Sail powered warships in battle trim

cabrown1

In the diorama, is that a British 74-gun ship-of-the-line? If so, which one? And the Spanish victim... I mean ship?

 

I think the British ship is "Leviathan" and the Spanish ship is "San Agustin". 

http://www.abc.es/historia-militar/20140215/abci-agustin-navio-trafalgar-201402142105.html

They were part of an interesting 1/50 Trafalgar diorama, which seems to have been split up now.

http://dioramadetrafalgar.blogspot.co.uk/search?updated-min=2014-01-01T00:00:00%2B01:00&updated-max=2015-01-01T00:00:00%2B01:00&max-results=6

Perhaps, the painting by the British marine artist Geoff Hunt entitled, "The HMS SUTHERLAND's Last Fight", might give you some idea of what sails were used in battle.

Happy modeling   Crackers  

Ah, yes... what he is saying is basically that courses were not normally used in battle but at need they would be set for a short sprint and then taken in again afterwards.

The exact quote from the side bar reads:

"BATTLE SAIL

Except for a few rare exceptions, frigates never fought battles with all sails set. Having every stitch of sail set strained the rigging, making the masts more vulnerable to damage from a single hit. Additionally, the lowest sails, the courses, were low enough to be set on fire by the muzzle flash of their own guns. Normally a warship went into battle under "battle sail": topsails, outer jibs, and gaff sails set, with the courses brailed: pulled up in loose bunches under the spar. If winds were light, the topgallant sails could be set. If an extra burst of speed was needed, the courses could be shaken out, and then brailled back up again. This could be done from the deck, without taking gun crews away from their guns for long." - Mark Lardas, "British Frigate vs. French Frigate", Osprey Publishing 2013

Again, perhaps my choice of terminology was less than optimal. I am a modelbuilder, not a sailor.

cabrown1

the main and fore courses would be reefed rather than fully furled as part of preparing the ship for action thus allowing quicker deployment of these sails should the need arise

That only makes sense if the sails were first set, then a reef taken to shorten them, and the sails finally furled before going into action. That way, if they needed to be set during the action, they would already be reefed and their lower edge would not be so close to the deck.

Btw, I will keep the information you provided in mind when setting the sails on my HMS Flora.

Perhaps my choice of terminology was less than ideal. The information came from a side bar on page 12 of Mark Lardas' "British Frigate vs. French Frigate" from Osprey Publishing. He did not actually use the term "battle reefed", he merely indicated that the main and fore courses would be reefed rather than fully furled as part of preparing the ship for action thus allowing quicker deployment of these sails should the need arise. The caption for the drawing actually reads: "A frigate, close hauled, under battle sail."

I have not run across any depictions of this in the model ships I have seen and was wondering if anyone else had either seen it or, better yet, actually modeled it.

cabrown1

I've seen several discussion about furled sails, but not specifically "battle reefed" sails.

Battle reefing? In fourty years of reading I have never come across this concept. I strongly suspect that some author really has no idea what he is writing about. They can't all be Patrick O'Brian I suppose.

The basic formula was topsails, jibs and driver/mizzen set. Courses furled, obviously, and all the lower staysails taken in, this basically to simplify handling, improve visibility from deck and reduce the risk of battle-damage and fire. Topgallants and the higher-up staysails set or not set depending on conditions and wind direction. The spritsail would most likely not be set, it is called the 'blind sail' in Germanic languages for a perfectly good reason as it blocks vision ahead from the deck quite effectively. One did not particularly want to have more speed in a fleet-battle than necessary to keep control of the ship, a walking-pace would do nicely and the less strain on the rigging the less chance of stuff coming down after meeting a cannonball, plus you have the extra sail "in reserve" in case of a mast being shot away or some other mishap. Topsails, mizzen and jib were generally enough for the purpose.

One more reason for furling the courses was that these were rather unhandy sails, and simply not appropriate for many points of sailing because one blanketed another or they affected the trim of the ship adversely. If you needed to make drastic changes in heading doing so with topsails alone was easier, quicker and needed fewer men for sail-handling during the operation.

Ships were very often operating in fleets. As such, the flagship would set the pace so to speak, other ships had to conform to her speed or the battle formation would unravel. This might mean setting more or less sail depending on the sailing qualities of the individual ship. The flagship might be under just topsails while another, with a foul bottom or just a less skilled seaman in command might have to set topgallants to keep up. A third ship might have to reef her topsails not to outsail the first one.

Of course, there are exceptions. At Trafalgar, the British ships basically went in with everything up to and including studdingsails set, wanting to close the enemy as fast as possible in very little wind. At Quiberon Bay, Hawke's British fleet was chasing the French fleet into very dirty waters in strong winds and are shown in paintings with fore-courses set - but not topgallants. (In strong wind the topgallants simply could not be set while the topsails and courses could). Similarly, some paintings from the seventeenth century (the Four days battle, for example) show fore-course set in fleet battle, again without topgallants. Generally speaking the main-course was less used than the fore-course, for a number of technical reasons (read John Harland's "Seamanship in the age of sail" book for an in-depth discussion) so it is the major sail you would least expect to see set in battle.

Single-ship actions were sometimes the result of a chase, in which case chaser and chasee would start the fighting with more sail set than would strictly be optimal for a fight. 

So, as for battle-sail:

Main course - Very unlikely

Fore course - Unlikely, unless too windy for topgallants and you feel the need for speed

Mizzen - Yes

Topsails - Yes

Topgallants - Maybe, mostly depending on wind strength

Royals - Unlikely, unless very little wind

Jibs - Yes

Spritsail/sprit topsail - Unlikely, if the ship has jibs. If the ship has no jibs (ie 17th Century) then maybe, depending on wind direction.

Staysails - Maybe

Leesails - Very unlikely

Most excellent diorama. That's exactly what I was talking about. After a couple of false starts, I am working on the Lindberg Jolly Roger. Trying to build her as the HMS Flora (Ex-Vestale). I will probably do a static display, but if I am going to show all of her gunports open and the guns run out, I feel she should have her sails in battle trim. 

In the diorama, is that a British 74-gun ship-of-the-line? If so, which one? And the Spanish victim... I mean ship?

Yes. Look at diorama modeling sites.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_1-cgWv73O24/TcF4SFjjB6I/AAAAAAAAByg/t6u5_5LiIAw/s912/Traf%20(3).jpg

Sorry I could not post the image.

It takes a deep breath and a glass of claret, please Hardy.

With that detail comes a diorama effort. Sailors, the sea, etc.

Excellent idea.

I will check my references. It has been awhile since I have looked into this and I am not sure if my memory serves me right. I will get back to you soon.

  Ron W.