The Rules and Regulations for Composite Ships
In the archives of the Lloyd's Register Foundation is a stunning hand-illustrated portfolio of the Rules of Composite Ships. These were a set of rules regulating the construction of this new type of vessel born of the industrial revolution. Half iron and half timber, these 'Composite' ships transformed maritime capability whilst at the same time challenging existing knowledge of shipbuilding. The illustrated portfolio is the work of Harry Cornish, once Chief Ship Surveyor at Lloyd's Register, a marine classification society. To find out more Dr Sam Willis spoke with Max Wilson, archivist of the Lloyd's Register Foundation archives. They explore the Cornish drawings as well as the ship plans of several famous composite ships, including the most famous of them all - Cutty Sark.
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I'm surprised this channel is not popular.
I’ve never agreed with the much stated remark that the clipper ship was the zenith of sailing ships. While they were sleek, the sail plans required large crews, they lacked cargo capacity & therefore limited to high value cargo. The iron & later steel hulled ships, especially after 1870 were far superior in capacity and many could match the clippers in speed. Innovations such as the Jarvis Brace Winch allowed smaller crews to handle bigger sail plans. Ship designs like Prëussen, Potosi, Herzogin Cecilie showed that sail was still an efficient means of transport. There was still plenty of room for innovation. Where all sailing vessels fell short compared with steam ships was in port operations. Small hatches reduced access & speed of cargo ops. The low freeboard when loaded was partly to blame for the small hatches, since decks could be awash in foul weather. All steel hatch covers as we have now could have helped. The need by most of the square riggers to use solid ballast, such as sand or stone instead of water, also greatly extended the time in port. They could have easily had ballast tanks but owners were typically cheap (still are) & chose not to build them into the design. This was rather short sighted.