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The woodcut in the book I have depicts it as a stout plank/beam of wood(roughly 1.2 long), nothing else

Oh, possibly but ye of little faith for Australian building practices and timbers, especially Ironbark!

It says only "long" when the description comes up.

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Work list(Current)
Miscellaneous|Victorian Colonial Navy|Murray Riverboats|Colony of Victoria AU|Project Sail-fixing SB's sail shortage
How to mentally pronounce my usernameRow-(as in a boat)Don-(as in the short form of Donald)Dough-(bread)
"Loitering on the High Seas" (Named after the good ship Rodondo)
There's no such thing as "nothing left to draw" If you can down 10 pints and draw, you're doing alright by my standards

Very cute and, I must say, a most efficient design, Rodondo! Well done, matey from Down Under! But, yes, many colonial sloops (and gunboats!) did dispense with the more intricate sail rigging, and the reason they did this was to allow more non-skilled crew to handle them. Mind you, in the 1800s the Australian Station was still comparetively small, due to the fact that there was only one viable competitor in the area; France. (neither Germany, United States or, for that matter, Japan, at the time had any naval power of significance to challenge the British supremacy in the Pacific; only the French possessed that, and Russia, of course had no inclination to expand its sphere of influence that far south!). - This meant that the lesser colonial stations could do with less skilled manpower, hence the requirement for less complicated crafts! - This, however, was to change with the emergence of Imperial Germany and Imperial Japan as serious competitors for power in the South Pacific; hence the founding of the Royal Australian Navy in 1911 and the allocation of one BC (HMAS Australia) there.

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My Avatar:Петр Алексеевич Безобразов (Petr Alekseevich Bezobrazov), Вице-адмирал , царская ВМФ России(1845-1906) - I sign my drawings as Ari Saarinen

Shouldn't this be titled HMAS Spitfire? Isn't HMCS - His (Her)
Majesty's Canadian Ship?

Yeas that is true, but I think it's could mean Colonial. A great drawing indeed!

Yes, in this case it'd denote Colonial, since there weren't either any independent Canadian or Australian navies yet!

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My Avatar:Петр Алексеевич Безобразов (Petr Alekseevich Bezobrazov), Вице-адмирал , царская ВМФ России(1845-1906) - I sign my drawings as Ari Saarinen

Yes, New South Wales (unlike Victoria and Queensland) had the Prefix His/Her Majesty's Colonial Ship

Should have the sailing versions up tonightish

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Work list(Current)
Miscellaneous|Victorian Colonial Navy|Murray Riverboats|Colony of Victoria AU|Project Sail-fixing SB's sail shortage
How to mentally pronounce my usernameRow-(as in a boat)Don-(as in the short form of Donald)Dough-(bread)
"Loitering on the High Seas" (Named after the good ship Rodondo)
There's no such thing as "nothing left to draw" If you can down 10 pints and draw, you're doing alright by my standards

Here we go, not flying the jib as I have no idea what to do with that block of wood!

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Work list(Current)
Miscellaneous|Victorian Colonial Navy|Murray Riverboats|Colony of Victoria AU|Project Sail-fixing SB's sail shortage
How to mentally pronounce my usernameRow-(as in a boat)Don-(as in the short form of Donald)Dough-(bread)
"Loitering on the High Seas" (Named after the good ship Rodondo)
There's no such thing as "nothing left to draw" If you can down 10 pints and draw, you're doing alright by my standards

when you upload, maybe best to upload one with sail and bulwark open, and one without sail and bulwark closed or something... otherwise nice, I am only missing the backstay

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Drawings are credited with J.Scholtens
I ask of you to prove me wrong. Not say I am wrong, but prove it, because then I will have learned something new.
Shipbucket Wiki admin

Well, I'll put these on the first post as well, the others do not have spread sails. Not sure that there is a back stay though, see no indication of it.

Thanks

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Work list(Current)
Miscellaneous|Victorian Colonial Navy|Murray Riverboats|Colony of Victoria AU|Project Sail-fixing SB's sail shortage
How to mentally pronounce my usernameRow-(as in a boat)Don-(as in the short form of Donald)Dough-(bread)
"Loitering on the High Seas" (Named after the good ship Rodondo)
There's no such thing as "nothing left to draw" If you can down 10 pints and draw, you're doing alright by my standards

I see one on the drawing you posted, so....
(http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an2293229-v , just in front of where those 2 men stand)

_________________
Drawings are credited with J.Scholtens
I ask of you to prove me wrong. Not say I am wrong, but prove it, because then I will have learned something new.
Shipbucket Wiki admin