Slightly Complicated Hull Lines (Visual Aid for Ship Reconstruction)

Baltic and beyond. Continuity and change in shipbuilding. Proceedings ISBSA 14-Gdansk 2015, 2018

The necessities of representing complex three-dimensional shapes on two dimensional surfaces such as paper led to the development of a set of conventions for drawing in which the object is represented as a series of intersecting views, traditional ‚top down' or plan, side and front orthographic views typically perpendicular to each other. Usually in the case of regular box-shaped objects such as buildings, these are parallel to the surface they represent and often supplemented with slices or sections through the object. Documenting ship timbers has traditionally followed these principles, using sketches with dimensioned annotations to enable the later production of scaled plan-elevation-side view orthographic drawings, 1:1 contact tracings on clear plastic to produce developed surface style drawings or elevated plane (projection-by-eye) tracing to create full size plan-elevation-side view orthographic drawings. However, are the resultant reconstructions valid simply because the drawings produce sweet curves or nicely faired hull lines? Coates (1995) discussed the need to produce one or more hypothetical, fully functional reconstructions, which have to be tested to be tenable. This paper presents a methodology in which the hypothetical reconstruction is digitally modelled and analysed in three dimensional space at full size scale. At the very least, this approach will reduce or completely remove any potential scaling, transcription, or draughting errors, and the subsequent naval hydrostatic testing should lead to a more definitive hypothetical reconstruction.

ACUA Underwater Archaeology Proceedings, 2019

In its continuing effort to “standardize the publication of shipbuilding data,” the J. Richard Steffy Ship Reconstruction Laboratory at Texas A&M University has continually been looking at better and more efficient ways to digitize the vast library of ship lines plans it has accumulated in the lab’s 30+ year history. This paper briefly looks at several dedicated ship design software packages and provides a methodology and workflow for digitizing lines drawings into 3D models.

La Belle: Archaeology of a Seventeenth-Century Ship of New World Colonization (Chapter 6) edited by James E. Bruseth, Amy A. Borgens, Bradford M. Jones & Eric D. Ray, 2017

Occasionally the archaeological ship reconstructor is fortunate enough to encounter the remains of a vessel on which shipwrights' design marks have been preserved. La Belle (1684) has the most extensive and complete set of such marks documented to date. The distinguishing features of the distribution, number, and placement of La Belle's surmarks associate it with a graphic design system of "geometric fairing with diagonals," which was in use in French shipbuilding in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Section I of this essay presents the archaeological and documentary evidence that supports the conclusion that a graphic design system of "geometric fairing with diagonals" was used in La Belle's construction. It also discusses how and which specific measurements were applied to the reconstructed design procedures to regenerate La Belle's archaeologically documented hull shape. Section II examines whether La Belle's design system was a completely new invention or whether it was developed from existing concepts of ship design. It will be argued that this system actually expanded on the basic concepts of Mediterranean moulding—a non-graphic design system of geometric fairing that was in use in European shipbuilding for centuries prior to La Belle's construction—in the process of adapting them to the methods of orthographic drawing.

Since its discovery in 2002, the remains of the mid 15th-century clinker built Newport Medieval Ship have been excavated, cleaned, documented, modelled, and are now midway through conservation treatment. Digital documentation methods, including laser scanning and contact digitising, were used extensively to record the hull timbers. e manufacture and assembly of a 1:10 scale physical model of the vessel remains has provided both construction sequence information and a suitable foundation from which to reconstruct the missing or damaged areas. e physical model was then digitised and a set of lines extracted and faired using Rhinoceros3D software. e lines were turned into a digital model representing the original hull form and analysed in a related modelling software plug-in called Orca3D, which has been used to determine the hydrostatic and hydrodynamic characteristics of the modelled hull form. e use of the abovementioned advanced digital modelling software has allowed archaeologists to accurately characterise the capabilities, capacity, and seaworthiness of the original vessel.

Open Sea/Closed Sea. Local and Inter-Regional Traditions in Shipbuilding. Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Symposium on Boat and Ship Archaeology Marseilles 2018, 2021

This ongoing PhD project involves the gathering of data on large Dutch merchant ships of the 17th and 18th centuries and the conversion of that data into a common spatial format. It is hoped that this will give new insights into shipbuilding during this period. As part of this project a large proportion of the known models of this type and period have been digitised in partnership with museums across Europe. Using this data the project also looks at how 3D data of this type can facilitate the dissemination of accurate maritime archaeological data and museum collections to the public.

BAR INTERNATIONAL …, 2004