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Collier brig 1809 - 1875


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A very simple little ship, scratchbuilt to a scale of 25 feet to 1 inch.    Just under 4 inches long on the waterline.   It took 25 hours to build, spread over 13 days.   Masts, spars and rigging 100% metal.    She was  a Geordie collier that spent 66 years humping coal from the northeast coaling ports of Great Britain, down to London, but did the occasional trip to Baltic ports.      Not a very popular type of model.    The ports did not conceal guns, they were just painted on, initially to make enemy ships think they were Royal Navy brigs-of-war.   After the war ended, most collier brigs kept their painted ports just as decoration, as did many of the big iron and steel windjammers, right up to the end of the days of sail in the early years of the 20th century.        These are, for some strange reason, often referred to as "working ships," but in truth ALL merchant ships were "working ships!"

Bob

Sicily_port_bow.jpg

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ShipbilderMN, the ships you build are always lovely to look at. 

 

Got to go back through your posts now to see if you have ever done a WIP, if not, why not, would be really interesting. 

 

Once again, great work.

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Excellent work again Bob, and I love reading about their history when you put these models online. 

 

I must get back to my Knight Templar build again...

 

Keep them coming please,

 

Ray

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Thanks,

But it doesn't require much patience at all, because I am very much lacking in it.    As I said, building the whole thing only took 25 hours and the masting and rigging was only a small portion of that time!:smile:      I was in the coal trade myself years ago (1962/63) sailing out of Tyne Dock in the colliers Wandsworth and Frederick T. Everard.      Something like this takes about a week to rig, and is quite repetitive, but it still doesn't need any great amount of patience.

Bob

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Thanks,

Here is a picture of me when I was a "collier lad," aboard the South East Gas collier Wandsworth, 56 years ago.   I am on the left of the photograph.   Like an image from a bygone age, (I suppose it was).   

Bob

Collier_Wandsworth_1962.jpg

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19 hours ago, ShipbuilderMN said:

Thanks,

Here is a picture of me when I was a "collier lad," aboard the South East Gas collier Wandsworth, 56 years ago.   I am on the left of the photograph.   Like an image from a bygone age, (I suppose it was).   

Bob

Collier_Wandsworth_1962.jpg

You look happy!

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Yes, I was - very! :lol:    We were anchored off Southend Pier in pack ice.   Shortly after, we hove in the anchor and scrunched through it up the Thames to Wandsworth gassworks, where I paid off, and went home, and that was the end of my collier days (thank goodness).       My next ship was a 10,000 ton iron ore carrier called Sagamore, (Furness Withy) that was more to my liking!    Here is a link to a famous Wandsworth painting - It looked better than it was!  http://collection.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects/co526272/painting-south-eastern-gas-board-collier-wandsworth-oil-painting

Bob

 

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They were called "flatirons" designed to be able to get under the London bridges!        It was the only twin-funelled ship I sailed in, but they were only dustbin sized and half the height of a dustbin.    They stood next to each other, and were not even visible from the outside!:lol:     We had two telescopic masts that disappeared into holes in  the deck, and the same with the radar scanner.    1,792 gross tons, and could get as far up river as Wandsworth.      She has been at the bottom of the sea for almost 50 years now, being sunk in collision with the liberty ship Rio Tajo off Lisbon in 1969, after being sold foreign, and sailing under the name Pietro Rembado!     The other three in the photograph are left to right, 3rd engineer, chief engineer and 2nd engineer.

Bob

 

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3 hours ago, ShipbuilderMN said:

Have you modeled that one? It would make an interesting change and no rigging!

Bob

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