discussion Rigging a ship of the 1700s

[Guest]

Hi all got a kindle voucher for 20 quid for Christmas what is the best book for a complete moron like me to rig ships with (I'm building the Soliel Royal)(well was its stalled on the rigging as has the Thermopylae) I need a book especially for s-i-m-p-l-e-t-o-n-s the kit instructions I can't get my head round. I've looked on amazon and they seem to range from 7 to 11 quid.

 

[Thorbrand]

I reckon you would be able to get one in French since it's a French ship. Are you looking for something with detailed drawings? or just images, because google images has thousands of pictures of finished models of the Soliel

 

[Bugatti Fan]

If you are building the Soleil Royale one of he best books available is R C Anderson's Masting and Rigging in the Days of the Spritsail Topmast. I believe that it was also published under the title 17th Century Rigging. There is another book by James Lees about masting and rigging that was published by Conway Maritime Press but cannot remember the title. Sea forth publishing have a book on full rigged ships of Nelson's era, and they also publish a rigging book on fore and aft rigging such as on schooners etc.
Regarding the Thermopylae, the rigging will be very similar to that of the Cutty Sark being a British ship of the same era. There is an exhaustive book on modelling the Cutty Sark by C Nepean Longridge that was published by MAP. He also wrote a lengthy tome about building the Victory entitled An Anatomy of Nelson's ships. His models are displayed in the Science Museum in London. Another author named Noel Hackney wrote three books about building and rigging three of the Airfix Classic Ships series., Cutty Sark, Victory and Mayflower that were published by Patrick Stephens. There is a really good set of plans by George Campbell that I believe are still available from the Cutty Sark Trust. I bought a set whilst visiting the ship many years ago and it is probably the best set of plans available of the Cutty Sark for any model maker. Thermopylae plans may be available from Brown Son and Ferguson in Glasgow.

 

[Guest]

Thanks very much for the info.
Oh and welcome to the forum.