Discussion Manoeuvrability and Speed of Historical Ships

[Martes]

I meant did it include the time for setting sail, or from the moment the sails were set, anchors weighed, and just picking up speed?

 

[Captain Murphy]

I meant did it include the time for setting sail, or from the moment the sails were set, anchors weighed, and just picking up speed?

My calculations were just that the sails were all at 100%. I can't imagine setting the sails would take more than a few minutes with a full complement of crew. I think I read they had something like 120+ topmen for the task.

 

[LarryHookins]

Given the number of possible variables involved, that number may be useless. A ship that is totally stopped is probably at anchor. This probably means it is pointed into the wind. Even if the weigh anchor operation has already started and the cable is "up and down", you still have to get the head of the ship pointed away from the wind. Anchorages are usually somewhat congested, so you'd have boats tow the head of the ship to an appropriate angle. To help the ship turn to that angle the jib sails and possible the foresails might be unfurled with the foresails backed.

Let's make it easy and say the ship has already been towed to a location where it can unfurl the sails, and is pointed in the proper direction for this. This may not be the final direction the ship will be sailing as you'd want to gain some speed first, certainly enough for steerage way. Then as the ship gains speed the sails will be adjusted to maximize the speed, the likely reason why it might take the considerable times reported for a ship turning to the opposite tack to be in its final trim.

Larger ships sail faster in higher winds, smaller ships sail slower, and vice versa. A lot of this has to do with how much sail the ship can carry. It is not often commented about how fragile the masts and spars were, and running with too much sail will damage these.

Unless we know the exact conditions under which the "90 minutes" was measured, we don't really know much of anything. At this point I'd suggest just using your best guess and for a game, what feels and plays right. Yes, a frigate will accelerate faster than a first rate; how much faster is up to you.

Turning as little as one degree per second does not seem inappropriate for a first rate. After all, you'll probably never be making a 360 degree turn.

Hook

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Unless we know the exact conditions under which the "90 minutes" was measured, we don't really know much of anything.

If I understand correctly, at the very least @Captain Murphy's simulations were done for different ships under the same conditions.
So we don't know if those conditions fully describe a realistic situation (as you say, it probably doesn't), but at least we do know the results can be fairly compared.

 

[LarryHookins]

Pieter: I was assuming the 90 minutes was for the actual ship. I have no complaints if Captain Murphy's measurement was from the game, and in that case we'd know the exact conditions.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Pieter: I was assuming the 90 minutes was for the actual ship. I have no complaints if Captain Murphy's measurement was from the game, and in that case we'd know the exact conditions.

Re-reading the previous page, I'm not entirely sure now myself. But I'm sure @Captain Murphy will be along soon to confirm one way or another.