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Anders T

Galley, La Capitana, Chapmann plate LVIII no.18

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This is a model of an Italian style galley.

14th century, 1571 or mid. 18th century depending on weight on references or type.

In the Mediterranean in medieval times, the galley was almost synonymous with a warship.

These ships made up the principal warships of the major fleets in the area. Being high-speed vessels, they were also used to chase down pirates.

The type had a late revival in the Baltic were it was used primarily in the conflicts between Russia and Sweden.

 

It is in minifig-scale or 1:40’ish.
The model will have the dimension Length: 166 cm, Height: 113 cm (with stand), Width: 82 cm (with oars)
There is approx. 16200 bricks in the model.

La capitana Chapmann LVIII

The galley, true galley or gallee sottili was developed during the 13th and 14th century and the design remained the essentially the same until it was phased out in the early 19th century.

 

The main characteristics of the model are from La Capitana, a galley of Malta.

The lines, armament, oars and overall arrangement follows the drawings of this ship. These are indexed in Architectura novalis mercatoria (published by Fredrik Henrik af Chapmann in 1768) as: no.18 on plate LVIII

Starboard La capitana Chapmann LVIII

Details, such as color, not provided by Chapmann, are from Real, the flagship of Don John of Austria in the Battle of Lepanto in 1571.

In 1971, to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the battle, a full size replica of La Real was built and displayed in the Barcelona Maritime Museum where it can be viewed today. This also gives an abundance of accurate picture material to work from.

The details from this Spanish Real compared to the French La Réale from 1694; however, this ship is not a main reference.

Port fore La capitana Chapmann LVIII

A sidenote on the names of the ships:

“Capitana” was the term used for the largest and most prestigious ship of a squadron carrying its commander.

“Real” or “Réale” just indicated these ships as being Royal, or as the main galley of the kingdom/fleet.

This made me wonder: Did these ships have other more common names? -at least among the sailors. 

 

The doctrine of the galley was brutal. The ships would take position abreast and then get on the enemy as fast as possible to engage in melee combat.

This largely dictates the design of the ship. Sleek with 60 oars and some 300 oarsmen, this is a thing built for speed.

The main battery is at the bow, where the main battle would take place. This is also the only armament that is in the linedrawings. These guns were fixed and would only shoot once just before boarding.

Bow of La capitana Chapmann LVIII

This may seem strange, but a galley would cover the effective distance of artillery pieces much faster than the reload time.

I have placed the remaining guns, consisting of 2-pounders and pivot guns, along the side where I figured it made sense.

 

A boat is starboard. This feature is not on the Linedrawings, but is on the other references as well as on several other galleys, so I figured it to be a galley-thing.

 

The commander would have his place at the stern.

In front of the commanders quarter is a deck space where additional soldiers, delivered by support ships, were organized.

Stern La capitana Chapmann LVIII

 

 

 

Edited by Anders T

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Coincidentally, as I was reading about piracy in the Mediterranean during 16-17th century these days, this is a ship I would like to see moc-ed from you, since it played a huge role this period. Thanks for your great work!

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12 hours ago, blackdeathgr said:

Coincidentally, as I was reading about piracy in the Mediterranean during 16-17th century these days, this is a ship I would like to see moc-ed from you, since it played a huge role this period. Thanks for your great work!

Thanks so much for your comment, for several reasons.
 

For commenting at all, I was actually beginning to think that something was wrong with the topic, pictures not showing or something.

- If had done something wrong on the forum (maybe still have):pir-murder:or that the MOC simply was too weird/bad/whatever.:alien:  Maybe I have been flooding the forum with topics the last weeks. There will be a break from that for at least a month, maybe even longer.

For classifying this as a non-MOC.:pir-blush:
Since this is still only a digital model, it is really just a
(more or less finished) suggestion of what the final MOC could look like. At least that is how I see it. That said -she represents a lot of work, for fun - but still. This is also, what I read into your: "Thanks your great work".
 

Concerning. Am I going to build her.(“moc-ed”) Yes! I think at some point during 2020.

The plan is right now to do some digital designs of ships, see which ones are best, then build (maybe with suggested alterations) , and submit them for exhibition, possibly along with some of my old ships.

 

For being a fellow history geek.reading about piracy in the Mediterranean during 16-17th century…”:pir-vader:

 

Edited by Anders T

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Wonderful work, perfect in every aspect.

42 minutes ago, Anders T said:

For commenting at all, I was actually beginning to think that something was wrong with the topic, pictures not showing or something.

- If had done something wrong on the forum (maybe still have):pir-murder:or that the MOC simply was too weird/bad/whatever.:alien:  Maybe I have been flooding the forum with topics the last weeks. There will be a break from that for at least a month, maybe even longer.

The reason of lack of comments is probably we all were busying to find our jaw dropped on the floor, and there's really nothing else to do but contemplating this fine ship.:thumbup:

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16 hours ago, Anders T said:

Thanks so much for your comment, for several reasons.

Anders T. we are always eagerly awaiting for you posting your next ship, especially the age of sails ones, Napoleonic Wars etc (yeah, happy times when a round piece of stone or metal mauled you in nearly unimaginable ways :tongue: ) so not need to worry if we comment or not. After all you haven't earned your ship expert badge for sitting idle :wink: . Basically galleys like the one you designed, weren't the prettiest of ships around but they were plenty of them back at those days (along with felukas, dhows etc), so they deserve some love. Plus, new generation just press hearts and thumbs up these days instead of writing and this isn't easy in forums like ours :ugh:.

And of course as fellow BoBSer @Bodi mentioned, we are still drooling so we aren't commenting! Of to daydream when I will finally have the time to build something close to Thérèse...

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On 11/8/2019 at 5:57 PM, blackdeathgr said:

Anders T. we are always eagerly awaiting for you posting your next ship...

Thanks

Funny you mention the Thérèse it seems like at least I seem to inspire daydreams, and guess I also should take on a third rate ship of the line sometime.:bonaparte:

-Oh well, maybe I went somewhat out of everyone’s comfort zone with this one. *huh*

I am currently thinking about making some of these more humble vessels. After all, just as today, frigates, ships of the line and privateers did not populate the ports. It was rather more common to see dhows (which I actually consider quite elegant), felukas, (a bit more an acquired taste), at least in the Mediterranean/Arabic areas. In the northern European ports, there would be boats like a-:

Barge, Bark, yawl, pinnace, felouque, wherry, boyert…

Small ships like a-:

dogger, buss, smack, hopper, scooner, galleas, hoy, fluyt, scoot…

-I guess I am still somewhat the odd one.:hmpf: If I make them, I will probably be a rebel and post them here,:jollyroger: even though they would not technically be pirate ships.

Edited by Anders T

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22 hours ago, Anders T said:

even though they would not technically be pirate ships

Pirates need something to pray upon nonetheless! Plus I imagine that there are some city lovers out there, ready to be converted to our cause (so as to build a peaceful merchant harbour city of the past - that isn't being raided and plundered). So, let's show them the way to the bright side :tongue:

Edited by blackdeathgr

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This is a remarkable vessel, Anders!:wub_drool: I've been looking at this one almost every day but just haven't commented probably for the same reason many haven't: it's so fresh and new to our eyes. I'm not well educated on 14th and 15th century vessels, but I can say from my knowledge that your colors (is that light pearl gold I see?) and techniques are outstanding! The brickbuilt hull, as always with your builds, is spectacular, and the curves and angles are stunning. You truly outdid yourself here, friend. Kudos to you! :pir_laugh2:

I've been looking at all your beautiful ships often, and even though I haven't posted anything on them, I admire them all the time. Your ship expert title has been well earned! :thumbup: To add, If you are planning on building one of your ships in person, I would definitely do this one as it is an absolute behemoth and would look even more outstanding (is that even possible?) with sails and a full crew. 

 

Also, Psst, I have a question for you :poke::look:. What kind of NASA supercomputer parts do you have to run 16200 parts on stud.io? Mine is about to explode at 9,000.

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17 hours ago, blackdeathgr said:

Pirates need something to pray upon nonetheless! Plus I imagine that there are some city lovers out there, ready to be converted to our cause (so as to build a peaceful merchant harbour city of the past - that isn't being raided and plundered). So, let's show them the way to the bright side :tongue:

Yes! The loot has to come from somewhere.

Actually, I have posted the ships from the last weeks as a topic on the Historic Themes

https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/174109-medieval-ships/

…and on my local LUG.

Maybe someone could be inspired to some port building.

14 hours ago, The Neighborhood Merchant said:

This is a remarkable vessel, Anders!:wub_drool: I've been looking at this one almost every day but just haven't commented probably for the same reason many haven't: it's so fresh and new to our eyes...

Thanks, yes I gather from the comments that the period and type is of a sort that is seldom done in this forum. Guess it had people rendered actually speechless. :head_back:

14 hours ago, The Neighborhood Merchant said:

I'm not well educated on 14th and 15th century vessels, but I can say from my knowledge that your colors (is that light pearl gold I see?) and techniques are outstanding! The brickbuilt hull, as always with your builds, is spectacular, and the curves and angles are stunning. You truly outdid yourself here, friend. Kudos to you! :pir_laugh2:

 

The work on the curves and angles was especially challenging on this one. The ship is both curvy, elongated and open.

Yes, it is gold. :pir-grin:The Real from Spain has gold ornaments. I would very much like to use metallic/chrome gold, but the finished MOC will probably mostly have pearl-gold. It is a matter of available bricks and price, as you know. :sceptic:

14 hours ago, The Neighborhood Merchant said:

I've been looking at all your beautiful ships often, and even though I haven't posted anything on them, I admire them all the time. Your ship expert title has been well earned! :thumbup: To add, If you are planning on building one of your ships in person, I would definitely do this one as it is an absolute behemoth and would look even more outstanding (is that even possible?) with sails and a full crew.

I suspected the soaring view-count had to come from somewhere.

:pir-wink:

I do plan to build some of them. Maybe during 2020. I definitely hope to have this one in the mix.

I will probably submit these new builds for exhibitions along with some of my older ones.

Usually I do not add sails and crew, but that may change on some of the new models, as the sails had ornaments and colors that would be worth showing. It is however unlikely that this one will have a crew. The oarsmen alone would be 2-300 minifigs.*huh*

14 hours ago, The Neighborhood Merchant said:

Also, Psst, I have a question for you :poke::look:. What kind of NASA supercomputer parts do you have to run 16200 parts on stud.io? Mine is about to explode at 9,000.

Regarding Stud.io and parts. This is an easy one. I do not use Stud.io I use LDD.:grin: The limit for LDD, at least for me, is 45000-50000 bricks. Then it also tend to crash.

The render is done with Bluerender. There is only one gold color in LDD, and it comes out as a yellow-light pearl thing in the render.

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And once again, what a absolut masterpiece Anders. Just the sheer amount of detail is enough to drop my sword at your feet. I envy your PC capabilities to make something like this!

Calm seas and Fair winds!

Captain Becker

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On 11/17/2019 at 12:20 PM, Captain Becker said:

And once again,...

Thanks. :blush:

The Real is clearly a Renaissance or Baroque era piece of art and there are ornamentations everywhere.:oh: Even with the simplifications forced by limitations from LEGO, I really had to go all in on this one.

 

Sail on!

Edited by Anders T

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