diagonal yards

Anything and everything about sailing vessels, be they warships, merchantmen or something completely different
Post Reply
simonsail
Able Seaman
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Feb 08, 2018 3:19 am

diagonal yards

Post by simonsail »

I bought this old painting and have been struggling to understand what appear to be diagonal yards? What sort of sail arrangment did this ship have? Any help greatly appreciated.
[img]http://orbsi.uk/fine-art/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/nautical-2b-300x220.png[/img]
Cy
Admiral of the Fleet
Posts: 151
Joined: Tue May 23, 2017 1:10 pm

Re: diagonal yards

Post by Cy »

Looks to me as if the ships has been hulked, had it's masts removed, and is in use as a store. The 'diagonal yards' are probably a form of hoist for handling cargo.
OK, it was me, probably!
simonsail
Able Seaman
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Feb 08, 2018 3:19 am

Re: diagonal yards

Post by simonsail »

Thanks Cy that is interesting and sounds like a good explanation.
Maybe they hoists were constructed in part by re-using the old yards?
simonsail
Able Seaman
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Feb 08, 2018 3:19 am

Re: diagonal yards

Post by simonsail »

Following Cy's suggestion, I found this similar hulk at Royal Museums Greenwich [url]http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/126161.html[/url]
[img]http://collections.rmg.co.uk/mediaLib/344/media-344657/large.jpg[/img]
It says "ex-Camperdown". I guess maybe the HMS Camperdown of 1825 (formerly HMS Trafalgar of 1820) ?
Were these two hulks (in my painting and in the museum painting) stationary, or were they towed to various locations?
Also, in both paintings, what is the thing in the water which looks like a barrel with a large eye-hook on it?
Navclio
Captain
Posts: 127
Joined: Thu Jun 22, 2017 10:40 pm

Re: diagonal yards

Post by Navclio »

I don't have Winfield's third volume, which might have more detail, but David Lyon, The Sailing Navy List, 106, says that Trafalgar/Camperdown was hulked in 1860, became a coal depot at Plymouth, was renamed Pitt in 1882, and was sold in 1906. Coal had to be hoisted on board the ship, and then hoisted out again to be transferred to a steamship. Coal was usually packaged in bags that had to be transferred one by one. Two derricks per side would allow bags to be hoisted up and over to the ship being coaled two at a time; I suppose two ships could come alongside and coal at the same time, one to port and one to starboard.

Since the first ship is unnamed, we can't determine what kind of storeship it was. If it was also a coal hulk, then other store hulks, like powder hulks, might have had other derrick arrangements.

The "barrel with a large eye-hook" is probably a mooring buoy. A small vessel might bend its anchor cable to the ring and not have to drop and weigh one of its own anchors.
Cy
Admiral of the Fleet
Posts: 151
Joined: Tue May 23, 2017 1:10 pm

Re: diagonal yards

Post by Cy »

Looking at the first picture the background suggests to me that it's in the Solent outside Portsmouth and as it's also a 3-decker may well be the same ship.
OK, it was me, probably!
simonsail
Able Seaman
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Feb 08, 2018 3:19 am

Re: diagonal yards

Post by simonsail »

Thanks Navclio for your info that this ship became renamed as the Pitt. And thanks for the mooring buoy suggestion. Working form that, I found this photo of a (more modern) mooring buoy https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File ... 515184.jpg
Therefore it seems reasonable to deduce that the painting I have, and the painting in the Greenwich Museum, both depict a stationary hulk (not a hulk that served as a towable barge).
simonsail
Able Seaman
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Feb 08, 2018 3:19 am

Re: diagonal yards

Post by simonsail »

Thanks Cy for your suggestion that this is the Solent. And yes I am now thinking the painting I have and the Greenwich Museum painting may be of the same ship. As far as I can tell the painting I have (judging by a White Ensign in another painting in the same lot) is probably by a sailor at that time in the British Royal Navy. I am most grateful to these paintings for getting me interested in old sailing ships.
simonsail
Able Seaman
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Feb 08, 2018 3:19 am

Re: diagonal yards

Post by simonsail »

Following the info re renaming as the Pitt, found this painting
https://www.lookandlearn.com/history-im ... -Broken-Up
Post Reply