More Victory boat questions:
1. When I visited, Victory's midship well was covered over with a canvas screen that only had holes for the boats themselves. It obscured the chocks upon which the boats sat. Does anyone know what color the chocks were, and whether there should be some rope pudding to stop the boats chaffing against the chocks?
2. Currently the boats themselves simply sat on the chocks, without any appearent restraints to keep them there in a rocking, pitching sea. I expect in operation, there would be lashings to secure the boats to the beams, possibly with block and tackle in the lashings to allowed them to be efficiently tightened down. How would these lashings be secured to the booms? Are there eye bolts on the booms for the lashings?
3. If the boat is really lashed down tight, the lashings would likely impose quite a lot of force on the gunwales of the boats, both in the downward direction and towards the center of the boat. Would there be anything on the boats to protect the gunwales and keep them from being dished in towards the center of the boat? For example, would there be some kind of temporay beams that would go athwart the boat and rest on the boat's gunwales to take the lashing force and chaffing?
4. In normal operation, would one or more of the boats midship have lifting tackles from the mainstays already hooked up so the boat can be rapidly swung out when needed?
5. Is there any truth to the rumor that the ship's goats and chicken coops are usually kept inside one of the boats? That would tend to make the afflicted boat quite filthy.
6. Would the boat normally be canvas covered, even in good weather? If not, would the wooden canvas frame still be fitted?