Wooden Ship Building

Until the 1950’s much of the goods and produce moving to and from the south coast of NSW were transported by ship. Except for Jervis Bay and Twofold Bay shipping to the south coast was handicapped by a lack of safe harbours.  Shipping had to make do with small man-made harbours like Wollongong, Kiama and Ulladulla, river ports such as Batemans Bay Narooma and Moruya, all with dangerous sand bars at their entrances and make-shift harbours in the lee of any headland that gave shelter from dangerous southerly storms. One such makeshift harbour was Broulee Harbour in the lee of Broulee Island. Today Broulee is a sleepy tourist town on the NSW south coast between Batemans Bay and Moruya, approximately 260km (140NM) sea miles south of Sydney but it was not always so unimportant.

In the modern era, fast sailing ships were predominantly built and utilized for naval and dispatch purposes. The chaotic economic and political turbulence of the late 18th and early 19th century saw the first development of merchant vessels designed with speed as the primary factor, capacity second. Weatherliness and stability were also standard considerations, usually preceding speed in that an unstable or difficult to sail vessel would result in lost time, cargo, even life. Such were the extreme conditions at the end of the Enlightenment preceding Anglo-American industrialization that produced the first distinct American built class of vessel, the Baltimore Clipper. Descended from a variety of earlier fast sailing vessels, sloops, pilot boats, and galley ships, the Baltimore Clipper developed as a ground breaking ship type taking advantage of the schooner rig and earlier fast sloop hull designs.

Domenica 15 maggio 2022, ore 17.30 Parco di Villa Molaroni, Pesaro
Zrinka Podhraški Čizmek presenterà il volume Navigli adriatici fra le due sponde nel Settecento, Quaderno n. 24 della collana „Rerum maritimarum”
Apertura mostra "Tipologie navali dell’Adriatico nei secoli dell’età moderna" a cura di Maria Lucia De Nicolò, Luigi Divari, Zrinka Podhraški Čizmek
15.5.2022-28.8.2022


In questa edizione vengono presentati tutti i tipi ed elementi distintivi dei navigli menzionati nei primi tre volumi dei Regesti marittimi croati (RMC I-III) che comprendono circa 16.000 documenti riguardanti, tra l’altro, i velieri in uso nell’Adriatico durante il Settecento. Lo studio espone 18.536 menzioni di bastimenti classificati in 79 termini diversi messi a confronto rispetto l’etimologia e caratteristiche peculiari di ogni natante (quali stazza, attrezzatura velica, uso e quant’altro). L’analisi dimostra che i piccoli paroni preferivano velieri più piccoli, dalla portata fra le 20 e 300 t, essendo più veloci e manovrabili con buone capacità di navigazione. Si trattava innanzitutto del trabaccolo con il 14,55% di presenza nei documenti, poi della tartana (11,49%), del pielego (8,06%), della polacca (6,23%), della marciliana (6,18%), della feluca (5,10%), della barca (4,86%), della checcia (2,21%) e della brazzera (2,01%). I velieri minori, ovvero piccoli e medi, di portata inferiore alle 300 t, rappresentavano perfino il 70,82% di tutti i bastimenti nominati, mentre i velieri maggiori, di portata superiore alle 310 t, fra cui le grandi navi/nave ovvero vascelli (15,33%) ed i fregatoni (4,36%) avevano mantenuto il 20,65% del traffico marittimo, soprattutto verso le Isole Ionie ed altri porti mediterranei. Tramite l’analisi comparata delle loro caratteristiche e peculiarità è stato dimostrato che fra i porti delle coste orientali e occidentali dell’Adriatico nel Settecento vi era un intenso commercio quotidiano e che tale traffico era caratterizzato da un forte dinamismo del piccolo e medio ceto imprenditoriale che è riuscito ad imporsi sia nel commercio marittimo che nella costruzione navale che ha interessato ambo le coste adriatiche.


Predstavljanje knjige: Jadranski brodovi između dviju obala u osamnaestom stoljeću. Povijesno-ikonografski pregled

Ovaj povijesno-ikonografski pregled prikazuje sve vrste i glavne karakteristike brodova koji se spominju u prva tri sveska Hrvatskih pomorskih regesta. RMC I–III obuhvaćaju oko 16.000 dokumenata koji se, između ostaloga, odnose na jedrenjake koji su plovili Jadranom i Mediteranom u XVIII. stoljeću. Studija prikazuje 18.536 spomena plovila klasificiranih u 79 različitih naziva koji se uspoređuju s obzirom na njihovu etimologiju i razna obilježja poput nosivosti, jedrilja i namjene. Analiza pokazuje kako su vlasnici brodova radije koristili manje brodove (nosivosti do 300 tona), dobrih maritimnih svojstava, a čiji je brz utovar i istovar išao u prilog ubrzanu ritmu toga stoljeća. Brod koji se najčešće spominje jest trabakul sa svega 14,55% prisutnosti u dokumentima, zatim tartana (11,49%), pelig (8,06%), pulaka (6,23%), marsilijana (6,18%), filjuga (5,10%), barca (4,86%), keč (2,21%) i bracera (2,01%). Čak 70,82% sveukupno navedenih brodova odnosilo se na plovila srednje i manje nosivosti (do 300 t), dok se 20,65% sveukupnoga prometa, izvanjadranskog, mediteranskog (prema Jonskim otocima i dalje) te prema sjevernim morima, odnosio na brodove veće nosivosti (iznad 310 tona) među kojima su nave i vašeli (15,33%) te fregaduni (4,36%). Komparativnom analizom njihovih karakteristika i posebnosti pokazano je da je između luka istočne i zapadne obale Jadrana u osamnaestom stoljeću postojala intenzivna dnevna trgovina čija je glavna značajka bila nevjerojatna dinamičnost maloga i srednjeg poduzetništva koje se uspjelo etablirati kako u pomorskoj trgovini, tako i u brodogradnji, ostavivši golem utjecaj na obje jadranske obale.


Book launch: Adriatic ships between the two shores in the eighteenth century. A historical and iconographic review

This historical and iconographic review outlines all the types and main characteristics of the sailers mentioned in the first three volumes of the Croatian Maritime Regesta (RMC I-III). These three volumes include around 16,000 documents which, among other things, present the sailing ships used in the Adriatic during the eighteenth century. The analysis shows 18,536 mentions of ships classified under 79 different names (types), and compares them with respect to etymology and characteristics such as DWT, sailing equipment, purpose. The analysis demonstrates that small shipowners preferred lighter sailing ships with a DWT of up to 300 t, being faster and more maneuverable with good navigation skills. The dominant type of ship was trabaccolo, which accounts for 14.55% of mentions in the documents, followed by tartane (11.49%), pielego (8.06%), polacre (6.23%), marciliana (6.18%), felucca (5.10%), barca (4.86%), ketch (2.21%), and brazzera (2.01%). Small and medium ships with a DWT of up to 300 t account for 70.82% of all the mentioned sailers. Larger sailing ships, with a DWT over 310 t, including navas/vessels (15.33%) and frigatoons (4.36%), maintained 20.65% of maritime traffic, especially towards the Ionian Islands and other Mediterranean ports. The comparative analysis of their characteristics and peculiarities has indicated that intense daily trade was taking place between the ports of the Eastern and Western coasts of the Adriatic in the eighteenth century, and that this traffic was characterized by a strong dynamism of the small and middle entrepreneurial class which established themselves both in maritime trade and in shipbuilding, and thus left an enormous impact on both Adriatic coasts.

Timber selection for shipbuilding was influenced by many separate factors in the Byzantine Empire. Wood and timber were used as fuel and construction material and were integral to daily life and economy in antiquity. The supply of shipbuilding timber, however, required trees of specific qualities to be felled, and often means to transport them to the shipyards. Written sources such as legal documents, historians’ and geographers’ accounts, monastic foundational documents (typika), and hagiographies, and the material evidence of archaeological wood and pollen data, provide evidence of Byzantine timber exploitation. In recent years, the available evidence of shipwrecks in the Eastern Mediterranean has increased, which provides a new perspective for understanding the Byzantine timber procurement and use. In this thesis, I examine the written and material evidence regarding timber supply for Byzantine shipbuilding from the 4th to 11th century in the Eastern Mediterranean. I give an overview of timber in the written sources and evaluate how much it reveals about the patterns of timber movement in the Byzantine Empire. Furthermore, I discuss the role of shipbuilding timber in politics and naval conflicts in the Eastern Mediterranean. Finally, I evaluate how archaeological material and the shipwrecks contribute to this broader picture, analyzing 45 shipwrecks dating to 4th–11th centuries, recovered from the Eastern Mediterranean. This thesis proposes that the supply of timber for shipbuilding depends on a variety of factors including the environment, the socio-political and economic conditions, as well as the types of timber necessary for the ship to be built.

Present-day East African sailing ships can be classified as ‘dhows’, for they carry the typical West Indian Ocean lateen sail. Several wooden types are made on the Swahili coast and nearby islands, although their numbers are diminishing and old techniques are replaced by modern ones as tourism and steel shipbuilding have a large impact on local shipbuilding
economies. Ethnographic fieldwork and historical research conducted in 2003 on the island of Zanzibar in the Western Indian Ocean, has revealed some of the traditions around East African shipbuilding practices.

Tantura F is the first wreck excavated so far in the eastern Mediterranean dated to the beginning of the 8th century AD (the local early Islamic period), based on 14 C and pottery analysis. Among the finds were the remains of about 30 ceramic vessels, two anchors, food remnants, fish-bones, a needle, a spoon and a glass vessel. Tantura F was c .15 m long and 5 m wide, and hull remains comprise keel, frames, planks, stringers, mast-step, and other internal components. Construction features clearly indicate frame-based construction, considerably earlier than it is generally thought to have been first employed.

This article shows the research work done on the cognitive modeling of 1D conductive heat transfer in a monolayer plane wall. The unsteady regime reigns in general formulation in the solid region of the wall. Physical modeling is based on the unidirectional thermal conduction equation with convective conditions at the outer surfaces. The relative analytical study resulted in a result serving as a basis for the neural network we used. For the function approximation, two large families of neural networks are potentially exploitable such as the GRBF (Gaussian Radial Basis Functions or Gaussian Radial Functions Base) network and the PMC (Perceptron Multi-Layer). In our research, we used the multilayer perceptron to model the thermal conduction through a wooden wall. Since performance is an indicator that allows us to choose the model that best represents the physical phenomenon that we are simulating, we presented the variations in the performance of each model as a function of the number of neurons and the number of learning loops. In the training phase, we instructed our model of input and output data to which it must converge. The results show that this cognitive modeling offers several possibilities in its field of application according to some adjustable parameters such as the number of neurons and the learning loop.

The traditional ship launching of wooden ship in Bulukumba is difficult for vessel capacity 350 GT, due to the angle of the launch pad ± 2.08 ° with a length of 40 meters and the rest ± 200 meters flat with a relatively shallow depth. Launching ship requires human power to reach 50 people and takes 4 weeks. It is necessary for the application of technology, as one of the alternatives that can be use the launching of ship with airbags system. Launching using airbags can be used with the consideration of ship pressure smaller than the airbags permit pressure, so it is necessary to design the appropriate launch equipment. This research aims to design the launch equipment of wooden ship 350 GT using airbags. By knowing the ships loading then be determine the pressure and the stress received by the launch equipment. Has acquired model of launching equipment with width 3 m and the side stay size 10 x 8 cm and the beams bending is 5 times size 20 x 8 cm using material iron wood. The result of the analysis using ANSYS obtained the normal stress on the launching equipment is 86,26 Kg/cm2, it's smaller than the permit stress of class I wood that is 150 Kg/cm2, so the structure and construction of the launching equipment is safe to use.

Between 1750 and 1825, shipbuilders in modern Catalonia form a numerically important and strategically essential collective for the expansion of maritime trade.

Although the "natural" scope of work is mainland and the production system retains a strong medieval imprint, there are spaces where these regulations are adapted to more flexible circumstances and can contemplate similar paths to other groups whose evolution is marked by the rhythm of the proletarianization processes that experience, as is the case of personnel on board.

This work attempts to study how these two work formulas live together, how they impact on the activity and what is the place of embarked shipbuilders in the structure and organization of crews. Similarly, it attempts to assess whether this work represented a complementary activity whose remuneration was necessary for subsistence.

Finally, the evolution of this group is examined in comparison with other crew members, to establish if they share a common path or the specific nature of their office, determined divergent developments.

This PowerPoint Presentation was prepared for Kotaro Yamafune's public presentation at his doctoral dissertation defense (December 17th, 2015).

He is currently preparing series of articles based on this doctoral research.

If you are interested in reading his unpublished manuscript of this dissertation, please feel free to contact,

[email protected]

There are thirteen pelagic whalers wrecked along the Western Australian coast. Out of these five have been located and identified and only two have had extensive archaeological research conducted on them. Overall, nine of these whalers were American. During the early nineteenth century Western Australian colonies were isolated, small and struggling, they could not afford to construct specialised whaling equipment or import it from Europe or America to establish their own shore-based whaling enterprises. Whilst visiting foreign pelagic whalers created conflict with the colonies over whaling rights they also provided cheap equipment and experienced men towards the early shore-based whaling industries set up by the colonists.
The study of pelagic wrecks can reveals information about numerous aspects of the whaling trade including economics, culture and technology. However, with only five out of thirteen wrecks located in Western Australia, it is essential to identify the other nine before more in depth research can begin. Research is currently underway in creating a construction typology of early nineteenth century American whalers in order to apply it to wrecks located in the future and aid in identification. Whilst this approach may seem narrow minded and lacking in a broader theory of study it is an essential basis for further study. In order to study all aspects of the pelagic whaling industry in Western Australia, the basics must first be understood.