Brunel: '...So that ten are now in the National Maritime Museum, men, by the aid of this machinery, can Greenwich accomplish with uniformity, celerity and The Machines ease, what formerly required the uncertain The Brunel machines are of a major labor of one hundred and ten.' historical importance. They were purpose- The Portsmouth blockmaking machinery built, producing standard components in proved to be exceptionally reliable and large quantities. This production line came enduring. It met the Royal Navy's entire at a time when most products were requirement for blocks and some ma- manufactured individually and conse- chines were still in operation as late as the

Full & By 15 July 2010 mid-twentieth century. Landing craft in the H. Dana Jr. Two Years Before the , D-Day invasion in 1944 were equipped with 1840, he refers to ―Hauling the reef- blocks made on the Portsmouth production tackles chock-a-block. The common line. meaning being ‗crammed so tightly Impact. together as to prevent movement‘. From the moment it took over block production in 1805, the Portsmouth blockmaking machinery caught the public imagination. Described in Rees' Cyclopedia in 1819 as 'the most ingenious and complete system of machinery for forming articles from wood, of any this kingdom can produce', it was a magnet for sightseers at Portsmouth - so much so, that in 1805 Marc Brunel erected a fence around the block mill to keep visitors out. But for all the public admiration it received, the mass- production principles the machinery embodied were not widely applied in British manufacturing until the 1850s. Portsmouth Dockyard has been in the James Craig carries over 350 blocks forefront of technological development for aloft. HMS Victory carried over 1000 over 500 years. It was here that the world‘s blocks. Cook‘s Endeavour carried first dry dock was constructed(1495), the approximately 900 blocks. A 74-gun ship first rolling mills were developed locally to of the line needed 922 blocks. The mighty five masted ship rigged "Preussen" (the largest ship ever made) carried 1,168 blocks.

Peter Davey Seaman (sail).

^ Lignum Vitae is one of the hardest and heaviest wood (three times as hard as Oak) and is commonly used in mallet heads, rollers, sheaves etc. It is durable and has a naturally lubricant. In modern times it has become the preferred wood for propeller bushings and other underwater applications

* Isambard Kingdom Brunel - Architect, civil engineer, mechanical engineer and ship designer of the famous ships; Great Britain, Great Eastern and Great Western, and responsible for the Thames Tunnel, and many of the railways and bridges through out Britain. Photo – Portsmouth Society News # It is hard to arrive at today‘s equivalent but to give some idea HMS Agamemnon, (Nelson favorite ship) , a 64-gun ship of the make iron bands to reinforce wooden line, cost 20,570 pounds, a figure that did not include the cost of the sails, cordage, copper plating, hardware and the armaments. masts. Marc Brunel invented the first steam References. powered industrial production line for the  Brunel The Man Who Built the World. Steven Brindle. Orion Books St. Martin‘s Lane London. manufacture of wooden pulley blocks.  The Sailors Word Book. 1867. Admiral W.H. Smyth. London. Blackie and Son, Paternoster Row; and Glasgow and Edinburgh. An expression that has become common  Nelson‘s Favorite, HMS Agamemnon at war 1781-1809. usage in the English language is ―Chock-a- Anthony Dean. Chatham Publishing, Frith St. London 1996.  Falconer‘s Marine Dictionary 1815. block.‖ In seamanship this means the  Patterson‘s Illustrated Nautical Dictionary, 1850. position when two blocks come together so  Two Years before the Mast. Richard Henry Dana Jr. 1840.  The Oxford Companion of Ships and the Sea. no more movement is possible {also called  The Young Sea Officers Sheet Anchor. David Lever, two blocks and block-and-block}. Richard published 1819.  Admiralty Manual of Seamanship, Volume 1. Full & By 16 July 2010 James Craig Daysail Diary

Full & By 17 July 2010