Bellerophon -13 the Ship’s Galley

by John

The British 74 gun ship had a complement of 550 crew plus officers, boys, surgeons and assistants, chaplain. That is, when fully manned, which was unusual. There were always shortages of crew which necessitated forcing unwilling men onto ships courtesy of “press gangs”, sometimes away from home for years at a time. And included convicted criminals as an alternative to prison.

That is, approximately 600 souls, crammed into a wooden ship no more than 200 feet long and maximum breadth of 40 feet.

The crew were fed from the kitchen near the bow of the ship, called the galley. Not all at once of course. The process was rigidly predetermined and orderly. The galley contained a large stove/oven, and this post is about making a model galley stove/oven.

This is a photo of the almost completed stove/oven..

The flue is yet to be attached. The model is made of brass photoetched parts, glued over a wooden frame.
And for size perspective, I am holding it on my left hand. R hand for taking the shot.
This is where it will be attached. But was pointed out to me by my Vanguard making colleague, that it will be totally concealed below the next deck. Only the model maker will know of its existence!

PART 2. A scratch build?

On the subject of the brass parts, my original intention was to make them all myself. But when I saw how many parts were required in total, and how small many of them were, I approached a colleague about making them for me on his fibre laser. My diode laser would cut only up to 0.25mm thick brass, and many parts were up to 0.9mm thick. My friend’s laser would have managed, but it would have been a huge task, and I looked for other options.

I have CNC milling equipment, and I did toy with the idea of milling all of the parts.

Showing the size of some smaller parts. These were cut by my friend on his fibre laser.

In searching around for options I even contacted Amati Models in Italy to enquire whether they would consider supplying just the brass photo-etched parts. I was pleasantly surprised by their positive response, reasonable price, and rapid despatch. It was clearly the best option. And a week later they arrived in Oz. Cost just over $aud200 including air freight.

I have not counted them, but there must be many hundreds of parts, and many of them would have been very tricky to make. And some of the parts have several levels, adding more detail.
The galley prior to painting.

So, I have weakened and purchased premade parts!

Am I justified in calling my Bellerophon/Elephant a “scratch build”? I am using Amati plans and instructions. And now some Amati made parts. Maybe I will go quiet on the “scratch build” claim. Call it instead a “sort of scratch build” or “almost a scratch build”.

Frankly, not even including the tools which I have made and purchased, it would have been less expensive to just have purchased the kit in the first place. But I do not regret having a go at making the bits and pieces myself and I have learned a lot in the process.

Anyway, I will press on. On with the build….