HMB Endeavour
Sep. 9th, 2013 07:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
khiemtranCome with me on a special journey on the Royal Navy's newest ship, His Majesty's Bark Endeavour, which you can see here at Plymouth in 1768.
Well, I say "new" - actually, she was launched four years ago as the Earl of Pembroke. The Royal Navy has bought her and refitted for a special scientific mission, in conjunction with the Royal Society. She used to be a collier, and as you can see from the picture of her bow below, she's not exactly built for speed. On the other hand, with her flat bottom, she can be beached if needed for unloading cargo or conducting basic repairs - quite handy if you're going somewhere where there are no dry docks, or, say, reliable maps of any kind.
She has three masts which can carry nine hundred square metres of sail. Her rigging has twenty-nine kilometres at rope. Take a look at the horizontal spars in the picture below. These are known as "yards". They rotate around the mast to keep the sails at the right angle to the wind. If you look closely at the yards in the picture below, you can see a diagonal line leading back from each tip (or yardarm). These are the braces, which let the crew control the angle of the yards.
It's a bit easier to see on this picture of the James Craig (which, ahem, hasn't been built yet in 1768). The braces from the higher spars actually run back to the mast behind. The sails give the ship the power to sail all around the world, but the price is the manpower needed to work them. Every time the ship tacks or gybes, a team of sailors needs to be ready just to change the angle of the yards.
And then there's managing the sails themselves. Imagine climbing up there as we battle around Cape Horn.
Cape Horn, you say? That's right, we're heading south to the very tip of South America, then we'll head north into the Pacific and try to make it to Tahiti, discovered just a year ago, in time to observe the transit of Venus. All around the world, scientists will be trying to make similar observations of the transit, and, by comparing the exact time from different sites, we should be able to make an accurate calculation of the distance from the Earth to the sun.
And after that? Well, we may be in for a bit of a surprise, as the commander, one Lieutenant James Cook, on his first voyage of command, has sealed orders which he is not to open until we reach Tahiti.
Part Two behind this link...
Well, I say "new" - actually, she was launched four years ago as the Earl of Pembroke. The Royal Navy has bought her and refitted for a special scientific mission, in conjunction with the Royal Society. She used to be a collier, and as you can see from the picture of her bow below, she's not exactly built for speed. On the other hand, with her flat bottom, she can be beached if needed for unloading cargo or conducting basic repairs - quite handy if you're going somewhere where there are no dry docks, or, say, reliable maps of any kind.
She has three masts which can carry nine hundred square metres of sail. Her rigging has twenty-nine kilometres at rope. Take a look at the horizontal spars in the picture below. These are known as "yards". They rotate around the mast to keep the sails at the right angle to the wind. If you look closely at the yards in the picture below, you can see a diagonal line leading back from each tip (or yardarm). These are the braces, which let the crew control the angle of the yards.
It's a bit easier to see on this picture of the James Craig (which, ahem, hasn't been built yet in 1768). The braces from the higher spars actually run back to the mast behind. The sails give the ship the power to sail all around the world, but the price is the manpower needed to work them. Every time the ship tacks or gybes, a team of sailors needs to be ready just to change the angle of the yards.
And then there's managing the sails themselves. Imagine climbing up there as we battle around Cape Horn.
Cape Horn, you say? That's right, we're heading south to the very tip of South America, then we'll head north into the Pacific and try to make it to Tahiti, discovered just a year ago, in time to observe the transit of Venus. All around the world, scientists will be trying to make similar observations of the transit, and, by comparing the exact time from different sites, we should be able to make an accurate calculation of the distance from the Earth to the sun.
And after that? Well, we may be in for a bit of a surprise, as the commander, one Lieutenant James Cook, on his first voyage of command, has sealed orders which he is not to open until we reach Tahiti.
Part Two behind this link...
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2013-09-10 01:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-10 08:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-10 02:02 am (UTC)I'm glad to know a flat-hulled boat is that seaworthy. Since they're mainly used for coastal trips, I wasn't sure how they'd fare on the open ocean. Well enough, I guess!
I would really have to work on my bravery to climb up in that rigging. I'd make a terrible 18th-century sailor.
no subject
Date: 2013-09-10 08:41 am (UTC)Don't worry, we'll make it round Cape Horn, although it might take us a few attempts until the weather and tides are favourable. Not all of us will make it though...