Questions for storage of boats, depth marking and tritons

Hej Alexander!

Quick answers:

1. No evidence that the boats were ever stored on deck. The longboat (esping in Swedish) will actually just fit between the foremast and mainmast, but then the jeer capstan cannot be used and it is not possible to cross over the deck in the waist. Historical evidence suggests that boats only began to be carried on deck in warships in the late 1620s in England, from where the practice spread. The longboat was being towed alongside rather than astern when the ship sank. Another boat of similar type but smaller may have been towed astern.

2. Draft markings are found on the port side of the stem and the starboard side of the sternpost. The markings are at ½ foot intervals, using a variation of Roman numerals, with a dot instead of I, the V lying on its left side and the X turned through 45 degrees to appear as +. 4 is represented as 4 dots. 14 appears as ....+, etc. Half-foot markings are a single dot. The average interval between feet is close to the official Swedish foot of 297 mm. So at the stern, things look like this:

.>+
.
>+
.
....+
.
...+
.
..+
.
.+
.
+
....>
.
...>
.
..>
.
.>
.
>

3. There were sculptural ornaments on the turret roofs of the quarter galleries, but we have only a couple of them preserved and they are not mounted on the ship. The 1:10 model represents what we believe to be the full ornament, so the roof ridge decorations are applied there.

Cheers,
Fred