HMS Ontario has been completed! She's been created from the original drawings and from video information from the wreck. The Model is carrying spare fore and main top-masts on crutches, also functioning as railings at the waist. Notice also the absence of the railing on the main-top as taken from the wreck. She's a tiller steered two-masted Great Lakes snow. A snow differing from a brig in that she has a trysail mast (pole) just behind the mainmast.
Even though her boat appears to have been towed at the time she went down, the model has her clinker-built boat safely stowed on deck.
Some of her rigging and forecastle (or fo'c'sle) details such as the belfry and windlass shown below.
The image below shows a close-up of the bows of the model showing the anchors, bowsprit, bumkins, catheads and headrails. Two seats-of-ease (toilets) are also included but hard to discern in this image.
Sometimes I like to create an image composition of the model into a 'real' setting. The "lake-trial" image below gives me some indication as to how realistic or unrealistic the model would appear when pretending to be the real thing. A reality check, if you will! Since I'm trying to create a smaller version of the vessel, not necessarily a model, this really helps me to determine whether I'm succeeding or not, and where improvements can and should be made in the future.
She has been completed and will be off to the client in December. The design of HMS Indefatigable and the USS Niagara should also be finished by then and their construction should be on the way in January.
This post first appeared on The Art Of Age Of Sail - Engineering History, please read the originial post: here
