Hanseatic Cog. The story continues
The Luttrell Psalter, 1325–1335. A very conventional depiction of a medieval vessel. British Library, London
As after the passage of a ship,
walking on the turbulent water,
no trace can be found,
nor the path of its bottom in the waves.
Wisdom of Solomon 5:10
walking on the turbulent water,
no trace can be found,
nor the path of its bottom in the waves.
Wisdom of Solomon 5:10
History with their own hands. In one of our first materials dedicated to medieval ships, it was already said that they were not very lucky in terms of depiction in miniatures in manuscripts of that era. The ships are depicted very conditionally and do not look like ships, but primitive boats. Moreover, they were depicted in this way for several centuries.
The situation began to change only in the middle to the end of the 15th century, when illustrators began to pay attention not only to the accuracy of the depiction of the clothes and weapons of their characters, but also to the depiction of the same ships, as a result of which many small, but interesting and important for historians details appeared on them.
A depiction of a cog in a miniature from the manuscript "Memorable Sayings and Deeds of Valerius Maximus", 1470. National Library of France, Paris
They also began to draw the cog more carefully – the most common vessel in Northern Europe, the first mention of which dates back to 948 AD. Moreover, miniatures show us that these early cogs also used a steering oar, which was located on the starboard side (if you look from the stern!), and the stern rudder did not appear on them until 1240. It was then, in the XNUMXth century, that cogs became larger and received a deck, as well as raised platforms on the bow and stern.
Cogs are also very carefully depicted in the 1474 miniature in Sebastian Mamereau's manuscript "The French expedition to Outremer against the Turks. Chronicle of the Crusades." National Library of France, Paris
The Bremen cog has been best preserved to this day, although only the hull, not the rigging, so we still have to rely on miniatures to depict it. But we now know for sure that it had external clinker planking on the sides of the hull, but on the flat bottom it was smooth!
It is believed that cogs had powerful crossbeams, usually projecting over the sides of the ship and holding the sides together. But their ends projecting beyond the planking were not always depicted in miniatures. So it can be assumed that if they were there, and the deck boards lay on them, they did not always project beyond the side line.
In this miniature by Georges Trubert, where Jonah is thrown into the whale's mouth, we see a three-masted ship that still looks very much like a cog. Moreover, its planking is smooth, although it is reinforced with a number of battens. "Book of Hours of René II of Lorraine", Nancy, 1492-1493.
Now this is a typical carrack, with two guns on the sides, just like Columbus's Santa Maria. "Facts about the Romans", Jean Colombe (porthole, 1443-1493), Bourges (France). Condé Museum. Chantilly Castle
A very interesting image of a medieval ship is also contained in the set of postcards “History of the Ship” by V. Dygalo and N. Narbekov from 1986.
And here is what is written in the explanation on the back:
"The reconstruction of this ship was made based on an image on an ancient seal of the English city of Boston (1375). It is characterized by a surprisingly developed sailing rig, the appearance of which was usually attributed to later times.
The foremast and mainmast carried square sails, the mizzen had a lateen sail, which allowed the vessel to tack in crosswinds. Particularly new and unusual was the use of topsails, which were set in a light wind on the topmast, above the topsail platform. The sheets of the topsails were carried to the topsail platform through blocks secured to the ends of the main yards, which explains their trapezoidal shape.
The hull of the Boston ship is typical of all ships of that period. Complete formations with some heeling in the deck area did not allow to go steeply to the wind. The planking is smooth. The ends of the ship are decorated with developed superstructures - kasli.
A novelty is the presence of an anchor hawse and a capstan under the forecastle. The main sail usually had the coat of arms of the owner city, and the bulwarks of the forecastle had a stylized ornament."
This drawing is made based on this seal. And it seems to indicate the year - 1375. But apparently the second digit is not "3" but "4". In the latter case, everything matches. In the case of the "three" - no! The fact is that the seal of the city of Dover from 1305 depicts a completely different ship
Ship on the Seal of the City of Dover, 1305. Dover Museum, Dover
It is clear, of course, that a lot could have changed in shipbuilding over 70 years, but not to that extent...
The more or less established point of view on the appearance of such ships is as follows: they appeared in the north of Europe somewhere around 1475, and the first three-masted ship to enter the Baltic Sea was the French ship La Rochelle, 43 m long and 12 m wide. And it was precisely on this ship that there was already a flush planking: one board close to another.
Although this method of planking had been known before, its invention is attributed to a shipbuilder from Brittany named Julian, who called this method "carvel" or "kraveel". And then this name of planking passed into the name of the type of vessel - "caravel".
Caravels were more elegant than cogs in appearance and had better sailing equipment, so the discoverers of distant lands quite consciously began to choose these ships for their overseas expeditions.
All these details are given here because many readers of VO were interested in the paper model of the Hanseatic cog and... rightly pointed out to the author that the model is, in general, too... childish. That it would be interesting to show the casing of the Hanseatic cog, made in a cut, which would increase both the spectacularity of this model and the appropriateness of its use as a visual aid in school lessons.
It’s hard to disagree with such a remark, and once said, it’s done!
There it is, a cog made entirely of paper. The body, alas, is completely smooth, which is not really supposed to be the case!
Theoretical drawing of the hull of the Bremen cog
Let's start with the fact that it would hardly make sense to completely reproduce the contours of the same Bremen cog and its planking - smooth on the bottom, overlapping on the sides - on such a model, since children in the 6th grade are not interested in such details.
But the planking made of planks overlapping one another, and the teacher’s story about how the planks were attached to the frames and one to another not only with iron nails, but also with wooden nails, which were wedged inside the hole with a wooden wedge, will certainly interest them.
Wooden nail of the Bremen cog. Photo by the German Shipping Museum in Bremerhaven
Fastening the side planking with overlapping metal and wooden nails (from top to bottom): metal nail with a bend on the washer, a recess in the board for caulking, a wooden nail wedged with a wooden wedge, planking board
Well, making a model of such a "wooden cog" with overlapping planking is not at all difficult if you use the technology recommended here and tested in practice. We will proceed from the fact that the dimensions of our model along the keel will be 15 cm.
The deck is laid out of SV-model slats over a paper base. PVA glue. The hull layout - to make the model, it is enough to scan this photo, enlarge it and print it in the required size - is first cut out of paper, then coffee stirrer sticks will need to be glued onto it, after which the finished part is placed under the press
After drying, the grain seam from the inside must be glued with a 2 cm wide strip of fabric. If this is not done, the structure will fall apart later. Well, and then... the "boards" of the lining are poured with boiling water and ironed from the inside through paper so that the lining begins to bend. Press less toward the edges, more in the center.
When the side walls are bent, the ends are glued end to end, and necessarily with superglue, and clamped until dry. For greater strength, sawdust can be poured into the joints from the inside and a few drops of superglue can be dripped. The strength of the joints will become ironclad.
Then the sides are spread apart using wooden spacers.
As a result, you should get a case like this…
Then the deck is glued into the finished hull, which is decorated in the same way as the sides, in which scuppers are also cut.
A Chinese-made skylight with grilles. The grille kit for its manufacture was ordered from "Ali-Express"
Feeding kasl
Bow castle. The castles and ladders on them are all made from the same 6 mm wide coffee sticks
The rudder and tiller are all stirrers!
As a result, this is the model I got. The sail is the same as on the paper model, or rather, its duplicate on thermal film, which I welded to the fabric with an iron, as well as the flag and pennant. The shields on the kasli are made of 0,5 mm lamella. The drawings on them are decals. It is clear that it would be almost impossible to draw them with a brush. The anchors (there are two of them) are also wooden, painted to look like metal. The boat was one of the most difficult elements of this model, because it is also made of slats! A vertical windlass is installed in the bow, based on the model of the Hanseatic cog of the Czech company "Dusek". A winch for lifting the yard with a sail is behind the mast
The most elegant part of the model, in my opinion, are the golden five-petal roses on the sides of the kasli. They are cut out of a carved plastic fan from the 70s of the last century, painted with antique gold and glued in place. The ball on the mast is a large, again, gilded bead, and the cross is cut and glued from 2 mm wide slats. The wooden parts of the deck superstructures, as well as the mast with slats, are covered with rosewood varnish. The hull is oil varnish with wax. The red and blue colors are acrylic paints.
The rear view clearly shows the rope ladder leading to the "crow's nest". To make it, a simple jig was used with tension on the horizontal and transverse threads. The finished ladder was coated with superglue, after which the transverse threads that form the steps were cut off.
For now this model is still on my piano, but soon the time will come for it to go to the school history room and become one of its teaching aids.
It seems that older readers of VO who have grandchildren, and those whose children are still in elementary school and in the 5th grade (and it is necessary to start modeling with children at this age and even earlier), will be interested in making a similar model in their spare time and decorating the interior of their home with it, and maybe even donate it to their native school!
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