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Age of Sail Replica Ships.


Sir Cloudsley-Shovell

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Replicas for tourists:

Black Pearl - based in Gdansk

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Galleon Lew 

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Galleon Dragon - based in Gdynia

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Here is interesting picture from shipyard during building of ship replica Marie Amelie - destination port somwhere in Caribbean:) wonder how fast she can sail:)

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And finally Galleon Neptune - used in famous Polanski movie form 1986 - Pirates - curently docked at Genua:

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Edited by Bart Smith
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About the Neptune galleon: Holy hell, an actual 3-decker. I didn't know there of those (original or replicas) around, except for HMS Victory. :o

 

 

Judging by the number of ports, I'm guessing she's probably a 74- to 80-gun ship?

Edited by Arvenski
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Shame about the new Bluenose, though. Designed by someone with the qualifications to build a parking garage and overseen by bureaucrats. Now she's just a dockside attraction.

 

"Now her namesake daughter remains to show what she has been. What every schoolboy remembers and will not come again. To think she is the last of the Grand Banks schooners who fed so many men."

 

It is a shame. Even a properly working replica is still just a replica. :(

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"Now her namesake daughter remains to show what she has been. What every schoolboy remembers and will not come again. To think she is the last of the Grand Banks schooners who fed so many men."

 

It is a shame. Even a properly working replica is still just a replica. :(

 

There's a few original Grand Banks schooners left, though their days are likely numbered.  L. A. Dunton is preserved at Mystic Seaport, and the knockabout Adventure just completed a large restoration a few years ago.  These wooden ships were never built to last a hundred years, and were replaced by much more efficient modern boats, so it's rather incredible that we have any extant examples of these working boats at all.  As for the Bluenose II, being a replica in the first place, I have no problem with them replacing as much wood as is needed to make her seaworthy again.  Not following the plans, as long as she has the same outward appearance and overall sailing qualities, is necessarily a bad idea.  For example, they modified plans extensively from Pride of Baltimore when they built the Pride of Baltimore II, in order to make her safer and perform her refined role better.  Most of the public couldn't tell the differences, besides the paint, but she's a much safer boat than her predecessor.  Now if this was the original Bluenose, I'd be a lot more hesitant about taking the buzz saw to her timbers...

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It's full scale but AFAIK doesn't sail.

 

There is a whole company in Russia that builds mostly on-functional replica ships.

She sails quite allright, using a diesel engine (as you can see on the first photo). They are planning to raise sails on her on big holidays.

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Wow, I had no notion of that Russian line of battle ship.  Her rigging needs some doing to be functional from what I can see but that really looks like the genuine article.  I am astonished, I did not know that there was any ship of the line replica afloat.  You could set her up for sea.  What a shame they don't rig her for sailing and use her.

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There is a foundation in England wanting to build a proper sailing replica of the Lenox, a 74.  Its a very early 74 (http://www.buildthelenox.org/), I would love to see something more along the lines of the Ajax or the Superb, by the 1770's the rigs on these ships were quite efficient for seafaring, with the topsails having up to 4 reef bands, and being the primary sails.  The ship's could keep the sea in basically any weather and be self sufficient for 6-8 months and longer.  The Kalmar is a good example of the earlier period with enormous non reefable topsails.  I am sure she is quite the performer in light to moderate airs but I would rather be on a beamy later period ship like Constitution or Trincomalee with 30 knots blowing, you can tuck those reef's in and ride it.  One of the problems with the earlier period sail plans was the reliance on the courses, after those enormous topsails came in you'd be riding out a gale on your courses, which was fine until the sea was higher than the courses and becalmed them, and then you would lose way and risk being pooped.  A good example of the later technology is shown in those pictures just posted of Hermione with her main and fore topsail close reefed, not sure whats going on with the mizzen but you get the idea. 

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There is a foundation in England wanting to build a proper sailing replica of the Lenox, a 74.  Its a very early 74 (http://www.buildthelenox.org/), I would love to see something more along the lines of the Ajax or the Superb, by the 1770's the rigs on these ships were quite efficient for seafaring, with the topsails having up to 4 reef bands, and being the primary sails.  The ship's could keep the sea in basically any weather and be self sufficient for 6-8 months and longer.  The Kalmar is a good example of the earlier period with enormous non reefable topsails.  I am sure she is quite the performer in light to moderate airs but I would rather be on a beamy later period ship like Constitution or Trincomalee with 30 knots blowing, you can tuck those reef's in and ride it.  One of the problems with the earlier period sail plans was the reliance on the courses, after those enormous topsails came in you'd be riding out a gale on your courses, which was fine until the sea was higher than the courses and becalmed them, and then you would lose way and risk being pooped.  A good example of the later technology is shown in those pictures just posted of Hermione with her main and fore topsail close reefed, not sure whats going on with the mizzen but you get the idea. 

Wow.

 

That's ambitious and a half.

 

The thought of a modern crew handling sails that large without the possibility to reef does give one pause, especially with that enormous top-heavy superstructure (plenty of freeboard though, I suppose). I know they sent Mayflower II across the Atlantic one way, but luckily they had Alan Villiers as captain, who told them that their arrival date be damned, he wasn't taking her against the westerlies.

 

I also don't see any mention of a potential Lenox actually sailing. Of course, these replicas almost always do end up sailing, even if built, funded and conceived as dockside attractions.

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I guess to me as a sailor I see it as an enormous waste, moreover a crime against sailing history to pour millions and millions of dollars into building these to just let them sit as museums.  The Gotheborg and a few others are doing the right thing, voyaging and sail training.  I pray the Hermione spends many years as a sail training vessel and I earnestly hope she doesn't turn into a dockside attraction.

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Well of course, Hermione was built to sail, with a mission that demands touring. That doesn't go for every replica, though. Pride of Baltimore was the case in point. An excellent reproduction of an extreme clipper, but the designer never imagined that she would be crossing oceans, and naturally didn't try to tackle the problem of making such a radical design any safer for modern ideas of acceptable risk.

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Even bigger shame when one takes into account the hundreds of immeasurably important original sailing vessels that are desperate for funding, either for maintaining their busy schedules or for restoration/rebuilds. Especially given the wonderful work so many do 'sail training' (bit of misnomer really, but the feedback and research both indicate an overwhelmingly positive influence of such trips on those that undertake them), and quite apart from their own worth as vessels, experimental archaeology/'living history' and so on . Sadly, however, there isn't the money, and fundraising for big shiny new projects is always easier that fundraising for maintenance of existing assets, regardless of their value or the value they provide.

 

EDIT: Spent so long tracking down the below that sailing training already got a shout in by the time I hit , apologies.

 

Hey ho, regardless:

 

Grayhound, a revenue/privateersman of 1776:

 

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Kerenza, a c.1750 Cornish smuggling lugger in build at the moment in Millbrook, Plymouth:

 

...okay, so can't post photos from Facebook, so check out her pretty stern here.

 

Alert, a 1835 Cornish smuggling lugger:

 

alert-t-customs-pontoon-sedisfjordur-ice

 

...and with the gear uo:

 

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Can't wait for luggers, smuggling and the Western Approaches to be in NA one day... :)

 

Baggy

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Even bigger shame when one takes into account the hundreds of immeasurably important original sailing vessels that are desperate for funding, either for maintaining their busy schedules or for restoration/rebuilds. Especially given the wonderful work so many do 'sail training' (bit of misnomer really, but the feedback and research both indicate an overwhelmingly positive influence of such trips on those that undertake them), and quite apart from their own worth as vessels, experimental archaeology/'living history' and so on . Sadly, however, there isn't the money, and fundraising for big shiny new projects is always easier that fundraising for maintenance of existing assets, regardless of their value or the value they provide.

Very true. I know that here on the Eastern seaboard of the US, almost all of our sail training and historical schooners are in dire straits. Amistad would be the worst loss, if she can't be put to some good use, and there have been a few other schooners kicking around Portland looking sad and neglected.

 

On the other hand, though, when it comes to traditional sail and skills preservation, you do have to keep building. These vessels were never meant to live long, and when we start viewing them as historical artifacts and cherished objects of our heritage, we forget that they are ultimately just disposable tools. Under historical conditions, they all would have provided very worthy service if they had been broken up after thirty odd years. Sooner or later, keeping some of the 19th century and early 20th century survivors operating will just be impossible. And heartbreaking though it may be, even the likes of Constitution and Victory must end up like Vasa someday.

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