I am about halfway through reading a library copy of "Six Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of the U.S. Navy (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0393058476/shipmodelingf-20)" by Ian W. Toll. It is a fascinating historical account of these magnificent ships. However, there are no drawings or technical information that would help the ship modeler.
:cheers: Curt

I am a little more than half way through it. The political discussions are quite fascinating. I haven't read another book with this type of discussion. I agree that therre is little technical information in it. But i don't think that was his intent. But it is good background information. It's an enjoyable read and I highly recommend it.

I just received my copy of Architectura Navalis Mercatoria (http://www.amazon.com/Architectura-Navalis-Mercatoria-Eighteenth-Century-Architecture/dp/0486451550/sr=1-5/qid=1170778430/ref=sr_1_5/103-9525794-3143064?ie=UTF8&s=books) by Fredrik Henrik af Chapman from ModelExpo.

This is a fantastic book. For those of you who have not heard of it, it has about 70 plates drawn by Chapman in the 18th century. The book was originally published in 1768. Chapman was a renowned for his scientific approach to naval architecture.

The plates are absolutely gorgeous, and the detail is stunning. There are unique ships view perspectives that I am not even sure CAD could produce.

It is well worth having. Anyone interested in maritime history and modeling from this time period would benefit from owning this text.

~Clay

Hello All

Tonight on the History Channel at 8:00.( USS Constillation: Battling for freedom.)

Gene :cap:

What time would that be for central time please?

"The Trafalgar Companion" by Mark Adkins is as complete a work as one could want on the battle. Profusely illustrated;ships, uniforms, equipment, etc. Actual accounts of individuals, personal letters, incredable! Saw it at Barnes and Nobles for $75.00, bought it on www.bestbookbuys.com for $43.00. Have bought many books on this site and saved a lot of money.

Here's a good publication if you'r thinking about a Clipper, even if your not, still a wealth of information and well worth the read.... I haven't finished mine yet but is hard to put down....

"The American Built Clipper Ship (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0071358234/shipmodelingf-20)"
1850 - 1856
(Charicteristics, Construction, Details)

Author: William L. Corothers

Really, a fantastic book, lots of First-Class drawings/diagrams....
No stone left unturned!!

In the past I have subscribed to Naval History, Professional Mariner, Small Boat Journal, and RC Boat Modeler.

RC Boat Modeler does not have many articles about sail boats or ships. The magazine is mostly about high speed gas or electric models, not my interest. I am looking for a magazine about model boats and ships rather than the high speed stuff.

What model magazines do you subscribe to?

I just started getting Ships in Scale and it seems like a fairly good magazine. You should look into it as I think its what you're looking for. Their back issues are available on CD, though I wish I could find a library that stocked them. Sea History is also an excellent magazine. I've subscribed to it for years and am constantly going into the back issues to look things up or even just browse.

Richard

I recently purchased the Sumner / Gearing Class Destroyer's of World War Two Plan eBook from the Floating Dry Dock. This is an great buy for anyone who is considering to build a destroyer of WWII vintage or later.

It has numerous photos of Sumner and Gearing class destroyers and some wonderful line drawings covering areas from the bow, main deck, super structure, including anchors, chocks, stanchions...etc, it's a veritable treasure trove of information. Not a bad price either $25.95. Comes on a CD in p d f format. :thumbup:

There is a new book that may be of interest to our members. The title is "Sea of Thunder: Four Commanders and the Last Great Naval Campaign, 1941-1945" by Evan Thomas, Simon and Schuster, Illustrated, 415 pp. Here is a quote from a book review in the Boston Globe: "The subject of "Sea of Thunder," Evan Thomas's panoramic story about war at sea, is the Battle of Leyte Gulf , in October 1944 . It has almost vanished from consciousness, disappearing behind mists of battle smoke and time. But this was a monstrous conflict, perhaps the very last of its kind, a struggle that was, in Thomas's apt phrase, "confused, tragic, deadly, and heroic." This four-day battle claimed 13,000 men, seven aircraft carriers, three battleships, 10 cruisers, 11 destroyers, and the reputation of one of the leading personalities of World War II, Admiral William F. "Bull" Halsey ."
Here is the link to the complete review: http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2007/05/02/the_sea_battle_that_helped_bring_about_the_end_of_wwii/

If you don't mind reading on screen or have access to cheap (or free) paper there is an online book called "Two Years Before The Mast". If you're curious as to what a sailors life was like in the early 1800's you'll find this book fascinating. I have no idea if it's still in print but here's a link - http://www.bartleby.com/23/ and here's an excerpt from the Introductory Note:


RICHARD HENRY DANA, the second of that name, was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, August 1, 1815. He came of a stock that had resided there since the days of the early settlements; his grandfather, Francis Dana, had been the first American minister to Russia and later became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts; his father was distinguished as a man of letters. He entered Harvard College in 1831; but near the beginning of his third year an attack of measles left his eyesight so weak that study was impossible. Tired of the tedium of a slow convalescence, he decided on a sea voyage; and choosing to go as a sailor rather than a passenger, he shipped from Boston on August 14, 1834, on the brig “Pilgrim,” bound for the coast of California. His experiences for the next two years form the subject of the present volume.

What a coincidence, Roger. I just finished reading the book last week! I found it on Project Gutenberg. Definitely an interesting read. Especially valuable to me as a modeler were the details about how they rigged, maintained, operated, etc while they were at sea. The story of tarring the rigging at sea was interesting.

How to build Dioramas 2nd edition: Author: Sheperd Paine; available @ Amazon approx $12.00. paperback
Well worth the price just for the photo's of his work. Lot's of "how to" included.

Two excellent books for nautical history enthusiasts:

The Lost Fleet: A Yankee whaler's struggle against the Confederate Navy and Arctic Disaster by Marc Songini (2007, St. Martin's Press)

A story about the end of the New England whaling industry in general, and particularly about the efforts of Confederate raiders to find and sink as many whalers as possible, even pursuing them in the Bering Straits and beyond. No (or at least few) lives were lost as they removed the crews from the ships first, but all that whale oil sure made the ships go up like torches!

The Billy Ruffian: The Bellerophon and the Downfall of Napoleon by David Cordingly

The life story of a particular ship, from her glory days as an English Man-o'-War to her end as a floating prison hulk. Some interesting details on the ship-building yards of the day.

Santa came early this year!!
Got the complete set. I have never read Patrick O'Brian before; I'm hooked :yikes: Kept me up way past my bedtime.

I'm curious; how can anyone read O'Brian without a nautical background? Or, at least, a nautical dictionary close to hand. I'm familiar with most of the terms but when you add terms and slang of the era (not used now) it becomes an interesting pastime figuring out what is he's talking about.

It was "spendy" but worth it :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

Hello sailors

Can you recommend any good novels about the era of the sailing warships? Im especially interested in the early ages, like the spanish armada, the manilla galleons, the wars between england and holland.

Any good novels from this era?

Thank you
Beat regards
Søren

Welcome aboard Soeren,

You may want to look this over: Ship Modeling Forum's Store (http://astore.amazon.com/shipmodelingf-20/105-1084078-9850020?%5Fencoding=UTF8&node=1) and Spanish Armada (http://astore.amazon.com/shipmodelingf-20/105-1084078-9850020?node=1&page=7)

There are soooo.. many books out there, it may be hard to select. Also try the Search Box to the left and type in your keywords.

John

Yes there are so many... I meant to ask for recommendations from any one who has read some good novels for this era?

Best regards
Søren

Someone on the Seaways shipmodeling list site posted this remarkable link to a film clip about how the US Naval Academy Museum of model ships came to be. It's definitely worth a few minutes of your time to watch this film clip. It runs about 20 minutes.

http://www.nshof.org/videos/nshof-video0012_player.htm

Steve

A fantastic link Steve! I watched the whole video and was captivated by the beauty and workmanship of the models. Really great!

Hi James.
There is a lexicon and companion to the tales of Patrick O'Bian titled A Sea of Words,the ISBN 0-8050-6615-2 which will enhance your pleasure in reading these novels and increase your nautical knowledge. hope it helps.
Regards
Kelowna

Hello to all - just picked up this book over the weekend - a good read with lots of info .



Anchors: The Illustrated History by Betty Nelson Curryer,
--Ever see a killick? The anchor is one of the most important pieces of equipment on any vessel and one of the most common motifs and symbols on land--appearing in heraldic designs, on pub signs, and in churchyard sculpture, among other places. This book explains how the first simple pierced stones developed through the killick into the modern devices of today that hold the heaviest super tankers. It begins with the archaelogical discoveries of the earliest and simplist anchors and progresses to the time of the ancient Greeks, when the anchor had develped to the form we all now recognize. Development over the next two thousand years are thane described and analyzed. All of various functions of anchors are discussed, from the smallest kedge anchor to the heaviest bower, as are their uses on different types of vessels and the significance of holding grounds. Tables of anchor sizes are included. The book also deals with related matters like anchor manufacture and handling. The introduction of chain cables, and the mehtods of testing and marking anchors. No nautical archaeologist, naval historian, modelmaker, yachtsman, or boatswain should be without this basic reference book on the subject., P, Pages 160. 100 illus., 6 X9.5. List Price $25.00,

HOLD FAST !

I also have the complete Hornblower series (Books too). I really like the welsh actor Ioan Gruffudd.
I heard he really enjoyed filming the series and wanted A&E to continue.

I also like Master and Commander. Great effects. The movie has a "dark and dirty" feel for what it must have been like to spend months and months at sea during that time period.

One of my favorites lately is Gregory Peck in "Captain Horatio Hornblower" Great sets and costumes. Great "Old fashion" filming!

One my all time favorites is "To the ends of the earth" staring Benedict Cumberbatch (Amazing grace, Tipping the velvet)
It's about an aristocrat bound from England to Australia who learns about humility from his fellow passengers.
There isn't a lot of fighting but gives a good idea what it must have been like to make a journey like this in a old converted ship of the line.

I recently stumbled upon the Shaun O’Boyle photography web site, with its series of art photographs of industrial ruins. One series entitled The Shipyard – The Elephants’ Graveyard, depicts an unidentified, abandoned ship breaking operation somewhere in the environs of New York City. The old yard contains dozens of small ships, tugboats, ferries, and other harbor craft. There are both rotting wood and rusting steel craft, in many stages of decay. I purchased his book The Shipyard, which contains photographs from visits spanning many years. The photography is superb, showing many details that may be of interest to a ship modeler, or diorama builder. Some images show details of planking, framing, or plating over wood, all exposed by the decomposition of the craft. Many of the photos show a detail out of context – a rusty bollard, the pattern of rust or peeling paint, a lone port light, with no sense of the boat. This book will not interest most ship modelers, but it may server as inspiration for some. The pictures are a mix of black-and-white and color. At $75, the book is expensive for its small size, but you’re buying a short-run art book. The book can be ordered from the O’Boyle Photography web site.

Mark Layton

Link to the O’Boyle Photography site: http://www.oboylephoto.com/ruins/index.htm
Link to page with some example of the shipyard photography: http://www.oboylephoto.com/boatyard/by_2004_2.htm