The Sweet Rose

The Sweet Rose (Rosie) is modelled on The Susan Constant, a merchant ship chartered to support the Virginia colonists in Jamestown.

Rosie is rated at 120 tons, being the capacity (number of wine tuns) it can store in its holds.

Keel length is 55 feet and length overall is 116 feet.

Rosie has three masts, fore, main and mizzen.

Illustration courtesy of Brian Lavery from his book “The Colonial Merchantman Susan Constant”

Topside of the ship is in three sections: Quarter deck, Main deck and Fo’c’sle (forecastle) deck.

The foot of the mainmast and foremast are set on their respective steps, blocks, on the keel.. The mizzenmast step is on the deck (floor) of the Steerage room.

Aft of the foremast, in the fo’c’sle and under the fo’c’sle deck, is the cook room. Under the cook room, the fore peak. Under the fore peak, store rooms.

Below the main deck is the Lower deck. For’ard of the Main mast, the main hatch on the main deck and its corresponding hatch, underneath, on the Lower deck. Aft of the Main mast, the aft hatch again on main and lower decks. These hatches give access to the Fore and Aft holds respectively.

Two very important mechanical devices:

The Capstan, on the main deck, for’ard of the Main mast, used for heavy lifting, such as the anchor.

The Pumps (two), adjacent, fore and aft, to the Main mast, on the lower deck, for removing water from the bilges.

Under the quarterdeck, the Great cabin, with an outboard gallery on three sides. Immediately for’ard of the Great cabin, the steerage room, with whipstaff and binnacle. The whipstaff is used to steer the ship and the binnacle stores the compass.

The whipstaff is a vertical bar that attaches to one end of the tiller. The tiller is a horizontal bar, the other end attached to the top of the rudder, which swings left or right to steer the boat. A quarter of the way up the whipstaff is a pivot point, called the rowle, which is attached to a fixed stand. The whipstaff is free to swing right or left through that pivot point. The steersman pushes the top of the whipstaff to the right, the whipstaff pivots and the lower end moves to the left, thus turning the tiller to the left, which in turn causes the rudder to turn to the right. Pushing the whipstaff to the left causes the rudder to be turned to the left. This mechanical contrivance allows the helmsman to turn the tiller much more easily than if he had to push and pull the tiller by hand. What was gained in ease of use was countered by the reduction in the amount the tiller could be swung to the left or right. With the degree of turn to either side reduced, it limited the amount the rudder could be turned, reducing manoeuvrability.

Under the Great Cabin and Steerage room is the Gun room, where the officers mess, and under the Gun room, the Bread room.

Rigging

Illustration courtesy of Brian Lavery from his book “The Colonial Merchantman Susan Constant”

Three masts, Fore, Main and Mizzen. Fore and Main in two sections, upper section named “Top”. Therefore, Fore Top, Main Top. Fore and Main have two sets of cross spars called “yards'”, Mizzen one such spar. Yards hold the sails. Named after the mast they hang from. Foresail, fore top sail and so on.

The masts are supported by fore and aft lines called stays and to the sides (or square) called shrouds.

A long spar at the bows pointing forward called the bowsprit. A cross spar on the bowsprit called the bowsprit yard, carries a sail called, logically, the (bow)Sprit sail.

Each mast, each yard and each sail has running rigging to support and/or control its use.

Sails

Main and Fore masts normally have two sails each. Both square sails – upper called “top” and lower called “course”. The Mizzen has a diagonal yard, from which a triangular or lateen sail is hung, called the Mizzen course. This is a fore and aft sail. A third sail can be added below the course on each mast, if additional canvas spread is needed, this is called a “bonnet”.

Illustration courtesy of Brian Lavery from his book “The Colonial Merchantman Susan Constant”

Sails are raised and lowered by lines called halyards and down hauls. The spars are controlled by lines called “braces” which turn the spar forward and back to align the sails with the wind and “lifts”, which keep the spars horizontal.

Illustration courtesy of Brian Lavery from his book “The Colonial Merchantman Susan Constant”

There are lines attached to the sails, called “sheets” and “tacks”. These alter the shape of the sail depending on the wind conditions and direction.

Sails need to be set to catch the wind. When the wind is dead astern, the sails are set square to the fore and aft axis of the ship. as the wind moves relative to the ship over the stern quarter, the sails must be “braced” round to remain perpendicular, if possible, to the wind. However, with the sails hard braced as far as they can go and tackline hauled, they can “catch the wind” only until the wind is no more than a point or two for’ard of a beam. (A point is a compass point or 11¼ degrees).

The Sweet Rose, therefore, cannot sail closer than about 6 points to the wind.