Shipbucket

Thanks a lot! I've spent hours and hours around it... Which lines are the so-called "running rigging" and which ones the "standing rigging"... which ones are in front of the sails and which ones behind, regarding from the point of view of the observer... Then the shadings... Then imagining the rotation of the sails when changing sides against the wind (tacking) so as not to draw wrong placed lines... Then, when designing the sails, how to choose the colours for the clewlines and for the bluntlines... (ropes of different structure and placement in the sails to stow the square sails up to the yard)... Really, it was interesting, though I cannot and will not say I've learnt everything about it, but at least some of the main issues...

PS: But the main credit for the zillion small lines on the sails goes to Craig Hoefer, I just changed a bit the colours of them, one by one, in sunlight or in shade, because they looked too reddish, thus not natural.

The successor company of Burmester & Stavenhagen after its merger with Hamburg-Süd in 1968, was "Companhia de Navegação Invicta" with head office in Porto, Portugal and dependencies in Boston, Barranquilla (Colombia), Salvador da Bahia, Rio de Janeiro and Santos, all in Brazil, Luanda and Lobito, in Angola. In several other harbours the company had representatives or shipping agents. We will come back to its organization later on.

What I do want to present now is a so-called "classic pleasure ship", a three masted sailing bark built some decades ago in two yards in Portugal, "Estaleiros Navais de Viana do Castelo for the hull, main interior layout and masts, all in metal, plus auxiliary engine (a MAN V12 delivering 1.380 shp) with the respective four bladed screw, two Diesel gensets, a bowthruster compartment good for 265 hp, and all hydraulical and electrical systems, including air conditioning, lighting, galley (kitchen) and laundry. Being ready with these steps, the bark sailed under own power some 180 miles south to the port of Aveiro (in other times the main port of Portugal's fishery industry and with several yards for building the respective boats and ships (in one of which, "Navalria", the lugger "Santa Maria Manuela was completely restored some twenty years ago (real fact). So, in 1968 this new bark, ordered by said shipping company of Porto, christened as Cidade Invicta (the "petit nom" of the city of Porto), sailed under engine from Viana do Castelo, in the north, to Aveiro, to be completed at said yard Navalria, where all the remaining works [interior in wood, living and sleeping accomodations, wet areas, eating and living rooms (guests and crew) plus additional lighting and obviously the sails and its running rigging] were installed.


The purpose of this work was to have one classic sailing ship promoting the city of Porto in the main sailing events taking place over the years, having paying guests as well as sea cadets aboard, young people wanting to become later either sailors in their countries navies or in commercial shipping. But the bark had also three rooms and a 14 seat cinema for cientific purposes (placed inside a space where in other times one of its cargo holds would have been). This (late sixties) was the time when the French Commandant Jacques Cousteau made its worldwide famous sea research works and the bark "Cidade Invicta" joined the Franch "Calypso" several times to make joint expeditions. For this reason, diving equipment has since been carried aboard, as well as filming gear. In 1986 a depressurization cabin was also installed aboard, vital for works involving diving into deeper depths.



The bark's dimensions are 104,75 meter of sparred length (i.e. including the bow sprit), a 14,88 m beam and a draught of 5,76 meter in full sailing order but without liquids (fuel, oil and water). The respective displacement is of 2.065 tons. The bark has a MAN V12 Diesel engine installed delivering 1.380 shp through a reduction gear to a four bladed controllable pitch propeller, good for a cruise speed of 10 knots in calm conditions. To make manoevering in harbours more easy, a bow thruster was installed, as mentioned above. "Cidade Invicta" has its interior split into two main living and sleeping areas, one for paying guests for which 14 double berth cabins with wet areas are available, plus a saloon with adjacent eating area, a bar, a separate playing room (cards, chess, backgammon, bridge, etc.) where smoking is permitted, and a kitchen with stowing space and refrigerator aft. Sea conditions permitting, dinner for the guests (and officers) aboard is more refined, in more unstable conditions, simpler food is served although the quality is always preserved.

The crew has its own accomodations in the front part of the ship with four berth cabins with wet area, living and eating rooms and kitchen. The captain and the four officers aboard plus the two masters have separate cabins. The cadets have four 12 berth areas with eight wet areas at their disposal and the meals are served together with the crew, this one consisting normally of some twenty eight to thirty six men and women, professional sailors taught at the naval school "Infante D. Henrique near Lisbon. Until 2006, several old sailors of the "white fleet" (codfish luggers sailing to Newfoundland and Greenland) were part of the crew. They were pensioneers and were delighted to their ancient job again, now in really lush conditions and getting a good surplus pay... The young cadets were always delighted when after dinner they began to tell their stories, some "very slippery" ones when the subject to tell about was time off spent in harbours of the region of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia... Fishermen's tales...

In both living areas a triple computer connection for satellite communication to a server is available (but not for free) which is used for sending and receiving emails, mainly. For the captain and officers, net and satcom is available in their working stations (bridge, navigation and chart rooms and the tecnical department for the mechanical engineer). This latter has his office down low in the hull, in level one, between the engine and genset compartment and the room where the air conditioning and the desalinization equipment are installed. He has two mechanics to help him out, should it become necessary.

Just to inform that several additions have been made in the ship designs shown in the previous pages, mainly in the sailing tall ships as well as the involving stories, many of which (if not all) based on real facts. And herewith the thread ends but with the sad feeling that so much could have been said about those ships in those times... It seems only "warlords" comment threads and if these involve warships, obviously..