Introduction
One of the main goals of the project is to document this particular historical reconstruction as thoroughly as possible, from the initial experiments and construction to the sea-trials and voyage to Singapore. As a result, a digital archive is being created, relying on written reports, photos, technical drawings and video segments to capture the process in several mediums. The archive itself is arranged thematically to cover the main phases of the project, with folders for Experiments, Materials, Plans, The Team, Construction, Sea-Trials and the Voyage.
The Experiments folder is relatively self-explanatory. A variety of experiments were made to test the possible materials and methods for construction, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of the design. Different types of rope were submerged in water to test their resiliency in salt water. Planks were sewn together with different cordage materials and luting substances (the substance put between the plank edges) to test the best possible combination. A variety of the traditional anti-fouling used in the region were tested to find the best mixture ratio to coat the ship with. Also, models of the hull and its sails were tested in water-tank and wind-tunnel laboratories in Southhampton, UK. All of these experiments are organized into Afzelia, Chunam (the anti-fouling), Cordage, Sewn-Plank, Water-tank and Wind-tunnel Testing. This folder will expand as we include experiments for the sea-trials and voyages as well.
The Materials folder is the folder with technical information and photos of the different materials used to build the ship. It is a relatively small folder. There are folders for wood, stitching and rigging, resins and anti-fouling, ballast, and sails. In the case of the wood folder, there is a folder for each of the wood species used on the vessel, with a description of its properties, and photos. There is also a miscellaneous materials folder for all other materials that are not included in this organizational format.
The Team Folder has a folder for each member of the team, with a brief biography and photos of everyone involved in the construction and sailing of the vessel. It is divided into Staff and Construction Team folders, and the construction team folder is further subdivided into Indian carpenters, Indian workers, Omani model makers, Omani trainees, and watchmen. There will also be a Sailing Crew Folder that will be segmented into Core Crew, Sea-Trial, and Voyage Leg Folders once they are selected
At the moment, the vast majority of the material isin the Construction folder. There are folders for daily and monthly progress reports respectively, so that the interested viewer can follow the construction process in a chronological order. There is the Other Construction folder for construction projects related to the ship. This includes sections on site preparation, bending frame construction, the various repairs and rebuilding of the shade-cloth structure, erecting the scaffolding, and the steam box.
However, the bulk of the construction folder is the Ship folder. Every piece of the ship has its own folder, with sub-folders for drawings/stitching histories, photos, measurement reports and written reports. Each of these pieces is placed in one of the following folders: Heavy Timbers, Framing, Planking, Ceiling, Steering System, Spars, Rigging, Sails, and finally, Miscellaneous Members. In addition, there is a “how-to” section that explains the processes of construction, such as steaming and shaping a plank, shaping a frame, sewing a plank , making a sail, etc.
In order to make sense of so many different parts, we have also followed Richard Steffy’s model for documenting ship remains (see J.R. Steffy, Wooden Shipbuilding and the Interpretation of Shipwrecks, Texas A&M Press, College Station, TX, 1994), with some alterations and additions, since this is a reconstruction and not an excavation. While it is rather complicated to the uninitiated, it has the advantage of being relatively thorough. Each member of the ship is given both a prefix, which usually consists of a series of letters and numbers, and a suffix, which is a number. The first letter (or word) in the prefix will indicate the type of part that it is (plank, frame, etc) and the second number or letter in the prefix will give the rough location of the part. The number suffix will then indicate a more precise location of the part. Let us examine these folders individually to get a clearer idea.
The Heavy Timber Folder, as one might guess from the name, consists of the largest timbers on the ship. The keel, the sternpost, the stempost, the keelson, the sister keelsons, the fashin, and the throughbeams are all included in this catalog. Some, such as the keel (K) and the throughbeams (TB), are given a letter prefix and number suffix, whereas most of the others use their entire name (i.e. keelson), with a number suffix to designate its location in the heavy timber assemblage.
The planks in the Planks Folder refer to the pieces of wood that make upthe outer hull of the ship and constitute the majority of the material at present. They are organized by horizontal row of planking (strake), with the first, or garboard strake the lowest row at the bottom (just above the keel), and the twentieth strake at the top.The first letter of any plank consists of either P for port (left), and S for starboard (right). The first number tells us which strake (row of planking) the plank is located in, and the number suffix tells us which plank it is in the strake, from bow to stern. The suffix 1 designates the forward-most plank, 2 the second plank from the bow, 3 the third strake from the bow, etc. Thus, P2/1 is the first port plank of the second row of planking (strake) from the keel, and S7/4 is the fourth (and aft-most) plank in the seventh row of planking on the starboard (right) side. P and S are only used for planking, and so that there is no confusion, only planks use the slash to separate the prefix and suffix.
The next largest folder is the Framing Folder. Frames are the ribs of the ship, and every piece of framing starts with the F prefix. If you see an F, it is a frame. The second part of the prefix designates where it is located longitudinally in the ship. This is where it is slightly tricky, because unlike most of the numbering for this archive, it does not start with 1 at the bow, and works it way toward the stern. Rather, F1 starts at the widest point of the vessel (the midship bend), and works its way aft to the sternpost. The frame rows forward of the midship bend are given a second letter prefix, starting with FA closest to the midshipbend, and FZ the foremost frame assemblage in the bow. The reason that both letters and numbers are used is because in general, the aft surface is the largest surface of all of the frames forward of the widest part of the ship, and the forward surface is the largest surface of all of the frames aft of it (there are some exceptions). Since the larger surface is usually measured, the designation lets you know whether it is the forward or the aft surface that is being measured.
The number suffix for the frames indicates where it is located in the frame assemblage. Since most of our frames are a little over 2 meters long, most of the frame prefixes have four to six pieces of framing for each rib section. The suffix 0 designates a floor timber, that is a V-shaped frame that sits on the keel, and is sewn on both the port and starboard sides. All odd numbers (i.e. 1,3,5) are reserved for frames on the port (left) side , and even numbers (2,4,6) label frames on the starboard (right) side. Thus, FB-1 is the lowest frame on the port side in the second row of planking forward of the widest part of the ship.
The next folder is the Deck and Ceiling Folder, which consists of the internal planking that stores, etc. will rest on, and the deck planking for the fore and aft decks of the vessel. The ceiling planks, i.e. interior planks will be given a C prefix, and a numerical suffix, with 1 starting at the bow, and counting upward as it moves aft. Deck planking will be designates with a D, with the numerical suffix starting in the bow, and moving aft from port to starboard in ascending order.
The Steering System will have two main folders, one for the aft medial rudder, and one for the quarter rudders. All parts of the medial rudder will be given a MR prefix, and every member of the quarter rudder system will be given a QR prefix. The Sails folder will have folders for Doum Palm Mat and Canvas Sails, with sub-folders for mainsail, mizzensail and stormsail in each. As Steffy does not cover rigging in his system, we will be deciding on the best method to label the different components in the Rigging Folder.
Also, the Sea-Trials and Voyage folders are still a work in progress. There will be a daily log, as well as journal entries from certain crew members. All of the data from the ship’s performance instrumentation will be kept on file, and all repairs throughout both phases will be documented as well.
Ideally, I would also like to include and overall Project Documentation folder, that had the archaeological evidence, the plans by Nick Burningham, articles and papers on the project, but I realize that all of these have copyright issues, so I have left them out of the overall structure at the moment. However, if we do receive permission to post them on the website, I would be more than happy to include them in the archive.