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Capn Frank

[Cor-FB] CNS Swift

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The Corrington Naval Ship Swift

I made this vessel for the Corrington Intro thread.

DSC08281.JPG

Guns: 6 6-pounders

Crew: 13 total crew, 6 able seamen, 4 marines, 2 officers, captain

The Corrington shipwrights have designed a new type of vessel to handle escorts and patrols, the CNS Swift. This cutter is able to out maneuver and outrun any vessel it chooses. Only a couple able seamen are needed to run the sails with its smart rigging. This allows more crew to fight and for the cutter to maintain its maneuverability while in action. The streamlined hull means that there is little room for cargo, especially after provisions and munitions are considered.

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okDSC07917.jpg

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Nice ship for its size! Cannons are nice, sails and rigging are nice and the stern is also very attractive. But why does it have to belong to Corries?!?

Edited by blackdeathgr

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Nicely done, and such an appropriate name for a cutter! I especially like the sails (and sail plan) and rigging. I also like the use of the red fence piece in the railing on the quarterdeck. And you've got a lot of detail items (anchor winch, tiller bar) that really add to the overall effect. I'd love to see it with a tiled deck.

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a very nice ship but don't you think she's a tad to big for a cutter? I'd call her a sloop ...

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Thank you for the comments so far. :pir-classic:

But why does it have to belong to Corries?!?

Because it's red, and the Corries needed a ship for their intro topic. :pir-grin:

I'd love to see it with a tiled deck.

Me too. The ship took me three weeks to complete, and half that time was spent on getting the railing around the entire ship to look right. :pir-grin:

a very nice ship but don't you think she's a tad to big for a cutter? I'd call her a sloop ...

The line between cutter and sloop is pretty fuzzy. I may be mistaken, but I believe the primary difference is the number of jibs. Sloops have one, and cutters typically have two or three.

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Phred, you're correct on the distinction between a sloop and a cutter. You have the sail plan exactly right. Lose the square sail and the extra jibs and she's a sloop. Or add the extra jibs to a sloop and you have a cutter.

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Phred, you're correct on the distinction between a sloop and a cutter. You have the sail plan exactly right. Lose the square sail and the extra jibs and she's a sloop. Or add the extra jibs to a sloop and you have a cutter.

Weeeell... I'll chime in too. :)

As far as I can tell from a bit of research, the distinction between a cutter and a sloop in terms of sailplan is indeed the reliance on headsails. Where the cutter has its mast further back, and thus carry more sail before the mast, a sloop would typically have the mast further forward, and put more reliance on the mainsail.

However, in the age of sail, "cutter" would typically denote a type of vessel, (with a specific construction and sailplan) while "sloop" is more a class of ships, basically anything under frigate size.(I.e. Outside the rating system.)

So, a cutter could be a sloop, a brig could be a sloop, and a ship (with three square-rigged masts) could be a sloop, as long as they were not large enough to be considered frigates. I think that is part of the reason for the fuzziness - one word describes a type of vessel, while the other often described a class.

At least, that is how it worked in the British navy.

That is a lot of talk just to basically agree! :P

But my point really is, that classifying something as a sloop does not necessarily say anything about its rigging.

Similarly, a frigate can be a full-rigged ship, but could also be xebec-rigged. (I don't know if any examples of schooner-rigged frigates, but I suppose that might be an option too).

And by the way, I love the look of this sloop. Looks very menacing with this sleek lines and that dark colour scheme! :)

Edited by Bregir

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(I don't know if any examples of schooner-rigged frigates, but I suppose that might be an option too).

Yes those existed.

You can find them near the end (schooner time) of the age of sail in the Dutch merchant navy.

Because a frigate type hull could hold more cargo, then a klipper or schooner hull. But a schooner rig required less crew. (Just 9)

So they sacrificed a bit of speed to more cargo space. But saved money on crew costs

(Sounds as Dutch as can be)

The rest about the sloop and frigate and cutter is correct.

There is every more fuzziness if you trough all the merchant ship types and basterd types in the mix. (And the evolvment of the names to theme current time.)

Sloop always confuses me, because in Dutch we call a ship's rowing boat 'sloep' (same pronunciation)

It is my understanding that cutter came (partially) from 'kotter' a Dutch fishing vessel. They flew extra headsails in order to help draw the nets.

Bart

Edited by Bart

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Nicest sloop I've seen so far. This vessel is what really motivates me into building my own topsail sloop or topsail ketch. Time to buy my own hull and turn into shipwright.

EDIT: Or is it a cutter after all? To me it's a sloop. Tad to big for a cutter, methinks.

Edited by Immo

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Cool ship, those color sails look great! The red is really neat too, makes the build visually striking! thumbup.gif

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Phred, I totally forgot to say this is a very nice build, loads going on on deck, I like it :)

Further I'd say this is a Cutter.

Historic naval definition[edit]

Main article: Sloop-of-war

The naval term "sloop" referred to ships with different rigs and sizes varying from navy to navy. "Sloop-of-war" was more of a reference to the purpose of the craft, rather than to the specific size or sailplan. (Further confusion was caused by the practice of redesignating a vessel simply according to the rank of the commanding officer.) The Royal Navy began buying Bermuda sloops, beginning with an order for three sloops-of-war (HMS Dasher, HMS Driver, and HMS Hunter, which were each of 200 tons, armed with twelve 24 pounders) placed with Bermudian builders in 1795. They were intended to counter the menace of French privateers, which the Navy's ships-of-the-line were ill-designed to counter.[citation needed]

Eventually, Bermuda sloops became the standard advice vessels of the navy, used for communications, reconnoitering, anti-slaving, anti-smuggling, and other roles to which they were well suited. The most notable examples of these were HMS Pickle, which raced back to England with news of the British victory and the death of Admiral Lord Nelson at the end of the Battle of Trafalgar, and HMS Whiting (79 tons and four guns), which lowered anchor in the harbor of Hampton Roads on 8 July 1812, carrying dispatches. The American privateerDash, which happened to be leaving port, seized the vessel. The crew of Whiting had not yet received news of the American declaration of war, and her capture was the first naval action of the American War of 1812.[citation needed]

Generally, a sloop was smaller than a frigate; however, in the later days of the U.S. Navy's sailing fleet, some of the largest vessels were called sloops because they carried fewer guns than a frigate, as few as 20. The classification of sloop was similar to that of a corvette.

Traditionally a cutter sailing vessel is a small single-masted boat, fore-and-aft rigged, with two or more headsails and often a bowsprit. The cutter's mast may be set farther back than on a sloop.[3]

Traditionally the sloop rig was a rig with a single mast located forward of 70% of the length of the sailplan. In this traditional definition a sloop could have multiple jibs on a fixed bowsprit.[citation needed]

Cutters had a rig with a single mast more centrally located, which could vary from 50% to 70% of the length of the sailplan, with multiple headsails and a running bowsprit.[citation needed] A mast located aft of 50% would be considered a mast aft rig.

Somewhere in the 1950s or 1960s there was a shift in these definitions such that a sloop only flew one headsail and a cutter had multiple headsails and mast position became irrelevant.

utters were widely used by several navies in the 17th and 18th centuries and were usually the smallest commissioned ships in the fleet. As with cutters in general they were distinguished by their large fore-aft sail plans with multiple headsails, usually carried on a very long bowsprit, which was sometimes as long as half the length of the boat's hull. The rig gave the cutter excellent maneuverability and they were much better at sailing to windward than a larger square rigged ship. Larger naval cutters often had the ability to hoist two or three square-rigged sails from their mast to improve their downwind sailing performance as well. Navies used cutters for coastal patrol, customs duties, escort, carrying personnel and dispatches and for small 'cutting out' raids. As befitted their size and intended role naval cutters were lightly armed, often with between six and twelve small cannon (or carronades in the Royal Navy).

In the rating system of the Royal Navy 'cutter' was the lowest classification, coming below the sloop-of-war as an 'unrated' vessel. Whilst the classification included true sailing cutters the rating was given to any ship of suitable size and/or importance. Under the system a 'cutter' was commanded by a lieutenant who would be the only commissioned officer on board. HMS Bounty was classed as a cutter under the command of Lieutenant William Bligh despite being a true ship with three square rigged masts.

Anyway that is what wikipedia says, if you follow all the links you'll have read a whole lot of information and be a little wiser. My conclusion back in the day they didn't know either, every navy and country called a ship a different name and had different rules for classification. Which may or may not change over time.

When you google 'topsail cutter' and 'topsail sloop' you'll get the same images. All looking like what Phred build.

Edited by Bart

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Very nice build, I especially like the rigging :classic:

What material did you use for the sails?

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Phred, I'll return the 2x favor and say this is a fine topsail... something! No, really, I think cutter is very appropriate. The design is really good and incorporates the faction colors well. I like those sails - I've never liked plain white paper, but a tan or really light brown such as this looks great. She's just a very attractive and well-detailed vessel. But I have to ask - is she still afloat, or did you hole her below the waterline before committing your act of blue-blooded treason?

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Thank you for the addition complements.

What material did you use for the sails?

Brown construction paper. :blush:

But I have to ask - is she still afloat, or did you hole her below the waterline before committing your act of blue-blooded treason?

She's still built. I hope to bring her as part of a WisLUG collaborative pirate display at Brickworld. :thumbup:

She'll be the smallest ship in the WisLUG Fleet.

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