Page 66 - Nicolaes Witsen & Shipbuilding in the Dutch Golden Age

Chapter Two
4. The Wing Transom
At the upper extremity of the sternpost, athwart the lon- gitudinal direction of the ship, a heavy, somewhat curved beam was set: the wing transom. This beam was the up- per edge of the square tuck (on the fluyts, with their round stern, this feature was absent, as are the parts described in sections 5 to 9 below). On the aft face the wing transom was beveled in a profile and also had a rabbet into which the planks of the tuck were nailed.
The length of the wing transom bears on the final shape of the vessel and the amou nt of room in the stern. Here we run into another decisive phase for the shipwright. Ac- cording to Witsen, the length of the wing transom was two thirds of the w idth of the ship, but opinions concerning the length of this part varied during the c entury. Van Yk, writing twenty-five years after Witsen, reckoned it should be three four ths of the w idth. The wing transom of our pinas was 6 7.4 percent of the width, slightly more than two thirds of the width. Early in the century the rule was 50 percent.7
5. The Fashion pieces.
(56 II 37) The Fashion pieces make the width of the ship, and the tuck, aft.
. ..
(67 I 7) 2. The thickness is 5⁄6 parts of the thickness of the wing transom.
Figure 2.18. (left) Plate L (drawing E) Figure 2.19. (below) Plate XLI
(68 I 29) To be sure about the position of the fashion pieces, they are put with their back or outside one foot above half the sternpost.
. ..
(66 II 51) 8. 1. The fashion pieces are put half way the lengthofthesternpostattheback.WithF reighters these timbers come down lower than with Frigates.
. ..
(147 I 36) The lower end of the F ashion piece should follow the curve of the rabbet.
. ..
(73 II 35) The fashion pieces are fastened to the wing transom with a kind of tapered hal ving joint and are lapped onto the sternpost.
(147 II 11)
. ..
Of the Fashion piece at F [figs. 2.20 and 2.21].
(67 I 20)
curve.
. ..
10. The fashion pieces, must have a roundish
. ..
The fashion pieces are thick half the
. ..
When making a F ashion piece, rst make a try square, as from a and e to c and d, put the compass with one foot at e, and measure half the length of the Wing transom, as from e to b, draw the circle to c, and let a little wood or room inside the circle between f and g, and at h outside the arc of a circle the same yet a little more, the one to obtain the roundness, the other the hollow cur ve, from c to d at the lowwer end the breadth follows, as from a to b: and this is the pro- portion of the inner side of the F ashion piece. (But in general one has molds after w hich the fashion pieces are cut.) Then one la ys it with one end on the stern- post, with c and d, and with the end a and b at the end of the Wing Transom, and fastens the ends with a lap joint on the sternpost as also on the Wing Transom, as seen at G [fig. 2.22]. a Is the scarf of the Fashion piece on the wing transom.
Or: (68 I 4 1)
sternpost.
(67 I 7) 3. The breadth is 2 times the breadth of the wing transom.
48