Stad Amsterdam

[StugeronSteve]

Anybody see her under full sail on Sunday morning? She looked spectacular in the sunlight as she passed Lepe, heading East. I will try and upload a few piccies this evening.

 

[tjfmmaes]

Yes I did, what a magnificent sight she was too. Typical that my camera ran out of batteries at that point /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[Keen_Ed]

Thought she looked wonderful. I was trying to work out - with no studdingsails, and relatively wide and shallow topsails, are they considered to be upper and lower topsails, and upper and lower t'gallants? In which case, was she flying a royal over the upper t'gallant on the main, or was it a skysail over a royal?

Also, saw her dip and fire a cannon - very impressive! Wasn't sure who to, though? Didn't see any naval ships about, so I assumed they were dipping to the RYS. Did the Squadron dip in return?

Edit- on a quick look at the website, she can fly studdingsails.

But still, looking at this:

Is the order on the mainmast - from bottom to top - main course (furled), lower topsail, upper topsail, lower topgallant, upper topgallant, royal?

Or is it Main couse, lower topsail, upper topsail, topgallant, royal, skysail?

Or what?

 

[jamesjermain]

Yes, I was about 100 yards away when she fired - quite a jolt. It was definitely directed towards the RYS but I didn't see if they replied. They certainly didn't fire a cannon but they might have dipped the ensign

 

[StugeronSteve]

Wow, it's like an episode of 20 questions /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif. I will post a picture of the rig later, so that the forum experts can sort it out. In my ignorance I thought t'gallant was an abreviation of top gallant, rather than a different sail.

 

[Keen_Ed]

Yes, the t'gallant is just a shortened version of topgallant.

This is all AIUI

Napoleonic Naval ships on the fore and main traditionally had (from bottom to top) the course, topsail, topgallant and (sometimes) royal. Outboard of these sails could be rigged the studding sails, for use in light winds.

Later, after the invention of the brace winch and steel yards, which allowed longer yards to be built rather than have a large topsail and studding sails, a ship had two topsails - the upper and lower topsail. Likewise, the topgallant and topgallant studding sails was replaced by the upper and lower topgallants. A further advantage of this is that the smaller individual sails are easier to furl, and therefore you need a smaller crew.

The result of this is that the clipper ships could sail to Oz and back with very small crews indeed - it's been a while since I read but The Last Grain Race, but IIRC she had a crew totalling something like 30?

This is the Moshulu, the ship from the Last Grain Race.

 

[gregmlucas]

Actually felt like the cannon fire was at us, we'd just tacked onto a T-bone course for a closer look! After the first shot, thought better of it and passed behind. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Beautiful sight!

. . Greg

 

[tome]

Photo taken by John Neale from Yarmouth

 

[StugeronSteve]

Nice picture. I've got a very pretty photograph, by John Neale, on my office wall, of the Yarmouth lifeboat, out on its old pile moorings, with the sun setting over the harbour.

 

[tome]

He took this Sunday morning from Amaya as she sailed past us (John is regular crew)

 

[StugeronSteve]

Might be time you replaced your toe rail then, it's suffering from a touch of oxidization by the look of it!