Ship Modelling

Data

It was the first ship - and for a long time the only one - carrying royal sails on the 4th yard of fore and main mast. All other ships had only two or three yards on a mast.

NOTE: this lent to reconstruction of fine miniature models as the first "tall ship of the world", but in real use, the ship sailed only with 2 yards (courses and topsails) like any other ship of her time. See evidences below.

1637 built by Peter Pett, by the order of Charles I. He wanted to have the greatest ship ever built in the world. Name: "Sovereign of the Seas"

1637-1651 14 years demurraged, because the ship was too expensive to be lost in a battle. Instead, it was used as a representation of the Royal power in Chatham. She was also called the "Eighth Wonder of the World". Her overboarding baroque decorations was a challenge for other kingdoms, the French built La Couronne, the Dutch the De Zeven Provincien, the Swedish built the Wasa, the Denish the Fredrik / Elefanten, and so on.

During that period, the "Royal client" of this ship was beheaded by his fellow countrymen, in the Revolution of 1649. But also Oliver Cromwell, who led the short living republic, had no plans with the ship.

1651 Great Repair: Removal of the "Topgallant Poop" and the Bonaventure mast.

There is no timber that could withstand the salty seawater for such a long time. So the Great Repair was in fact a complete re-building.

1652 First War with the Netherlands. Battle of Kentish Knock; she hit ground, but was made afloat again.

1659 Repair: new figure head

1660 Renamed "Royal Sovereign", by Charles II., while the Royal reign has been reestablished.

1665-67 Second War with the Netherlands. She served as a "Ship of the Line" for the first time. Battle at St.James Day.

1672-74 Third War with the Netherlands. Again he served as a "Ship of the Line". By the Dutch she became nicknamed as "Golden Devil". Battles at Solebay 1672, Schooneveld 1673.

1684 "Great Repair": the keel was made longer and the hull wider. New Lion figure instead of a rider. The gallion was reshaped, less long but more rolling (as shown in the drawings by van de Velde). The long side galleries were rebuilt in a "modern" fashion, as can be seen on the HMS Prince (1670), which was the successor of the "Royal Sovereign".

1692 Battle of Barfleur against France, where she "met" also with the magnificant French ship "Soleil Royal" for a small quarrel...

1696 Preperation for another Great Repair. But then, she was totally destroyed by a fire. They say it was a forgotten candle in the galley...

1701 A new "Royal Sovereign" was built by Fisher Harding. Later in the Royal Navy, many ships were given this name...

The incredibly rich ornaments of royal sailing men of war was a common pattern of the 17th century, expressing the power and wealth of the kings of Britain, France and other countries. This kind of luxory is utterly strange for us today...it is prooved that genuine gold leafs had been used!

The Culver Model

The shipyard model of 1634, that is said to be built by Peter Pett himself is lost long ago.

The modern "reference model" is the model by Henry Culver and Paul Chalfin (built 1918-1920), that is shown today at the US Naval Museum in Annapolis, Maryland, USA.

Depictions and Paintings

The engraving of John Payne (after 1651) [National Maritime Museum, Greenwich] is the "official" portrait of the ship:



Three other paintings exist, but they are quite exact copies of this engraving...

Furthermore, there are some drawings by the Dutch artists van de Velde (made between 1660 and 1701; father and son both had the same name Willem van de Velde) are the only known exact sources (for the hull´s details!), that show the Royal Sovereign after the Great Repair of 1651. The hull and the rigging can be reconstructed almost perfectly using this information, as many modellers already did. Only a few details, hidden in the perspectives by sails remain unclear, for instance all details on the decks.

Contemporary Literature

There is indeed one book of the era, "A True Description of His Majesties Royall Ship, Built this Yeare 1637" [National Maritime Museum, Greenwich], covering this ship as the only theme of the work.



Obviously, this is a VERY inaccurate illustration, but typical for this era. The major part of the text is a "gushing" of the kings glory and his ship, typical for this time, but useless for a modeller, it lacks any "technical" details. (read the original text at www.bruzelius.info)

Modern Literature

Meanwhile, many marine historians and model makers have written many books and articles about this ship.

And there is a German book, that covers all the decorations and historic sources in detail: "Sovereign of the Seas" by Hendrik Busmann, Convent Verlag (publisher), 300 pages. The price unfortunately is just as grandiose as the ship itself...

The Royal Sovereign is shown with 3, not 4 masts, so after her Great Repair of 1651. We cannot see the inner details behind the bulwarks. The other depictions also hide those details the same way, showing the same angle of perspective. But we can see that the main deck and the mizzen deck is entirely couvered by huge gratings. The two poop decks aft are open...

Masts and spars:

1. Fore and main mast consists of undermast, topmast, topgallant mast and royal mast, topped by a flaggstaff.
2. The mizzen mast consists of undermast, topmast and topgallant mast, topped by a flaggstaff.
3. NOTE: all upper mast parts, foremost flaggstaff, royal masts, and topgallant masts are not as fixed as we might think. These mast parts and the relating yards are taken down due to weather conditions, because even with sails furled, the masts "work" so much in heavy seas that they are in danger to break down by accident...so it is most likely that the high royal rigging was in place for harbour parades only, but in naval service, as usual, "only" courses and topsails, and maybe topgallants were used - and that is precisely what we see this on some paintings. Yet, the ship remained to be "The Golden Devil"...
4. Each mast part was attached to its lower supporting mast part by a mast cap. The mast stability over a cascade of mast caps is not very strong, so that the upper parts (topgallant and royal) are "bowing in their gears", hold only by the shrouds and backstays.

Standing Rigging (Stays) of Bowsprit and Spritmast:

1. The Fore Stay ends at two thirds of the very long bowsprit (which has no bobstay and no guys, obviously it was heavy enough) with a typical heart lanyard. At this position we also find the sling of the spritsail yard.
2. The Fore Topstay ends abaft the spritmast top using a cascade of whips.
3. The Fore Topgallant Stay ends in a complicated "crowfoot" at the spritmast or at its shrouds - it is not clear. The Stay devides into three lines, from each are 8 lines(!) going to the spritmast. Then we have end points at the spritmast. We can only speculate if they were all tied to the shrouds and/or to the spritmast also...
4. The Fore Royal Stay ends at the spritmast top using cascaded whips.
5. The spritmast has another very complicated crowfooted backstay, ending at the Fore Stay. From the spritmast, 4 lines devide into 8, and each of that point spreads into 8(!!) crowfeet. That is 64 end points at the Fore Stay!
6. At the gallion we can see 5 shrouds going up to the bowsprit from the cutwater. They are ratlined and have tiny lanyards, although they were not necessary for climbing up the bowsprit, there was a manrope for this.

Sails and Running Rigging of Bowsprit and Spritmast:

1. The Spritsail has 2 braces, 2 counterbraces, 2 clewlines, 2 sheets and 4 buntlines.
2. The Sprit Topsail is taken in. We can only see 2 braces and 2 sheets. It is very likely that it had a halyard, 2 clewlines and 2 buntlines, but it is speculation.
3. The Running Rigging of the spritsails do NOT lead to the for castle as on later ships, but seems to have been belayed at the gallion rails. The exception are the spritsail sheets, which lead to the main deck far behind.
4. The Bowlines of the Fore Sails lead to the stays in front of the sails and are obviously belayed at the gallion rails, too.
5. There is a Man Rope over the whole bowsprit for the seamen climbing up.

Standing Rigging of the Fore Mast (symmetric for port and starbord):

1. 11 fully ratlined Shrouds go up the the Fore masttop. There is no indication for gaps for the guns between. At the mast tops we see futtock shrouds, too. But the set Fore Sail hides most details in the engraving.
2. The number of Top- and Topgallant Shrouds is not seen, as they are hidden by the sails. We can speculate about 4 to 6 shrouds...
3. We see 4 Royal Shrouds (which could be a depiction error, as most of the uppest shrouds had only 2 lines each side, and they were not ratlined.)
4. A number of ropes (6-8) go abaft the mast to the end corners of the fore castle. We can assume those to be the Backstays needed for masts of high altitude. Details are hidden by the sails. "Elastic" halyards cannot be seen.

Sails and Running Rigging at the Fore Mast:

1. The Fore mast carries 4 square sails: Fore Course, Fore Topsail, Fore Topgallant Sail, Fore Royal Sail.
2. We can assume their halyards going down the same way as the backstays, to the rails.
3. All yards have single topping lifts, even the Fore yard. What might look like a second lift is the martnet tackle.
4. The Braces of the Fore Course and Topsail lead to a block pair at the main stays and then down, behind the forecastle.
5. But the Braces of the Topgallant and Royal Sail lead to a block pair at the main stays and then down to the Fore mast bitts (which we cannot see).
6. The Clewlines are invisible at all sails in the stitch.
7. The Sheets are only seen at the Fore course. They lead through the sides to the main deck just before the Main shrouds.
8. The Fore tacks go through a hole under the cutwater to the other side of the ship and then up again to the Forecastle..
9. The furling of topsails: the royalsails of the engraving as well as the main topsail in Sir Peter Lely´s painting (view from astern) show an important detail: the sheets are eased up to the yard. The canvas is then but bound around the mast! And the clews go up again(!) to the yard!
   

   The picture is very accurate and shows NO footropes at the yard arms - there were none. And that was the reason for this kind of furling.

   Only with the invention of footropes, the furling was altered, and all canvas was then bound to the yard, making a "bag" on the yard center.

10. The Fore Course has 6 Buntlines and 4 Martnets, all on the front side of the sail. The tackling and belayings of these 10 lines are invisible. The shroud clamps, which are shown at the Culver Model of 1920 cannot be identified in the engraving!
11. The Martnets were hauled up using sister blocks to the Fore top (that is why they were wrongly be idenfified as the second topping lifts).
12. The Fore Topsail and Fore Topgallant Sail have 2 Buntlines on their backside(!) und 2 Leechlines on the frontside. The belaying is not visible.
13. It is unknown if the Fore royalsail had buntlines, the sail is furled.
14. The Bowlines of the Main mastsail lead forward to sister blocks at the Main Stays and then down to the Fore mast bitts.

Standing Rigging at the Main mast:

1. All 5 Stays of the Main mast go down to the next lower mast top of the Fore mast, without crowfeet. There is also a stay from the Main flagg top to the Fore Royal top.
2. 12 fully ratlined shrouds go up to the Main masttop. There is no indication for gaps for the guns between. At the mast tops we see futtock shrouds, too. The Main sail is not set and gives insight to the details behind.
3. The number of the Top- and Topgallant shrouds is not clear, hidden by the sails. We can speculate about 4 to 6 shrouds...
4. We see 4 Royal Shrouds (which could be a depiction error, as most of the uppest shrouds had only 2 lines each side, and they were not ratlined.)
5. A number of ropes (6-8) go abaft the mast to the end corners of the first quarter deck. We can assume those to be the Backstays needed for masts of high altitude. Details are hidden by the sails. "Elastic" halyards cannot be seen.

Sails and Running Rigging am Main mast:

1. The Main mast carries 4 square sails: Main Course, Main Topsail, Main Topgallant Sail, Main Royal Sail.
2. We can assume their halyards going down the same way as the backstays, to the rails.
3. All yards have single topping lifts
4. The Braces of the Main Course go far behind to the poop deck.
5. The Braces of the Main Topsail go to the first Shroud of the Mizzen mast, and back again to the last Shroud of the Main mast, to be belayed there on the rails.
6. The Braces of the Main Topgallant Sail and Main Royalsail go abaft to the next lower mizzen masttop. But we cannot see how they lead down from there.
7. The Clewlines are not visible, hidden by the sails.
8. The Sheets are visible only at the Main Course. The Main Sheets go through the rails on the second quarter deck, behind the Mizzen shrouds(!).
9. The Main tacks go through the main rail, between the 2. and 3. gun port.
10. The furled Royalsail shows the sheet eased up to the yard. The Binding of the Royalsail is remarkable: the canvas is not bound fully upon the yards as today, but bound to the mast, too. And the clews go up again(!) to the yard!
    
11. The Main Course has 6 Buntlines and 4 Martnets, all on the front side of the sail. The tackling and belayings of these 10 lines are invisible. The shroud clamps, which are shown at the Culver Model of 1920 cannot be identified in the engraving!
12. The Main Course Martnets were hauled up by a sister block to the Main Topgallant masttop (which is different from the Fore mast rigging).
13. The Main Topsail and Main Topgallant Sail have 2 Buntlines on their backside(!) and 2 Leechlines on the frontside. The belaying is not visible.
14. It is unknown if the Main Royalsail had buntlines, the sail is furled.
15. The Bowlines of the Mizzen mastsails lead forward to sister blocks at the Main shrouds and then onto the deck.

Standing Rigging am Mizzen mast:

1. The Mizzen Stay ends at the Main Mast foot using a heart with a lanyard.
2. The Mizzen Top stay is a very complicated cascade of crowfeet: 2 by 2 lines start from the Mizzen Topgallanttop, and double three times(!) until they reach the Main Mast shrouds, having 2 by 16 ending points.
3. The Mizzen Topgallant stay is also a complicated crowfoot: 2 by 2 lines start from the Mizzen Topgallant top, and double two times until they reach the Main Topmast shrouds, having 2 by 8 ending points.
4. The Mizzen flag pole ends without crowfoot just under the Main Topgallant masttop.
5. 6 fully ratlined Shrouds go up to the Mizzen masttop. At the mast tops we see futtock shrouds, too. The Mizzen sail is not set, it is useless under following wind conditions shown in the engraving.
6. The number of the Top- and Topgallantshrouds is not clear, hidden by the sails. We can speculate about 3 to 5 shrouds...
7. A number of ropes (4-6) go abaft the mast to the end corners of the second quarter deck. We can assume those to be the Backstays needed for masts of high altitude. Details are hidden by the sails. "Elastic" halyards cannot be seen.

Sails and Running Rigging am Mizzen mast:

1. The Mizzen mast carries 2 square sails (Mizzen Topsail, Mizzen Topgallant Sail) and the lateen Mizzen sail ("Spanker").
2. We can assume the halyards having a parallel lead to the backstays, but it is not clear.
3. All yards have single topping lifts
4. The Latin Mizzen yard has two crowfeet, going up to the Mizzen mast. Another pair of lines could have been the "Spanker Vangs".
5. The Braces of the Crossjack Yard (which has no sail) go ahead to the Main Shrouds and onto the deck.
6. The Braces of the Mizzen Topsail and Mizzen Topgallant Sail go abaft onto the Latin Mizzen Yard(!) and from there to the rails of the poop deck.
7. The Clewlines are hidden by the sails.
8. The Sheets cannot be identified, but be assumed.
9. The furled Topgallant sail shows the sheet eased up to the yard. The Binding of this sail is remarkable: the canvas is not bound fully upon the yards as today, but bound to the mast, too. And the clews go up again(!) to the yard!
   
10. The Mizzen Topsail has 2 Buntlines on its backside(!) and 2 Leechlines on its fronside. The belaying is not visible.
11. It is unknown if the Mizzen Topgallant Sail had buntlines, the sail is furled.

1. There were higher quarter decks (poop decks) and two Mizzen masts, die latter called "Bonaventure Mast". So the ship once had even 4 masts.
2. The Rigging of the two Mizzens were the same with lateen sails, and no square topsails. No more details are known.
3. Even if the Royal Sovereign had 4 yards at Fore and Main mast is unclear. We know about two contemporary paintings showing only two yards per mast! Another painting shows only three. The tiny Royalsails were most probably only for very fine weather conditions, and only used for Royal parades...

Ahead of the Poop Lantern waves the Royal Ensign at a big flag pole behind the Mizzen sail.

There seem not to have been footropes for the yards. Instead, it is likely that the sheet rigging had been used for this purpose - very dangerous for the seamen there aloft!

The engraving of Payne is very realistic: it shows the flaggs and pennants waving ahead, correctly in the follwing wind. So many other "unabled" artists made mistakes on other works...

These paintings are:

1. "Council of War onboard the Royal Sovereign, before the Battle of Schooneveld" by Jacob Knijff 1673 [private ownership].

   

   The ship´s upper works are hidden by a Royal yacht. We see no topgallant or royal sails.

   NOTE: when I had the luck to sail with the Swedish replica of the Götheborg, I could observe that the entire topgallant/royal rigging (including the flagg staffs of course) is removed at sea, in order to limit the risk of damaging the high masts in hard weathers. It is very likely that her famous topgallants and royals were only set when necessary, in a very light calm, or, more probable, for a royal parade.

2. "Portrait of the Shipbuilder Peter Pett", oil painting by Sir Peter Lely ca. 1645/49 [National Maritime Museum, Greenwich]

   

   This picture shows the stern in its best magnificence, and the furled sails in that perspective, most details are hidden by the masts. The Topsail yards are veered, the lower yards not. No Topgallant nor Royal Sails are in place. They were obviously taken down.

The graphic title page of the contemporary "True description" shows so many differences to the other depictions that even if this picture might have some historic value, the Royal Sovereign is very hard to recognize on it! At least we can see the Bonaventure mast...

Topgallant sails were rare that time and they were only used in light winds. The tiny Royal sails had even less effect for the propulsion of the ship. They were invented as an eye-catcher for the people, who should admire the British Navy. Four yards at one mast ... wow!

We do not know if the Royal sails ever had been used. At least, their name comes from this Ship, and another 100 years were to pass by until Royal sails were rigged again, on even bigger ships than the Royal Sovereign.

Almost all magnificent models of the Royal Sovereign show her with 4 yards, for the same sake of making people say Wow! as 300 years ago. In reality, the usage of so many sails was unfamiliar to the seamen and so rather difficult. Maybe because of that reason, in 1637-51 the ship never left the port (except of parades, we do not know)! The reduction of the rigging may have been due to the catastrophic news about the Swedish Wasa sinking in 1628: with "too many sails set" (which was not the case actually), the Wasa was litterally "blown away" and capsized - and the open gun ports made her sinking fast. So, a too lofty rigging can be dangerous if You cannot handle it properly...

My Personal Reconstruction

But of course, it is just a sophisticated guess - and my third version already :)

Actually, there are many possible arrangements that I did not give an exact position here, but only some areas of "probability". The topsail sheets, course sheets and tacks are the only lines being most "certain". All the rest is speculation. The inclined modeller may find his/her own special solution ...

The Airfix model kit, Scale 1:168?

No, mine is not finished ... the rigging is missing, I spent much time on research. So far I have only made the hull:

This is how even most of the professional, contemporary models actually looked like. Sails were regarded "low priority" in comparison to the much more complex hull and its fittings. After all, any ships´ rigg would look pretty much the same over centuries, through all ranks. Ah, so, adding another yard, the "royals" ... so what? That was easy, and the royals were very rarely used for anything but impressing an landlubber by His Majestys´ Ship.

BTW, it is reported that the "Sovereign of the Seas", later named "Royal Sovereign", has NOT been the first ship carrying "royals" ... they were just too few records about those riggings to be noticed...