Nautical Art Exhibition

Origianlly posted on May 17th, 2007

The Society of Artists Newcastle Incorporated

Invite you and your friends to the opening of their

Nautical Art Exhibition

‘Lakes to Ocean – Boats to Beaches’

at the

Maritime Centre

Shed A, Lee Wharf

Honeysuckle Drive Newcastle

Friday 25, Saturday 26 & Sunday 27 May 2007

9am-5pm

Official Opening 6pm Friday 25 May 2007

All paintings are for sale

La Perouse and Marchand Circumnavigation

The La Perouse Circumnavigation of the world from 1778 until 1783.

France and England were at war between 1778 and 1783 and as soon as war was over the French wanted to send two frigates on a voyage of exploration and scientific discovery around the world. They chose Jean Francois de Galaup La Perouse to lead the french fleet and he sailed from Brest on August 1st 1785 in command of La Boussole and L’Astrolabe. He did a westabout circumnavigation and by June the following year had reached the North American coast and turned back south because of the hostile weather in the far north. La Perouse charted the North American coast down to California, and then sailed across the Pacific to Macao. In summer 1787 he sailed north along the asiatic coast of the Pacific, searching for the Straits of Anian, and reached Kamchatka in Eastern Russia.

La Perouse sailed south to Samoa where the captain and ten crew of the Astrolabe were killed. They sailed on to Tonga, Norfolk Island, and Port Jackson, the fledgling colony in New South Wales. There is a suburb named after La Perouse at the entrance to Botany Bay. La Perouse left Sydney in February 1788 and were never seen again. Later voyages looked for them and many years later it was thought that La Perouse and his ships and crew had founded on reefs in Vanikoro in the New Hebrides.

Etienne Marchand Circumnavigation of the world beginning in 1790 from france.

Etienne Marchand made his circumnavigation of the world from 1790 to 1792. His aim was to trade skins from North America with Chinese merchants in Canton and return home loaded up with Chinese produce to sell at home, thus making a handsome profit. Marchand sailed in the 300 ton Solide and rounded the Horn in April 1790. He then sailed to the Marquesas, exploring and finding the Revolution Isles. He then sailed to North America and starting trading for furs. He soon had a hold full of otter, seal, bear, beaver, and other skins and sailed via the Sandwich Isles and the Marianas to Canton. But unfortunately the Chinese had an exclusive deal with the russians to buy their furs.

Marchand doggedly sailed for the Ile de France(Mauritius) and all he found when he arrived there on the 30 January 1792 was news of the French Revolution. So he sailed for home and arrived at Toulon on 14 August 1792.

Maritime coastal navigation terms

Archipelago – a sea abounding in islands, or just the group of islands themselves. eg Malay Archipelago.

Atoll – A coral reef ringing a coral island and enclosing a lagoon. Found mainly in the Pacific.

Basin – the area of land drained by a river.

Bay – a curving in the coastline, less indented than a gulf.

Bight. a gradual bend inwards of the coastline.

Bore – a tidal wave of great force which ascends a river or estuary.

Cape – a promontory justting into the sea.

channel – a narrow strip of sea between wot land masses. The bed of a stream or river.

Continent – One of the five large land masses of the earth(Africa, America, Europe, Asia, Australia).

Contour-line – a line drawn on a map joining points of equal heights.

Delta – land formed in the mousth of a river by the river silt being deposited there, owing to the absence os strong currents in the sea , which would otherwise disperse it.

Equator – An imaginary circle drawn around the earth midway between the two poles.

Estuary – The lower part of a river where the sea tide meets the river current.

Island – a portion of land entirely surrounded by water.

Isthmus – A narrow strip of land joining larger land masses (eg the Isthmus of Panama).

Lagoon – A lake of sea-water bounded by a coral reef.

Latitude – The angular distance of any place north or south of the equator, measured on an arc of a merideian.

Longitude – The angular distance east or west of a give meridian: usually that of Greenwich.

Mountain – an abrupt rising of the land mass to a considerable height above the surrounding district.

Naze – A point of land running into the sea.

Ox-Bow – a cut off portion of a river or stream , usually found in a low lying plain and is caused by a meandering river cutting away its bank.

Peninsula – a piece of land almost surrounded by water.

Ravine – A long, deep gorge or hollow, usually worn away by a river.

River – a large stream of water flowing in its own defined channel and eventually entering the sea.

Tributary – a stream or river which flows into a larger one.

Tropics – Two imaginary circles drawn round the earth, one each side of and parallel to the equator at a distance of 23 and a half degrees. The sun is vertical above the northern tropic, the tropic of Cancer, on June 21st. And over the southern one, that of Capricorn, on December 21st. The zone between the two is known as the tropical or torrid zone.

Windward Sailing

The technological development of sailing ships has always been a compromise between demands for speed, cargo carrying capacity, and manoeuvrability. The complexity of the interaction between these qualities and the local boat building traditions and available timbers all throughout the world have created a wide variety of ship designs and types. Some of them have been far from successfull. After the ability to sail fast downwind is the capability to sail at an angle to the wind. The further from the direction of the wind that you can sail , the further would be the time of the voyage. Being able to sail at an angle of around ninety degrees to the wind is an important stage in the development of the sailing ship.

The appearance of the chinese junk has changed very little over the centuries because the design of the junk hull and sails is very efficient and is even making a comeback with blue water or ocean crusing yachts in this modern age. The battens in the sails maintain the shape even when sailing close to the wind. You can still see the chinese junk in Hong KOng. Prahus can be seen on beaches in Bali or java in Indonesia. These double outrigger canoes carry only light sails, but the design has one advantage compared with the standard lateen rig on the feluccas that sail on the NIle River. The billow of the lateen sail is distorted by the mast when the wind is on the wrong side, unless the sail is rearranged. The prahus, on the other hand, have forked or triangular sails pivoted near the mast, obviating this.

If a ship can sail at an angle to the wind, then the crew becomes independent of oars wherever the wind may be coming from. Then oars would only be needed in extreme weather conditions or inshore coastal navigation. Longer voyages could be taken because the knowledge of oceanic wind conditions became more studied and understood. Easily establish wind patterns, such as monsoons in the Indian Ocean or the south-east trade winds in the Pacific, could even get rid of the need for development of anything better than ships taht would just hold station such as the dhows of the East African and REd Sea areas.

Gradually boats and ships achieved the capacity to sail slightly into the winds, a capability so against intuition that it is not hardly surprising that the relevant technology seems to have been learnt, lost and rediscovered many times and by many apparently well separated cultures, even though this ability itself may be considered to be the best method for its distribution. This only reflects the heavy overlay of tradition in sailing ship construction. A success in some detail, when it was achieved, was held firmly in the local collective unconscious to such a degree that it could have often inhibited or made impossible the incorporation of further advancements in sail technology. The advantages of being able to sail closer into the wind are massive – to be able to sail closer than a trading competitor often ensures the quickest delivery of cargo. A wartime opponent can often be outsailed or escaped from irrespective of the possible weapon superiority.

The History of Sailing

For tens of thousands of years, humans have been able to keep themselves floating on boats. The earliest logs, bunches of reeds, or branches could only voyage to where the water currents or the most primitive of paddles could let them. When paddles were first used, it must have become immediately apparent that the wind would provide a much easier method of propulsion than using ones muscles with a flimsy inefficient paddle. The currents and waves also were seen to be an added way to help the most primitive boats move towards or away from their destinations on shore.

Egyptians realized that they could use the drift that the wind caused to propel them forward. Ancient vase paintings and clay models unearthed by Archaeologists are reputed to be from seven thousand to eleven thousand years old from Egypt. These ancient Egyptian artifacts show that by 3500 BCE the controlled drift, or sailing downwind that used large square sails on Egyptian boats was starting to become a widely used method at sea for the transporting of men and goods.

These Egyptian relief carvings and paintings showed the Egyptian ships with sails that were hung from a horizontal spar that could be set at differing angles to the wind using ropes attached to the ends of the spars. The square shape must have been the easiest way that ancient sail-makers could make the sails from woven fibers or reeds. The square sail could be quite easily hung on a very simple spar and when controlled by ropes from the corners of the sail, it is naturally blown into a natural curve by the wind following abaft the vessel. Some angular variation from this square sail was also possible if the ship needed to tack up into the wind at a slight degree.

Glossary for Tall ships

Handing – Bringing the sail back to its yard, spar or stay in preparation for furling and gasketing.

Hermaphrodite Brig – The former name for a brigantine, now generally used to describe a brig that has only main and topmasts on its main or aftermast, and no topgallant mast.

Hermaphrodite Brigantine – A two-masted tall ship that has only main and topmasts on its foremast, and no topgallant mast.

Jackstaff – The pole at the bow of a tall ship from which the house flag on a merchant ship, or national flag on a naval ship, is flown.

Jib-Boom – The spar that projects upwards and outwards from the bowsprit an dis supported by the bowsprit.

Jibe – Originally to change direction by accidentally turning the stern through the wind in a square-rigger. When this manoevre is carried out on purpose, it is called “wearing ship”.

Jury Repairs – Makeshift or temporary repairs.

Ketch – A two masted fore and aft rigged sailing ship, the aftermast shorter than the forward mast.

Knot – A unit of sea speed, being one nautical mile per hour.

Lloyd’s of London – An association of merchants and insurance underwriters. The name is from a coffee house in London where the merchants met in 1601.

Lloyd’s Register – In 1760 Lloyd’s drew up a set of rules regarding the construction of ships for the protection of its underwriters. The register listed all ships built to those rules and rated them accordingly. A1 at Lloyds is top classification.

Main Course – The largest square sail on a tall ship.

Mainsail – The largest fore and aft sail on a tall ship.

Mast – A mast of a tall ship – for example the foremast – traditionally is made up of sections, each section fastened to the one below it. ie the fore mainmast – the first section above deck: the fore topmast – the second section above deck: the fore topgallant mast – the third section above the deck.

Mizzen – The third mast after the bow.

Poop – A short deck over the stern of a ship.

Port – The left side of a ship when facing forward from the stern.

Reefing – The operation of shortening a sail by fruling it and tying it along the reef points.

Reef Points – A row of short ropes attached along the body of a sail to allow it to be furled and tied and thus expose less surface to the wind.

Reeve – To feed a rope or cable through blocks or eyes to set up a tackle; or to fasten by passing the rope around or through something.

Schooner – Usually a two masted fore and aft rigged sailing ship. when the main mast, the second mast is equal or taller than the fore mast.

Spritsail – Originally a small square sail set below and from the bowsprit on square-rigged ships, and now a fore and aft sail set on a sprit or a spar attached to the outer top corner of a sail and fastened to the base of a mast.

Starboard – The right side of a tall ship, when facing forward from the stern.

Tack – To change direction by turning the bow through the wind

Water-sail – An extra sail, usually set in light winds below the boom or rail of a tall ship to catch the wind flowing over the surface of the water.

Yard – A spar with tapered ends, hung athwart tall ships from the mast and used to suspend a square sail. Its name is taken from the section of mast that supports it.

Tall Ships Glossary

Astern – in, at or towards the rear of a tall ship, or in a backwards motion.

Barque – A sailing vessel, usually three-masted. A barque would be square-rigged on the first and second masts(foremast and mainmast) and fore and aft rigged on the third mast(the mizzen mast).

Barquentine – Similar to a barque but square-rigged on the first or foremast only.

Beam – the width of a tall ship at its widest part.

Belaying Pin – A removable wooden pin that is slotted in a hole in the pin rail and about which sheets, halyards and braces, etc , are made fast.

Blanketing – One sail shielding another sail from the wind.

Bobstay – A rope or chain running from the end of the bowsprit to the cutwater, to hold down the bowsprit.

Bowsprit – The long spar projecting forward over the bow of a tall sailing ship, mainly to take the stays holding the mast forward. The jib-boom is fastened to the bowsprit and extends forward of it.

Brace – The line from each end of a yard by which the yard is swung or braced around to set the sail to the wind.

Brig – A tall sailing ship with two square-rigged masts.

Brigantine – Similar to a brig but square-rigged on the first or foremast only.

Carvel Built – A method of construction of a wooden tall ship in which the timber planking of the hull is laid edge to edge.

Cock-billed – When the yards of a vessel are not at right angles to the masts.

Course – The lowest square sail on any mast of a square-rigged sailing ship.

Davits – Small cranes for lowering ships’ boats.

Deadeyes – the traditional wooden block and tackle system of tensioning the stays and shrouds of a masted vessel. Now superseded by steel bottle screws.

Deadlight – A shutter of wood or metal for sealing off a cabin window or porthole.

Fore and aft sail – A sail that sets along the length of a vessel rather than across it as in a square rigger.

Foremast – The first mast behind the bow, when shorter than the second mast.

Gaff – a spar holding out the head of a four-sided fore and aft sail.

Gasket – A line used to tie a furled sail to the yard.

Halyard – A rope, wire , and chain tackle for hoisting and lowering sails, flags and yards.

Tall Ships Adventures

Originally post on March 12th, 2007.

In 2007 there will be a Fastnet race that will be sailing between the Prince William and Stavros Niarchos. The tall ships race is part of the American Tall Ships Challenge Race series in 2007. The tall ship Prince William will assemble with the fleet in Charleston, South Carolina during May to July competing in five races that will last from nine to fourteen days each. The first part of the race starts from Charlestown on the 7th May and the last section leaves Newport, Rhode Island sailing for Halifax, Nova Scotia on June 30th. Three out of the five races will be for youth aged sixteen to twenty five years old and the other two tall ship races are open to people aged from eighteen to seventy years old.

Other tall ship races and sailings in 2007 are:
* 17-20 August is the Torbay Brig Match Challenge and the two tall ships Prince William and Stavros Niarchos return to Torbay for sailings with youth crews.

* Tall Ships Adventures is taking part in the Trans Atlantic Challenge which will take twenty one days to sail from the Azores to Bermuda. The tall ship voyage starts on the sixteenth of April and the return sailing lasts twenty five days and leaves Halifax to Portsmouth on july fifteenth.

* Night Sails for seven to ten days along the west coast of Ireland, The west and northern islands. Also sailing around the northern end of Scotland.

Magellan circumnavigation

I am just in the process of reading “Over the edge of the world” by Laurence Bergreen which is about Magellan’s terrifying circumnavigation of the globe. Ferdinand Magellan took three years to sail around the world. Well one of his ships actually finished it, Magellan was killed in the Phillippines and of course did not complete the circumnavigation. Magellan set sail from Seville in 1519 on a journey to discover a sea route the Spice Islands that were in what came to be known as the East Indies.

Ferdinand Magellan was a Portuguese nobleman and soldier. He fought in North Africa but was increasingly frustrated by the fact that the King of Portugal, Manuel I would not pay him what he thought he was owed. He devised an idea to find a sea route to the East Indies to set up a trading route for spices such as mace that were as expensive as gold. But he got no feedback from the Portuguese court and went to Seville in Spain to try his luck and make his fortune and fame.

In Seville Ferdinand Magellan met another Portuguese expatriate and through him is hoping to set up a meeting with the Spanish authorities so that he can get some backing for his proposed expedition to the sources of the spice trades. So that is where i am up to in the book at the moment. I will fill in the steps as i read further.

Another very interesting side issue that i am wondering about is what was the route that the former Arab traders took when they brought the spices to places like Venice. From places like Ambon, I am guessing that the spices went to Malacca. And then either onto places like Goa on the West Coast of India via chinese merchants in Junks. Then from South-west India, the spices may have been loaded onto Arab dhows and sailed up the red sea or up the persian gulf, and hence overland to Venice, and Europe. I am not sure about any of that but it would be a very rich research topic.

Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles

Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles was an english naturalist and administrator. He was born in Jamaica in 1781 and he joined the East India Company and rose to become Governor of Java. He afterwards served in Sumatra and founded the settlement of Singapore.

His first posting to south east asia was in Penang where he eventually rose to become the Governor. He was then sent to Melacca. After the British fought the Dutch in Java, Raffles was made the governor of Java and made his residence at Buitenzorg. He was a capable and efficient administrator. After Britain lost control of java, he went back to England and was knighted.

In 1818 Stamford Raffles became Governor of Bencoolen(Bengkulu) in Sumatra. He cleaned the place up and then went on to take over the settlement of Singapore.

A valuable collection of naturalists specimens which he was bringing back to england were lost in a fire on the ship. Raffles founded the Zoological Society of london and was its first president. He left this mortal coil in 1826.

Raffles was a very competent administrator and a sterling naturalist. His work has reverberated through the centuries and he is remembered well in england and south-east asia.