Museum was founded by Charles X King of France in 1827.
It reunite all
the precedent "royal collections" of The Kingdom of France that were
previously dispersed in Royal Naval
Yards, Royal Ropes Factories, Royal Arsenals.
Contrary to
what is too often the case in many museum or private
collections the greater
part of the models are in
their original state, the rest having been restored using exacting
search of historical archives to get back to
the original condition.
In the work shop there they even make their
own cordages to specs !
This one
of a kind astonishing piece is not a reconstruction but an
authentic piece.
No other
instance of this kind of splice is
known
: 'épissure
en boudin'
/
'pudding splice' or 'sausage splice' if I go word by word.
It
is a short fragment of " un maître-cable". Words means " a
master-cable" but
my 18th
bilingual Marine Dictionary
Français-Englais/French-English say that the correct
translation
is 'sheet-shot'.
This cable was for the vessel main anchor.
It was salvaged off the wreck of Le Juste
The yellowish
cordage marks the restored parts, following in that the rule of
professional
restoration. Restored parts are
are to be made conspicuous even to the lay person's eyes.
It is presented in such a manner that
the viewer can imagine being underwater looking
upward toward the surface to look at the cable entering the sea and
leading to the anchor.
The 'maître-câble' was used to manoeuvre the
ship great anchor weighting
approximatively
3 metric tons.
A 'maître-câble' usually comprised 3
"touées" .
[ 'touée', a word no
longer in use in France.
- - - as a noun it denotes the unit length shot when
anchoring. It is also the length
of a tow-line, about
120 brasses (French fathoms ) or 194,4 metres ( remember we use
','
and not '." for the decimal part so this is almost 200
meters )
- - - this is also the final length of laid cordage in
an
over 300 metres long
ropewalk -
( La Corderie Royale de Rochefort was the longest
ropewalk in the world in the
17th : 340 m.)
---" touer", as verb, means the action of pulling a
ship using an immerged anchor.
I believe
that for you it is using a kedge anchor,
] .
This salvaged splice allow the
supposition that this particular one was made with at least
2
"touées". Usually it was 3 'touées'.
There
are approximatively 1800 hemp
yarns in this cable.
"Le Juste" wreck
was that of a 74 guns (in
fact
70 to 80) launched in 1724.
In 1759 it ran aground on
"Basse du
Vert", and sank.
That was after leaving River Loire estuary
where it
had taken
refuge following La
Bataille des Cardinaux / the battle of the
Cardinals against the British Royal Navy.
(
Les Cardinaux are rocks off Brittany - Morbihan - which in these days
sport a lighthouse,
East of Belle-Île island ).
The wreck was found, by happenstance, 4 miles (maritime mile) South of
La pointe de
Chemoulin by 10 meters of depth.
Soon identified this
frigate buried in the silt had its guns salvaged. Some can still be
seen
on Brittany south
coast were they were put to fire in anger during the war waged by
Louis
XV King of France.
Note that from yarn to cordage its formulation is Z S Z (for 3
strands)
(different from these
one which are Z
S S (for
3 strands).
All
of these cordages are historical pieces (I regret that a cable of
huge section has
disappeared from
public view)
At each of the extremities of the splice proper, the strands
are disposed
around the cable
in
an
helicoidal coil which is seized around it : 3 strands of
cable
-6 strands splice-
3 strands of
second cable.
Photographies should be clearer in meaning that my words.
So...again provisionally I think I got it right...
Do not forget when making judgement the 'scaling' effect.
Here it is not changing the cordage size but putting
less splice in.
I think that the reason not to do it the usual way is...geometry.
Much more compactness in the splice using "Le Juste" 's way. But may be
I am wrong
in the interpretation of what I believe I am seeing.
Come to think of it green and red are the colours of La
Légion
Etrangère, one the most
ancient corps d'élite.
Honor to
them all " French by the blood shed".
This is the situation on 2006 Sept 29th
To be eventually continued...with a 'in the rope' reconstruction ( only
noble
cordage : hemp ! ;-) ).
CANOT A MISAINE RIGGING ( canot à misaine )
Canot
à misaine ( mizain sloop ? I am not really sure it
can be
translated ) is a traditional
boat of Le Morbihan specific of the south
coast of
Brittany.
Nowadays models take the 'lines' but are full of metal where it was
wooden pieces and they
are decked.
There are very scarce original ones remaining that
are
under the
protection of enthusiasts.
This particular one in Le Musée
de la
Pêche
in
Concarneau is a very old one showing
traces of how hard it worked at
sea.
BALEINIERE DES ACORES / AZOREAN WHALE BOAT
This
boat, from the end 19th-early 20, is in Le Musée de
la Pêche in Concarneau..
This particular boat actually hunted 'cachalot', ( Physeter Catodon ;
Physeter Macrocephalus).
This whaler is bigger by 2 metres than the whale boats that
were 'attached' to a main ship.
Reason is this one was autonomous, hunting alone, and not
depending on a mother ship.
I am told that it is closely related to Bedford whalers.
The rigging is simple and very astute : eyes at the head
of the mast, maintaining themselves by
shear tension it seems
and a
tensioning device that many will recognize in this diagram.
Copyright 2005 Sept -
Charles
Hamel / Nautile -
Overall rewriting in August 2006 . Copyright renewed.
2007-2014 -(each year of existence)
